Shona McLauchlan Equine

04/09/2025

Dealing with the spooky end of the arena……

Luca has always struggled with this corner of the arena and I believe it goes right back to very early on in his ridden career and we didn’t know that he had an issue with poll. He did have a very high speed book I now believe that as a young inquisitive horse he would look at the jumps that was stacked in this corner and raise his head this would then lead to an intense pain in his pole region where his atlas was rammed into his axis causing nerve pain. I don’t know for a fact but I think it’s fairly sure that that is what happened.

This pain caused him to get out of there very very quickly and he would spin as fast as lightning and then refused to go near the end of the arena again because obviously it was very uncomfortable and he really didn’t want to go back there which is understandable.

We never pushed him to go back down there we would work our way towards it and if he said no, then we listen to him.

Fast forward six years and he still struggles with that corner of the arena, on some days more than others although he doesn’t have the pain. They are so impressionable at young ages that there is a deep rooted worry in him that truly believes there is something to be concerned about.

The way I deal with this is to ask him to keep his attention on me so as I ride towards this end, I lift an inside rein and wait for an ear flick asking if he will listen to me and give me some attention. If his ear stays back on me then I ride towards it if not then I turn away as I know that he’s not really concentrating on me and he’s still fully focused on the corner.

I play around with coming at it with shoulder fore and I very much feel how he is in his body, whether I ride a little bit closer towards it or whether I turn and ride away from it and keep asking him for bringing his attention onto me rather than the corner. This means that some days we don’t go right into the corner and some days we do but they each have their own emotions and feelings on different days so I accept this with him and listen to how he’s feeling what he is telling me I never force him into the corner because I know this is unfair as he truly believes there is something to be concerned about.

When I lift the inside rein I wait for him to have a rotation of his ear , ideally an ear flip back to me and then I know that he’s trying listening to me not on what is up ahead when he’s really relaxed he has floppy ears on both sides so I know he’s really in tune to my seat and my aid and waiting for the next aid to come.

When both as ears are fully focused in front and I just feel there’s no conversation happening then I don’t force the issue. I know him well enough that all I do is upset him if I try and say no, you’ve got to go down that other end they are all different and we have to take into account their emotions their physical feelings on that day and things that they might hold onto them from the past.

Does your horse have an area of this arena that they spook at? Do you think this would help them?

01/09/2025

This guy hasn’t been feeling himself again which has led to me feeling pretty meh, I find myself very emotional attached to him more than the others and when he’s not okay neither am I.

We injected his hocks several weeks ago as he was struggling in some of the lateral work especially when using the right hind and we knew that the bone spur that side was worse. The X-rays show some more change around it and beginnings of arthritis in a few places. Which isn’t great but it is what it is and I’d rather have the X-rays done and know exactly what’s going on.

He’s already moving so much better but unfortunately the discomfort has led to him being uncomfortable with his stomach again.

A few weeks ago they’re were some very subtle signs, his poos were smelly and he was a little bit tense on a hack, knowing him so well this was enough for to keep an eye on anything else.

When I took him to a clinic with Luca he was extremely emotional and found the whole thing very very difficult which confirmed my suspicions about his stomach. I spoke to my vet and we put him back in Omeprazole.

Since then he has been incredibly spooky, I’ve got off him twice which I’ve never had to do as he’s just not in a good place and I can give him more support from the ground by going ahead of him and working on some groundwork patterns.

We stuck to in hand last week and today went on a hack with my livery which wasn’t too bad, we’re not back to normal but getting there.

It was amazing how quickly he went downhill, from me thinking mmmmh I’m not sure your 100% to you are definitely not happy at all. All we can do is fact find and pay close attention to all the details acting on the information we get.

I’m hoping with that with him feeling better in his hocks I can get on top of the stomach soo as well 🤞🏻🤞🏻🩵

31/08/2025

A really enjoyable weekend of teaching and soggy dog walks ☔️☔️ autumn has arrived like a bull in a china shop and although there is no one who isn’t grateful for the wet stuff I’m sure I’m not the only one whose not used to going out with enough wet weather clothing 🤣🤣

Yesterday I had 2 new groundwork clients who endured the dampness and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 1 lady had recently attended my demo and had some idea what to expect with the horse having previously done some sessions with the owner and the other with no idea really what it was all about and an older horse she figured wouldn’t be all that enthralled. To my delight he absolutely loved it as did she and was blown away with the difference you can make in one session and how many different possibilities she know has to spend time with her horse that isn’t riding.

This is what I love with groundwork and whilst it’s not everyone’s cup of tea it really can help all horses and their relationship with their humans .

Today I had the pleasure of teaching the delightful pair in the photo and a roof ☂️
So nice to work with a rider really dedicated to learning new ideals and schools of thought when it comes to helping horses with better balance and lateral work for strengthening.

A real mixture of horses just as I like it and whilst the dogs just give a good shake hopefully before getting in the van I’m off to buy myself a new waterproof coat which is well overdue ☺️

09/08/2025

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