Maggie Lees Equestrian

31/05/2026

This might be dog training not horse training. But the mistakes are the same, always human. A great little watch & something fun to think about on Kings birthday morning.

28/05/2026

A lovely piece of morning reading, well worth sitting with & not stopping if it makes you feel a little uncomfortable. I hope this helps you have a great horse day.😊

What does it take to get along with a horse?

I know a lot of horse people who are exceptional riders, or good at getting horses to DO something - even spectacular things that require a lot of talent and education.

But what does it take to get ALONG with a horse?

Our experience with horses is very reflective of our inner being. Many of us seek horses for comfort in a tumultous world, or control where we lack it, maybe developing them to fill a desire to BECOME something. Most of us probably are unaware of just how much we are using them to fill emotional voids and therefore finding (or not noticing) our relationships with them incomplete, devoid of deeper meaning. We can maybe get horses to like us cheaply - they like coming to feed but don't stick with us when the going gets hard. Or we can make them do stuff if there is a level of threat, but not without. We struggle to find that middle ground.

To truly GET ALONG with horses is not to be permissive or dominating. That conversation misses the boat entirely - it's far, far deeper than that.

--It means having the ability to look conflict in the face without wanting to cover it up, run, blame someone else, make a big fuss, comfort ourself, and so on. To get along with horses, there will be times of conflict between us - and if this is uncomfortable, we will struggle to guide the horse or really hear what is needed. We don't need to seek conflict - there is no need to be contentious, but there will be times this comes up, and we need to be able to stay emotionally stable to deal with it.

--It means the ability to hear no without falling apart, one way or another. Some people take no as a personal affront - either becoming angry at the insult, or feeling like they've failed. A reason for self pity. And others take a no as a reason to lose all backbone, to melt into a passive and wishy wet blanket that inevitably becomes an obstacle to the horse and not a support. No wonder horses continue to evade, bite, and say no to this person - this person is, in fact, in the way.

--It means the ability to maintain self discipline and focus without drilling the horse - to push oneself to ride better, focus more, continue honing their skill, without making it the horse's problem. Someone who is hard on themselves without punishing themselves - someone who can separate what is rider error from causing the horse to suffer for it, drilling over and over until they get it right.

To get along with horses requires self reflection - a steely dedication to looking at ourselves honestly without self deprication or blame, without using fluffy and popular language that sounds ethical (but is actually meaningless) to let ourselves off the hook from actually growing.

It is quite difficult, in fact, to get along with horses - it's quite easy to sit next to them, to let them be in our space, to get them to tolerate us or look forward to the perks we bring (but not us), and probably even easier to dominate them. But it is no easy feat to be in the presence of a horse and make them feel better with our presence than without. And if you look around at the struggle we have at getting along with each other, and liking ourselves - it's easy to see why getting along with a being who reflects all this back to us, could be so hard for us to learn to earn PEACE with, not just share space without structure or action.

27/05/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/18i3Ahw1Mf/

This is so true. I say to people imagine being picked up put on a plane and taken to Russia or China and deposited in new household where you didn't speak the language you don't understand the customs you made to dress differently and then you're told off and pushed around for not doing things how they want them. Always think this must be a little how it feels for a horse being sold to a new home. It takes time and patience to settle a new horse into a new home and I'm not talking days weeks or even months. We live in a world where we want everything quickly and Horses remind us that things take time. I'm always amazed when I hear people have brought a new horse and taking it to a competition in the first week or two and then wonder why the wheels fall off further down the track. This is a great reminder to spend some time creating connection and relationship and giving your horse the chance to feel comfortable before you start asking The Big Questions

Why are so many horses being “mis-sold”?

I’m not entirely convinced they are.

You go and try a horse, in its home environment, with people it knows, in a routine it understands. You like what you feel. Maybe you go back and try it again… same place, same setup. It all feels good, and you think this is the one.

Vetting passed and you bring your new horse home...and then everything changes.

New yard. New field. New stable. New people. New routine. New smells, sounds, expectations.

You give them a day. Maybe two. Sometimes not even that.
Then you get on. New tack, different bit, new arena, people watching.

But suddenly, you’re not sitting on the same horse you tried.
They feel different. Tense. Sharp. Spooky. Not quite what you remember.

So now you’re on edge. Watching for everything. Questioning every step, every reaction, every feeling.

And this is where it starts to unravel.

Because what we often forget, or maybe underestimate, is just how big that upheaval is for them.

We’ve taken them out of everything they know, everything that felt safe and predictable, and dropped them into something completely unfamiliar… then expected them to perform exactly the same, almost immediately.

When they don’t, it’s easy to assume something’s wrong.
That the seller wasn’t honest. That the horse isn’t as advertised.

And so the horse gets labelled ''not as described''. The lucky ones are sent back, the unlucky ones are sold on, some going on to boomerang from one place to the next.

But what if the problem isn’t that the horse was mis-sold…
What if it’s that we expect instant consistency from an animal going through complete change?

Horses don’t just arrive and slot neatly into our expectations. They need time to settle, to understand, to feel safe again. They need space to adjust before they can show you who they actually are.
If we don’t give them that, we’re not seeing the horse we bought, we’re seeing a horse trying to cope, and that’s a very different thing.

Maybe the question isn’t “why are so many horses being mis-sold?”
Maybe it’s… are we giving them a fair chance to be the horse we thought we were buying?

18/05/2026

We played around with some poles at the end of last week. Not perfect, but good fun & building communication

17/05/2026

I'm so excited to be going on Dr Stephen Peters clinic in New Zealand in November this year. He has so much knowledge and information on the neuroscience of how horses learn. Understanding how they learn and follow this, helps so much in having happy horses , which in turn creates healthier more relaxed horses.
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