Laura Padgett Corrective Horsemanship and Bodywork

04/01/2026

04/01/2026

01/11/2026

“Choice Builds Trust”: Why a Kind-Sounding Idea Is Undermining Horsemanship

I have been asked to critique the idea that “choice builds trust,” so here we go.

This sits squarely alongside the “let the horse say no” idea I critiqued last year. That critique triggered an impressive meltdown among a number of very "evolved and enlightened" gurus, complete with calls for cancellation. Spoiler alert: it did not work.

So two brief warning before we begin.

1️⃣If you are deeply attached to this idea and suspect that questioning it might bruise your ego, this is your off-ramp. You do not need to read further. You have a "choice"😆. Consider yourself fairly warned.

2️⃣The second warning is that this is long. Properly examining ideas takes time. If you make it all the way through, let me know, because sticking with a single idea for more than twenty seconds is becoming a rare and admirable skill.💪✊

Right. Back to the blog....

There is a phrase circulating widely in horse spaces online that sounds progressive, ethical, and emotionally intelligent: "choice builds trust". It is usually paired with gentle imagery and reassuring language about letting horses decide when to engage, pause, or step away.

At first glance, it feels compassionate🥰. It feels modern. It feels hard to question.

But when we examine what this belief actually implies, how it reframes horse behaviour, and how it plays out in real training environments, a deeper problem emerges. Not a stylistic problem, but a conceptual one that quietly misdirects people and, in many cases, leaves horses and humans stuck, confused, or unsafe.

This is not a critique of kindness, flexibility, or observation. Those are essential. This is a critique of a framing that replaces skill and responsibility with ideology, while borrowing the outcomes of good training and attributing them to something else. Technically, to be super nerdy it is called an "attribution error".🤓

➡️Why the idea is so appealing❓

The popularity of “choice builds trust” is not accidental. It aligns neatly with contemporary moral values around consent, autonomy, and emotional validation. It reassures people that stepping back is ethical. It offers a sense of being kind without requiring technical competence.

For people who feel unsure, fearful of making mistakes, or worried about being “too much,” the idea feels safe. It promises trust without discomfort.

The problem is that horses do not experience the world through human moral concepts, and training does not operate on intention alone.

➡️The core error: calling responses “choices”

The central flaw in this belief lies in language.

When a horse slows down, hesitates, disengages, steps away, or freezes, that is not a choice in the human sense. It is a response produced by the horse’s nervous system in relation to both internal and external conditions.

These include perceived threat, clarity of cues, learning history, physical comfort or pain, fatigue, arousal levels, and environmental pressure and more.

Think about it..

- Fear is not a choice.
- Confusion is not a choice.
- Avoidance is not necessarily a choice either.

These are adaptive, species-specific *responses* designed to keep the animal alive.

Reframing these responses as “the horse having a say” may feel respectful, but it fundamentally misrepresents what is happening.

Once that misrepresentation is accepted, everything built on top of it becomes unstable.

➡️What actually creates confidence and willingness❓

When horses appear more curious, calm, and engaged, it is rarely because they were given open-ended optionality. It is because the human made the situation more understandable.

Across learning theory, ethology, and applied horsemanship, the same factors consistently support calm engagement:
- Predictable cues
- Consistent consequences
- Clear and skilfully applied training approaches
- Gradual exposure to challenge
- Regulation of arousal
- A human who actively reduces uncertainty

From the horse’s perspective, safety comes from clarity, not from endless negotiation.

A horse relaxes not because nothing is asked, but because what is asked makes sense and the horse predicts they can safety navigate the situation.

➡️The sleight of hand: competence rebranded as virtue

This is where the “choice” narrative becomes particularly misleading.

When people describe success using this language, what they are actually describing is competent training.
- Pausing so the horse can process.
- Simplifying tasks when confusion appears.
- Adjusting pressure or timing.
- Changing the environment to reduce overload.

These are not ethical gestures. They are skills‼

The ideology quietly strips those skills of their technical meaning and reframes them as moral restraint. Success is no longer attributed to experience, knowledge, observation and decision-making. It is attributed to “honouring choice.”🙄

This matters, because it prevents people from understanding what actually worked and why.😎

➡️When the framing causes harm😕

This belief does not just confuse language. It changes behaviour.

1️⃣First, stress responses become ethical dilemmas. Hesitation or disengagement is framed as refusal ("no") rather than information. The human stops solving the problem and starts deferring.

2️⃣Second, responsibility is quietly abandoned. Domestic horses live in human-constructed worlds. They must be handled, transported, confined, and managed. When humans step back indefinitely, horses are left to cope alone with systems they did not choose and cannot understand.

3️⃣Third, conflict becomes chronic. Avoidance halts progress. Waiting replaces guidance. Horses learn how to stop pressure, not how to succeed. Humans learn how to hesitate, not how to lead through uncertainty.

This is not trust. It is instability‼

Flexibility is not choice

This distinction matters.

Flexibility belongs to the person riding or handling the horse.

➡️Choice implies control over the outcome.

People with good training skills adjust how they ask. They do not remove structure altogether.

When flexibility is reframed as giving the horse choice, the locus of responsibility shifts. The human stops being the architect of learning and becomes an interpreter of meaning. That shift feels kind, but it erodes clarity.🥹

Horses do not need to decide what happens next. They need help understanding how to succeed at what is happening now.

➡️Trust is not emotional validation

Another common claim is that choice “tells the horse their feelings matter.”

Horses do not require emotional validation. They require functional support.😎

A horse does not feel safer because its feelings were acknowledged. It feels safer because the environment became predictable and navigable‼

Trust, in practice, looks like this: when things are uncertain, this human helps me through it.💪

That kind of trust is built through competent presence, not withdrawal.

➡️A clearer, more honest framing =

Horses do not need choice.
- They need clarity.
- They need humans who can observe accurately, make decisions confidently, manage risk thoughtfully, and adjust without abandoning responsibility.

What builds trust is not stepping back.

It is stepping in competently, again and again, until the world makes sense❤

Collectable Advice 127/365
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10/07/2025

Lameness vs compensation or stiffness - pain vs avoidance of new patterns?

Firstly before reading on, I am not a vet. I do not have a vet’s education and you should in no way replace veterinary investigation and support or advice with any thing i say.

But - a lot of times when people find their horse has some hitch in their get along, something has happened to their horse’s gait or normal responses to riding have changed, they fear pain and back off.

While we can never definitively say a horse is not in pain, there is a difference between pain and stiffness, uncertainty, or fear of changing a pattern.

And- even if there WAS pain and it is now treated, those patterns can still exist - leaving with us with a pain response and (assuming) no pain.

Quite often I help people and their horses through these spots, revealing a magically sound horse who was limping, balking, sucking back or unsteady in their gait just a few minutes or days ago-
It’s not magic, it’s mobility and movement patterns.

If the horse is actually lame - say a bone fracture - it will worsen with movement.

If the horse is STIFF or reserved in movement patterns, it should improve pretty soon with GOOD movement, not just moving around.

Where things get tricky is people often say the horse takes 15-20 mins to warm up and move out of it, and often these are sloppy or incorrect warm up patterns. We need to address range of motion, joint flexion, alignment, breathing, and of course most importantly help the horse feel safe in being in these.

To tie it together with a personal example: I found my knees and joints to be very sore and painful suddenly. I started a mobility training program and really disliked the first week of the work - but I was reminded if I feel stiff that is not the same as pain. I worked through it preserving correct range of motion over depth of squat or intensity and so on - two weeks later I already feel “sound” again.

Joints need to work through their correct range of motion, and when a horse hurts, they often protect themselves, often to their own detriment.

Don’t panic. Ride in rhythm - see what you get on the other end and re evaluate

06/26/2025

01/11/2025

So true

Horse sales, expectations, an epidemic in problems getting along with animals, and why I’ll never sell the horses I have

All this has been on my mind more than usual recently as I’ve helped a few students navigate the process of finding and purchasing a suitable horse for them.

I’ve been on about every side of a horse sale there is, and find every angle distasteful personally. I used to sell a few horses here and there and found the expectations of those looking to purchase unreasonable, and the horse quickly reduced to an object sold for a price- one that should come with buttons and a manual and not change no matter what the handling or environment was like.

As I helped my students find horses, I found the sale and presentation dishonest, and uncomfortable as well. These horses carry high price tags and are presented as these types of robots that fulfill the desires of a purchaser : ten minutes of video of all the things the horse will tolerate- tarps blowing, people standing on their backs, but very little into WHO this horse is and what they need.

For clarity, it’s not that I’m opposed to purchasing or selling horses. I just have very few personal experiences of it being any fun

The focus on horses in the industry often is very much on what the person needs or wants to get out of an experience with horses. Because of this, we struggle to get along with horses. Over the years, I’ve found my heart broken time and time again to hear some of the gentlest and easiest horses I loved moved along because their owners simply could not get along with them - often because they took too much, expected too much, and gave to the horse too little of what a horse actually needs.

What a horse actually needs - that is such a nebulous concept anymore. Of course it’s fine to purchase a horse that suits your needs, and we aren’t required to get along with horses who’s temperaments don’t suit us - but any horse can quickly unravel when we don’t commit to husbandry, to rising to the occasion, to being the kind of person and having the kind of life a horse needs. They didn’t ask to come into our lives - it is not their responsibility to bend to unrealistic requirements, and it isn’t even possible for them to do so most of the time.

I’ve had reports of my horses, the most gentle ones who I can’t imagine being difficult for someone to handle, becoming unruly and unmanageable for folks - won’t stand for trims, won’t lead, aggressive or spooky. These are the horses my children ride , the quietest ones I have - what does it take for a horse to unravel? A persons lack of awareness, poor support to the horse; and unreasonable expectations.

So long as we societally don’t focus on GIVING to our animals but instead taking, we will continue to have problems getting along, and horses will continue to bounce through homes, with their stressed behavior becoming increasingly described as their personality

04/25/2024

One of the most common questions I often get asked when a horse is injured is

How did this happen?

That's when I feel my brain start to scrunch up as I try to figure out a way to succinctly share the horses story which more than likely started long before the horse even had tack put on.

Long before they ever knew the horse

Sure, do I have ex clients that used to tear up their horses in wildly predictable ways ??
Absolutely

But most the time even those horses had already lost most of their resilience to compensations patterns

I'm re doing my website cause its only been maybe 16 years.
I'm still talking about treating compensation patterns AKA body lameness instead of injuries.

Only now I have so many more tools to support them

This little baby year old horse is showing the beginning of a compensation pattern that has started and will likely now continue for the rest of his life

Making his body chronically asymmetric and depending on the 'program' he winds up in this could be managed or lead to any myriad of pathologies preventing him from reaching his full potential'

He may wind up with kissing spine or cervical issues, lumbar spine pathology, shivers, behavioral , difficulty training., or just have a bunch of things he does like throwing his head, pawing, cribbing, ulcers, running out, hates dressage ..

Worst problem of all - people will go to the mat and even draw blood trying to convince me this is normal

Its not

We could change the world if we started early.

Built a foundation formed in the parasympathetic nervous system,
spinal flexion not extension.

It all starts with understanding where the roads diverged and how to get back on track

03/31/2024

Lightbulb moment!
This is how important balance & co-ordination are to the horse.

In my own head, from learning Human Physiotherapy first, the Cerebellum is a small part behind & below the main part of Brain (cerebrum). It co-ordinates gait, balance, and posture control.

So to see in real life, that the horse’s cerebellum is almost as big as the rest of the brain itself, was a massive eye-opener!

We know that horses don’t have a large frontal cortex, the complex thought part, like humans. But, naively, I kinda thought the whole brain was just smaller. I never expected the ratios of parts to be so clearly different.

So is it any wonder then, that horses react when they feel unbalanced? They react when their co-ordination is messed with?

The size of the cerebellum means it is VITAL for horses to maintain balance, gait & posture co-ordination.

If you put your horse off balance when riding, because your own body is wonky or weak, they have to react. Biomechanically, they HAVE to stabilise the system. But it could be a behavioural reaction too.

If you mess with their gait & posture control because you have no idea about timing of aids, or suddenly pull them around, or block their spinal movement with your rigid seat… they will probably react. You’ll be met with resistance. They might even rear or buck you off.

It’s not just about pain. A rider that puts their horse off balance doesn’t necessarily hurt them, but it does impact these vital things that horses need to feel safe.

If your horse doesn’t like their feet being picked up… or they do silly behavioural things with the farrier… Please ask yourself if it’s because they find it difficult to balance, and therefore don’t feel safe!

A lot of people these days are looking for pain when there’s a behavioural problem, which is fantastic and right. But if your Vet doesn’t find anything, don’t just assume ‘it must be behavioural then’ and try to TRAIN them better.

Consider balance & muscle/posture control. Ask a Physiotherapist to assess and teach you exercises to help your horse.

Sort your body as a rider, to improve your own balance & symmetry, to avoid throwing your horse off balance.

Save this post to remind yourself again.

10/03/2023

𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑩𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒔 𝑭𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒔
This week we will be taking a look at one of the most powerful and complex muscles of the hindquarters. This is the biceps femoris! The biceps femoris is one of three hamstring muscles. Out of the three hamstrings, the biceps femoris is the largest and most lateral (farthest from the midline). Looking at this muscle's name, we can learn a couple of thing.

Biceps - A muscle with two points of attachment.

Femoris - Latin for femur. The long bone in the upper leg.

This means that the biceps femoris is a muscle with two points of attachment and is closely tied to the femur bone.

𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
The biceps femoris has two origins. The first origin is along the sacral and caudal vertebrae, as well as the gluteal fascia and sacrotuberous ligament. The second origin is on the ischial tuberosity, which is the back part of the pelvis.

Moving down from the origins, the biceps femoris splits into three parts which are easily visible on many horses. These three parts include many insertion points including the patella (stifle), patella ligaments, tibia, achilles tendon and all of the surrounding crural fascia. One of the insertion points even goes down to the calcaneus, which is the bone at the back of the hock.

Because of the biceps femoris complexity, it has a wide array of functions. This is one of the few muscles that is able to both extend AND flex a joint, in this case the stifle. It is also able to extend the hip and hock as well as abduct the limb (pull away from midline).

Stay tuned for Wednesday for some examples on live horses!

07/16/2023

07/15/2023

Good horse training, should not start with training.

Something I learned recently that deeply surprised me, in talking with friends and clients during the Spring Clinic tour in Canada, USA and Switzerland, is that horse owners reported experiences with multiple different trainers which left them confused. Trainers who believed that 'Through Training, All Things Are Possible'. That many trainers, popular, modern, ethically leaning trainers, did little to nothing to address;
- Lifestyle and environment the horses lived in
- Physical health and pathology
- Diet, nutrition, and biochemistry
- Species appropriate Horse Keeping

I was deeply confused, so of course I asked many questions. The temporary conclusions I could draw, is that some trainers find that it is somehow 'cheating' or a shortcut, to address a horses living conditions before they address a horses learning and behaviour. That their techniques should be so powerful and good that they can steamroll any issue. So, it wasn't necessary for them to ask their owner to turn the horse out, or improve diet, or change hoofcare. That LIMA principals presented as some sort of threat to their training supremacy.

I could be totally wrong about this. Because it is also possible that some trainers just do not feel 'It Is Their Place' to address directly anything other than training.

But if it is not our place... whose place is it?

We have vets for pathology. Physio's for the body. Dentists for the teeth. Behaviourists for the behaviour. But who is teaching and advocating for healthy horse welfare if not the trainers?

For me, I like to train horses. Horses who are actually, horses. Not Equi-Monsters perverted by inappropriate living conditions. For example, a horse who is explosive and dysregulated might not need strong training techniques. It might be easier to give them a lifestyle change, such as correct turn out, and a few gentler training techniques.

And not all turn out is made equal. Turn out needs to be spacious enough that the horses can move around freely, but also be encouraged to move around, rather than stand still in one spot. It needs to be clean, and it needs shelter, and they need friends when they do it.

I just relocated to give my horses that. But over the years I have faced HUGE obstacles in providing my horses a good life. I always tried the best I can. I never used difficult conditions as an excuse for letting the horses suffer. There have been conditions which were crap, and conditions which we great, but I always did the best I could. And if conditions were crap, I left and went elsewhere. Simple as that.

Remember, it is not about being perfect. It is about doing the best you can. And you might be surprised on what changes can be done, with what you already have, with a bit of lateral thinking.

LIMA principals. Least Invasive, Minimally Aversive. You do not have to be a pure R+ trainer to co-sign them. It is so important that we study the animal that we specialise in and never intervene inappropriately, or shortcut and bypass the environment and lifestyle these animals need to be happy and well.

Don't we want to work with happy, balanced, healthy animals who don't have a bee in their bonnet? Don't you want to de-escalate training until training interventions are as minimal as possible and effective as possible? Don't you want to economise and avoid powerful techniques that are utilised because of unaddressed lifestyle and welfare concerns?

"Until this horse is turned out and given access to friends he can be with freely, I will not be able to help you get the results you dream that I can give you"

That is a real sentence I had to employ at a recent clinic. And instead of letting it drop like a bomb in this owners world, I consulted with them after the clinic about what can be done, and supported them in making the necessary changes.

So, here is my challenge. If you are an equestrian professional I invite you to step up and lead the way. Encourage positive horse keeping changes. And if you are a horse owner, I encourage you to think laterally about what can be done to optimise where you are.

And if you need help consulting on these details, I would be delighted to help you. (BOOK HERE: https://www.emotionalhorsemanship.com/coaching-calls)