Hana Poulin Dressage & Driving LLC

08/19/2026

Happy Kiche Wednesday! 🐴💖

Kiche has a very clear policy: an empty bowl is an emergency.

When his Mom asked him to bring over his bowl, he took a moment to inspect the situation, picked it up, and delivered it right over the stall door. Because why risk missing a meal when you can file a formal complaint? 😄

Smart, polite, and very committed to his dining schedule — what a good boy, Kiche. 💛

Does your horse have a special way of reminding you that it is mealtime?

To learn more about our riding and driving programs, visit www.moonlightequestriancenter.net ✨

08/18/2026

Last week we covered why Vitamin E matters. This week: how do you know if your horse needs more? 🐴💚

Start with a blood test. Your vet can check serum alpha-tocopherol (Vitamin E) levels as part of a wellness exam or on its own. Testing is especially worth discussing for horses with limited pasture access, horses in work, foals, seniors, or horses with neurological concerns.

Not all Vitamin E is the same.

🐴 Natural Vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol) is more readily used by the horse than synthetic Vitamin E (dl-alpha-tocopherol). That one letter on the label matters.

🐴 Water-soluble or micellized Vitamin E is highly absorbable and is often used when a vet wants to raise levels more quickly.

🐴 Vitamin E is fat-soluble, so it is best given with a small amount of fat in the feed.

How much your horse needs depends on their age, pasture access, workload, and health. Ask your vet or equine nutritionist for a dose based on your horse's individual bloodwork — especially before giving higher amounts.

Testing first is the best place to start. 💙

Do you supplement Vitamin E? What product do you use? 👇🐴

08/16/2026

🖤

08/12/2026

Happy Kiche Wednesday! 🐴💖

Kiche has discovered the easiest way to look taller: find a stump. 😄

But here is today’s Mini Horse fact: his official height would not be measured from the top of his stump. For American Miniature Horse Association registration, Miniature Horses are measured at the last hairs of the mane, rather than at the top of the withers as many people expect. A mature AMHA-registered Miniature Horse cannot exceed 34 inches at that measuring point.

So while Kiche may be trying to add a few inches here, we think he is pretty impressive exactly as he is. Small horse. Big personality. Very tall ambitions. 💛

Did you know Miniature Horses are measured differently?

To learn more about our riding and driving programs, visit www.moonlightequestriancenter.net ✨

Fact source: American Miniature Horse Association (AMHA), Breed Standards: https://www.amha.org/breed-standards

08/11/2026

Today's Tip of the Day is about something that does not get nearly enough attention in the horse world: Vitamin E. 🐴💚

Vitamin E is one of the most important nutrients for horses of all ages — from foals to senior horses — and it is one of the most commonly deficient. Here is what you need to know.

What does Vitamin E do?

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant. Its primary job is to protect the body's cells from oxidative damage — the kind of cellular wear and tear that happens during exercise, illness, stress, and normal aging. In horses specifically, Vitamin E plays a critical role in:

🐴 Muscle health — Vitamin E deficiency is directly linked to Equine Motor Neuron Disease (EMND) and Nutritional Myodegeneration (also called White Muscle Disease in foals). Both are serious, progressive conditions that affect muscle function and can be devastating.

🐴 Neurological health — Vitamin E deficiency has been linked to Equine Neuroaxonal Dystrophy (eNAD) and Equine Degenerative Myeloencephalopathy (EDM), two neurological conditions that affect coordination and gait. These conditions are especially concerning in young horses.

🐴 Immune function — Vitamin E supports a healthy immune response. Horses that are deficient are more vulnerable to illness and slower to recover.

🐴 Reproductive health — Adequate Vitamin E is important for breeding mares and stallions.

Where do horses get Vitamin E naturally?

Fresh, green pasture grass is by far the best natural source of Vitamin E for horses. When horses have access to good quality green grass, they can often meet their Vitamin E needs through grazing alone.

The problem? Vitamin E degrades rapidly once grass is cut and dried. Hay — even high-quality hay — contains very little usable Vitamin E. This means horses that are primarily hay-fed, stalled, or in drought-affected areas with poor pasture are at significant risk of deficiency.

Who is most at risk?

🐴 Horses with limited or no pasture access
🐴 Horses in heavy work or under stress
🐴 Foals and young horses (especially those with neurological concerns)
🐴 Senior horses
🐴 Horses recovering from illness or injury
🐴 Breeding mares and stallions

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week — we will cover how to test for Vitamin E deficiency, what supplementation looks like, and how to choose the right form of Vitamin E for your horse. 💙

Does your horse get Vitamin E supplementation? Let us know in the comments! 👇🐴

08/05/2026

Happy Kiche Wednesday! 🐴💖

Today Kiche is stepping aside to share some exciting news about a very special friend — Mohawk! 🥹

Some of you may remember Mohawk, our charming Saddlebred Friesian cross, from his time in training here at Moonlight Equestrian Center. With Grand Prix Friesian bloodlines on his sire's side, this big, beautiful boy came to us as a green 6-year-old — full of power, big movement, and the temperament of a giant Labrador Retriever. 🐾🐴
We helped him learn the ropes, build confidence, and find his footing.

Well — look at him now. 😭🐴 Mohawk is giving a little girl being treated for brain cancer her very first rides. He is calm, steady, and completely in his element. He loves his new job, and it shows.

This is exactly why we do what we do. Training horses isn't just about skills — it's about giving them the foundation to go out into the world and do something meaningful. Mohawk is doing something truly beautiful. 🐴💙

We are so proud of you, Mohawk. What a good boy. 🥹

08/04/2026

Tuesday Tip: trailering a mare and foal — and why every mare is different! 🐴🚛

The textbook says remove dividers and let them share open space. But Ginger turns around and around when untied, so our approach is to tie her in the open stall and leave Dewey free beside her. She settles, he can move freely and nurse, and everyone is happy.

🐴 Tie at a safe length — not so long the foal can get a leg over the rope
🐴 Make sure the foal can always reach mom to nurse
🐴 Bed the trailer well — foals slip more easily than adult horses
🐴 Load the mare first — the foal will follow, always
🐴 Never separate them, even for a moment
🐴 Drive smoothly — slow turns, gradual stops
🐴 Check on them at rest stops on longer trips
🐴 Unload the foal first — have a helper ready at the ramp

Know your mare and adjust accordingly. The best approach is the one that keeps both of them calm and safe! 💙

Have you trailered a mare and foal? Drop your tips in the comments! 👇🐴

08/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ERRMKkHXg/?mibextid=wwXIfr

# The Silence He Left Behind: Monty Roberts (1935–2026) 🐴

The quiet that now settles over the Santa Ynez Valley feels heavier than usual. Monty Roberts, the cowboy-philosopher who taught the world that a horse's heart cannot be won through force, died on August 1, 2026, at his California ranch. He was 91. 😔 And with his passing, the equestrian world loses not just a trainer, but a translator—a man who spent nine decades learning to speak a language that had no words.

Roberts was never content to simply ride. He wanted to understand. And that hunger for understanding was forged in the crucible of a difficult childhood. Born into the hardscrabble tradition of early 20th-century horsemanship, he grew up watching his father use violence to "break" animals—and use the same heavy hand on his own son. "He expected me to follow in his footsteps," Roberts once said, "and so I was also violently disciplined. I vowed to seek better methods." That vow became the compass of his life. 🧭

# # # The Grammar of the Herd 🐎
The revelation came when Roberts was just 13. Sent into the Nevada desert to round up wild mustangs, he did something no one had taught him: he sat down and watched. For hours, he observed the subtle choreography of the herd—the flick of an ear, the drop of a head, the shift of weight that said more than any shout ever could. He called this silent vocabulary "Equus," and it would become the foundation of everything that followed. 👂✨

From those observations, he developed "Join-Up"—a method so deceptively simple that it seemed almost magical. In a round pen, the trainer uses body language to invite the horse to choose connection over flight. The "moment of truth," as Roberts described it, came when the horse would lick its lips, lower its neck, and walk toward the human of its own accord. It was not submission. It was consent. 🤝 After 6,000 years of breaking horses, Roberts offered an alternative: asking them.

# # # A Friendship with a Queen 👑🐴
Word of his gift traveled far. In 1989, Queen Elizabeth II—herself a woman who understood the soul of a horse—invited Roberts to Windsor Castle. He demonstrated Join-Up to her royal stable staff, and a profound friendship was born. Over the years, he would return for her Golden Jubilee, and in 2011, she appointed him a Member of the Royal Victorian Order. Their unlikely bond was captured in the 2023 documentary *The Cowboy and the Queen*—a portrait of two very different people united by a shared reverence for the equine spirit. 🎬

But Roberts' reach extended beyond palaces. He had doubled for Elizabeth Taylor in *National Velvet* and coached James Dean for *East of Eden*. He was a talent scout too, purchasing a yearling named Alleged for a modest $40,000 and watching him become a two-time winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. 🏆 Yet for all his Hollywood connections and royal acclaim, Roberts remained at heart a man of the soil—boots scuffed, hat brim low, more comfortable in a stable than a boardroom. 🤠

# # # The Whip and the Whisper ❌🔊
His philosophy was radical in its gentleness. He opposed the whip with unshakable conviction: "Whipping a flight animal to make it run faster is stupid. It can't be right." When the violent German stallion Lomitas was banned from racing, Roberts was called in. Within weeks, the horse was transformed—and went on to become Germany's Horse of the Year. 🏅 It was proof, if any were needed, that trust could achieve what terror never could.

His 1996 memoir, *The Man Who Listens to Horses*, spent 58 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. 📚 It was more than a horse book; it was a manifesto for a kinder way of being—not just with animals, but with each other. Roberts believed that if we could learn to listen before we demanded, to observe before we acted, the world would be a less broken place. 🌍💛

# # # An Echo, Not an End 🌅
Monty Roberts is survived by his wife, Pat, and his daughters, Debbie and Laurel. ❤️ The ranch will feel quieter now. The round pen will stand empty. But the language he decoded—the silent grammar of trust—will not vanish with him. It lives on in every rider who pauses to ask rather than force, in every horse that lowers its head in willing partnership. 🐾

He once said, "The horse is a mirror to your soul." If that is true, then Monty Roberts must have seen something beautiful in his own reflection. He gave us a new way to look at another creature—and, in doing so, a new way to look at ourselves. 🌟

The man who listened to horses is gone. But if you stand quietly in a stable, at dusk, when the wind drops and the world holds its breath—you might still hear him. 🕊️