Freedom Riding

10/27/2025

A horse's full intestines can weigh over 100 pounds (45 kg), with the large intestine alone potentially accounting for that entire weight when full of feed.

The total weight depends on the horse's size and what it has recently consumed.
Key components of the equine digestive tract include:
Total capacity: The entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract of a fed, mature horse can hold nearly 50 gallons (190 liters) of fluid and feed.
Hindgut weight: The hindgut (cecum and colon) accounts for approximately 64% of the empty weight of the GI tract. This is the area where fiber fermentation occurs.
Large intestine capacity: The large intestine is a significant contributor to the total weight of the full intestines.
It can hold 80 liters (21 gallons) or more of food and water.
When filled with feed, it can weigh up to 100 pounds (45 kg).
Cecum capacity: The cecum, a comma-shaped organ on the right side of the abdomen, can hold up to 30 liters (about 8 gallons) of food and water.

Another thing to consider in our horses is that the small intestines is suspended via the mesentry to the vertebral column of the lumbar. The lumbar is one of the last places to mature in horses and is susceptible to problems. Lumbar pain is a common site of dysfunction in horses I see for several reasons…..that is another post!

Below is just the intestinal tract from a 15hh horse, in a dissection it takes 4 people to comfortably carry this all out on a tarpaulin.

Below is a link to whole collection of videos on the intestinal tract.

https://www.patreon.com/collection/1804697t

10/22/2025

The idea that a horse is lazy is such a falsity.

Of the all my horses, Merc has had the most challenges finding a free and easy forward. In fact, in the beginning when we started playing in the arena, it felt like if I wanted to do anything but walk, it might be easier for me to pick him up and carry him.

In many ways, it would have been easy to label him as lazy, but the reality is, he’s anything but. As a riding partner and companion, he’s infinitely generous and always does his best to find the yes, even if he has no idea what that looks like or is confused about what we’re doing.

The lazy label is problematic because from the horse’s perspective, the idea of laziness really doesn’t exist. It’s a human metric we assign that has no meaning or value to the horse.

I see clearly now that the moment we slap a label such a lazy on a horse, we enter a universe of our own making; a sliding doors instant where what we experience is defined by the lens we’re looking through. That our energy, the way we use pressure, how we might set out to motivate forward are all defined by the perception we have of the horse we’re in relationship with.

It's for that reason, that when it comes to horse and human partnerships, the idea of lazy, I believe, is a dangerous one.

People perceive laziness as a decision stemming from a “bad” attitude. No-one wants to be called lazy. It gives us righteous humans license to motivate movement in ways that are questionable, and which are ignorant of the underlying reasons as to why a horse might have trouble moving freely forward in the first place. Where we rest solidly on the foundation that we are right. That’s never a good place to start.

So, if there’s no such thing as lazy, what is it that we are dealing with then?

Here are some things I’ve consistently paid attention to with Merc.

** Please note all possible explanations relating to pain, saddle fit etc. were paid attention to, although I recognize this as a moving feast. The question then becomes, is this getting better or is this getting worse? A conversation for another day.

🌟 Tightness

Most horses that we label as lazy are actually really tight. In Merc’s case his body did not have the strength or the length (I’ll get to this part in a moment) to support me in a weight bearing posture and easily travel forward at the same time.

The tightness is an inside out job; it extends beyond the muscular, down to the level of fascia and organs. The organ bag is like a big fascial sack holding all the organs inside. It’s like a balloon with an end at the top and at the bottom, starting at the tongue and extending all the way down to the a**s.

As part of our fight flight response, the organ bag contracts and pulls the organs to the side, to both protect them and make the flow of blood more efficient in survival situations.

If you think of having a balloon on your inside that gets pulled tight, your ability to move your limbs is only ever going to be proportional to how far your balloon can extend from the inside out.

For the body to move freely, the fascia doesn’t need to stretch; it needs to grow.

For fascia to grow, it needs two things:

👉 The presence of ground substance, the sticky component of fascia which is only produced when we’re in the parasympathetic nervous system

👉 New movement patterns that trigger the brain that it’s a priority to grow new fascia (otherwise, why waste the energy).

So, when I’m thinking of tightness, I’m thinking of this:

How do I get the nervous system to a place where the expansion is going to happen from the inside out?

How can I introduce purposeful, novel movement that allows new patterns to form and allows my horse to find a freedom in their body that is all framed through the experience of choice, not force?

🌟 Balance

Merc was really out of balance. His back to front balance was all wrong (he landed heavily on the front end, particularly on the right fore) and his ability to centre weight equally on all four feet was off. This also reflected in his rhythm.

If I had simply “pushed forward” from this place, the only result would have been screw-drivering into the ground, and we probably would have ended up digging holes to middle earth (and beyond that, making him unsound).

🌟 Shoulder Control

To work with the balance, we had to develop lift and control in the shoulders. I’ve mentioned before that in Merc’s particular case, our initial work began in the saddle. From this place, I was better positioned to assist him and develop shoulder control and a relationship with contact that assisted rather than hindered his balance when he was in the position of carrying a rider.

For other horses you might start things on the ground- it’s very individually dependent. There are many roads to Rome, but this was an essential point of focus for Merc.


🌟 Renegotiating The Use Of Pressure

The amount of pressure I added in attempts to motivate forward was proportionate to the amount of brace I got back. Instead, I had to create an energetic conversation with Merc to communicate what was wanted and to begin from that place.
---

Let’s lose the label of lazy. It says more about us than it ever will about them.

Onwards.

❤️ Jane

10/21/2025

Let’s Talk About Desensitizing

For us horse people, desensitizing is often talked about as a form of training, but in behavioural science, it’s actually a learning process.
Desensitization describes what happens when a horse’s emotional or physiological response to something decreases after repeated exposure.

That exposure can take many forms.
When it’s carefully managed under threshold, it helps the horse learn that something is safe.
When exposure happens through force or without control, behaviour may still stop, but for a very different reason. That’s flooding.

Both are desensitization procedures, but the emotional outcomes are worlds apart.

Let’s get into breaking these down.

⸻

🟢 Systematic Desensitization:

Gradual, controlled exposure to a fear-inducing stimulus while keeping the horse under threshold.
Starting from a safe distance or low intensity, you increase duration or proximity only as the horse stays relaxed.
The goal is emotional change, not suppression, resulting in a horse that remains calm and confident even at full exposure.

⸻

🟢 Counterconditioning:

Pairing the feared stimulus with something pleasant, like food, scratches, or comfort, to shift emotional response from fear to neutrality or even positivity.
Over many repetitions, the horse learns that when the scary thing appears, so does something good.

Often used alongside systematic desensitization for faster, welfare-friendly progress.

⸻

🟢 Operant Counterconditioning:

Asking for a familiar, previously reinforced behaviour (often taught with positive reinforcement) while exposed to the fear-inducing stimulus.

The horse earns reinforcement for performing that behaviour instead of reacting with fear.
This helps maintain focus, control, and agency during exposure.

⸻

🟢 Approach Conditioning:

Using a horse’s natural curiosity and choice to build confidence.
The horse is invited to approach and investigate the fear-inducing stimulus on their own terms.
By controlling distance and engagement, they learn that the stimulus is predictable and safe.

⸻

🔴 Flooding:

Flooding is a form of desensitization, but it is the most intense and least controlled version.
Instead of gradual exposure under threshold, flooding exposes the horse to a fear-inducing stimulus at full intensity with no option to retreat or escape.

It can result in the horse appearing calm, but this often comes from learned helplessness, when the horse stops responding because escape feels impossible.

Behaviourally, flooding can “work.”

Repeated exposure without escape can suppress or extinguish a reaction, which is why some horses seem “desensitized.” But this happens because they’ve stopped trying, not because they feel safe.

⸻

⚖️ The Critical Distinction

Both systematic desensitization and flooding fall under the same learning category: exposure-based reduction of a fear response.
But the mechanism and emotional outcome are completely different.

In systematic desensitization, fear decreases because the animal learns the stimulus is safe and predictable.
In flooding, behaviour stops because the animal learns their actions don’t matter.

Those outcomes may look similar on the outside, a quiet horse, but they are neurologically and emotionally opposite.

Systematic desensitization and counterconditioning create new, positive associations through prefrontal-cortex learning.
Flooding produces suppression through overarousal and loss of control, a limbic-system shutdown.

Flooding may produce compliance, but it does not create confidence.

All flooding is desensitization,
but not all desensitization is flooding.

⸻

🧩 In Summary

Desensitization itself isn’t inherently good or bad. It’s a learning process.

The welfare outcome depends entirely on how it’s applied.

When done under threshold, desensitization builds confidence and trust.

When done through forced exposure, it may silence fear, but it doesn’t resolve it.

Systematic desensitization and counterconditioning remain the gold standard, evidence-based approaches for reducing fear while protecting welfare.

10/20/2025

Some of these horses are being ridden in just a bosal or rope halter.
Who says you need a bit to do high dressage (war horse) maneuvers 😁😁

10/19/2025

Let’s talk about the sometimes confusing pyramid!! 30 years ago. I thought this thing was stupid. 20 years ago I thought it needed a few tweaks, and was generally confusing, and not really helpful. 10 years ago I realized it is absolutely genius.

Then over the last 10 years, I’ve incorporated more classical French flavor into my training and realize it’s possible to stand this thing on its head, but I don’t claim to be an expert at that. So for right now, let’s just focus on the genius that is the training pyramid.

The train pyramid comes from classical German - not modern German, and not classical French. Think Steinbrecht through Reiner Klimke, or the Spanish Riding School in Austria.

RHYTHM….When you first start a young horse, they don’t know that leg means forward. They don’t know how to steer. So we do some groundwork to teach them what we can. If we are looking at the classical German system, this probably means work on the lunge line, maybe in some loose side reins,  where the goal is just to get them out on a basic circle traveling at a consistent acceptable speed. When we first climb on, we are going to repeat that goal… don’t get stuck, and don’t run away. At this stage, we are also going to learn basic steering, but in the German school, we are going to focus a little more on advancing the tempo control. We want to be able to speed the horse up and slow them down with the seat pretty early in the training. (French classical would work on bending and steering first)

RELAXATION…. This one doesn’t translate great. Read the subheading instead. Let’s start over….
ELASTICITY AND SUPPLENESS… bendy bendy bendy bendy. If a horse won’t trot past the scary corner, your best friend is circle circles and a rudimentary shoulder in. So when we say relaxation, think about how tight a horse gets when they are thinking about losing their brain, and then how do you relax them? You bend them. It might be some rudimentary bending initially. Obviously you need contact in order to bend. The pyramid is NOT saying that you’ll ride on a loose rein until the next step.  Ride with the best connection that you and the horse are able, but at this stage, you’ll probably have to pull the horse’s nose where you want it. 🫣 yes I know that sounds horrible, but that’s why this stage is called relaxation and not “ perfect proper bend”!!! We want it to be that every time you pick up a rein, the horse responds and softens. That’s what this stage is about.

CONNECTION…. Yay! Finally! Lol I say that sarcastically- you should be dabbling with connection and getting decent at it by the time the horse has 30 to 60 rides under saddle. (assuming that the Rider knows what they’re doing which is a pretty huge assumption!) These stages are not supposed to take a year each!!! You start your ride, making sure that you can get some steady forward tempo. Then you supple your horse up and make sure that you can separate steering and bending a little. And by the end of the ride, you should have some connection!! Have you ever ridden a horse that is heavy as hell in one rein?? I guarantee the horse was way too light in the other hand! If your horse is leaning constantly on the right, it’s most likely because they have zero acceptance of the hand on the left. This is the stage to fix that. This is when we build inside leg to outside rein connection!!

IMPULSION…. Energy, hmmm, didn’t we do this already? Not really because before our horse was a sack of potatoes and we were just trying to get him to speed up or slow down, but he wasn’t connected yet. Now that we have some connection we should be able to ask for the type of energy that gets the horse to lift the thoracic sling!!! This is thoracic sling stage!! if you felt it, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, there’s nothing that anyone is going to write that’s going to explain it fully. But now when you play with the energy, it’s way different!

STRAIGHTNESS…. annnnnnnd, enter the confusion!!! This is the part where everyone gets dumbfounded. Isn’t straightness like the first thing we should be teaching???? Yes!!!! That is if you think getting a horse to go in a straight line without completely bulging either shoulder, counter bending, we’re trying to gravitate to the middle of the arena is what we mean by working on straightness! That part is so Elementary they didn’t even include it on the pyramid. Think of that as in the basement.
The straightness we are talking about now is so much more!!!  This is also the part that when ignored, causes lameness!! In this stage we are making sure that in every single lateral movement, the horse is using all four legs evenly, offering correct pole flexion, not over bending at the base of the neck, flexing correctly through the rib cage, staying between our hands and legs, etc. If you have to hold your half pass together with your inside rein, your horse isn’t straight!!! Can us English speakers just rename this “ COMPLETE LATERAL BALANCE”????? Also, when you start trying to collect,  the horse will use crookedness as evasion. Imagine you are holding a dress Dressage with at each end and pushing the two ends towards each other. We want the middle part to bow up, but it could potentially bow in any direction! Maintaining straightness is what allows us to prevent it from bowing sideways so that we can achieve a convex arch upwards

COLLECTION… I don’t know, man. I still suck at this part. I can get a horse to lift through the thoracic slang, amazingly well!!!! But I’m not great at getting them to REALLY sit behind. And that seems pretty common amongst those who practice the German system . (I think the French school gets better sitting behind, but doesn’t always get the lifted thoracic sling, which is why I’m all about learning both! As much as I love French, classical German has been more accessible.) but anyways, this stage is ultimately about piaffe and pirouettes, however, that doesn’t mean that you don’t work on it until you are at FEI level!!!!! if you have a horse that is dreadfully on the forehand, you are going to work on achieving a 50-50 balance as early in the process as you can! That horse may not be collectED,  because we typically save that term for horses that are shifting more weight behind than 50%. But the horse might be collected for him at that stage. I’m tempted to make a graphic where I take the top half of the triangle and scale it way down and place it on top of the full size foundation to show what it looks like if you have, let’s say, a really well trained five-year-old horse! The foundation is pretty much completed (obviously every horse will need reminders) and then you are working on all three upper steps, but you have a lot of work to do with all three!

Then there is the French classical school, where we first get the horse to balance and then “add forward with an eyedropper” or whatever the quote is. Unfortunately, you almost have to learn both schools in their entirety and pure form before you can be be really good at picking back-and-forth and layering. And sadly i think most humans need more than one lifetime to really master both methods and then create something uniquely their own. Apparently, Nuño Olivia got it done, but it’s pretty well accepted that he wasn’t really able to pass that one to his students so much.

Anyways, you guys can add your own thoughts or argue as much as you want in the comments because I’m really not emotionally tied to the German train pyramid. Even if I have been thinking about the damn thing for three decades!!!



10/01/2025

08/18/2025

04/22/2025

"Applying tests of self-carriage more thoroughly in dressage tests and all other riding tests has the potential to save horse sports. Riders should be required to demonstrate self-carriage in all gaits and movements.

This would ‘prove’ to judges that horses are actually trained rather than held. If a horse is held in a certain movement, it means he is not trained to maintain it.

As a minimum standard, any so-called ethical training method should demonstrate the maintenance of desired behaviours (self-carriage) without relying on physical force."

Andrew McLean