02/25/2025
This is a lengthy read, but might be of interest if you have a few minutes and want to listen to my ramblings! I originally wrote it for a mustang-oriented Facebook group, but of course applies to all horses.
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In light of the recent allegations against some well known trainers within the equine community (mustang and other), as a trainer myself, I’d like to share a few thoughts. The list below is not designed to advocate for certain training methods over others, nor to paint myself as someone who has figured out the “right way” to do things. I certainly haven’t, but I do believe I am working every day to get closer to that, and anyone who isn’t needs to get out of the business. As a community who prides themselves on loving equines, we need to be better, because they deserve better. If we are not constantly striving for self-improvement and emotional congruency, then horses are the ones losing out. With that said, here are several things I think each of us can do to prevent anymore trainers with inhumane methods from gaining notoriety:
- As an owner, bystander, auditor, or horse lover of any kind, if you see or hear something that doesn’t sit right with you, say something. Raise questions, ask for the *why*, and observe what the horse is saying.
- Horses never lie! If we dedicate ourselves to being constant students of the horse; to become acutely aware to what they are communicating, we will never be left to rely on how humans promote themselves… the horse will speak for or against that trainer or methods all on their own. If you are participating in a clinic, taking a lesson, or your horse is with someone for training, listen to what your horse is telling you about what that experience feels like for them. Whenever I have clients who are doubting if we “did enough” during the session, or if we pushed the horse out of their comfort zone too much, or if they rode with enough feel and skill, etc I ask the question “did we leave the horse better than we found him/her?” If the horse is more relaxed, emotionally regulated, balanced, and/or happier in their own body than when we started, then we are in a good spot. If the answer is no, it’s on us to find a better, kinder way. With that in mind, if you go to visit your horse whilst he/she is in someone’s training program and they are more nervous, shut down, impulsive, reactive, tense or any other number of signs indicative of them living in a sympathetic (fight/flight/freeze) state, take your horse home and find someone else. The is equally as true if you horse is physically looking in worse condition than when you dropped them off.
- Once we know better, we need to be better. In being a student of the horse, I am a better, kinder, more aware owner, trainer and teacher than I was 10 years ago. If I can’t say the same thing in another ten years, then it’s time to give it up.
- Timeline guarantees are a big red flag, both from a trainer and an owner standpoint. If a trainer is making guarantees about what a horse will be able to do in x amount of time, they likely are not putting the horse’s best interests first. Equally, if an owner has a set timeline of when they want something achieved, they are to blame if their horse suffers at the hands of a rushed, pressured trainer.
- Be your horse’s advocate. I am adamant that owners receive daily photos and videos while horses are staying with me at my facility, and that they visit weekly… the owner needs to be as actively involved in the process as their time allows for. To not do this is to not setting the human-horse pair up for success once that horse goes home.
- The day I stop educating myself, stop listening to what the horses are saying, or stop enjoying what I am doing, is the day I need to stop doing this for a living. Any less is a disservice to the horses I am privileged enough to interact with.
And lastly, a huge thank you to the individuals who are stepping up and sharing their accounts of these injustices in order to bring them into the public eye. You are brave and heard.
