Bit and Bridle Fit Consultant James Cooling

23/04/2026

Helpful for everyone...

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05/04/2026

"Can Dressage Be Saved?"

This is a bit ‘out there’ but bare with…

I could recognise* that I was really excited about our ‘Can Dressage be Saved?’ webinar with three top experts last Tuesday

*I’ve been into 'metacognition' even before I had a name for it. It’s “hmmm why am I feeling that?” “what are these sensations in my body telling me?”. That’s my interpretation anyway – meta cognition can be much wider than that.

Anyway, I particularly recognised my ‘this is important’ feeling just before the webinar - when I had a complete inability to make small talk. I’d gone into a zone I recognised when I used to compete or Pie did his party piece at Monty demos.

And just like those times, I overestimated my contribution to the success. Have you ever been on a special horse and you’re preparing yourself to start … and then you’re off and actually you’re just sitting on top … watching this horse perform brilliantly? It’s an amazing feeling.

And it was exactly the same on this webinar. I had planned to get straight into the important things and I started with “The webinar tonight is “Can Dressage be Saved?”

Sue! What’s the solution?!” And Sue (followed by the other panelists were Away! And I just sat and watched in awe!

Quote: “Yes! Dressage can be saved, but the panel believes dressage can only be saved, if there is acceptance that, at present, there are many things that are not right. Responsibility lies collectively with owners, riders, trainers, judges and rule-makers to recognise what is going wrong and to make changes accordingly.”

Sue said that across many levels of dressage, including eventing dressage warm-ups, conflcit behaviours are commonly seen. In particular, she noted frequent mouth opening with separation of the teeth and the horse being behind the vertical. When the data are compared, upper-level Grand Prix dressage horses show mouth opening far more frequently than five-star event horses — 68% compared with 44%, which she described as a substantial difference.

More striking still, she said that at the British Dressage National Championships the figure was worse, with 81% of horses showing mouth opening with separation of the teeth.

That, she said, raises obvious questions. “Why is this happening, and how can horses displaying these signs apparently still be rewarded by judges?”

There was so much more GOLD in this webinar!

International Dressage trainer, Lisa White quote “people are riding with their hands not their bodies”. Something struck me when Lisa White said there are riders saying one thing with their bodies and something else with their hands. This was very much what we taught on the practical courses through Join Up, so that people could understand how from the ground you need to get your body, eyes, emotions, intention, timing, lined up with what you actually want to happen with the horse.

Bit and Bridle fitting specialist and GP, Dr James Cooling quote "bits and bridles need fitting just as we do with saddles". He’s even seen horses with blue tongues ie the circulation cut off to stop the blood supply, in The Stable (!) when too much equipment has been stuffed into a horse’s mouth where there simply isn’t the room.

And now here is me being ranty “So what do some people do?! Get the noseband tighter! 😱”

Note: James didn’t use the word ‘stuffed’ – he was far more eloquent and there were so many practical takeaways throughout.

Takeaways that could save people £thousands in buying horses and vets bills as well as, most importantly, having comfortable happy horses who last to a decent age.

PS If you missed it, it’s available to watch - I wholeheartedly recommend it and if you could get it to some dressage judges and yards better still.

Thank you to Sandra Williams is Hearing Horses for being there as always and taking over the small talk at the beginning

Thank you to Sharron Heal who set it all up and and taught some Intelligent Horsemanship members how to use Zoom because Things Are Only Easy When You Know How

Thank you to those of you who watched, asked great questions and made such nice comments at the end. It was appreciated and You know who you are!

Last but not least thank you to Dr Sue Dyson. Lisa White and James Cooling 😊



Photo courtesy of Dr Sue Dyson - Hickstead 2010 from article in this month's Intelligent Horsemanship magazine

28/03/2026

Great to sign up for this...

YES! Your Intelligent Horsemanship magazine is available online and will be going through letter boxes early in April!

Here's what our IH editor says ... (Feel Free to Share!)

There’s something about spring that invites us to look again. At our horses. At our habits. At ourselves.

As the evenings get lighter, this edition arrives with a theme that quietly threads its way through so many of these pages: refinement. That extra awareness. That extra feel. That extra 1%.
Kelly’s My World reflects on exactly that - “That Extra 1%...” - the small adjustments that can make the biggest difference to our horses.

We’re delighted to bring you Dressage Coach, Lisa White, and her six favourite ridden exercises. Lisa's thoughtful approach to developing horse and rider partnerships for eventing perfectly reflects the values of Intelligent Horsemanship.

As always, our training section is rich with expertise. Abi Pass explores the role of electrotherapies, while Gillian Higgins guides us through her 4-part posture assessment system, and world-renowned equine consultant Dr Sue Dyson offers dressage “food for thought” — encouraging us to look beyond the surface.

Sandra Williams’ has written from the heart with Burnout - It's Not Just for Humans An exploration of when talent becomes the challenge and steps we can take to regain equilibrium.

You’ll also find Dr Rosie Jones-McVey encouraging us to think about the “Expert in our Pocket”, while Physicist, Caroline Shenton-Taylor unpicks the physics of schooling livery at Hartsop Farm, alongside a wonderful Spotlight on IH Trainer Nicki Marshall and our Star Member of this issue - Sarah Battrick.

We also tackle important, and sometimes complex, topics: including a powerful piece on a hidden condition from IH Trainer Julia Duncan.

Young horse development is covered with Intelligent Weaning from IH Trainer, Charlie Carr.

And of course, we celebrate YOU — our members. From your letters and photos to Meet a Member, we love to hear from you. And for those quieter moments, there are plenty of book reviews to enjoy.

As we spend longer at the yard, perhaps you’ll pause occasionally and ask: Where might that extra 1% lie for me?

Happy reading — and do stay in touch.

Sharron Heal, Magazine Editor

16/02/2026

Study confirming what I have been teaching for years in talks and articles. Tight nosebands cause significantly high pressure, are detrimental to stride length and act as a tourniquet on the face with the potential to cause pain, tissue damage and effect balance through the TMJ.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0737080625003120?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-9&rr=9cec70eaeebe8049&fbclid=IwdGRjcAP_1gVjbGNrA__V7WV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHrJ5aMkqPRK2Tp9fPctnErkH-BqRSgeSZhclNNI2G8uFEcMu_Dod3oGDArZS_aem_XeDVc-odIOsGkgNLBtp5YA

05/02/2026

An accessible guide to the COMPASS Guidelines and asking better questions before trusting equine welfare research studies.

24/12/2025

Wishing everyone a restful and enjoyable Christmas and a very Happy New Year... looking forward to 2026.

18/12/2025

📷 Just “moments in time”?

When uncomfortable images of horses in sport surface, they’re often dismissed as isolated instants — taken out of context, unfair, misleading.
But what if context is exactly what’s missing?

In a new Horses and People article, we explore photographer Crispin Parelius Johannessen’s work documenting entire dressage performances — capturing 8,000+ images from a single test — to ask a simple but unsettling question: are the troubling images really the illusion, or are the familiar “trophy shots” the exception?

By looking at full photographic sequences rather than selected moments, a very different picture emerges — one that challenges how equestrian culture sees, shares, and defends its visual narratives.

🖥️ Read the article
🎥 Watch the full webinar
📂 Explore the complete image sequence yourself

If we want to understand what horses are experiencing, we may need more images, not fewer — and the courage to look when the illusion no longer holds.

👉 Link in comments / bio

02/12/2025

https://intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/autumn-winter-magazine-dr-sue-dyson-dr-james-cooling-articles/

Link to some informative articles recently published in Intelligent Horsemanship Magazine authored by myself and Dr Sue Dyson regarding the subject of muscle atrophy and saddle fit in elite sport horses. Articles start on page 32..

Here’s a couple of fantastic articles from Dr Sue Dyson and Dr James Cooling, featured in the Autumn-Winter 2025 issue of the IH Magazine. Like what you see? Pop your […]