mothra wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 12:50am:


Maaaarey Christmas.

There can be only one!

Lord Herbert wrote on Jun 19^th, 2016 at 9:03pm:



eventing  and especially cross country are extremely dangerous activities herb.
jumping solid logs, big concrete pipes and walls of tractor tyres at full pace.
both girls were top class riders and both were killed when the horse stumbled and landed on top of them. 500 kg on top of you at full speed is devestating.
It is a sport i would never have the guts to do, so i take my hat off to them.
their deaths were certainly nothing to do with a lack of understanding of the alpha and beta dynamics of a herd.

But you do have to understand how when dealing with a prey animal , many things are counter - intuitive.
And this is where both men and women go wrong.

A horse is nearly always in flight mode, this is how they survived on the plains without being eaten, the first sign of danger and they run.
The peck order is really about grazing rights, breeding rights and who do we follow when the wolf comes.

So they rely on good solid confident leadership.

If you give food to a horse (as many people do to try to bond with it), you are lowering your status and it is less likely to feel confident about the decisions you make under saddle.
If you are riding a horse and it starts to get anxious (say it sees a roo jump out) , if you go "there, there good boy its all alright" you are rewarding anxiety and will increase the horses flight response.
If you get angry with it and get emotional , it will become fearful and you will increase its flight response.


Mothra wrote that she came off when riding in a hackamore and felt she may have been safer with a bit.
There are 2 ways of looking at this.
a hackamore is like having just a rope around his nose, a bit is having metal on his sensitive teeth.
Now a horse will respond more to a metal bit ,but the idea is to be as gentle on the bit as possible.
Everytime you pull on a bit , you are causing a bit of pain which makes the horse "move away from the pain".
So inducing pain in a flight animal is not a good idea and bad riders who use the reins and bit to balance themselves will really freak a horse out.
I teach all my horses to neck rein which means that you give them a touch on the neck with the rein before you use the bit and , because they are smart, they will learn, "oh he's about to use the bit if i dont turn right" and they move off the rein and you never have to use the bit.

But horses are very big powerful and dangerous animals.
they are particularly unforgiving to those who are new to the sport and it gets safer the more you deal with them.
You cannot ride one in a durrrrr state, its why i like them, you can ride a bike or drive a car in a durrrr state but horse riding like skiing down a steep hill requires absolute mindfulness and induces a flow state

aquascoot wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 6:04am:


OMG....you really ARE into this.

Ever thought of changing your nic to : The Horse Whisperer?

Lisa Jones wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 8:15am:


PS. I think it's great that you rescue these animals 

mothra wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 12:50am:




That's enough of that. Aquascoot's good value on this board.

John Smith wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 9:36am:

You're a Beacon on the Hill, Aqua, and I hope one day you will be Required Reading for all young women contemplating marriage for the first time.