Care & Training

Researchers aim to examine more horses to obtain a more definitive answer.

“The key is to ride a horse of suitable size and fitness and to make sure that the saddle is fitted correctly for both horse and rider.”

“Horses in pain may be silent, but behaviour is their voice and we need to listen and be receptive.”

Dressage Judging Working Group makes recommendations to provide a fair judging system.

SmartBoot aims to help riders correct old habits.

“It may be wiser to focus on training and habituation to stressful situations to help manage reactive behaviour, rather than to rely solely on magnesium-based products.”

Twenty volunteer riders in Danish experiment wore progressively heavier weighted vests.

In an investigation last year, Blue Cross found 28% of all adverts used terminology that implied the horse was not straightforward, needed work, was young and inexperienced, or displayed behavioural problems.

The stress identified by researchers could be difficult for most people to identify, as the horse may not show visible stress behaviours.

“I believe the true classical masters would embrace this information as a much better explanation of what they felt, but had only the language of their day available to them to use to explain.” 

Horses that suffer from chronic poor saddle fit usually have skin changes that lead to chronic skin dryness and nerve tissue atrophy with the resulting lack of response.

Disorders of the muscular system cause poor performance and in some cases, death; yet in certain groups of athletic horses, 5% to 25% of individuals have heritable muscular disorders.