Horsemanship From Ginny

My Opinions on Ex Racehorses

This episode is my opinion on ex racehorses. While I really do like the ex racers, and they're always very interesting horses to work with, and I understand that there are plenty of ex racers that go onto live fantastic lives outside of racing, many of them just don't unfortunately. Many of them end up in homes that are ill equiped to handling them, not educated enough to understand how deep rooted their understanding of life differs to how the average horse owner keeps their horses, and often times under funded to be able to look into potential health issues they have, or get the consistent professional help in order to improve their beaviour once health issues have been ruled out. The majority of people who buy ex racers, buy them because they're cheap. While they may well be cheap to purchase initially, owning them and caring for them properly is far from cheap. They're prone to vices that are often either caused by health issues that are ignore because "that's just how some of them are" or they cause health issues which only get noticed when it causes noticiably serious issues, such as colic or ulcers. Ex racers are stereotypically difficult horses to own and care for, while there are plenty of outliers, its the owners of these outliers that claim these stereotypes as lies. They're not lies, and you telling people your good doer, with good feet, and donkey like personalility is the norm only puts more horses into homes that aren't suitable. I'm regularly being called out to help with ex racers, and while some owners give their lives and their bank accounts to these animals to do the very best by them, many people will tell me they "just want them to hack out" or "just want them to stop rearing in the school" or insert almost any behaviour into that slot, and when I tell them it's not as simple as just riding them through the naughtiness, more often than not I'm met with "I can't afford" or "I don't want" and unfortunately, when you took on an ex racer, you took on the cost and training time it takes to get these horses right. When purchasing an ex race horse you should be considering these things, and if you don't, you shouldn't have one. It's that simple.

Why "Should" is so Detrimental to Training Horses

In this episode I'm talking about the word "should" Now it might seem a bit much to talk for nearly 17 minutes about 1 word. But language and how we use it is really important. So today I'm talking about why the word "should" is osmething you should avoid. It helps no one, not you. not your horse, and certainly not clients.

My Time Working With a Paralympian

In this episode I'm talking about the time I worked with a Paralympic rider. The thing I learnt while working with her, the diffiuclties I had working with her, dissapointments I felt, thing I really enjoyed while working with her and the experience I got working with the horses she gave me the opportunity to work with and learn from. Regardless of anything I'll always be grateful to Bert and the things she taught me, the horses she gave me access to work with and the opportunities I had.

Do Hot Horses Really Exist? Or Are They Just Stressed

In this episode I'm talking about the difference between hot horses and stressed horses. So do hot horses exists? Or are people just passing off high levels of stress and excusing it with "it's just a hot horse"? I talk about how these horses are created, from breeding to ridden work. I talk about the horses we lose to stress and poor practices that are normal in the horse world when they shouldn't be. Explosive horses should NOT be normal, whether it's how they've been bred, raised, trained or physical pain that the horses are going though. Being able to recognise pain in horses shouldn't be as hard as it is. Being able to tell the diference between a disregulated horse emotionally and whether the horse has kissing spines should be easy to do, because disregulation in horses shouldn't be as common as it is. I shouldn't have a job fixing as many horses as I do. Horses should be set up to win in life, the number of horses that don't make it to maturity either due to behavioural issues, or behaviour induced injuries is astounding, and it shouldn't be happening.

Why I Don't Think Horses Should Retire

Horses that retire are often in their late teens early 20's and sometimes late 20's. Why should be lose all that learned knowledge to a retirement field or retirement livery? More horses that retire should end up raising young horses. Rather than purchasing a weanling to pair with the filly/colt you're weaning, you should be putting that youngster in with an older horse. We don't leave toddlers to raise toddlers and we shouldn't be leaving foals and yearlings to raise foals and yearlings. None of them have any understanding of the world, how to behave around other horses, how to behave around people. Furthermore, most retired horses when I've met them, often look very defeated, like they've lost their purpose in life. Rather than retiring them completely, they should still have a job, and in my opinion, the best job for these horses would be to raise the next generation of horses. I would have far less horses to work with if more horses were raised around a good variety of different horses, mixed ages groups, mixed sexes, mixed personalities. Horses should be Raising Horses!