Kerang Pony Club

25/06/2026

A Parenting Expert's Advice for Horse Owners🔥

I once met a horse named Ronnie.

Ronnie and I were introduced under less-than-ideal circumstances. He needed to be float loaded after being asked to leave his agistment property.

His résumé was impressive.😕

Difficult to catch.

Difficult to rug.

Difficult to lead.

Difficult for the vet.

Difficult for the farrier.

Aggressive around food.

In modern corporate language, we might describe Ronnie as "challenging to work with".

His owner was devastated by the expulsion. She felt it was unfair.

And to be fair, Ronnie did have a difficult history.

He had reportedly experienced neglect in a previous home. He had endured periods of starvation. There were genuine reasons why he had developed some of the behaviours he displayed.

His owner believed that if people simply understood his past, they would be more accepting of his behaviour.

This is where things get tricky.

Because while understanding a horse's history is important, expecting everyone else to accommodate dangerous or difficult behaviour indefinitely is not compassion.

It's avoidance dressed up as compassion.

The uncomfortable truth is that reasons and excuses are not the same thing.

A reason helps us understand behaviour.

An excuse prevents us from addressing it.

And when we confuse the two, horses suffer.

Imagine a child who regularly breaks rules, hurts other children, or creates chaos wherever they go.

If we only ever say, "Well, they've had a difficult past," we may feel kind, but we're not actually helping the child.

Children need guidance.

They need boundaries and rules of engagement within society.

They need adults willing to teach them how to function safely and successfully in the world.

Horses are no different.

One of my favourite ideas comes from Dr Becky Kennedy, author of the book Good Inside.

She suggests that behaviour is not a measure of who someone is. It is information about what they need.

I think that's a remarkably useful way to think about horses.

A horse that bites isn't telling us it's evil.

A horse that drags its owner across the paddock isn't revealing a flawed character.

A horse that threatens people around food isn't just being a bully.

The behaviour is information.

The horse is showing us where it lacks understanding, confidence, skills, emotional regulation, physical comfort, or appropriate boundaries or clarity around the rules of engagement in the domesticated environment.

The mistake is stopping at empathy.

Empathy helps us understand why the horse behaves the way it does.

Training helps the horse learn a better way.

Both matter.

A horse with a difficult history deserves understanding.

It also deserves education.

Because the end goal is not simply to explain the behaviour.

The end goal is to improve the horse's life.

And a horse that cannot be caught, handled, loaded, treated, or safely managed has a very limited future.

Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do is step in and say:

"I understand why this behaviour exists."

"But I am still going to help you learn something better."

Real compassion is not lowering expectations.

Real compassion is providing support while maintaining them.

Sometimes love looks like patience.

Sometimes love looks like understanding.

And sometimes love looks like saying,

"No. These are the rules of engagement. This is what we need to learn. And I'm going to help you get there."

Collectable Advice 240/365. Hit SAVE or SHARE. Please no copy and pasting.

25/06/2026

Here is something worth saying directly to every student in your program: the warm up is not all about you. Your body matters and yes you need to find your seat and your balance before the real work begins but the horse underneath you has muscles, tendons, joints, and a back that need progressive preparation before being asked to carry a rider and work correctly. A rider who warms up their own body and ignores the horse's is a rider who spends the first half of every lesson fighting resistance that a proper warm up would have prevented entirely.

A horse coming out of a stall or paddock is not ready to trot a twenty meter circle with bend and contact any more than an athlete is ready to sprint without stretching first. The soft tissues need blood flow. The joints need synovial fluid to distribute. The back muscles need to loosen and swing before they can carry a rider effectively. Asking a cold horse for immediate work does not just produce resistance, it also creates genuine physical discomfort that over time contributes to soreness, stiffness, and a horse that starts anticipating the work with tension rather than willingness.

1. A proper warm up starts on a long rein.
Teach your students that the first minutes of every ride should happen on a long rein at the walk - not a loose flapping rein with no contact but a long allowing rein that gives the horse freedom to stretch through the neck, swing through the back, and find its balance without the constraint of a collected frame. The horse should be encouraged to stretch the topline progressively before being asked to work in a more upright frame. I actually left a dressage barn I was boarding at because the trainer yelled at me for not cranking in my horse's head the moment my butt hit the saddle.

2. The warm up should be progressive not passive.
A horse meandering around the arena on a loose rein for ten minutes with a rider who is scrolling through their mental checklist is not warmed up, it is just walked around. A genuine warm up is progressive and intentional. Walk on a long (not loose) rein, building to a working walk with some bend and direction changes. Rising trot building to rising trot with light contact. Simple transitions, large circles, and gentle direction changes. The work gradually increases in demand as the horse's body loosens and the communication between horse and rider establishes itself. By the time the lesson properly begins, the horse should be through in the back, forward off the leg, and genuinely listening - not still half asleep from the paddock.

3. Watch the horse's back and topline during the warm up.
Teach your students what a horse that is not yet warmed up looks and feels like versus one that is ready to work. A tight back that is not yet swinging. A head that is carried above the bit with tension through the neck. Short choppy strides rather than a swinging reaching walk. These are all signs the horse needs more time before the contact is picked up and the real work begins. A horse that is warmed up correctly steps through with the hind legs, swings through the back, seeks the contact softly forward and down, and feels elastic and willing underneath the rider.

4. The warm up is also information.
What the horse offers in the first ten minutes tells you and your student what kind of ride is coming. A horse that is stiff on the left rein during the warm up is telling you something. A horse that is unusually forward or spooky during the warm up is telling you something. A horse whose back does not loosen up through the warm up the way it usually does is telling you something. Teaching your students to read that information during the warm up rather than ignoring it and proceeding with the planned lesson regardless is one of the most valuable horsemanship skills you can develop.

5. Build it into your lesson structure as non-negotiable.
The warm up is not optional and it is not a courtesy to the horse - it is a welfare requirement. Build a structured warm up into every lesson plan and hold your students accountable for using it properly rather than rushing through it to get to the interesting part. A student who learns from their very first lesson that the horse's warm up is a non-negotiable part of every ride carries that habit forward into every horse they will ever sit on. That is a gift that goes well beyond the arena.

The horse carries the rider and the least the rider can do is prepare that horse properly before asking it to work. Teach your students to warm up with purpose and intention for the horse first and themselves second. The quality of everything that follows will reflect it.

How do you teach your students to warm up their horse properly?

24/06/2026

The 10-meter circle is an important circle to get right!

This is because it's not only needed for the circle itself, but it's also required for other dressage movements such as simple changes, serpentines, corners, and lateral movements.

24/06/2026

23/06/2026

23/06/2026

The biggest communication channel between you and your horse is through your seat to your horse's back.

23/06/2026

Imagine trying to do the right thing, but the answer keeps changing.

One day, a pony is allowed to walk off as soon as the rider is in the saddle.* The next day, the same pony is told off for not standing still at the mounting block.

One day, a horse is allowed to rub its head on someone after work.* The next day, the same behaviour is corrected sharply because the handler is busy, tired or not expecting it.

To us, these can feel like small moments. To the horse, they can make the world feel unpredictable.

The same applies when we ride. Horses learn best when our aids are clear, consistent and easy to understand. That means being consistent not only in the aid itself, but in the way we apply it, the sequence we use, and the moment we release or reward the horse for the right response.

This does not mean riders should never change how they do things. Good coaching helps riders improve. But if you are changing how you ask your horse to do something, it is worth talking it through with your coach so the change is clear, fair and consistent for the horse.

When expectations are unclear or inconsistent, the horse may not know which behaviour will lead to a reward, a release, or a correction. That uncertainty can lead to confusion and worry. The horse may try to avoid the situation, resist, become more reactive, or eventually stop trying.

This idea is covered in the Pony Club Australia Horse Welfare Policy under Domain 4: Behavioural Interaction, which highlights the importance of clear, consistent aids and consistent expectations for behaviour. It is also supported in Domain 5: Mental Experiences, which links a horse’s mental security to clear, consistent training and communication.

Good welfare is not only about feed, feet and turnout. It is also about helping the horse understand what is being asked.

*Note: Walking off at the mounting block and rubbing on people are not behaviours we want to encourage. Standing quietly while mounting helps keep horse and rider safe, and rubbing on people can become pushy or unsafe. The point is to be clear and consistent about the behaviour we do want, rather than allowing something one day and correcting it sharply the next.