Alex at Harmony Horses

21/02/2024

Still going strong my beautiful Dahlia

21/02/2024

Just another day in Paradise East side

18/01/2024

Lol

18/12/2023

8 Top Tips for Equestrians from Dr. Temple Grandin

04/12/2023

It didn’t compute for me, 70 years ago, just how little force was necessary to get a calm and well trained horse to go along with the signals/aids of a rider.

I weighed maybe 95 pounds, wore sneakers, had a halter and a leadrope for steering and stopping, and I could ride Paint for miles and had zero need of whips, spurs, severe bits to get along with him.

But then came years of Kool-Aid, all those sayings that were so normal back then, “Show that horse who’s boss” being the essence of that training concept. And for too many decades I bought into all of that, until I gradually began to question and to think, “There has to be a better way than force to get along with horses.”

I had already known that when I was 11, but then I forgot, for years and years, something I had already experienced.

Now fast forward 7 decades to 2023 when the equestrian press is teeming with all sorts of responses to a European trainer getting captured on camera using forceful means, like that is some deep dark secret. Be real. Lots of force is employed every day, and I get it because I did it, too.

You either learn better ways or you resist learning them, because in 2023 there are enough quiet trainers, the ones like Carl Hester, Buck Brannaman, whose methods are widely available on Google to any who want to use quieter methods.

But today, December third, 2023, plenty of horses will still be ridden with big sharp spurs, harsh bits, draw reins, all that apparatus of force, and some of that will be done by the very people who are vilifying the guy who got caught on camera.

Being gentle with horses is a choice. You decide to or you don’t, pretty simple. It took me way too many decades to relearn something I sort of already knew.

24/11/2023

Wow

Uncut grass keeps the soil at 19.5°C
A grass cut at a level of 10 cm maintains the soil temperature at 24.5°C
Bare soil in the middle of summer rises to more than 40°C

That is why it is important to make this knowledge visible.

20/11/2023

Bella 13hh approx. 2-3 yr. old Appaloosa x filly. Bella came into our care at Rodney Animal Rescue when she was found roaming on public roads along with ...

10/11/2023