Spotted Pony

13/09/2026

Many horse owners enjoy training their own horses. Some follow the standards and practices that professional horse trainers use. However, often amateurs do not follow these standards and practices because for them training is a private endeavor. For them training a horse is usually more about the process and less about outcomes. I have found this is the main difference between amateur and professional horse trainers.

Professionals train client horses or purchased prospects. In both cases time is money. Therefore, the balance between process and outcome for professionals is usually very different that amateurs. There are also differences in the balance between process and outcome among professionals.

International dressage horse trainer Andreas Helgstrand, the poster boy for training abuse, churns out half million dollar competition horses with his factory like production line. He is all outcome with his very compressed and cruel process. Most professionals have more respect for horses and far less greed than Helgstrand. We keep the process fair but firm, and we are willing to alter the process for individual horses in order to achieve the correct outcome.

Many amateurs criticize the strict professional focus on outcomes, but we typically turn out higher quality, more respectful horses in a businesslike manner. Amateurs typically have the luxury of time without a deadline to train their horses. And amateurs can apply whatever training standards and practices they wish, but in doing so they often create problems that professionals cannot afford to have if they want to keep their good reputation.

Without a substantial focus on outcomes, amateurs can and do accommodate horses in training. These amateurs tend to do workarounds instead of working through issues they encounter in the training process. This regularly results in spoiled or idiosyncratic horses that other people don't want to deal with. The combined lack of education and experience in training horses of many amateurs results in the many undesirable quirky horses out there today.

My advice to people who enjoy their private training process is to find a more balanced approach to process and outcomes. If they train horses according to the established universal horsemanship outcomes, they will ensure that their horse will always be valued.

Life can change unexpectedly and owners are often forced to suddenly give up their horse as a result. If you train a horse to accepted standards, your horse will always be cared for and valued by future owners. Your horse will not get bounced around among many owners and won't end up in an auction. We train to high universal standards for the sake of the horse's future.

12/09/2026

Glyphosate causes insulin resistance and metabolic disorders, disrupts the gut microbiome and the effects can be heritable.
(Please note, I am not saying it is the ONLY cause)

Last year I made a post about laminitis that was quite popular. In the post, one of the points I mentioned was the potential roll of the use of herbicides/pesticides in the widespread development of metabolic disorders in our horses for the past few decades.

I want to elaborate on that point, because it's something that people often roll their eyes thinking I'm part of the tinfoil hat brigade.

But my inital statement is not opinion, it is not speculation and it is not even surprising. It is being proven in scientific studies. Wide spread use of Glyphosate is altering our metabolisms, our immune systems and our DNA.

But don't take my word for it.

A study done in 2025 entiled ' Prenatal exposure to dietary levels of glyphosate disrupts metabolic, immune, and behavioral markers across generations in mice' by Barnett JA, Josephson JK, Yuzbashian E, et al.
States:
"Prenatal glyphosate reshapes gut, metabolism and behaviour across multiple mouse generations

Harmful effects arise at 0.01mg/kg/day, a dose far beneath current safety limits.

Gut barrier damage, mucin loss and inflammation persist into the F2 generation.

Glyphosate-linked microbiome shifts disrupt endocrine and tryptophan pathways.

Dose- and generation-based host-microbe rewiring suggests heritable gut-brain-immune dysfunction "

Another study done in 2022,
'Impact of Glyphosate on the Development of Insulin Resistance in Experimental Diabetic Rats' by Monisha Prasad et al states:

"Glyphosate aggravated ROS, altered antioxidant activity, disrupted the glucose homeostasis, altered insulin action in liver via NFκB signaling in liver. As the primary organ for metabolism and detoxification, the liver is affected by oxidative stress caused by glyphosate, which could change crucial regulatory pathways including insulin signalling and JNK, resulting in insulin resistance and inflammation."

There are many more studies out there, and of course, unfortunately they have not been done on horses by if you are curious, The Humble Hoof Podcast did an episode with Elizabeth Hilborn where she discusses the devestating impact the use of pesticides had on her own farm and the animals that lived there and the book she wrote about it called "Restoring Eden". I immediately read the book and it really made me realize what I was noticing in so many horses, and ourselves!

I got into hoofcare because I wanted to know the "Why?" behind so many common hoof problems. When I would ask why, I would only be given answers that were bandaids, not solutions, and definitely not prevention. That spurred my deep dive into all things hoof. That was over 22 years ago, and a lot of things have changed in the world around us, and wide spread use of Glyphosate is one of those things.

I don't know what the solution is now, as it is now so intertwined in all aspects of the food we eat and feed. The desire to have "w**d free" monocrops, roundup ready alfalfa, canola, corn. Oats, wheat and straw etc sprayed for uniformed drying. Our commercial feeds, our hay, our water sources etc are all affected.

I have seen more and more cases where people are feeding hay that should be deemed safe in sugar content, they aren't getting any grass etc and yet they still are metabolic and will tip over the edge into a lamintic episode with even the slightest insult. Horses under the age of 10 being diagnosed with PPID due to sky high acth levels. These things are not normal.

We need to be aware of what could be causing the dramatic uptick in cases of insulin resistance, EMS and other gut microbiome diseases we are seeing so we can stop only treating the symptoms by restricting our horses diets to manage disorders that the very feed we are trying to help them with, may be creating. Yes, there is a web of contributing factors that lead to laminitis, but we are fighting a losing battle if we aren't addressing what may be sending our bodies and the bodies of our horses into this dysfunction in the first place.

So what can we do?

Links to studies etc in the comments

Photo of stretched lamina present in a laminitic miniature horse

02/09/2026

Truth!

Ah yes, back-to-school season. The time of year when suddenly everyone has soccer four nights a week, volleyball three nights a week, dance, cheer, football, homework, birthday parties, and approximately 900 other commitments...

And horse practice is the thing that apparently needs to understand.

I completely understand that kids are busy. I'm not asking horses to be the only sport.

But we do have to be realistic.

You can't bring your kid to riding once a week, occasionally skip that, and then wonder why they're not progressing at the same rate as the kid riding 3-4 times a week.

You wouldn't tell the dance instructor, "We're gonna miss half the practices but we'd like her to be in the recital with with advanced kids."

Yet somehow horses get handed the leftover Tuesday night and we're expected to produce magic.

One lesson a week is absolutely enough if your goal is to enjoy horses, learn, and have fun.

But if the goal is to compete, progress quickly, and ride at a higher level, consistency matters.

Your trainer can't make up for the hours you're not here.

And really- just make your kids pick a dang sport. Maybe two. You can’t realistically give your all to multiple things. I dont know. Maybe I’m just irked. Sue me.

07/08/2026

𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆
𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘯, 𝘝𝘔𝘋

The suffix “-itis” means inflammation. That is not what is going on with insulin.

Johnson, et al., 2004, described changes in the laminae of horses with metabolic syndrome. They were not necessarily obviously sore but the pathology was there nonetheless. These changes consist of cellular proliferation and elongation. This is also seen with toxic and infectious/inflammatory cause of laminitis but is a late change.

At the 2017 NO Laminitis Conference, I spoke extensively on how EMS and endocrinopathic/insulin related laminitis are different. In 2018, Patterson-Kane, et al., echoed those observations in a pivotal paper entitled “Paradigm shifts in understanding equine laminitis”.

In short, endocrinopathic laminitis, such as that induced by an infusion of insulin, does not show the white blood cell infiltration or enzymatic basement membrane damage that characterize other forms of laminitis.

One thing we know is going on is insulin resistance resulting in endothelin-1 excess and vasoconstriction in the feet. (Gauff, et al., 2013) After years of research proposing then discounting the potential role of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), the latest study (Nanayakkara, et al., 2019) suggests insulin stimulating IGF-1 receptors may indeed play a role in causing the cellular elongation and proliferation.

If there is actual physical damage to the hoof, e.g., tearing of weak laminae and rotation, there will be a natural inflammatory reaction to clean up the damage but otherwise laminitis is not what is going on here, and not the initiating event, so laminopathy makes more sense.

Johnson PJ, Messer NT, Slight SH, Wiedmeyer C, Buff P, Ganjam VK. Endocrinopathic laminitis in the horse. Clinical Techniques in Equine Practice. 3(1):45-56, 2004.

Equine Cushing’s and Insulin Resistance Group Inc. NO Laminitis!
Conference Proceedings 2017 https://ecirhorse.org/proceedings-2017.php

Patterson-Kane JC Karikoski NP, McGowan CM. Paradigm shifts in understanding equine laminitis. Vet J 2018 Jan:231:33-40. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2017.11.011. Epub 201 Nov 22.

Gauff F, Patan-Zugaj B, Licka TF. Hyperinsulinaemia increases vascular resistance and endothelin-1 expression in the equine digit. Equine Vet J, 2013 Sep;45(5):613-8. doi: 10.1111/evj.12040. Epub 2013 Mar 12.

Nanayakkara SN, Rahnam S, Harris PA, Anderson ST, de Laat MA, Bailey S, Sillence MN. Characterization of insulin and IGF-1 receptor binding in equine liver and lamellar tissue: implications for endocrinopathic laminitis. Domest Anim Endocrinol, 2019 Jan:66:21-26. doi: 10.1016/j.domaniend.2018.05.008. Epub 2018 Jun 7.

𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘊𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨'𝘴 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘩𝘵𝘵𝘱𝘴://𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦.𝘰𝘳𝘨/𝘩𝘰𝘸-𝘵𝘰-𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱-𝘌𝘊𝘐𝘙.𝘱𝘩𝘱

26/06/2026

22/06/2026

You drove forty-five minutes each way. You packed the snacks. You wrote the check. And now you are standing at the rail watching your child stare at the horse while simultaneously watching a video on their phone, half present in a place that deserves their full attention, Parker Worthington writes.

Sound familiar?

The barn is one of the last genuinely analog experiences available to a child these days, and that is not an accident… It’s a feature. Horses do not respond to distracted riders. They do not care about follower counts. They demand presence, patience, and the kind of slow, attentive observation that is increasingly rare in the life of a ten-year-old who has been raised in a world of instant feedback and infinite scroll. Here is how you, as the adult in the car, can help make the most of this irreplaceable time.

1. Take the Phone the Moment They Hop Out of the Car

Not later. Not after they check one more thing. The moment the car door opens and the barn smell hits, the phone goes into your bag. Do this cheerfully, consistently, and without negotiation. Replace it with an analog dial watch — a real one, with hands, that they have to actually read — so they can track their lesson time and their chores without being tethered to a screen. The watch is not punishment. It is a tool that teaches them to orient themselves in time without a device doing the thinking for them. It also makes them feel enormously grown-up, which, at ten, is most of the battle.

2. Teach Them to Arrive Early and Walk Around

The thirty minutes before a lesson are not downtime. They are the lesson before the lesson. Teach your child to arrive early, walk through the barn quietly, look at the horses, notice which ones seem energetic and which seem settled, check the water buckets, observe the general atmosphere. This habit builds the kind of ambient awareness that separates a rider from someone who merely sits on a horse.

3. Let Them Carry Things

A ten-year-old can carry a saddle. They can carry a grooming bucket, a water bucket, a hay net, a stack of wraps. Let them. Do not carry things for your child at the barn unless they are genuinely too heavy or there is a safety reason to intervene. The physical experience of caring for a horse, including the weight of the tack and the logistics of the grooming kit, is part of the education. Children who are carried through barn chores grow up to be riders who don’t understand why things take as long as they do.

📎 Read more tips at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/06/21/ten-things-you-can-do-to-actually-help-your-ten-year-old-at-the-barn/
📸 © Heather N. Photography