Equine Insight

12/04/2026

I had to share this as i also worked in a racehorse yard in my late teens ( a very long time ago) although nothing has improved in racehorse welfare in that time. The post is true and heartbreaking and until people stop supporting racing by betting then nothing is going to change anytime soon! 🥺

After the hellish scenes of the grand national happening all over again, I feel very compelled to speak about my experience with ex race horses as an equine behaviourist.

There's one type of horse that I get asked to help with more than any other- it is, of course, the ex race horses. I see ex racers an overwhelming amount, far more than any other breed. This is because of the way racing impacts their lives.

Sadly, all of the ex racing thoroughbreds that I have gone to consultations on have had a mixture of behavioural and health issues, both from trauma and pain. Every single one of them has been reffered to a vet and has required treatment for ulcers, and a variety of them have also had arthritis at a young age, and complications with their backs including kissing spine which is exceptionally common with these horses.

The inappropriate lifestyle they are forced to live leads to so much psychological distress almost all of these horses have gastric ulcers.

The way they are ridden way before their bodies have been able to be developed, leads to early onset of arthritis, and damages their backs so profoundly that kissing spine is a frequent issue.

They have many behavioural issues such as resource guarding due to their gut pain, stress and going without hay even for short periods. They can be very aggressive towards other horses due to lack of socialisation, and towards people due to trauma.

They truly do not know how to be horses.

People say race horses live the lives of kings, but the reality is a world away from this. Out of all horses, they are often the ones who have the most unnatural, unkind and distressing lives. Their managment dissolves them to caged animals, their training doesn't take into account how they learn, or their comfort, and then they're taken to the track and forced to run with other stressed out horses and whipped if they dare even slightly try to object.

If you love racing, you don't really love horses. As a behaviourist, racing severely distresses me, and I'm often on the receiving end of the fall out. It's traumatic to see, and I hope we reach a day where this sport ends once and for all.

05/04/2026

Your western saddle fit go-to video! So much info!

Rod and Denise Nikkel spent over twenty years hand making custom saddle trees for individual saddle makers. Now, they are sharing what they have learned about fitting Western saddles so others can benefit from their extensive experience and hard won knowledge.

29/03/2026

My friend Kate from Soft and Sound posted this and it is totally relevant to me as I retired Ozzie at 8 years old because of SI dysfunction and pain. (We all think it is a genetic bad card.) it was my vet who told me to turn him out, let him mature and see what happened! Anyway, he is paddock sound and has 2 herd mates to boss around. Happy ponies.

A while ago I read a post from a well known equine movement specialist, sadly I can’t remember who. It was very enlightening.

She said that as a ‘test’ of the future of that horse, after doing a stint of rehab and detailed movement input, she would turn them away and see what happened when they were just in the field. If, without input from a human, natural movement wasn’t enough to maintain their new found strength and posture, it told her that was an underlying pathology in that horse she didn’t as yet know about. The weeks of considered rehab should ‘stick’ well enough when just out with friends in the field.

I have thought about that a lot over the years. I think she may even have said that ‘field test’ told her whether she would continue to invest hours of time and pots of money into that horse without significant further investigations.

A couple of months ago I decided to retire my older Lusitano. He appeared down in the dumps and had suggested to me twice that I put that saddle back in the tack room. That was unlike him. All roads pointed to the fact he’d hurt his lumbar back, and he just had lost his sparkle.

Two things then happened at the same time . I decided to hang up his stirrups. And a Lipizzaner arrived.

And Des found himself a friend again, something he hadn’t had for 18 months. He was allowed to share hay piles with Capri, they rolled in the same spot, grazed alongside each other, and Des slept and slept - something I’ve not witnessed for quite some time. When I’m doing something in the outdoor arena with Capri, Des watches through the slats of the indoor barn the entire time. Their bromance has provided him something I never could have.

And, his retirement from focused movement caused his body to collapse . He looks about 42 - not 17. This tells me that what I was doing with him was way more useful than I realised. And that his significant pathologies reveal themselves again when he’s just ambling about the field. I knew they were there, but had semi forgotten about them.

Therefore, Des and I will start moving again. First just on the ground and maybe one day his saddle will reappear. Now he is so happy in his daily existence with the little white tornado as his chum, I want to help his body rediscover its magnificence. He’s got too much hanging about in the sunshine with his new friend to do - I want to keep him as fit and healthy as I can for that important job.

Photo shows Capri seeing a horse in a rug for the first time in his life, and wondering where the hell Des has gone.

24/03/2026

Wow! This could definitely apply to horses too!

Swedish researchers developed gut bacteria treatment that reverses diabetes completely and permanently.

Your gut microbiome might be the most important organ for controlling blood sugar, and Swedish scientists at the Karolinska Institute just proved it. They discovered that transplanting bacteria from non-diabetic individuals into diabetic patients reverses insulin resistance, normalizes glucose control, and maintains improvements for years after a single treatment. This transforms diabetes from a lifelong disease requiring daily medication into a condition that can be genuinely cured.
The mechanism centers on short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production—a process certain bacteria perform brilliantly while others fail completely. Healthy microbiomes produce abundant butyrate, propionate, and acetate, which strengthen the intestinal barrier, reduce inflammation, and improve insulin sensitivity throughout the body. Diabetic microbiomes lack these bacteria, allowing inflammation to rage unchecked. Restoring the correct bacterial species restores metabolic health.
What makes this approach revolutionary is permanence. Unlike medications requiring lifelong adherence, bacterial transplantation creates a self-perpetuating ecosystem. Once healthy bacteria establish themselves, they outcompete harmful species and maintain their own community through competitive exclusion. Patients treated three years ago still maintain normal glucose levels without medication or dietary intervention beyond basic health habits.
The ethical and economic implications are staggering. If diabetes—affecting 422 million people globally—can be cured through gut bacteria transplantation, why are we still treating it as a lifelong medication requirement? One treatment could cost less than one year of insulin therapy while providing permanent cure. This could reshape how we think about metabolic disease entirely, shifting from symptom management to root cause elimination.

Source: Karolinska Institute, Nature Medicine 2025

19/03/2026

Mr Bo arrived with us last April, and has nearly been at AVL for a year.

Sometimes, it can take a little while for horses to fully settle in and come out for their shell, especially after transitioning from traditional management of recovery and management of the laminitis prone, to track system living. Over the last few months Bo has really started to show us signs that he's well and truly settled and happy in his herd and on track, lots of sleeping with the herd and tones of playing. It's really wonderful to see! 🧡

When Beautiful Bo arrived with us in April 2025 his insulin levels were at 108. His owner had been managing him so carefully since a Laminitis attack, with ad lib soaked hay and muzzled time when turned out on grass, but this just wasn't bringing his insulin down low enough. She made the brave decision to move him a 1.5 hour drive from home so he could have a better life, and he is THRIVING!

In July 2025, after 3 months on track and nothing but a change in environment and management, his insulin was the lowest it has been in years at 9.4 🎉🎉🎉

Top pic when he arrived, bottom pic now.

He's maintained that on track and is now looking so lovely and shiny coming into Spring. He just needs some muscle on that topline and rump now!

Track systems work guys! The proof is in the ponies 🙏

17/03/2026

Short and concise explanation from Jeff Sanders on the difference in hackamores if you ride bitless

06/03/2026

06/03/2026

Interesting and easy to understand because of the paint on the horse!

23/02/2026

Xenophon, an ancient philosopher and general, in his foundational volume ‘On Horsemanship’ (c 350 BC) pioneered a non-violent approach to horse training more then 2300 years before the term “natural horsemanship” became mainstream. These horses were not training to show or as riding horses - these were were cavalry mounts of the highest order - yet were schooled with kindness and thoughtfulness.

Xenophon believed that a horse trained without fear would “show off all of his finest and more brilliant performances willingly and at a mere sign” rather then acting out compulsion. He considered that what is done with fear is done without understanding - and thus applies to both the human and the horse.

In his writings, he emphasised that the training of the horse should always be done from a place of patience and understanding, using knowledge and patience in lieu of force to create a willing partner in the horse, as methods that use fear and violence only create more fear and resistance in a mount.

When we are looking for mentors in our horsemanship journey, we must take great care to find those more knowledgeable then us, who also pursue their craft in pursuit of this knowledge, and have truly studied these classical principles - they don’t just quote names and imitate. Never take lessons or place your horse
in training with someone who does not study these old masters and does not take lessons themselves.

Be wary of those that make statements about kindness and patience, but when working with the horse create a climate if fear and reactivity. These people lack the confidence and education to properly teach their students or train the horses, and are damaging to both.

Seek those who pursue the classical ways - those tested over Millenia through times when our lives depended in the horse, and seek to be one of these knowledge seekers yourself.

💻➡️ www.jeffsandershorsemanship.com
💻➡️ https://californiabridlehorse.teachable.com

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