23/02/2026
āIts not pain its just behaviouralā š“
Iām going to be honest with you, Iāve been feeling really burned out emotionally with the industry these past few months. The only reason Iāve managed to muster up the bandwidth to write this post is because I received a positive update from an amazing client who has been through a really difficult time with their horse. I call her amazing because she never stopped advocating for her horse no matter what anyone else said. Another horse who was written off as āheās had all the checks its just behaviouralā who turned out to have significant orthopaedic issues that had been missed and were causing him, what appeared to be, intense chronic pain which caused him to display dangerous, erratic behaviour.
I really struggle with the logic of viewing a horse showing such extreme behaviour and deciding it canāt be pain-mediated just because we havenāt found the source yet. But then when you look at the industry as a whole and how indoctrinated we all are into compliance training it starts to make sense. Any communication from the horse we donāt like is seen as disobedience to be trained out of them, so of course weāre then going to bring that lens into behavioural assessment and see this communication as a potential training issue rather than actually listening to what the horse is trying to tell us.
āI canāt circle to the left, my stifle is sore and that is too much for meā becomes āheās just trying it on, make him goā.
āPlease donāt get on my back, its sore and painful for me to carry weightā becomes āhe just needs to build confidence at the mounting blockā.
āPlease donāt put my bridle on, I know what comes next and I find the way youāre riding me really uncomfortable and it makes my muscles soreā becomes āhe needs to respect you, heās just trying to get out of workā.
And the sad thing with horses is that they are extremely compliant animals, if you just keep persisting most of the time they will give in and stop communicating so loudly with you. Then we take it as proof there was never any pain issue, we asked the horse again and again and eventually they complied and stopped protesting. Fixed.
Then you get the horses who are so painful they just canāt give in and shut it off and theyāre described as the really dangerous ones. And even then, if nothing obvious can be found they are often written off as ājust behavioural.ā We have got to move away from seeing communication as disobedience if we want to be able to assess horses properly and ethically.
This is why the phrase āits not pain weāve done all the checksā makes me curl in on myself, it is like nails down a chalkboard. The idea that you can just get the vet/bodyworker/dentist/saddler etc to come and do an MOT to ārule out painā is a fantasy that is harmful to horses.
āIts not always pain!ā I hear people shout, maybe not but the majority of the time it is a contributing factor. And while it may not be orthopaedic pain, so many of the conventional ways of training and handling horses cause pain and soreness in the moment. We need to start looking at horses through the lens of them being sentient beings with life experiences, emotions, fears and trauma. We need to understand how many of our management, handling, training and riding practices are actually harmful, uncomfortable and highly stressful for them, instead of seeing our horses as a series of moving parts that we jab when thereās a problem before cracking on as we were before.
Having said all that, even when pain is present, we often get the biggest improvements from improving that horseās management and reducing their chronic stress levels. This includes changing the way we interact and train with the horse to prioritise their emotional wellbeing and allow them to develop healthier movement patterns and postures. So many horses are being ridden in ways that make it impossible for them to strengthen anything except compensatory movement patterns because they are not yet strong enough to be ridden without it being detrimental to their body, even horses who have been in ridden work for years and years. If your horse is carrying a lot of brace and tension then riding them will not be helping them regardless of how you do it and how forward you ride them. But thatās for another post.
This idea of being able to tell if its pain or behaviour in and of itself is harmful. As if there are special tells in a behaviour as to whether it is kissing spine or the horse is just being a dick so its fine to push the horse through. š When we are saying its ājust behaviourā what exactly do we mean?
Horses are very compliant animals, they are extremely easy to train, if they are not easy then something is wrong and pushing through is never the ethical answer. If a horse is showing explosive behaviour, rearing, bucking, bolting, napping, biting, kicking etc during training then we have already pushed too far. We are training compliance and nothing else. What we see as improvement is usually just a horse being shut down and made obedient regardless of what we think weāre doing. Often people only listen when the horse forces them to, its not really listening to the horse if you only listen once they wonāt stop screaming.
Both of my horses have low-grade chronic pain from orthopaedic issues, they haven't been ridden for years, I am confident I could tack up and ride both of them this afternoon and they would comply easily and fit in fine at the local riding club. We are so used to seeing chronically stressed and painful horses, that is why people find it so difficult to assess behaviour.
Iām floating the idea in my head of doing a webinar on this topic, Iām just gathering some footage together. I donāt often ask my clients for things like this as obviously these are private, emotional and often upsetting enough without the whole internet offering their opinion. There is also sensitivity required around the professionals who have been involved with these horses so Iām trying to think of how I can do it whilst keeping the horses as anonymous as possible. I want to create positive change, not drama.
Iām trying so hard to open these conversations and collaborate with other professionals to improve things for horses, my inbox is always open if youād like to chat further. It isn't pleasant feeling like you're constantly swimming against the tide. š“
Photo of a very sweet mare communicating that she isn't comfortable being touched in that area with pinned ears, raised head and a tail swish. There is no such thing as "just a grumpy/hormonal mare". This is communication. They are "grumpy" for a reason.
We could keep touching her in that area and either ignore or punish her communication and she would probably stop. That wouldn't be a sign that there was no discomfort present, it would just be that she's learned humans don't listen. That is behavioural suppression/shut down and what most conventional training centres around. I see people say they're "assessing" horses to see if its pain or behaviour, and what they're actually doing is seeing if they can make the horse comply, and if that doesn't work only then do they refer onto the vet or other relevant professionals.
