The Equine Independent

Welcome back to the Equine Independent. It is clearly very difficult to find purveyors of good material; there have been many offers of articles during the past couple of years but almost every follow-up has had no result. Those that have, were clearly either not of the standard expected or the content offered was contrary to the principles of the Equine Independent; therefore it has been more…

September is here; with it the cooler days, the shorter evenings and a little more time to reflect on recent publications. Three items particularly caught my eye recently, the first being an article discussing the merits and demerits of booting horses; the second was what is termed these days an ‘advertorial’, part of an apparent series on gastric ulcers, promoting a feeding system. The third…

Human ⥈ Horse : the balance : Part Three

The final instalment in a series of threeLast week, we looked at horse centricity and making life better.This week we round off with making the change and looking at where the problems lie.

Making the change

Maybe you are already well established in a good horse-human relationship. Maybe you feel the relationship between you and your horse is good but could be better. Or you know that it is far…

Human ⥈ Horse : the balance : Part Two

an article in instalments. Part Three will be published on 15 July.

Last week, we finished by discussing dogma-driven, ego-driven and horse-centric. The dogma-driven rider is the one who, often under peer-pressure, resorts to the age old (mis-)conceptions of the horse in the traditional riding-world. The thoughts are with the horse, only tradition has put misguided human values on the lifestyle…

Human ⥈ Horse : the balance : Part One

an article in instalments. Part Two will be published on 7 July.

For most of us, confinement is behind us, albeit there are still restrictions in place for many. It has been a complicated time, probably because of its simplicity and lack of choices — stay in; don’t mingle; keep your distance.

  Right at the start of confinement, I wrote an article Coronavirus and the Horse; it was an article of…

Another Self-help Video – Further Hoof Care

Our friends at Sabots Libres have published another self-help video, this time dealing with more advanced hoof maintenance.

See the video here

For many of us, it is a trying time and, with more and more countries implementing a lock-down, a complicated one. Equestrian centres are closed and, in many cases, even owners are being turned away from visiting their horses. A time to reflect on the welfare of the incarcerated horse…

A great many owners consider keeping their horses stabled —incarcerated— as being normal; but now it is the…