Do horses sense fear?
Do horses sense fear? Do horses smell fear? When a riding student wonders if their horse senses they’re nervous, I ask them “Do you think your nervousness changes the way you ride and move around your horse?”
Month: February 2022
Horse show families: riders and those who give them a leg up
I’ve known and loved lots of horse families in my years of coaching. Riding students and their “pit crews”- those bound up in the bundle of life with them. Horse shows can pull families together…and sadly, others apart.
As coaches, let’s do our part to support our families – they’re the building blocks of our communities in a messy world.
Is my horse stressed? In pain? Or just being “difficult”?
Did you know that horses have an impressive ability to show facial expressions, with more “action units” than both dogs and chimps, horses can be almost as expressive as humans?
Thanks to horse research, we can better recognize these facial expressions and quantify horse stress, so we’re not just guessing.
Robotic horse riding simulator – some pros and cons.
I was reading about the latest in high-tech horse riding. Advanced robotics simulate jumping and a menu of advanced dressage movements.
I guess any tech breakthrough comes saddled with pros and cons. Discernment asks – “Just because we CAN, does it mean we SHOULD?”
Developers listed some interesting benefits for horse welfare and the riding industry I’d never have considered – I’ve noted some PROS below… and some CONS that surfaced in my mind.
Any more pros and cons you can think of?