Tricky Fish Farm Dressage

20/02/2026

I love the bit that says "strong horses are unbalanced horses". Very true!! Make them more balanced and they become softer. The classical way is balance first then forward will come.

I saw a post suggsting that event riders should shorten their irons on horses that pull…that may be true for eventers, especially those who may be riding a bit too long to begin with, but when it comes to pulling the throttle back on a racehorse, I have to disagree.

I tend to gallop most horses shorter than most riders, so it may seem counterintuitive, but I actually typically ride my truly tough horses at the track a hole or two LONGER…Now, back in the day I used to jack them up and “hold” them, mostly because it looked cool…and I can understand the feeling of security it gives to know that if push comes to shove you can lean back from that elevated center of gravity and anchor one down.

But after 20 years galloping some very strong Thoroughbreds, I’ve learned that strong horses are unbalanced horses. I find I’m much better equipped to balance them when I can get “under” them and keep my leg on to get them back in front of my leg so my “sweet talking” aids are more effective.

The very worst feeling in the world is when a horse goes behind the aids while you’re riding too short! If they call your bluff riding short, you’re cooked! 🏇💨💨💨 Riding longer allows for a fine tuning of the conversation and goes a long way to preserve a horse’s mouth when they’ve gotten heavy in the bridle and start picking up speed.

While the length I’m riding here might be “short” by eventing standards, it’s a good 4-5 holes longer than I’d gallop an easy horse…this Summer Wind- owned daughter of Frankel wasn’t an easy lady!

If I was jacked up standing on her back and she got a head of steam, she could put her chin on her chest and leave me no choice but to stand up and water ski if she evaded my aids and really decided to get going! With my irons a bit longer here, I’m able to reach up for another “whisper in her ear” while my leg stays consistently against her sides to keep her from dropping back behind me and completely avoiding the conversation to go on a joy ride!

18/02/2026

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11/01/2026

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Hi everyone,

I wanted to give an update on what’s been happening over the past couple of days.

Yesterday alone, we supplied around 30,000 rounds of .22 ammunition directly to farmers affected by the fires, to allow them to humanely destroy injured stock and wildlife. If I’d had more available, it could have easily been double that.

I spent close to 10 hours on the phone, juggling three phones, taking calls from every state in Australia from people wanting to donate ammunition and/or money. It’s been incredibly overwhelming, but in the best possible way, and we’ve done everything we can to keep up with the calls and enquiries.

My daughter has been flat out on social media trying to respond to messages and comments, but the number of enquiries has been enormous, and we simply haven’t been able to get back to everyone. Please know that nothing has been ignored, we’re just doing our best in very full-on circumstances.

I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who has helped out yesterday and today. Over the last couple of days we’ve had solid hours of people coming through the back doors at both our Shepparton and Bendigo stores, donating around 50,000 to 60,000 rounds of ammunition, along with further financial support.

At the moment, we’re working through the best way to distribute everything, and we’ve found that directly supplying farmers is the most effective and immediate option, which will be conducted again today by myself and staff members.

So, if there are any farmers needing .22 ammunition for the humane destruction of stock and/or wildlife, please contact the shops directly.

My concern has now very much shifted to mental health. What these people are dealing with is devastating, and the emotional toll is enormous. We are currently working on gathering the right mental health support information, and we will be posting available support services. I’m being advised that this support will be most critical once the immediate work is finished, and we want to make sure the right help is visible and accessible when it’s needed most.

I’ve had farmers come in showing photos of burnt stock, some alive, some dead, that they’ve had to deal with themselves. Tough people, young and old, some in tears. It’s heart breaking.

Some families have lost everything. One farm alone has had 19,000 sheep affected, that’s around $200 a head, not including sheds, equipment, or homes.

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like this in all my years dealing with the public, especially when it’s long-term friends and customers.

Thank you to everyone who has donated, shared, called, or offered support. It truly means more than words can say.

If you need to contact me directly:
📞 0418 868 867

Trelly's

25/11/2025

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20/11/2025

Interesting!!

The vagus nerve is one of the most extraordinary structures in the human body. It is the bridge that spans the divide between the brain and the heart, the lungs and the diaphragm, the organs and the emotional self. It is the primary pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system, which means it governs our ability to rest, digest, restore, and feel safe. When the vagus nerve softens, the entire body follows; when it tightens, the whole system braces.

This nerve originates at the brainstem, emerges through the jugular foramen, and descends through the throat, passing through the vocal cords, the pharynx, the carotid sheath, the heart, the lungs, the diaphragm, and deep into the gut, where it wraps around the stomach, liver, pancreas, and intestines. It is a living story cord, carrying messages in both directions. Eighty percent of its fibers run from the body to the brain, which means emotional regulation is influenced far more by sensation than by thought. The vagus nerve speaks the language of feeling long before it speaks the language of logic.

This is why bodywork can profoundly shift a client’s emotional landscape. When we touch the fascia, guide the breath, soften tension in the diaphragm, or release constriction in the jaw, the vagus nerve listens. It perceives these changes as signals of safety, and the entire system recalibrates. Heart rate slows, breath deepens, digestion resumes, muscles release and the emotional body begins to thaw.

One of the simplest and most effective tools for vagal activation is humming. Because the vagus nerve innervates the larynx and pharynx, vibration created by humming stimulates its sensory branches. This mechanical resonance enhances vagal tone, which in turn improves heart rate variability, stress recovery, and emotional stability. Clients often report feeling warm, heavy, or deeply settled within moments. The hum is a conversation between sound and the nervous system, a way of telling the body, “You are safe now.”

The diaphragm is another essential gateway. As the primary muscle of respiration, it is both mechanically and emotionally tied to vagal function. When the diaphragm is tight, breath becomes shallow, the vagus nerve stiffens, and the system moves toward fight or flight. When we release the diaphragm manually or guide clients into slow belly breathing, the vagus nerve is stretched and soothed, promoting a shift from sympathetic activation to parasympathetic rest. This is why diaphragmatic work can bring tears, warmth, memories, and spontaneous emotional release. The diaphragm is the emotional hinge between the upper and lower body.

Cranial work also influences vagal health. At the base of the skull, the vagus nerve emerges adjacent to the occipital condyles and upper cervical fascia. Gentle decompression at the cranial base can reduce irritation, improve vagal tone, and soothe the entire central nervous system. Even a light touch can shift someone from a guarded state into a deep exhale that feels like relief.

And then there is the belly. The deepest branches of the vagus nerve wrap the visceral fascia of the digestive system. When we perform gentle abdominal massage, organ-specific work, or slow fascial holds, we support motility, reduce sympathetic nervous system firing, and help the body process emotions. The gut is sometimes referred to as the “second brain,” but in reality, it serves as an emotional archive. Fear, grief, shame, and instinct live here. When the visceral layer softens, the stories held there soften with it.

My Parasympathetic Reset, which many lovingly refer to as the Sleep Therapy Massage, weaves all of these techniques together. It uses sound, fascia, cranial stillness, diaphragmatic release, and visceral unwinding to restore balance to the vagus nerve. Clients often drift into a dreamlike state because the nervous system finally feels safe enough to let go. Muscles melt. The breath widens. The heart quiets. The mind stops bracing. This is not simply relaxation. It is neurological reorganization. It is the body stepping out of defense and back into belonging.

For bodyworkers, this is some of the most meaningful work we can offer. Touch becomes communication, stillness becomes medicine, and breath becomes transformation. By supporting the vagus nerve, we not only ease pain and tension but also help clients return to themselves, regulate their emotions, and feel at home in their bodies again.

18/11/2025

17/11/2025

Quantum Riding.

Quantum mathematics transcends the classical notions of physics. Biotensegrity surpasses the classical notion of riding. Quantum mathematics requires a departure from intuitive logic. Biotensegrity necessitates a departure from traditional notions of riding and training.
Light, for instance, demonstrates both wave-like and particle-like properties. When observed as a wave, it exhibits interference and diffraction patterns. However, when analyzed as particles, photons exhibit quantized behavior and discrete interactions with matter. This duality challenges classical notions of physics, which generally categorize entities distinctly as either waves or particles. Classical notions of riding generally associate performance with obedience. Biotensegrity demonstrates that many elements of a horse's athletic performance, including fascia lines, closed kinematic chains, and muscle synergies, are not controlled by the rider’s aids.
The rider-horse duality, which leads to sound performances, is a partnership that gives more credit to the horse’s mental processing and willingness. A horse can execute the same movement using different muscles. We cannot control which muscles the horse uses, but we can feel which combination produces better movement. We can reward the horse when he executes the best movement, but that is too simplistic. By observing and analyzing the horse's overall body coordination, we can identify and recreate the conditions that lead to optimal performance,
Considering that the horse’s solution might be better than the dogma we have been trained to apply is a departure from the traditional notion of riding and training. We also need to expand beyond the linear theories to which we have been conditioned such as balance being a backward shift of the weight over the haunches or tearing of the lower legs’ long tendons is an elongation beyond the normal compliance of the tendon. Tendons are auxetic, they expand simultaneously in multiple directions. In the study ” Mechanical and possible auxetic properties of human Achilles tendon during in vitro testing to failure on the human Achilles tendon,” Christopher V. Nagelli and all observed a remarkable degree of medio-lateral auxetic behavior. We think longitudinally when, in fact, lateral forces and vibrations are significant causes of failure. The advantage of advanced knowledge is that we can prevent injuries by addressing the real problem instead of submitting the horse to traditional beliefs. We can reduce the intensity of lateral shifts and vibrations, creating authentic balance.

Authentic balance cannot be achieved by shifting the weight backward. Actual knowledge demonstrates that balance is a forward concept where the thoracolumbar spine muscles manage multidirectional forces around the center of mass and above the base of support. The language is foreign to classical thinking, but familiar to the horse. Indeed, it is the horse who processes efficient body coordination, if we create conditions guiding the horse mental processing toward efficient coordination of the horse’s physique.

In regard of the traditional concept of obedience, this is a quantum leap which includes accepting that the horse is willing, capable of feeling touches that we don’t have the sensitivity to feel, and process sophisticated body coordination. Most premier human athletes are talented but dysfunctional. If not corrected, the dysfunction limits the athlete’s potential and leads to injury. The horse is not different. We have knowledge of the performance’s athletic demands, and we need to teach this knowledge to the horse. Teaching first-grade kids is easy as they know nothing. Teaching fifth grade teenagers is difficult as they know all. The horse does not have an ego problem, but protects instinctively morphological flaws, muscle imbalance or other issues such as memories. We can ignore the horse’s protection and resort to obedience. The horse will submit finding a compromise which, over time, develops pathology.

Reducing lateral shifts of the tendons and vibrations, can be theoretically included in the concept of straightness, but in a dimension that is not approached in any school of thoughts. From the simpler understanding of straightness placing the shoulders in front of the haunches, we need to evolve to the concept of channeling the forces moving the horse’s thoracic spine between our upper thighs and the steadiness of our whole physique. This is Biotensegrity, integrity of our whole physique and subtle nuances in muscle tone. It is easier to channel the forces through our whole physique than synchronizing mechanical actions, but we need to evolve from the order of priorities to the understanding, that balance, forwardness, straightness, lightness, all develop simultaneously. It is a gradual orchestration of the horse’s whole physique. All the priorities interact, each adjustment at one end of the horse’s physique triggers adjustment of the whole physique. We are not different. We cannot have soft hands if we are not in neutral balance over our seat bones, with proper tensegrity of our whole physique interacting with the horse forces and energy through subtle nuances of our body tone. If we think which muscles, should I use, we are locked in mechanical thinking; actions-reactions, that are far away from the horse’s comfort zone and can only trigger protective reflex contractions.

We have no physical difficulty riding at such level of subtlety if we dish the aids and communicate with the horse through nuances of our whole-body tone. Quantum mathematics transcends the classical notions of physics. Quantum riding transcends the classical notions of training. If we practice shoulder in and the horse expresses difficulties bending the thoracic spine to the right, we consider the components of lateral bending, latero-flexion, transversal rotation, and longitudinal flexion. If the horse carries the trunk low between the shoulder blades, he will have difficulties bending the thoracic spine laterally. If the low carriage of the trunk is coupled with a preferential rotation shifting the dorsal spines to the left, the horse will have difficulties bending the thoracic spine to the right.

The horse cannot complete this level of analysis, but we do. We might have to lift the trunk between the forelegs before asking for lateral bending of the thoracic spine. This is a very simple example. It could be for instance that the transversal rotation that is part of lateral bending causes the horse difficulty bending the thoracic spine to the right. We can stimulate transversal rotation by asking for adduction of the right hind leg. The horse will react positively if the adjustment that we create eases the ex*****on of the performance. Other adjustments such as balance and slower cadence might be necessary. It is a conversation where we analyze the horse’s reaction as a partial answer to our question.

Resisting a gait or performance is not behavior. Resistances are expressions of pain or discomfort that we must identify and correct. If we believe that repeating a movement educates the horse’s body, we insist on practicing the right shoulder in and the horse intensifies or switch protections. One way or the other, pathology will develop and we inject the joints hoping that the horse will perform better. He will for a short time as hyaluronic acid or corticoids ease the pain, but they also accelerate the development of arthritis. The cure resides in our ability to transcend our classical notions.

Jean Luc Cornille

13/11/2025

💗💗

Check out the comments section for your free printable coloring page!

08/11/2025

100%!

Amen to this!

14/10/2025

So true, the mark of a horseman.

Some horses don’t sparkle at first.
They’re quirky. Or ordinary. Or the kind others quietly pass on.

But to a certain kind of person, they make you pause.
You see something, not flashy or obvious, but real.

That’s what William Fox-Pitt talked about when he joined Dear Horse World.
A man who’s won it all, from Badminton to the Olympics, and still says the thing he’s proudest of isn’t the medals, but the horses who surprised him.

He told us about the ones who didn’t look the part. The ones people said weren’t quite right.
And how, time after time, they turned out to be the ones who gave him everything.

He said something that stuck with us:
“I always gave horses the benefit of the doubt. That positive belief goes a long way.
And if you really believe there’s something in there, you often bring it out.”

There’s something sacred about that kind of belief.
Because it asks more of us.
To see past behavior into potential.
To give time when everyone else is rushing.
To stay curious when it would be easier to walk away.

If you’ve ever looked at a horse others didn’t understand and thought, “There’s something in there,”
then you already know what William was talking about.

You’re not naive for believing.
You’re the reason overlooked horses get their chance.

🎧 Hear more from William Fox-Pitt in Dear Horse World: Season 1 Highlights, Part 2, a celebration of the voices shaping a kinder, truer future for horsemanship. Or catch his full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDGwQ3bwOEA

💭 Tell us, have you ever believed in a horse that everyone else doubted?

08/10/2025

07/08/2025

Y3s!

~ Lulu