Horse Play

Helping others to build closer, more informed, and mutually enjoyable horse/human relationships.

31/08/2026

⏰Last day at the current Learning Hub price. ⏰

If it's been on your mind, today's the day — whether that's joining outright or starting a payment plan before tonight.

👇Join the Learning Hub link and info in the comments 👇

Thank you to everyone who's already joined us — see you in the next Study Group; it definitely won't be one to miss 🤩

29/08/2026

Scotland's new Welfare of Equids guidance just landed, and its central assessment tool is the Five Domains Model — nutrition, environment, health and behaviour, all feeding into the fifth domain: how your horse actually feels.
That's not a footnote in Equine Voice. It's the foundation.
The guidance is clear that welfare assessment means combining resource-based measures (turnout, forage, social opportunity) with animal-based ones — health, behaviour, affective state. Most owners have never been given a practical way to do the animal-based half of that equation. That's exactly the gap Equine Voice fills: a structured way to observe, record and understand what your horse's behaviour is telling you about how they feel, not just what they're doing.
The guidance names a life worth living and a good life as the standard. Equine Voice is the tool for actually getting there — one observation at a time.
Equinevoice.com

27/08/2026

I've just added a new lesson into the Horse Play Learning Hub:

'Rethinking Separation Anxiety'. This delves deeply into the concept of separation anxiety in horses and combines with the rest of the resources to give you a step-by-step guide to a calmer, smarter, braver, and more connected partner.

Join us in the Learning Hub before August 31st price increase. Link in comments or book a call to see if it's right for you and your horse.

One of our members summed it up beautifully:

24/08/2026

A bit of news to share directly with you all. 🤩

The Learning Hub is changing from 31 August. Since it launched 2 years ago, quite a lot has been added:

🔹 Monthly Study Groups — live sessions with case reviews, researcher talks, and ethical trainer input
🔹 A growing recordings library for every Study Group
🔹 Self-assessments at the end of every module (coming soon!)
🔹 Lifetime access to the Equine Voice app (normally £99/year)
🔹 Ongoing support in our members' WhatsApp group
🔹 Member discounts and early access to Into The Wild retreat here in the Scottish Highlands.

Because of everything now included, the price will increase on 31 August. Wanted you to hear it from me directly, with plenty of notice.

If you've been considering joining our community of ethical, horse-centred, friendly members, now is the time! 🐴🩷

To learn more about the Hub and join us, see the link in the comments. 👇

20/08/2026

Think a horse standing silently at the gate isn’t stressed? Think again. 🐴👇

For decades, we’ve labeled separation anxiety as "buddy sourness" or a vice to be trained out. But landmark research by Ricci-Bonot et al. (2026) has completely reframed how we understand attachment in horses.

Here are two game-changing insights from the latest study:

1️⃣ It’s NOT about being alone. Horses don't just miss "other horses"—they lose access to a specific attachment figure. A horse standing in a pasture surrounded by 5 herd mates can still be in a full physiological panic if their specific attachment bond is removed.

2️⃣ Apathy is a critical sign of distress. High arousal (pacing, whinnying, fence-walking) is easy to spot. But the consensus study officially recognises behavioural inhibition—freezing, stopping normal eating/grazing, and emotional shutdown—as a key marker of severe separation anxiety.

A quiet horse isn't always a calm horse. Sometimes, they’ve simply given up.

Want to learn how to identify subtle distress cues and help your horse build true emotional safety?

✨ Join our free Beyond Training webinar, where we dive into the science of equine attachment, biological synchrony, and force-free solutions. Ask your questions and explore how to discover what your horse would like you to know.

Register at 👇
www.horseplayhighlands.com/registration-page

🐴 Attend live for your copy of Rethinking Separation Anxiety - a guide to support your horse. 🤩

18/08/2026

🐴 Something I'm noticing everywhere at the moment — separation anxiety in horses is trending online, and for good reason. It's one of the most common and most misunderstood things horse owners are dealing with right now.

The conversations I'm seeing are often focused on what to do about it. What I find more useful is starting with why it's happening — because a horse that can't regulate without their herd is telling you something specific about their affective state and their sense of safety, and that changes everything about how you respond.

This month's Beyond Training Q&A is going to focus on exactly this. Bring your horse's story — whether it's screaming at the gate, refusing to leave, bolting back to the field, or something more subtle — and we'll work through what's actually going on.

📅 Wednesday 26th August — 7.30pm GMT — Google Meet — free to attend - Bonus horse evaluation tool for live attendees😃
👇 Registration link in the first comment

13/08/2026

August Challenge 🤩🐴🌿📱

Play and Exploration. Log your observations in your Equine Voice app and join the conversation 😁

If you haven't discovered our ground breaking equine behaviour and wellbeing app yet, the download link is in the comments 😄

05/05/2026

Day 3 of the Into The Wild retreat, and we're deep in the ancient oak woods on a forage walk with Bonny, Pixie, and Oscar. 🌿

Watching horses move through a landscape like this — the choices they make, what they stop for, what they seek out — is one of the most quietly extraordinary things I know.

And today, for the first time, we got to use Plant Finder to find out exactly what they were after.

Plant Finder is a brand new feature in Equine Voice. You point your camera at a plant your horse is eating or showing interest in, it identifies it, and tells you the welfare science behind why your horse might be seeking it out — grounded in peer-reviewed research on zoopharmacognosy, the study of animals self-selecting plants for their own wellbeing.

Oscar went straight for the nettles. Of course he did.

Plant Finder is live now for Premium members at equinevoice.com — and if you've ever stood in a field watching your horse graze selectively and wondered what they know that you don't, this was built for that moment.

🌿 equinevoice.com

03/05/2026

Day 2: Into The Wild 🌿

The magic deepened today as we blurred the lines between the human and equine worlds. We began our morning surrendered to the serenity of the coast, sharing a "free walk" with the herd—no lead ropes, no agendas, just pure, rhythmic movement under the open sky.

The connection was palpable. From soft exhales to quiet lean-ins, the ponies were incredibly present, offering our guests those profound, soul-level moments that words usually fail to capture.

From Connection to Conversation
After a beautiful lunch at the castle, we shifted from feeling to understanding. Our afternoon was a deep dive into the "language of the unheard," covering:

The Subtle Language: Decoding micro-signals and the quietest whispers of equine communication.

The Science of Happiness: Identifying positive welfare markers that show a horse is truly thriving.

Closing the Gap: A powerful discussion on the welfare disparity between domestic life and the freedom of the wild.

The day left us with full hearts and expanded minds. Tomorrow? We leave the shore behind and venture deep into the ancient forest. 🌲✨

01/05/2026

First day of our Into The Wild equine behaviour retreat has been beautiful. Seals, sea eagles and deer all graced us with their presence, gorgeous food and lovely company.

Tomorrow we head for the hills to meet the herd for the first time 😁

Address

Acharacle
PH364JN

Telephone

+447879427917

Website

https://linktr.ee/horseplayhighlands

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