28/09/2026
Let’s just say that agin - “You cannot out-train an inappropriate living environment 🐴”
With Jo Szegota
You cannot out-train an inappropriate living environment 🐴
One of the most important things I support clients with is improving their horse’s living environment. When we’re dealing with behavioural and/or physical issues we can throw everything at them to try and help, but if the living environment is inappropriate for that horse then we are trying to stop a boat from sinking with a bucket.
With many clients we are able to tweak things enough so that their horse can thrive in their current living situation, but sometimes, when too much is out of our control, the only way forward is to move our horses. I think when we’re surrounded by chronically stressed horses it is easy to think that is just how horses are, but you would be surprised how much a horse’s personality can seemingly change once their needs are truly met. Then training, or assessing for pain/discomfort, becomes a lot easier without all of the noise from the stressful living environment.
I’m going to tell you 3 stories about 3 different horses and how they changed for the better with a change of environment. Names of course changed to protect privacy.
Hannah is a young Highland pony who I met when her owner was having issues with her going forward in the arena. Hannah was the leanest looking Highland I had ever seen, anybody who knows Highlands knows how difficult it is to keep them a healthy weight. Unfortunately this was being achieved by restricting Hannah’s food so heavily that she was spending long periods with nothing to eat.
Hannah was girthy, she would swish her tail and pin her ears when a leg aid was applied and you couldn’t go anywhere near her while she was eating without her threatening to kick you. On top of this she was being ridden hard 6 days a week in a bid to stop her gaining any weight. She was bargey and would frantically drag people to grass on the way to the field. Hannah was extremely chronically stressed and had developed stomach ulcers due to this management. Only treating the ulcers without addressing any of this would be a waste of time and money as they would come straight back as soon as treatment finished.
We discussed how important it was for Hannah to have access to forage 24/7, using trickle feeders and low calorie forage/hay replacers to make it last. Unfortunately the only paddock on the yard Hannah could go into was a very small “starvation” paddock which she had to be in alone and they were not allowed to put hay out. So Hannah’s choices were stand alone in a stable with food, or stand alone in a small paddock with no food. No horse can thrive in this living situation. On top of this the yard owner was refusing to put all of the nets in on an evening saying “she didn’t need it she’s too fat”, so Hannah was still running out of food for hours overnight when her owner was unable to go down.
After much searching (and stress) Hannah’s owner was able to find a rented field share with a friend where she was able to start creating a minimal grass paddock for Hannah that she was able to put lots of slow-feeders around to start encouraging more movement. Over time they were able to create a simple track system, that 3 horses shared, which increased Hannah’s activity to the point she was able to have access to 24/7 slow fed forage without gaining more weight.
Even after ulcer treatment it took a long time for Hannah to feel more comfortable around food and not feel the need to resource guard from people. Food aggression is food anxiety and so many horses suffer with this and are punished for it rather than having the root cause addressed, which is the fundamental needs of the horse not being met. As she felt better all of the ridden training issues disappeared, because they weren’t training issues at all, they were symptoms of a horse struggling.
Hannah is now at the top-end of a healthy weight, she is heavier than she was before but we have to weigh up our welfare parameters. Having an animal who is designed to graze for up to 18 hours a day feeling constantly hangry is a quality of life issue, just as having a horse become so obese they end up with health problems is. Having to exercise a horse really hard just to keep their weight down can also become a welfare issue. Being ridden/lunged hard, which is so often the advice, puts a lot of strain on their joints and bodies, not to mention it will be unpleasant for them at best, if not painful and stressful if they are pushed into doing exercise their body cannot cope with. This makes their relationship with people and training a really negative one.
We are much better off creating a living environment where the horses are able to maintain a healthy weight without too much intervention from us, because there will come a day when they won’t be able to “work” anymore. You would be surprised how much gentle 24/7 movement can keep their weight down. Horses are designed to cover miles every day, when we are shutting them into boxes and small paddocks with no motivation to move anywhere, they are going to get fat.
This is not a shaming “all horses should live on a fantastic track system and should never be stabled” post, I don’t believe that at all, but there are environments that are just never going to work and, for me, are not an acceptable level of care for a horse. There are so many tweaks that could be made to make livery yards more horse-friendly, especially for those of us with native/cob/draft/Iberian breeds who gain weight very easily. The more education and demand there is the more yards will have to change to accommodate horses as the animals they are, not for the animals we decided they are for our convenience.
I just want us to think on how many horses like Hannah never have any of this addressed. How many horses like Hannah have trainers out who chase them with flags and run them through groundwork exercises to teach them "respect"? How many horses like Hannah are seen as wonderfully managed just because she is a lean-looking Highland without seeing all of the other welfare parameters that need attention?
I have 2 more horses to tell you about but as I’m typing I’ve realised this post is going to end up very long so I’ll split them into parts. Have any of you made a yard move that made a big, positive impact on your horse’s behaviour? 🐴
