Whinshire Equestrian Centre

If you want to change the horse industry, you have to meet it where it is. You have to speak the language of trainers, owners, and professionals who have spent their entire lives working within a system that, in many ways, is deeply flawed. Walking into a room full of horse people and declaring, "Bits should be banned! Stalls are inhumane! The entire sport is abusive!" will not lead to change. Even if every word is rooted in peer-reviewed science, the message will be dismissed before the conversation even begins.

Real progress requires a harm reduction approach: one that acknowledges the current reality while steering the industry toward a more humane future. Harm reduction isn’t about settling; it’s about making the changes we can make now while we continue working toward deeper, systemic reform. Dismantling a system takes time, and immediate abolition is unrealistic. But incremental improvements will still lead to meaningful change.

Take bits, for example. Demanding an outright ban would face resistance from nearly every corner of the industry. Instead, we start with education: explaining bit mechanics, why they "work," and advocating for the gentlest options. When riders and trainers understand how severe certain bits can be and how their use is designed to cause pain, they are far more likely to transition to milder options or even bitless alternatives over time. Those are changes that can gain traction.

The same applies to turnout. While 24/7 turnout is ideal for horse welfare, most boarding and training facilities aren’t set up for it. Rather than demanding an overhaul, we can advocate for species-appropriate care in realistic steps. If a horse is stalled all day, can the owner commit to an extra hand-walk? Can barns incorporate more turnout hours, or give solo horses a friend, even if full-time turnout isn’t feasible? Small changes accumulate, leading to significant improvements in welfare.

Ultimately, change happens when those within the industry are engaged rather than alienated. And a crucial part of that engagement? Reinforcing the people who are trying. If we want to encourage change, we have to recognize and celebrate it when we see it. Did you see a professional go without a noseband in just a simple snaffle? Say something! Know someone experimenting with clicker training? Make it a big deal! These may seem like small steps, but in a culture where the bare minimum of welfare is often ignored, these small steps are revolutionary. And if we want more of them, we need to make the people taking them feel seen and supported.

Positive reinforcement works on people just as much as it does on horses. When trainers, owners, and riders feel encouraged rather than criticized, they’re far more likely to continue making progress. Change doesn’t happen in an environment of shame: it happens when people feel safe enough to try something new. Every step someone takes toward better welfare, no matter how small, helps normalize going against the grain, making it easier for others to follow suit. If we ridicule or dismiss them, even if they aren’t perfect, we make it less likely that they’ll continue down the path toward better horse welfare. If we want to transform the industry, we have to meet it where it is, celebrate the good, and build from there.

Many people in the horse industry genuinely care about their horses. They may not make the best choices, but they are often working within a framework they were taught and have never been encouraged to question. Dismissing them as "abusers" accomplishes nothing. Educating them, showing them a better way, and providing them with alternatives they can realistically implement? This is how we create lasting change.

None of this means we should be silent. When horses suffer, it is all of our responsibility to make it everyone’s problem, loudly. But shouting into the void does nothing if no one is willing to listen. Harm reduction is about opening doors rather than slamming them shut. It’s about making change possible rather than making it feel impossible.

The horse industry won’t change overnight. But with the right approach, one that reinforces both horses and humans…it can and will change.

I know I could… but I also know how many of my former students could too… 😉

OK, be at least semi honest about this---

You are in a pitch black room standing next to a table.

On the table are all the parts of a disassembled double bridle, bits, leather parts, the entire thing randomly placed.

How long would it take you to put the whole thing back together?

Or would you faint from starvation or thirst first?

I know I haven’t posted here in a looong while - but this is too important to not share with everyone I can so PLEASE keep an eye on this working document for updates and if you haven’t heard about it already… look up the rodeo family at Beutler & Sons Rodeo Company Ranch and LEARN from their devastating loss. Our horse feed companies MUST do better.

Credit to Rachel Mottet & Legacy Equine Nutrition for this list.

Ionophore Policy - Brand List

Thank you for everything Your Majesty 🤍🇬🇧🤍

Imagine if we spoke about other things like some people speak about saddle fitting.

I've only gone to the dentist once, no one needs more than one visit in their lifetime.

Shoes? I've owned this pair since I was 5, and they still fit me perfectly. It's just shoe makers wanting to sell more shoes telling people that the feet get bigger as you grow, it's all marketing.

These glasses are worn by all my family and friends. It lets all of them see perfectly, there's no way it's making any of their eyes worse, that's just what the optometrists tell you so you buy more glasses.

People will hold onto their beliefs like their life depended on it, refusing to believe that how they've been doing something was wrong, because that means admitting that they don't know it all, and they were unknowingly hurting their horse.

Do you know what else hurts horses? Ignorance and arrogance.

We ALL make mistakes, all of us, every single one, it's part of the journey. That journey continues as you continue to learn, grow and improve. You start going in circles like a rudderless boat if you bury your head in the sand and cling desperately to tradition and habit.

Amen!

❤️❤️❤️

Love him. One of my jumping hero’s from back in the day. ❤️

My faves. ❤️

An amazing photograph of Harvey Smith and a three year old Robert Smith riding (one of his great horses of the sixties, Warpaint), ba****ck on the moors overlooking Bingley, West Yorkshire.

C x

Repost: Golden Age of Showjumping
Photo credit: Enjoy this spectacular one of a kind photograph from the "Golden Age of Show Jumping".

Saddle fit for life is one of my faves for easy to understand info I can pass on to my students to *hopefully* help them and their horses live a little better/ more comfortably… but I will say THIS pic… should’ve been changed… if your pad fits under your saddle like this… you are hurting your horse so change it for a bigger pad.

"My saddle was just fit"

The frequency in which we hear this statement, only to evaluate saddle fit and find endless issues is testament to the absolute need for a standard of fitting that truly respects the horse in motion and does not hinder the ability of either horse or rider.

"Fit" means so many different things, and if you ask 5 different people they will give you 15 definitions of what fit is. When we're contacted about "well so and so fit my saddle" it means nothing to us, because the term "fit" is unfortunately subjective. This is why when a horse/rider pair are evaluated by either CEE or CSE, they are given a full report telling them EXACTLY where the issues are, WHAT the issues are and how to fix them (where possible).

"but I know my saddle fits" - Based on? Too often people assume that their saddle fits simply because a few fingers fit beneath the pommel, and the saddle sits still.

We need to do away with the ambiguous terminology and start demanding more information for the sake of our horses. It fits? Ok, tell me how. It doesn't fit? Ok, tell me exactly where it doesn't fit, how it was determined and how it can be fixed.
The same way that we need to do away with Narrow/Medium/Wide as those categorizations are also just as damaging and ambiguous.

I am SO for this… make the other elements tougher so they are no longer the eye rolling “ok have to go prance about so we can go XC later” segments. You can have technical dressage, and intricate show jump phases… just make the XC less likely to send riders home without their best friends.

Olympic Eventing Example?

I don’t think too many of the riders at Tokyo thought that the cross country course was “too easy.” Plenty of top riders had trouble, some had close calls, and very few made it look simple.

And here’s the thing---The Olympic event is NOT the hardest event, because they are trying to attract teams and riders from countries which don’t have much eventing, so they make it a four star cross country track instead of a five star track.

Yet the countries that sent their 5-star horses still had their hands full with a 4-star cross country.

So maybe, instead of amping up the cross country for the so called “5-star” events, they should create 4 star cross country and 5 star dressage and show jumping, as a means to lower the danger?

One of the old timers in USA eventing told me her thoughts on the star system in these words---“I think 5-star is one star too many, It is too hard for the horses if anything goes wrong.”

Does the sport actually want a less dangerous sport, or is it more talk than action? Does it make sense to accept rotational falls as simply part of the deal?

Think about it---It is a three part sport, and the part that injures and kills horses and riders is not dressage or show jumping. Why not make them harder, which will require more skillful riding, and back down in the area that causes so much damage?

Yes, certainly, also ramp up the use of frangible technology, rider and horse qualification, all of that as well, but realize this basic truth about solid obstacles taken at speed---Horses that miss the distance and hit something solid above their knees are prone to flip and crash.

Are event riders horsemen and horsewomen who actually care about their horses? Maybe start by giving them a better chance to end the day sound and confident. Why not? Someone will still get a blue ribbon, someone else a red, and so on, even if they didn’t have to survive cross country by the skin of their teeth. The sport can do better.