06/09/2026
A little scratch is a little scratch.
That’s it.
It doesn’t have to become a story about everything that could happen next.
One of the things I see horse owners do — and something most of us have probably been guilty of at some point — is catastrophising.
Your horse gets a little scratch and suddenly your brain is ten steps ahead.
“What if it gets infected?”
“What if it swells?”
“What if they go lame?”
“What if there’s something else going on?”
“What if they’ve seriously hurt themselves?”
“What if this keeps happening?”
Before you know it, a tiny scratch has become a major problem in your head.
Of course we need to take injuries seriously. We need to check our horses, provide appropriate first aid, monitor things that need monitoring and call a vet when something genuinely needs veterinary attention.
But there is a difference between being observant and responsible… and living in a constant state of expecting something to go wrong.
Sometimes a scratch really is just a scratch.
Sometimes your horse trips because horses trip.
Sometimes they have an off day.
Sometimes they knock themselves.
Sometimes they lose a little bit of hair.
Sometimes they come in from the paddock with a mysterious mark and you will never find out where it came from.
They are horses.
They live in paddocks. They roll. They run. They play. They kick up their heels. They rub on things. They stand on things. They bump into things.
We cannot protect them from every tiny injury without also taking away a huge part of what it means for them to actually be a horse.
And this is where catastrophising can start causing problems of its own.
Because when we constantly expect something bad to happen, we start making decisions based on fear rather than what is actually happening in front of us.
A horse slips once, so we become afraid to ride on anything except perfect footing.
A horse gets a scratch in the paddock, so suddenly we’re questioning whether they should be turned out with other horses.
A horse has one silly moment, so we start avoiding situations where they might get excited.
A horse trips, and suddenly we’re riding every stride waiting for them to trip again.
And our world with our horse slowly gets smaller.
The horse’s world can get smaller too.
This is also where I think we need to be careful with the idea of “manifesting” problems.
I don’t mean that thinking about an injury magically makes an injury appear.
I mean that what we focus on influences our behaviour.
If you constantly expect your horse to hurt themselves, you start looking for danger everywhere.
You become more tense.
More hesitant.
More protective.
You might interfere more.
You might avoid situations that would actually help your horse become more capable.
You might stop allowing them to work things out.
And sometimes, in trying desperately to prevent every possible thing that might happen, we prevent our horses from developing the confidence, coordination and life experience that helps keep them safer.
Our horses need us to assess what is actually happening — not everything our anxious brain tells us could happen.
Look at the facts.
Is there a scratch?
Okay.
Clean it if it needs cleaning.
Check it.
Treat it appropriately.
Keep an eye on it.
Then carry on.
If something changes, deal with the new information when you have it.
You don’t need to mentally experience ten imaginary disasters before any of them have actually happened.
The same applies to training.
Don’t turn one bad ride into:
“We’re going backwards.”
Don’t turn one spook into:
“My horse is becoming dangerous.”
Don’t turn one refusal into:
“They’re never going to do this.”
Don’t turn one difficult day into:
“Everything we have worked on has fallen apart.”
Deal with the horse that is standing in front of you TODAY.
Deal with the situation that is ACTUALLY happening.
Not the one you are frightened might happen tomorrow.
Good horsemanship isn’t about pretending nothing can go wrong.
Things absolutely can go wrong with horses.
It is about developing the ability to calmly assess a situation, respond appropriately, learn from it if necessary and then move forward.
There is a huge difference between awareness and fear.
You can be cautious without catastrophising.
You can care deeply without panicking.
You can monitor something without obsessing over it.
And you can acknowledge that something happened without allowing it to define everything that happens afterwards.
Sometimes a scratch is just a scratch.
Sometimes a bad day is just a bad day.
Sometimes a trip is just a trip.
Sometimes a spook is just a spook.
Deal with what is in front of you.
Don’t create ten more problems in your head that haven’t happened yet. 🐴
