Karin Gracey Equine Success

29/08/2026

At Rosehill Racecourse today, strapping this beautiful girl💕🐎. Her pony has come with her for company

03/08/2026

NEW TO THE SCENE! Australia’s New Horse Marketplace, a great alternative to Facebook advertising and buying.

CHECK IT OUT!

‘HoofList’ has been created and launched by my sister. She has done a great job. Trainers can advertise their retired thoroughbred racehorses, advertise your equine services and more.

All Horses, Transport, Equine Services and more in one Marketplace!

Australia's horse marketplace. Browse hundreds of horses for sale from classifieds and auctions nationwide, or list your horse for free.

16/07/2026

The grave yawns for the horseman” is an ancient Arabic proverb about the danger and fragility of life for those who dealt with horses.

The flight response can be described as a rapid anti-predator behaviour that evolved for survival.

These panic behaviours involve hyperreactive emotional states that may escalate into bolting, bucking, shying, or rearing.

This reactivity stems from the horse's origins as a prey animal of open grassland habitats, where the ability to accelerate quickly was essential to outrunning predators.

Such dangers are not merely theoretical, but are substantiated by a substantial body of published scientific literature detailing injuries and deaths sustained by people handling and riding horses.

Here are some sobering statistics:

One in every 350 hours of contact results in serious injury requiring hospitalisation. This is 20 times higher than for motorcycling.

In Australia, 25% of sport-related hospital admissions of children are the result of interactions with horses. Roughly half of all serious injuries occur during handling, while the others occur when ridden.

In the USA, equestrian sport was found to be the leading cause of adult sports-related traumatic brain injury over a 10-year period.

A 2022 broad study of horse-related injuries in the UK revealed that of 80 equestrian injuries, 21% sustained a hoof kick and of those 53% suffered facial injuries.All kicked patients were unmounted at the time of injury and were either standing next to the horse or behind it.

Research also shows that horse veterinarians are exposed to more days off work and more career ending events and fatalities than any other profession.

A 2013 study revealed that 91% of horse owners in UK experience problem behaviours under-saddle and another study in the same year revealed that in the leisure riding industry, behaviour is believed to be the principal reason horses are sold, re-homed or euthanised.

Luckily, this risk can be substantially reduced through awareness of the horse's flight response and adoption of safe handling and riding practices.

📑 Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2 by Andrew McLean

13/07/2026

Great to return to riding trackwork this year after 4 years out of it.

24/06/2026

A recently published article examines how Icelandic horses respond emotionally and physiologically to different fear-eliciting situations.

The results indicate that while a horse may look quiet and calm, it can still be physically aroused and in a fearful state, while another may move or react more obviously externally without the same level of internal stress response.

The study tested 48 horses in a sequence that included acclimatisation, an approach toward a novel person, crossing a novel surface, and a sudden startle event, while recording both behaviour and heart rate.

The authors found that responses varied across the different tests and were not consistent from one situation to another.

Horses that reacted strongly in one test were not necessarily the same horses that reacted strongly in the others, which suggests that emotional reactivity depends on the type of stimulus and the context in which it is presented.

Heart rate and behaviour did not always match closely. The clearest alignment appeared in the startle test, where stronger behavioural reactions were associated with higher heart rate responses.

In the approach and bridge tests, the relationship was weaker, indicating that visible behaviour alone does not always reflect the physiological response with the same precision.

The study also identified effects of s*x and age. Mares showed higher heart rates and expressed more fear and frustration related behaviours than geldings in several parts of the test battery, while younger horses showed more investigative , curious behaviour and tended to be more reactive in some situations.

These findings remind us that we should always remember a horse’s emotional reactivity depends on both individual personality and the kind of situation it is facing. A stoic horse is not necessarily unbothered, and an reactive horse externally may not be as stressed internally as it seems.

📑 Context matters: Behavioural observations alone do not reliably capture emotional reactivity in Icelandic horses” by Johanna Stenfelt, Rebecca Grut, Vincent Bombail, Hanna Sassner, Reza Belaghi, and Maria Vilain Rørvang, Applied Animal Behaviour Science

19/06/2026

This is a perfect example of BEHAVIOUR BEING COMMUNICATION AND OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH PAIN.

This horse had 7 impinging dorsal spinal processes ie Kissing Spine. This horse had significant back pain, it was ignored by professional trainers and previous owners.
Our horses are always communicating with us, it’s important to listen to them and investigate all behavioural issues for pain first.

18/06/2026

Making decisions about rugging is much easier when you realise just how different horses are from humans. The temperature range where we feel comfortable (our thermoneutral zone) is much higher and narrower than horses.

In general, horses are comfortable between 5-25℃, whilst humans are comfortable between 25-30℃. That means that we feel cold before horses do, but horses feel hot before we do.

Learn more about rugging from https://horsesandpeople.com.au/the-science-of-rugging-horses-what-to-use-and-when/

18/06/2026

MR T
This is the C4 cervical vertebra from Mr T, the horse featured in last week's dissection.

There is a significant amount of information available on Becks Nairn's Patreon page explaining the findings from this horse, including the detailed information behind this particular vertebra.

☆ For this post, I simply want to leave you with a thought.

If your horse struggles to flex its neck to one side, Don't assume it is being difficult.
Don't assume it is stubborn.
And please don't force the issue.

Horses that are tied head-to-tail, or pulled into stronger flexion, or repeatedly asked to work through restrictions they are clearly finding difficult.
Here may lie the reason.

Horses don't wake up in the morning and decide they don't want to bend their neck today. It's not stubbornness. It's not poor behaviour. It is resistance, yes - for a very good reason.

This cervical vertebra shows significant bony remodelling.

Use this photo as a reminder that when a horse cannot perform a movement comfortably, there may be a very real physical reason behind it.

When we use force to "work through" a problem without understanding why the resistance may exist and resort to force - you are part of the problem.

For Mr T 🩵

17/06/2026

For my racing friends. I have available race riding gear, including race saddle- 2kg with weight pockets, breastplates, girths, stirrups and more, all excellent condition. Selling for a friend who is no longer riding. PM for details😊🐎

15/06/2026

Are we downregulating the soul out of our horses?

“Downregulation” has become a bit of a buzz word in both horse and human spaces and there’s a lot to appreciate in that. A deeper awareness of the nervous system, and how much it governs health, behaviour, and wellbeing, is a step forward.

At its core, downregulation is about helping the body come out of a hyper-alert, sympathetic (fight/flight) state, and into a parasympathetic state of rest, digestion, and repair. For many horses, especially those who live in chronic tension, this can be an incredibly valuable tool.

But like anything, it can be taken too far. And i write this because I did it with my own horse to a degree.

Horses are flight animals. They are designed to react, to feel, to switch states quickly. That responsiveness, that 'little flame' is not something to suppress. It’s part of their survival, but also part of their character… their soul.

What seems to be getting lost is the importance of that ability to move between states.

When we begin micromanaging the system, aiming to keep horses predominantly or permanently in a parasympathetic state, we may start to dull that natural expression. The sharpness softens, the curiosity quietens, and something of their essence can feel diminished.

The goal shouldn’t be to keep a horse calm all the time.

It should be to show them that calm is available, that the parasympathetic state is a safe place they can return to. For some horses, that place is unfamiliar, and learning to access it is important.

But equally, they should be able to explore their sympathetic system. To move, to express, to react, to be what they are.

Nervous system flexibility & balance — that’s where true health lies.

In my own work, I use downregulation to allow the body, fascia, mind, and system to release what is no longer needed. But that’s not the end point. I then want to see the horse move, to re-engage, to “light back up,” and to practise shifting between those states.

Not stuck in one. Not controlled into quietness.

But able to access both.

Because when we lose that ability, when we prioritise constant calm over natural expression, we risk losing more than tension.

We risk losing the soul of the horse.