02/10/2026
Apparently there are now 20,000 of you here, which feels pretty incredible, so I thought it was probably time to reintroduce myself.
I’m Tanya French. Horses have been the focus of my life for nearly 40 😳 years, and I’ve spent most of my adult life working with them professionally.
Like a lot of people, I started in fairly traditional horse circles. I did pony club, taught riding, used pressure and release, rode with bits, fed them whatever feed sounded right on the front of the bag, had horses shod and accepted a lot of things because they were simply how horses were managed.
Over time I started questioning more and more of it. That led me into positive reinforcement, barefoot hoof care, behaviour, nutrition, anatomy, rehabilitation and eventually a much broader understanding of how closely all of those things are connected.
I completed a Diploma of Equine Podiotherapy, studied equine massage, Equine Behaviour, NRC Plus Equine Nutrition, Nerve Release Therapy, classical dressage, postural and holistic rehabilitation and equine management. I’ve also spent years doing professional development and learning from some incredible people.
These days a huge part of my work is hoof care and rehabilitation. I work with horses and donkeys, including a lot of laminitis, pathology, difficult cases and animals who have reached the point where owners have been told there isn’t much else that can be done.
My approach is never just about trimming the foot. I’m interested in every part of that animal’s life: diet, movement, environment, pain, behaviour, stress, bodywork, underlying disease, social needs and management.
Donkeys have become a particularly big part of my work, and they now make up a large percentage of my hoof care caseload.
Behaviour and cooperative care are another essential part of what I do. I want horses and donkeys to understand what is happening to them and have some control over the process rather than simply being restrained or pressured until they tolerate it.
In 2014 I competed in the first Australian Brumby Challenge with my then yearling, Jindi, trained with positive reinforcement, and we won the yearling section. I competed again in 2016 with my brumby Coby, including playing around with assistance-horse style training, and later competed in the Equitana Liberty Championships.
The first Brumby Challenge and the Liberty Championships were both with my girl Jindi, who I recently lost. She was a huge part of where I am today and I wouldn’t have learned half of what I did without her. Losing her was heartbreaking. She shaped so much of how I work now and taught me just how close a relationship you can have with a horse.
I’ve also presented at Equitana on positive reinforcement, cooperative care and liberty training, and I’ve taught clinics, workshops, online courses and created a huge amount of free educational material over the years.
I also run a private animal sanctuary, so a lot of what I teach comes from living with the animals as well as working with clients. Tracks, herd living, rehabilitation, management, diet, enrichment and trying to create species-appropriate environments are things I use every day.
I’ve also spent a lot of time training miniature ponies to cope happily with very busy environments, including schools, festivals, markets, photo shoots and events, and using those events to educate the public on science-based, ethical horse care. The goal is still the same whether I’m trimming a donkey, rehabilitating a laminitic horse or taking a tiny pony into a crowd of people: I want the animal to feel safe, understand what is happening and be able to participate without being forced.
I also spend a lot of time questioning the whole idea of ownership and what we expect from animals simply because they’re ours. For me, having an animal in my care comes with a huge responsibility to try to get things right, to keep questioning what I’m asking of them, and to give them the best life I realistically can. They’re sentient beings with preferences, emotions and their own experience of the world, not objects that belong to us.
I’m still learning constantly. In fact, one of the biggest things studying all of this taught me is that the more you know, the more you realise how much there still is to learn.
So if you’re new here, that’s basically me. Hooves, donkeys, rehab, behaviour, nutrition, rescue animals, positive reinforcement, too many projects and apparently now 20,000 people watching me talk about all of it.
