Simple Horsemanship

22/10/2026

Brilliant Halloween Display

22/10/2026

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©️Emily Cole Illustrations

19/10/2026

Gutes Reiten ist kein Zustand, sondern ein stetiger Prozess des Lernens, Verstehens und gemeinsamen Wachsens. ✨

Hier seht ihr einen kleinen Einblick in eine Einheit von Ellen und ihrer Seniorstute Fritzi. ♥️

Als Ellen und ich uns vor vielen Jahren kennenlernten, galt Fritzi aufgrund ihrer Hufrollenerkrankung als unreitbar. Was zunächst mit therapeutischer Begleitung begann, entwickelte sich über die Rehabilitation bis hin zum gemeinsamen Reitunterricht zu einer ganz besonderen Reise.

Vom Pleasure-Quarter bis hin zu Piaffe und Pirouette – die beiden haben eindrucksvoll gezeigt, was mit Geduld, Feingefühl und gegenseitigem Vertrauen möglich ist.

Über all die Jahre durfte ich die beiden begleiten, mit ihnen lernen, wachsen und mich über ihre Fortschritte freuen. Aus der gemeinsamen Arbeit entstand eine besondere Freundschaft zwischen uns dreien. ♥️

Leider musste Ellen ihre geliebte Fritzi in diesem Jahr nach längerer Krankheit gehen lassen. 🌈

Umso dankbarer bin ich für all die gemeinsamen Jahre und dafür, dass Ellen mir mit ihrem Können, ihrem Feingefühl und unserer Freundschaft erhalten geblieben ist.

Fritzi wird für immer einen ganz besonderen Platz in meinem Herzen haben. ♥️

17/10/2026

16/10/2026

03/10/2026

03/10/2026

For years, people have made decisions about when horses should wear blankets. But one group of Norwegian researchers wondered something surprisingly simple: what if we actually gave the horses a way to tell us what they wanted?

So they trained 23 horses to use a board with three different symbols. One meant “put my blanket on,” another meant “take it off,” and a third meant “leave things as they are.” Using reward-based training and small pieces of carrot for just 10–15 minutes a day, every horse eventually learned what the symbols meant. On average, they reached the free-choice stage around the 11th day, and all 23 successfully learned the task within 14 days.

Then came the fascinating part. The researchers tested the horses under different weather conditions. When conditions were cold, wet and windy, the horses were much more likely to choose the symbol asking for a blanket. When the weather was pleasant, they generally preferred to remain without one. Their choices were clearly related to the weather rather than being random.

A later study using the same communication method found similar patterns. Horses showed a stronger preference for blankets at very low temperatures and during moderate temperatures combined with rain or strong wind, while very few wanted a blanket when temperatures rose above about 10°C.

The researchers weren’t proving that horses could speak human language. They were demonstrating something much more interesting: with the right training, horses could learn a simple system that allowed them to communicate a preference about their own comfort.

For the first time, instead of humans simply deciding for them, the horses were given a way to answer.

And they had an answer. 🐴

27/09/2026

When Love Means Letting Them Go on a Good Day

What does it really mean to let them go on a good day?

It means that, for you, it will probably be one of the hardest days of your life.

It won't matter if you've never had to make that decision before. It won't matter if you've been blessed with months or even years of good days. When the time comes, that good day will still feel impossibly wrong.

Because they'll look at you like they always do.

They'll nick­er when you walk through the gate.

They'll happily accept the extra treats.

They'll enjoy the extra scratches, the hugs, the attention.

The sun may be shining. The weather may be beautiful. They're eating. They're drinking. They're walking. They're comfortable. Maybe they're even standing there looking completely normal.

And you'll think:

How can I possibly say goodbye today?

That's exactly what choosing a good day means.

It means making the decision before the emergency makes it for you.

Before the next Central Valley heat wave pushes an already fragile body too far.

Before an unexpected fall.

Before colic turns into an emergency in the middle of the night.

Before an old horse struggles through another winter storm.

Before a horse that has been managing Cushings, DSLD, arthritis, neurological disease, or another progressive condition suddenly reaches a point where comfort is no longer possible.

Before you're standing in a trailer, on the side of a road, in the middle of an evacuation, or desperately trying to find an emergency veterinarian while your horse is suffering.

Horse owners know how quickly conditions can change.

Heat can become dangerous. Wildfire can change everything in a matter of hours. Roads can close. Evacuations can happen. Veterinary emergencies don't wait for business hours.

And sometimes the greatest act of horsemanship isn't fighting for one more day.

Sometimes it is having the courage to say:

“Today is still a good day. I want it to stay that way.”

Your horse won't understand why there are so many treats.

They won't know why you're giving them extra hugs.

They won't understand why you're crying.

They aren't thinking about next winter.

They aren't worrying about the next heat wave.

They aren't thinking about the disease that's progressing or the bad day that may eventually come.

They are simply living in the moment.

And if their final moment is peaceful, comfortable, surrounded by familiar people, and filled with love, then you have given them something incredibly precious.

You have spared them the fear, pain, panic, and trauma that can come when we wait until there is no other choice.

Will you second-guess yourself?

Absolutely.

You may second-guess yourself while you're making the decision.

You may second-guess yourself while you're holding them.

You may second-guess yourself for weeks afterward.

That's grief.

That's love.

And then eventually, another heat wave will come.

Another storm.

Another difficult day.

And you'll look at the empty space where they used to stand and realize:

They were happy.
They were comfortable.
They were safe.
They were loved.

You didn't wait for their worst day.

You gave them their last good one.

It will break your heart.

It may always break your heart.

But sometimes, letting them go while they are still having a good day is not giving up on them.

It is choosing to carry the hardest part yourself.

Because love doesn't always mean holding on.
Sometimes love means knowing when to let go.
By Sara Quinn

25/09/2026

🐴 On the morning of 19 September 2022, a small dark pony was led out to the edge of the Long Walk and asked to stand still.

Her name was Emma, a Fell pony, and for years she had carried Elizabeth II through Windsor Home Park — into the Queen's nineties, and famously without a hard hat. The photographs of those rides are some of the last ordinary pictures of her: no crowds, no ceremony, a woman and her pony going quietly along paths she had known since she was a girl.

When the funeral procession came up the Long Walk toward Windsor Castle that September day, Emma was there at the roadside with Terry Pendry, the Queen's head groom. Over the empty saddle on her back, someone had folded one of the Queen's own headscarves.

She stood, and she watched it pass.

Of all the ceremony of that week — the crowns, the guards, the cathedral — it was the pony on the grass that undid people. An empty saddle and a scarf say the thing no ceremony quite manages to say: someone used to be here, and now she isn't.

What small detail from that week has stayed with you?