Riverstown Farm Stables

07/06/2026

Perhaps it is time we stopped asking how little turnout a horse can cope with and started asking how closely we can manage them to the life they were designed to live.

The best livery yard isn’t always the one with the biggest arena.
It’s the one that remembers horses are horses. So greatful for the one I’m on with all year turnout for Dory!

Forage. Friends. Freedom.

06/06/2026

What a line up for equine behaviour trainers for the Equestrian Business Awards. I follow all these people and the advise they give is so important ❤️

Behaviour Trainer of the Year Finalists

Headline Sponsor: HarryHall.com

We're delighted to announce the finalists for Behaviour Trainer of the Year for the Equestrian Business Awards 2026:

- Lisa Ashton – EquiCoach.Life
- Natasha Lacey Equestrian
- Paul Sheldrake – New Mills Stables

This award recognises professionals who make a positive impact through their understanding of equine behaviour, helping horses and owners overcome challenges while promoting welfare-focused training methods.

Congratulations to all of our finalists on this well-deserved recognition and for the important work they do to improve horse welfare and strengthen the horse-human partnership.

Thank you to Harry Hall Ltd for their continued support as our headline sponsor.

Join us in congratulating our finalists as well as tagging them below!

05/06/2026

Today was physio day here at RFS with my lovely friend Midlands Equine Physiotherapy.

I think sometimes people forget that physio isn’t just for competition horses. Today’s session was a good reminder that even retired horses can have sore spots and areas of tension.

Sunny gets checked regularly because she is very good at letting me know when something isn’t quite right. Even though she’s retired and living a fairly easy life, she was quite sore through her chest and pectoral area, around the girth, and a little reactive through the ribs on her left side. Nothing serious, but it shows that horses don’t stop getting aches and pains just because they’ve stopped working.

Rosie was also treated ahead of heading to her new home in the next few weeks. Thankfully there was nothing major found, just a few tight areas that needed loosening up before she starts her next adventure.

We often wait until a horse is lame or obviously uncomfortable before thinking about physio, but horses can’t tell us when they’re carrying tension or feeling stiff. Sometimes it’s the small things that get missed. A horse doesn’t need to be out competing every weekend to deserve feeling comfortable. Their bodies work hard for us throughout their lives, and looking after them shouldn’t stop when their ridden career does.

04/06/2026

One of my favourite livery yards in Ireland 🥺😍

04/06/2026

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞

The horse world talks a lot about giving horses a voice. What we talk about less is how often people ignore their own, I have stood at the side of an arena, watched something happen and felt uncomfortable about it. I have looked at a horse and wondered if it was coping as well as everyone claimed. I have listened to explanations that did not quite match what I was seeing in front of me.

Yet I have also done what many others have done. I have assumed that the people above me in the sport knew better.After all, they had the qualifications, the experience, the results and the reputation. Who was I to question it?

The longer I spend around horses, the more I think this is one of the biggest barriers to welfare progress. Not a lack of knowledge,lack of research or concern. It’s a lack of confidence.

There is an unspoken hierarchy in the horse world. The amateur listens to the coach. The coach listens to the expert. The expert listens to the governing body. Somewhere along the line, people start believing that their own observations carry less value than somebody else’s opinion.

Sometimes they do. Experience & knowledge matters. There are plenty of situations where the answer is not obvious.
But horses have a habit of making some things very obvious. A horse is either comfortable or it is not. A horse is either coping or it is struggling. A horse is either physically and mentally thriving or it is merely enduring what we ask of it. The horse does not care whether the person noticing the problem has a coaching qualification, a veterinary degree or an Olympic medal. The horse only experiences the outcome.

When I look back at some of the biggest welfare discussions in recent years, I often wonder how many people saw the same things long before they became public conversations. How many riders, grooms, owners and spectators quietly questioned what they were seeing but convinced themselves they must be wrong because somebody more important had accepted it.

That is welfare imposter syndrome. The belief that you need permission to ask a question.

The reality is that nearly every welfare improvement started with somebody questioning what had become normal. Not because they had all the answers, but because they were prepared to trust what they were seeing. Sometimes progress begins with expertise.

Sometimes it begins with the courage to say, I know everyone else seems comfortable with this, but I am not.

Miss Rosie ❤️

02/06/2026

Sometimes the biggest welfare question is not what we ask of our horses, but how they live when we’re not asking anything at all.

02/06/2026

𝐖𝐡𝐨’𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦?

Another welfare task force has been announced by the FEI, and I cannot help wondering whether horse sport is better at discussing welfare than delivering it. The focus is the blood rule and the fact that different disciplines currently operate under different standards. The aim is to create a more harmonised approach across the sport.

Fine…..That all sounds very sensible.🤔

What I am struggling with is the feeling that we have heard versions of this before. Horse welfare is not a new issue. The science is not new. The concerns are not new. The conversations are not new.

Andrew McLean has spent years talking about learning theory. Researchers have spent years studying pain, stress and horse behaviour. Welfare organisations have spent years raising concerns. More recently, Matt Brown and Cecily Clark have sparked huge discussion through their open letter and the conversations on the Changing Rein podcast. The knowledge already exists.

So why does it feel like we are constantly setting up new groups to discuss things that have already been discussed?

Listening to Changing Rein, one point really stood out. What if many of the welfare concerns we see are not simply the result of individual riders, trainers or incidents? What if they are the result of systems, cultures and incentives that have been building for years? That is a much harder conversation.🤦🏽‍♀️

It is also the conversation I am not yet convinced the FEI is prepared to have.
The announcement talks about reviewing protocols, regulations and sanctions. It talks about consistency. It talks about harmonisation.

What it does not tell us is who will actually be sitting around the table. In fact, it may be the most important question of all.

❗️Will there be independent welfare scientists?
❗️Will there be behaviour experts?
❗️Will there be people prepared to challenge long standing traditions and accepted practices?
❗️Will there be people willing to ask awkward questions?
❗️Or will the sport once again be reviewing itself?

Because those are two very different things.
At this stage, I think horse owners are entitled to be sceptical. The FEI has had welfare committees, veterinary committees, reviews, consultations and working groups before. Yet many of the same welfare concerns continue to surface year after year.

Maybe this task force will be different. I genuinely hope it is. But horse welfare deserves more than another announcement, another committee and another report. And before anyone tells us this task force is the answer, I would quite like to know who is being asked the questions.

Because if the sport is serious about challenging itself, the people in the room matter just as much as the questions on the agenda.
The blood rule may be what started this review.

I suspect the real story is whether equestrian sport is finally prepared to look beyond individual incidents and ask whether some of the systems behind them need to change.

That is the conversation I want to hear.
And that is the conversation I am still waiting for the FEI to have.

A photo from the bridleless competition last weekend! Jumping 1.20! Give the choice back to rider to what they want to compete in, I’d pay to see this in the Olympics.

Link to podcast in comments