27/08/2026
🚨Southern Hemisphere Warning: Spring Is Coming😎
Every spring, otherwise sensible horses develop some interesting opinions.
The bush on the arena your horse has had no issue with all year becomes suspicious. Geldings discover mares. Mares discover geldings. Grass becomes the most important substance on Earth and the horse who happily left its friends in July would now like to discuss the terms of that arrangement.
We call it spring silliness, usually as though the horse has failed to maintain the behavioural standards outlined in its employment contract.🙄
But spring is a good reminder of something we occasionally forget.
*The horse is still a horse.*🐴
We have domesticated horses extraordinarily well. We teach them to live behind fences, eat when and where we decide, leave their friends, travel in metal boxes and trot around circles while somebody judges the accuracy of the circles.
What we haven't done is remove millions of years of evolution.
Horses are seasonal animals, and spring changes their world...let's investigate this further...
👉 The horse knows the days are getting longer
Increasing daylight produces measurable changes in equine physiology.
One interesting example is prolactin, a hormone that rises as days lengthen in mares, stallions and, importantly, geldings.
So while your gelding may have parted company with his testicles many years ago, the rest of him remains subscribed to the seasons.
We know prolactin is involved in seasonal processes such as shedding the winter coat. What we don't know is whether it directly makes horses more energetic, spooky or reactive. It may simply be one measurable part of a much bigger seasonal biological transition.
Mares have the additional excitement of reproductive activity returning. Ovarian activity increases, cycling resumes and social and sexual motivations can change.
And the geldings notice.
A gelding becoming fascinated with a cycling mare doesn't necessarily have a mysterious hormonal disorder. The mare has changed. His social environment has changed. Something that wasn't terribly interesting three weeks ago may now be extraordinarily interesting.
Unfortunately, you would still like him to concentrate on his canter transition.
👉 Then someone renovates the paddock
Spring also changes what's going into the horse.
Rapidly growing pasture can dramatically alter energy and carbohydrate intake. Grazing changes. The gastrointestinal environment has to adapt. Body condition can change.
Meanwhile, humans sometimes continue feeding the same bucket they fed in July while regarding the increasingly magnificent paddock as landscaping.😬
For susceptible horses there is another important consideration spring grass can also increase the risk of laminitis, and sore feet aren't always obvious.
Sometimes the horse is simply reluctant to step out, uncomfortable turning, hesitant on firm surfaces or unusually resistant to moving forward....or they can just get more hyper-vigilant or spooky!
So when Danny becomes "difficult" every September, it's worth asking whether Danny is full of the joys of spring or whether Danny's feet hurt.🤔
Behaviour is information. Don't waste it.
👉 And perhaps there is some frustration involved
This is the part I think deserves more consideration.
Imagine having powerful motivations you don't intellectually understand.
Your biology says move, but there is a fence.
Stay with that horse, but you're being led away.
Eat, but the gate has been shut.
Follow everyone else, but someone would like a twenty-metre circle.
Investigate that interesting thing, but apparently we're doing shoulder-in.
There is nothing inherently wrong with asking horses to do these things. Domestic horses need to learn to function safely within our world.
But we should recognise that sometimes what we are asking has become *more difficult* because you have some competing instinctual drives for behaviour going on.
The horse hasn't necessarily forgotten its training. The competition for its attention, motivation and behaviour may simply have increased.🔊
👉 That's why spring silliness probably isn't one thing
Daylight is changing. Physiology is changing. Mares are cycling. Social dynamics are shifting. Pasture is changing. Energy intake may be changing. The gut is adapting and might be uncomfortable. Feet may become sensitive. Insects return. The environment gets busier.
Then, because the weather is finally pleasant, we suddenly start riding more.
A horse that spent much of winter pottering around the paddock is separated from its friends, loaded onto the float and taken to its first outing in four months.
Everyone is astonished when Danny arrives with rather more Danny attitude than anticipated.
👉 There is no cure for spring
Nor should there be.
The useful response is management.
Anticipate the change if your horse does this every year. Keep some consistency in exercise and training through winter. Reassess feed as pasture changes. Watch body condition and feet. Manage insects. Track your mare's cycle if her behaviour changes predictably. Notice changes within the herd.
And keep the basic training clear.
Because good training doesn't remove instinct. It gives the horse skills it can use *while instinct, excitement, uncertainty and competing motivations are present*.
A horse can notice another horse and still come with you. It can feel energetic and still respond to the rein. It can want to stay with its friends and learn that leaving them is safe and manageable.
That is perhaps the most useful way to think about spring silliness.
Underneath everything we've domesticated is still an animal responding to daylight, grass, other horses and seasonal biology.
Sometimes those ancient priorities collide rather spectacularly with our modern plans.😎
Understanding that doesn't mean lowering expectations, excusing dangerous behaviour or necessarily having to buy a supplement called *Spring Serenity Ultra-Calm Hormonal Gut Hoof Nervous System Support™*. 🤷♀️
It means becoming better at noticing what changed.
Because the goal isn't to cure the horse of being a horse.
It's to understand what being a horse is asking of them right now, and make better decisions because of it.❤
It is also perfect timing for my Project Reboot Challenge (see more below)😎
Collectable Advice 279/365.
Share, to appreciate that horses are still horses and lots of things can happen to them when spring time comes around ❤
