I would give something back to nature. You could plant native species (hedges/trees) or an orchard or both, and get some horses on it (having suitably protected new planting) for grazing from late summer for a few months yearly to encourage meadow formation. There are always people who want to...
It's the death stare.... I put him in his crate while I ate (don't worry, I saved him a bit of salmon!) and he wailed and started trying to climb out - clearly forgetting it has a top, which he spends a lot of time relaxing on and watching the blue tits from... 🤣
He's turning out to be a terrible neophobe, but once he's comfortable he's very comfortable....
Helping me with dinner
The face after he was told he wasn't allowed to help me with dinner
Now we just have to accustom him to parts of the house beyond the study and the hall!
We're in south Norfolk on gravelly glacial drift (so a bit loamy, a bit sandy, a bit clayey) - 4 acres with 2 ponies. They have a yard 8x20m that's open 24/7 and at the moment the first winter field is holding up well because we had such good grass growth this summer. There's a bit of mud in the...
Yes, plenty of abuse/neglect caused by ignorance/apathy at the lower levels but also people who know precisely what they're doing. The local rider/trainer I saw (from a distance and given his reputation I would never have approached him as the lone female on the yard at the time) beating his GP...
Agree completely, and all this makes me want to be more vocal, because as you say that kind of mistreatment is absolutely rife. Unfortunately my skillset doesn't lie in opening closed ears but I will support all those who have those skills.
As regards the lower levels - there is nothing like watching someone do the rounds of the local (and well respected) dressage trainers with an obviously (and I do mean obviously) broken horse to make you realise that a significant number of professional horse people are more interested in making...
In a sense that's true, there's not much more to say perhaps, but it's worth people saying it (and I need to do so more often, not just think 'what a surprise') because if that's the message that's coming out of threads like this and other SM, more people might have the courage to call it out in...
Partly in jest because I can't see any government doing it, but a licensing system for yards in all disciplines that want to either sell or compete or both, in which cameras can be installed and spot checks made, would suit me fine. Abattoirs have monitoring and regulation, and for the animals...
And just as bad at the lower levels, where ego and the stress of barely making a living from the thing you (once?) loved just lead to everything being taken out on horses and staff.
I feel I should have commented more on this thread because I find it a bit sad that it's had relatively little interest when really basic questions of welfare and how we choose to deal with horses in our care/captivity are at stake. Obviously there wasn't much to comment on before, so I hope now...
... cont from above
The footage does not show Andreas Helgstrand himself riding the horses. But several employees tell how the rough treatment is everyday.
A rider at Helgstrand Dressage tells TV 2's journalist herself that she knows it is "a shame for the animals".
- But it is a factory. Some...