Recent content by junglefairy

The man should have a lifetime ban. We need to have a zero tolerance approach to blatant abuse and aggression towards horses such as this. The pathetic response from the FEI to abuse in general makes my blood boil.

I think it is difficult, if not impossible, to know from feel and a vetting whether the tail swishing is muscle pain due to an ill fitting saddle, normal tight muscles etc. or something more serious/ insidious. Personally I wouldn’t go further with the horse regardless of paces and jump...

Looking at a horse to buy I would discount one that tail swished. More often than not it’s a sign of discomfort. Anytime my mare starts tail swishing she gets a chiro session and it immediately stops.

Why do horsey audiences never have the common sense to keep calm and quiet? I’ve seen Monty Roberts live and was impressed. However, for these types of demos I think you need horses with a less sharp/sensitive temperament than the mare in the video. He misjudged it and I expect that, as a...

D ThIis is an interesting point. I’ll need to check out NFU cover.

No doesn’t include LOU, but does include £5k vet fees and a low excess. The horse has had nearly £2k of claims for accidental injury over past year so probably seen as high risk.

I’ve just received my insurance renewal, a £900 premium for a year for a 6 year old! My renewal letter justifies the premium with the following facts: - their underwriters make a loss on vet fees; - 1 in 4 competition horses and 1 in 5 leisure horses have made a claim in the past year; -...

I find the instructors I get the most from are those that know me, my ambitions and my horse. I find one-off clinics are rarely that productive. I never get much from group lessons and so only do them now as a cheap and easy way to get out and about. For the OP with a young green horse, I...

With longer hacks, endurance rides or hunting it would be a young horse’s ability to carry a rider on their back for that length of time that would concern me the most. I have kept all riding sessions with my 5 year old well under 2 hours (only rarely exceeding 1 hour or so) and I weigh 52kgs...

Something like the EquiSure sounds sensible. Even if you contacts (e.g. husband and parents) aren’t local they could call the police/an ambulance in an emergency.

As another posted has said I think the issues in my experience at bigger yards arise from not having consistency/quality in staff. Most staff are great but you’ll get the odd one or two that skips jobs. I try to let the YO know when things happen so she can take it up with the staff (I assume...

I’ve been on 2 full livery yards now (full livery being all care but not riding), neither cheap. I find it quite frustrating that on both yards small things are regularly missed/go wrong. For example, horse being given the wrong feed, supplements not being fed as requested, feet not being picked...

My physio advised that infra red is thought to be more effective than magnets, but I think there is probably a lack of scientific research into either.

As others have said, could be ulcers, could be something else. However, regarding ulcers it’s worth nothing that I believe recent studies have shown omeprazole not to be as effective as first thought. Further, omeprazole only treats stomach and not hind gut ulcers (which also can't be scoped...

If does sound like she needs a lot of work on confidence being alone. There will be various ways to do this, and it will take a bit of time. Something I've done is a boomerang type exercise. So for example lead her from the field, go just a short distance and walk back, but don't let her go...