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Or time alone at work, in the relatively rare cases where this is possible. (Getting to that work must also not involve opportunities for cross-infection, obviously - so that would rule out public transport. And proper precautions re handwashing etc. when getting into and out of work.)

Yes, Sarah Weston has done a lot of good work with semi-feral Exmoors. Her book is excellent, imo.

Environment secretary votes against his own proposals to protect post-Brexit food standards https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/george-eustice-brexit-food-standards-1-6549261 "When Eustice was on the backbenches back in 2019 he tabled an amendment to the Agriculture Bill to try to...

Hopefully OP is not still trying to catch a 7yo...

I thought the idea was to kill the bacteria, not feed it! :p

Under advice from a vet, I have used a dilute (3%, or maybe it was 5%) solution of formalin as used in sheep footbaths - squirted into the affected crevices of the hoof, and kept well away from skin. It was very effective in knocking the thrush on the head and also hardened and dried up that...

I think you hit the nail on the head, Red-1.

I remember one yard which adhered to a feeding routine that was performed with almost military precision. The evening feed was a time of great commotion - horses shouting, running around boxes, and some stereotypic behaviours. Was it the strict routine that caused the stressy behaviour, or...

Quite a lot of simple commonsense there. However, one statement piqued my interest... Sarah says: “The most socially confident horses in a group usually make their scent marks last. This includes being the last to roll, often in a favourite spot and near access points including gateways in a...

Erm... :D I'm sure there's at least one important lesson in that! :P

I see what you mean, yes it does look like that! :) The photo was taken ages ago (late 1980s) at the blood bank near Falkirk, when all the horses were turned out over the summer.

Rollfest... (you'd think the grey would be first?!)

I like the itchy theory! :D Frankly, I think that if people think in terms of hierarchy they will be able to see evidence for it wherever they look. A decade or so ago, when notions of hierarchy and dominance were more popular amongst horse owners than they appear to be now, almost any...

Wholeheartedly agree.

Point of information... 'Intelligent Horsemanship' is Monty Roberts / Kelly Marks, not Parelli which is 'Parelli Natural Horsemanship' (PNH). They are quite different beasts, one considerably harsher than the other.

Does calm confidence fit in this scale, or is it something else?

Torque is a force that causes rotation, so that's a little bit confusing/unhelpful in this situation. Joules, which is a measure of energy, and can be be expressed as the product of force and distance (as in ft-lbs), makes more sense to me as it gives an indication of how much energy the toe cap...

I did this with a pony stallion I knew for 27 years - carrot, apple and the odd polo mint. It was the only way I fed him treats. It's not something I would recommend to others, but I was never bitten or hurt in any way by doing this as he only used his lips to take the food. It had the advantage...

Thanks for the update(s), Dyllymoo. It sounds like you are going in the right direction. Patience and persistence can get you a long way to solving problems, even without sharper 'tools' like clicker training.

I should perhaps add that I wouldn't normally teach a horse to lift feet using clicker training. A combination of pressure/release and conventional reward almost always works just fine. However, in the case of the pony stallion I mentioned, clicker training was really useful in dispelling fear...

I have used clicker training for this, but it could also be done with well-timed rewards. I taught a young Welsh Sec A pony stallion that the farrier insisted on being sedated for trimming because he misbehaved so badly. He hated having his feet touched, let alone held, pared and rasped...

This is a characteristic that some who work with stallions really like and can miss with geldings and mares.

Due to a "more is better" mentality/culture.

One possibility would be to stream the footage as webcam, or to have recordings available for download and therefore potentially checkable. This is easily doable with technology today, and not necessarily much of an extra expense.

Horrific abuse, those poor horses! :( Sad to see my friend Paul McGreevy moved to tears, but that is entirely the appropriate response of course.

It's telling me the video is unavailable. Almost certainly trained - the question is whether inadvertently or deliberately! Without further info, I'd plump for the latter.

What have you done to me? My lungs hurt! :D

I remember Hilary Clayton, when she was still in Glasgow, telling me exactly this when I asked about biotin for hooves - you need lysine and methionine for the biotin to be fully effective.

That one's hard to beat, Fiona... amazing. :D