I spend much of my time in the car listening to audiobooks and podcasts. Lots of opportunity for learning! At the moment, my main subject is learning about independent publishing. In particular, I’m listening to the Self Publishing Advice podcast from the Alliance of Independent Authors, recommended to me by my friend Lucy.
I took a short break from learning how best to get Harmonious Horsemanship to you in a form that Dr Sue Dyson and I can be proud of, to listen to Horse and Hound podcast 130, which included a piece from Dr Gemma Pearson talking about horses who buck and rear. I was drawn there by the headline “The first take-home message is pain, and if it’s not pain, it’s probably pain…” The fuller extract from Gemma is “The first take-home message is pain, and if it’s not pain, it’s probably pain – almost all the horses I see bucking or rearing have pain as a component”.
As you know, the world of horsemanship now has a strong focus on pain related behaviour. It feels as though we’re a long way forwards from when I wrote ‘Understanding Horse Performance: Brain, Pain or Training?’, which was published in 2016. All good equine behaviour consultants now will include pain as one of their differential diagnoses – which means they will take the time to figure out whether pain might be causing the problem. In the vast majority of ridden behavioural problems, pain is at the very least a factor. Very often, once the pain is resolved, the behavioural problem either reduces or disappears completely.
I’ll head back to listening to the indie publishing podcasts so that I can get on with bringing you the Ridden Horse Ethogram (also known as the Ridden Horse Performance Checklist) in the form of a book.
Keep an eye out for my next book, “Harmonious Horsemanship: How to use the Ridden Horse Ethogram to Optimise Potential, Partnership, and Performance”. This ground-breaking book is co-authored with Dr Sue Dyson, and will be available summer 2023. Sign up at www.harmonioushorsemanship.co.uk to be kept up to date with new information as it comes available. Watch a FREE 30-minute documentary on the Ridden Horse Ethogram here.
Here’s a FREE 30-minute presentation by Sue Palmer on how to be confident that your horse is comfortable.
Other books by Sue Palmer M.Sc. MCSP:
‘Horse Massage for Horse Owners’
‘Understanding Horse Performance: Brain, Pain or Training?’
© Sue Palmer, The Horse Physio, 2022
