Sandra Trott Equestrian

14/11/2025

Such a great unpacking of the universality of foundational science based practice and how that intertwines with individual differences.

Thanks Lisa for writing this & I am very grateful we are colleagues 💕🙏🏻🐴

13/11/2025

Another example of twisted horse/human psychology.

This reads like parental counselling - a field I specialise in.

The start and the finish - accurate.

The middle - inaccurate.

It should read “The horse who tests you isn’t being difficult, he is telling you the demands you are placing on him outstrip his skills. Respond with presence not punishment”

Horses like children aren’t ‘asking’. Asking requires the mental capacity to project thought, reason, and clarify. Horses don’t have this.

Plus behaviour generally is never a question, it’s a statement 🤷🏻‍♀️

In the case of misbehaviour it’s a statement of ‘I’m not prepared for this’ or ‘I don’t understand’.

The end.

12/11/2025

Turns out this is a long post.

Frankly as it should be because this is not a small topic.

I get that human psychology is exciting.

I get the tendency to use it as a horse trainer to explain and describe horse behaviour.

As someone who is BOTH I also can say with certainty you should do it with real care and CAUTION.

It takes a lot of time and practice to really understand these human psychological concepts. I consider myself still a real apprentice in the field and I have been formally studying it now for over 6 years (full time).

So please be respectful and careful. Take your time. If you have an epiphany as a horse trainer when you read some human psych stuff, maybe go talk to a therapist and unpack your understanding of the concept before you start applying and teaching it.

With that though there is even risk, many therapists are doing the opposite, therapist first horse trainer second, and they miss the mark also, cause they don’t understand how different horses are.

It’s a big curly concept. I support moving forward, but move forward with education, curiosity and some uncertainty please.

For the love of horses and human, may this be helpful! 🙏🏻

12/11/2025

Abusive behaviour is learned, no one is born ‘abusive’ or ‘bad’.

We all grow up in different environments and those environments shape us - some grew up in person centred families who modelled secure attachment behaviours daily… some of us grew up in varies degrees of something other than this.

Same same in our ‘horsy’ family.

Good news but: how we relate to all things is learned and therefore can be unlearned.

Unlearning is hard, often painful and tends to lead to a lot of social discomfort and potentially ostracism which we (as social animals) are highly sensitive too.

There’s many reasons why large groups of equestrians are struggling with adopting change towards ethical practice, this is one of them…

FWIW I say this having lived it and having witnessed it for my students who chose to change. The shift can be horrible at times, very isolating and very hard, but for me and my students who choose to endure it, we all agree it is 100% worth it.

Thanks to Milestone Equestrian for a great post. 🙏🏻

The average person who has caused harm and engaged in abusive practices, would not identify themselves as an abuser.

There is a belief within the horse world, as well as outside of it, that abusive humans are the ones who act maliciously and abuse others on purpose. With the deliberate goal of causing emotional and/or physical harm.

The truth is often far from this.

People who are harming others, whether they be animals or humans, often times will make excuses and justification to try to absolve themselves of any accountability.

They may view what they are doing as necessary. They may deny the fact that it’s harmful altogether. They may seek confirmation bias to validate their current belief system.

But the average person who has displayed abusive behaviours will not self identify as an abuser.

They also are highly likely to have a lot of people who like them and see the good in them. People who also wouldn’t call them an abuser.

This idea that abusive people have to be a villain in every aspect leads people to missing signs of abuse.

Abusive people are just human beings. They may not be abusive in every facet of their life, but that does not absolve the impact their actions have when they are causing harm.

The sad truth is that a lot of people in the Horse world deeply love their horses, but also cause them harm with their actions.

The love that they have for their horses doesn’t cancel out the impact of harmful training and care practices.

The amount that the person remains in denial doesn’t give the Horse reprieve from the reality of this situation.

This is why we see so much cognitive dissonance.

People feel that to admit that you’ve caused harm and change is admitting to being a villain. Admitting to being a bad and irredeemable person.

But the reality is that a lot of people within the Horse industry have been taught harmful practises from the time they first started riding.

They have had signs of Horse stress normalized to them as regular horse behavior.

They have been repeatedly conditioned to not see what they are doing for what it is.

So, acknowledging that all of those years, they have been justifying practises that might be harmful feels like the ultimate betrayal.

But, nonetheless, if we want to see change in the industry, people need to start doing the hard work that is reflecting on practises and whether or not they are fair to the Horse.

Information being uncomfortable to hear does not mean it is inaccurate.

So, here is to being uncomfortable in the name of letting go of traditional practises that no longer serve, and that we know cause harm.

Here is to demystifying the abusive person, and recognizing that any person, no matter how well intention, can cause harm.

10/11/2025

Refine your horsemanship from the inside out.

Join Sandra, one of Australia’s only equestrian coaches with dual tertiary qualifications in human and equine psychology, this Sunday the 16th in North Arm, Sunshine Coast, for a day of insight, connection, and practical tools to strengthen your communication and partnership with your horse.

Open to all levels — groundwork or under saddle, depending on your preference.
✨ Only 2 places remain!
To book your spot: https://www.sandratrott.com/events

🐎 Understand your horse. Understand yourself. Ride with connection.

09/11/2025

02/11/2025

01/11/2025

6:20pm last night!

After the storm had passed (26ml and no damage - very thankful), we got this beautiful sunset!

31/10/2025

27/10/2025

Yes it’s actually true - and this is not toxic psychology!

When we use our problems as guides to address fundamental dysfunction in our systems they can be hugely helpful.

Why? Because the root cause of one problem is going to also be the root cause of others.

So moving through symptom management to address the cause of the problem often (almost always in my experience) results in multiple problems becoming spontaneously improved if not resolved.

So when possible I will always work through fundamental problems like float loading or kids non compliance with clients in quite a deep, progressive, thorough manner.

I often say ‘getting the horse on the float is not the objective’ because really it’s not, fixing the root cause of the floating refusal is the objective and when we fix that we shall spontaneously fix the float loading (and many other issues as well).

🌻🌻

May this be of benefit 🙏🏻

27/10/2025

So much to love about this foundational principle.

‘Trained’ means you do less, need less to achieve a particular result.

It gets easier and simpler.

Using a scientific lens and ES principles made this happen for me as a trainer.

When I was using traditional methods that wasn’t happening; getting a talented horse and moving up the ranks made it harder and more complicated.

The struggle was celebrated and normalised. Due to this I never questioned it.

It is still very apparent to me the ‘traditional’ methods who ignore and reject behaviourism and equine ethology are still lost in the normalisation of the struggle.

“My mantra throughout the years has been: if you have trained a bird to sit on your arm, you must let go of its wings. If it flies away, it is not trained to do that, it is held. Holding is not training. Training horses is exactly the same. When your horse is truly trained, you can place both reins forward for two strides and the horse will not accelerate or change his head or neck outline.”​ - Andrew McLean on self carriage.

This is an excerpt from Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2 - available for purchase in time for Xmas at our webshop. https://esi-education.com/product/modern-horse-training-equitation-science-principles-practice-volume-2/