Shona McLauchlan Equine

02/02/2026

Let’s talk motivation or maybe lack of it!!!!

Winter is tough for everybody, whether your horse is in work, out of work, just getting through the day can feel like a miracle 🤣

I currently don’t have a saddle for Luca as he has changed shape and my saddler is coming on Wednesday so just a couple more days but in between time I’ve been trying to keep us busy by being creative. I do have a ba****ck pad but this is slightly rubbing him so I’m going true ba****ck!

He’s been doing some lunging, lunge jumping but also I’ve just been riding him in the school in walk using different patterns to keep him supple and still use himself.

I’ve been videoing some little clips which I plan to share with you all soon once I get my head round YouTube and all the different formats. If anyone is a pro at YouTube hit me up with your tips 🙏🏻

There is plenty we can do if we put our mind to it ….. using circles, shallow loops different shapes in the schools and making a clear pattern of where we actually want to go. Not letting them take over, making sure our circles are circle shapes not egg shapes or hexagons. If we go into a corner, we make a good square turn and if we plan to do a transition, we do it where we plan to do it. All these things can make a short schooling session more interesting for you and your horse and more productive if you go in with a little bit of a plan.

So watch this space if you’d like some winter walk work inspo 🤩

25/01/2026

I’ve had several conversations about winter recently most importantly the weather…..I’m a Brit so I give myself full excuse to moan about the weather whenever I see fit.

It got me thinking that as a horsewoman battling the way through this joyous time of year when we question life choices around 10 times a day how clear our memories are from the previous year.

We get through the festivities in December and there’s a sense of being on the home straight towards spring. But nothing is further from the truth 🤣🤣 the reality of surviving the longest month when the mud really starts to deepen to your ankles as the water table begins to reach it limit is that February is just as sh*te weather wise and we all start having a sense of humour failure when the met office announce the name of yet another storm, I’d really love to have a say in these names. After Stormy McStorm face is get really into the lesser repeatable names that pop to mind.

So why each year do I hear thing like “last winter wasn’t as bad as this”…..I often wonder if it’s like childbirth….. when the mothers is the worst pain imaginable and swears never again only to be graced with the most precious thing life can gift so happily repeats the process in a few years. I personally cannot speak of this so would love to hear from those who have……

Does watching our beloved horses with their soft velvety muzzles grazing the long stalking grass of summer with the sun slowly bringing the day to a close whilst wearing a T-shirt negate all that we swear we’ll never do again??? That our unrequited love to be around horses helps us block out the chill blains, back pain, hay bills and walking into a shop after the yard looking like your wearing all the clothes you own and someone has tried to roll you down a sewage pipe? It all becomes a long distant memory and it wasn’t so bad really??

In short it’s absolutely dreadful every year and we swear we’ll never do it again but we get the glimmer of why we do it so all is forgiven.

That and basically we’ll all just bonkers and will do anything to spend our spare time with the best gift on earth …..🦄

25/01/2026

💫Spaces are filling up for February dates so get in touch if you’d like to come along to my pole clinics or have any questions💫

16/01/2026

Whilst January is doing it’s thing it got me thinking about those hard-core reality TV shows on survival in the wild…... what they actually need to do is get people to care for horses for the month of January. Let’s see how many of them would cope with that????

Hands up if you agree🙋🏼‍♀️

A bit of Friday humour to help through a wet/cold weekend 💧🥶🤣

13/01/2026

There’s lots of quotes that can be meaningful and useful to various given times for me I saying more than a quote that suits ALL the time…..
It’s something often says “WHEN YOU KNOW BETTER YOU DO BETTER”

I think this will resonates with a lot of people, at the moment there lots of talk about change in our understanding of horses, looking at them for the answers not thinking that we know best. Over the years I have done always done what I felt was the best at the time for those horses and looking back I now know that at times it wasn’t and rather than feeling guilty about that I know that in the moment I was doing what I believe was best. Now that I know how to do things better I do them better.

I look more for them for guidance on what is best for them. I could easily get down about things I have done wrong but it is all in the past, all we can do is move forward, search for a better understanding look for more styles of training so that I can do better by them and do better by the people that I help.

I’m currently learning so much from Kate who is trained in the French classical L’Ecole de Legerete. There’s a real progression of what you are teaching them and helping them with their body and their compromises in small nuanced ways that I have never known before. Every lesson has a feeling of revelation, of something I actually didn’t know about my horse before and then something more that I can now help with in the future.

I’ve always been keen to learn more about different styles of training through my adult life and this is currently puts fire in my belly to learn more and to be better for my horses 🤍

Is there something you’ve learnt in more recent years that’s changed your outlook to training of horse management? What does this phrase bring to mind? I’d love to know!

📸 from a shoot I had a few years back with the fabulous

12/01/2026

I find watching this so interesting and always begs the questions ….when and where did it all go so wrong???? What we see as the norm in modern dressage seems such a far cry from the classical masters!!

11/01/2026

When January is hitting hard the best we can do is the best we can do 💪🏻

🦄If that means we don’t ride that’s fine a nice groom and some pony time is equally acceptable
🩵If we do the basics that’s fine
🦄If we look like we’re wearing all our clothes that’s fine
🩵If we eat our body weight in biscuits that’s fine
🦄If we make no plans to compete or even leave the yard that’s fine

Whatever your normal goals are with your horse winter can put a right spanner in the works , it’s easy to see others going out and push ourselves but remember they may have a different setup to you which makes it easier. I know I have to tell myself this being on Dartmoor

It’s okay to take the pressure off and just do what you can, I try my best to keep the boys moving whether this be turning out in the indoor, lunging or free schooling them. Doing some groundwork, in hand poles……there’s lots of ways to stimulate them mentally and physically without running ourselves into the ground.

I think the words “Little and often” and “Keep on keeping on” are what help me through. They may not be top punching quotes but they ring true to me.

My tips are to invest in good clothing, I only ever wear bamboo socks as I find these are the only thing that work for me, lots of layers making sure I’ve got a second layer on my legs is a game changer, I love my winter gloves for riding and yard work.

A combination of day 10 and 11 from what keeps you motivated through winter and your favourite quote.

11/01/2026

09/01/2026

What would your horse do for a job 🤔

Calle is the original stranger danger kind of a guy, I could really see him running a cyber security company nothing would get past him! You’d never have an actual face to face meeting it would all be done on line…you know….. just to make sure 😂

Pecan of such an emotional gentle boy but equally does know his own mind I think after all the issues he’s had he’d swapped careers from something high powered and retrained as a therapist. Supporting others and doing good in the world 🥰

Now the Luca child ….. well….could be a lot of things really 😂😂 Personally I don’t think he’s have a set job per se more like an extreme outdoor adventure type. Wears shorts all year, travels round in a camper and says things like “well worry about that later let’s go jump of a cliff into the sea it’ll be mega “ …..Never fully adulting 😂

If your horse were to have a job what would it be ???

Day 9 of from