Equine Head to Tail by Billie Morris

03/05/2026

This time of year is one of the busiest for the thoroughbred industry.

Mares are visiting stallions, in the hopes of producing the next Derby or Oaks winner.

It’s usually the end of the National Hunt season, with horses going on their summer break. Some of these National Hunt horses will be sent straight to the sales, some will change yards after their holiday. Some will stay at the same yard when they come back from their holiday. Nowadays there are National Hunt races throughout the summer months. Trainers will be juggling when to send their horses for their break, and which ones to keep to run over the summer.

And then there are the breeze ups. This is a showcase for two year olds to gallop over a short distance on a race track. These horses have been in pre-training yards. The best horses either go straight to a flat yard or the breeze ups. It gives buyers a chance to see how a horse performs speed wise before they actually buy. These horses will still go through the sale ring at the end of the week.

The flat season is well underway. Trainers and owners are aiming their horses for the top class races, hoping for a place in the winners enclosure.

I personally hope that all these horses finish their racing careers sound and go on to good homes. But we know that doesn’t always happen. 🤞

28/04/2026

Horses and ponies need to eat. You cannot keep starving a good doer. We don’t expect our human versions of good doers to starve do we?

I shared this post as I agree with what Clare MacLeod says. My words have been taken rather literally. Putting good doers on long grass is plain daft, you are asking for trouble. Many owners nowadays don’t actually have access to good grazing, their horses and ponies are restricted so much for one reason or another. I personally think that our horses and ponies aren’t exercised enough to burn off the calories. So then they are put on, let’s say short grass paddocks not starvation ones. The horse or pony is then continually looking for food, they are hungry. Gone are the days when our horses had proper fields to roam, they ate when they wanted as they knew that their grass wasn’t, for the most part going to be restricted.

I knew a horse who was so hungry she ate all the thistles in her paddock down to the roots, she had nothing else to eat. When she was ridden she had no energy, she was called lazy and pushed on harder than ever. She ended up being diagnosed with EMS. The people who were responsible for this little mares well-being were just plain ignorant.

YOU ARE BEING LIED TO ABOUT GRASS LENGTH !!!

Long grass is not lower in sugar and fructan for horses and ponies than short grass in terms of WHAT THEY EAT.

An attention grabbing headline?

Yes! I am getting really frustrated with this persistent nutribaloney that short grass is bad for horses, not suitable for laminitics, not suitable for weight loss or healthy weight maintenance.

This is Simply Not True.

Worryingly, it's not just uneducated people I've heard saying this, or writing it.

Even if short, overgrazed grass IS higher in sugar and fructan and lower in fibre per kilo, it is the TOTAL AMOUNT that the horse eats and the RATE they eat it that matters, not what is in the forage per kilo.

Capitalised because this is the key and why so many horse owners and even vets get this wrong.

Well-or over-grazed, short grass will generally provide more suitable grazing for a good doer or EMS / laminitis prone horse or pony.

On this type of grazing they will get LESS nutrients (less sugar, less fructan, less calories) per hour of grazing compared to the longer, stemmier grass, simply because of how much they can eat.

I cannot tell you how many owners I've had come to me for advice, and reported in my Facebook comments that their horse or pony has piled on the pounds (gained body fat) and sadly in some cases succumbed to laminitis, when they have tried putting them on free choice longer grass.

Now, the horse on overgrazed, sprouting pasture will likely need more fibre e.g. from a strip of the longer stemmier grass and/or supplementary forage like soaked hay BUT! grazing very short grass is sometimes the only way to keep a good doer slim and healthy (if they don't wear a grazing muzzle).

The key is to monitor the individual horse or pony and adjust their grass access from their bodyweight and condition, and any signs of metabolic disturbances or laminitis.

Some take home tips:
> always monitor your individual horse or pony and adjust their grass access accordingly
> never assume that long meadow grass is safe for your horse or pony prone to weight gain and laminitis
> over-grazed pasture with supplementary forage (if out 24/7) is a method used successfully by thousands of owners of good doers and laminitis-prone horse and pony owners
> if you have no option but to graze bottle-height grass (about 3" or 10cm) for overweight horses or ponies, good doers or those prone to laminitis, I recommend using a grazing muzzle (and potentially strip grazing as well)
> always monitor your individual horse or pony and adjust their grass access accordingly (yes, I meant to repeat myself!) - you can monitor their weight and condition (body fat), any signs of laminitis, their gut comfort and their droppings

Feel free to share!
🐴🍏🌱

23/04/2026

With all the hoo hah over the last few days about the Grand National, some of it fair, some not. It’s unbelievable that people who have never even touched a horse have such strong negative ideas on horse racing in general.

Is this down to social media and media in general, with a few posts being picked out to depict the harshness, and it is a hard life for many stable staff and their horses. Racing is hard manual work, something that a lot of people don’t seem to get these days. Is it the usual ‘wokeness’ doing the rounds and damage. Or should the training yards, The BHA and racecourses all roll their sleeves up and buck their ideas up.

There will be a number of horses who will never race again, due to how they were actually ridden in their races. Accidents happen, horses along with us, are subject to injuries. The trainer and owner will be watching their horse with their fingers crossed hoping that no such injuries occur, either in training or when they are racing.

When they do unfortunately happen, what happens to the horse? The lucky ones find a retirement home either with their owner or someone prepared to take on a horse who will take the time to get the horse right again.

The unlucky ones will be passed from pillar to post. Bought by well meaning people who have absolutely no idea how to look after or even ride an ex-racehorse. They have no idea that their new ‘cheap’ horse, needs retraining, he needs time to adjust to life outside of the racing yard. That is all he has ever known. They insist on instilling their ‘natural’ horsemanship crap on them, from the minute the horse has stepped off the lorry. Taking the horses shoes off, then expecting a thin soled animal to walk soundly on stoney uneven ground. There are boots to put on these days, but some people insist on barefoot at all times. On top of all that the rider is often too heavy for the horse as well.

The horse is expected to adapt to his new surroundings in a short space of time, then people stand around scratching their heads wondering what is wrong with the horse when, all he is trying to say is, I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do.

It’s not the horse.

It’s the people.

People need to recognise that THEY need to adapt to the horse. Take things slowly. Horses are so forgiving, unlike us. Thoroughbreds are athletes, they are bred as athletes. They have quick intelligent minds. They love to run. They do become naughty if they are bored.

Why am I saying this?

The short answer is I am sick and tired of TB’s getting the short straw after they come out of racing.

If you want a ready made horse, then please spend more money on buying him and learn to ride him properly.

20/04/2026

Shame that a few jockeys recently couldn’t have done the same.

When the crowd saw Chris Antley come off Charismatic in the 1999 Belmont Stakes, many thought they'd just witnessed a fall. They hadn't. In that split second, something far more remarkable was happening.

Charismatic had given everything in his bid for Triple Crown glory. But as he crossed the finish line, something was clearly wrong. Amid the noise, speed, and chaos, Antley felt it instantly — and instead of riding it out… he chose to act.

He leapt from the saddle and dropped to his knees, carefully lifting and supporting the colt's injured front leg with his bare hands — stopping Charismatic from putting weight on it and risking even greater damage. Horses thundered past. Cameras rushed in. And a crowd of 60,000 fell into a stunned, almost reverent silence.

There was no time to think. No instructions to follow. No thought of recognition. Just instinct.

What no one knew in that moment? Antley himself had been through the fire. He had fought his own battles to return to racing's biggest stage — and yet here he was, not thinking about glory, not thinking about the finish line, not thinking about himself at all. That's what made it unforgettable.

He made a decision in that moment that would define him forever — not as a champion rider, but as something even rarer. A true horseman.

The scene was later named NTRA Moment of the Year, and it still stands as one of the most powerful images the sport has ever seen. Not just because of the drama, but because of what it represents — the awareness, the restraint, the courage to stop when everything around you is still moving.

Charismatic survived.

And that image — Antley on his knees, holding his horse steady — has never left the sport. Because it asks something of all of us: how many times do we keep running when we should stop? How many times does winning blind us to what's actually in front of us?

Sometimes, the greatest moment isn't winning the race. It's knowing when to put everything else aside.

Would you have had the instinct to stop?

19/04/2026

Ground work is the basis of all work with a horse, be it riding or driving. People are just plain lazy.

15/04/2026

Thought that this needs a share. Too many racing people think that the horses who they have trained, loved and cared for end up in good homes.

HELLO📣

No they don’t.

A fella (clearly an amateur jockey) popped onto our page during grand national weekend to say we are very one sided with our posts, that their horses are treated well and homes are found for them in rescue or sanctuaries, that not all retired race horses end up being slaughtered and why don’t I share their stories…….

What he failed to see was that they are not rehomed to rescues sanctuary’s they are dumped on them leaving the rescue to pick up the tab and put the time and effort and money into rehabbing and homing these once “racing superstars” that made their owners trainers and jockeys A LOT of money…….

Ok so here’s one that didn’t get slaughtered, but it wasn’t because the yard that it came from made an effort to find to her a new home, this mare & 10 others were saved by pure chance…….

“”These are elite athletes at the top of their game not just any horse. These horses are also extremely well cared for, there is a team behind every horse, an owner and trainer, physios, chiropractors, vets, farriers, dentists, nutritionists etc etc”” blah blah 🙄

“”Sure We Treat Our Horses Like Kings””

A horse who once sold for £240,000 but was “thrown out with the garbage” a few years later has gone on to showjumping success in a loving new home thanks to the animal rescue team who saved her, not her breeder, trainer or owner who made alot of money out of her……….

War Celeste, who is by American former racehorse War Front, one of the most expensive sires in the world, was found in a group of 11 starving thoroughbreds by Irish charity My Lovely Horse Rescue in 2018.

The mare, whose ancestry includes Secretariat and Northern Dancer, was born in 2012 and sold for nearly quarter of a million pounds as a yearling. She was sent for training but two years later was sold again, for £15,000.

“We met War Celeste one wintry day in February 2018 when the doors of a large hay barn in Co Cork were prized open to reveal a sight that those of us present that day will never forget,” a spokesman for MLHR said.

“Inside were 11 starving thoroughbreds. Some had access to a small muddy paddock, others were trapped inside individual stalls, standing on manure so high that the stall doors had to be broken off and the manure torn out with a digger to create a slope the horses could climb down. They came out slipping, falling, terrified.

“War Celeste was in one of the four stalls. She was on her own, emaciated, head down, slowly dying. She was one of the horses in the worst condition and was in danger along with four others that day of being put down on site.”

The charity took in all five of these horses, while the other six were taken elsewhere to start a new life. Two of the five had to be put down as their condition was so serious, but Celeste, Grandpa John and Kelly all survived.

“For the first year that Celeste was with us, everything was geared towards keeping her alive, putting her on a slow and comprehensive re-feeding programme,” a spokesman for the charity told H&H.

“It is a very tentative process when looking after a horse in such poor condition. Once we had Celeste over the first few weeks, the danger period, we sent her from our rescue farm to one of our experienced fosterers who put her out on grass. This, combined with the love and care from her fosterers, had a hugely beneficial effect on her health and eventual full rehabilitation and recovery.”

The spokesman praised Celeste’s “unbreakable spirit”; who did not hide from humans as many rescued horses do but came to staff with “an amazing, ‘we’re all in this together’ attitude”.

She had a fear of open spaces at first, and would panic if turned out, but “like a prisoner emerging from the dark, she eventually learned that freedom was a truly wonderful thing”, the spokesman said. “Her recovery was slow but she made it.”

The charity did not know Celeste’s history when she was rescued but as it emerged, there was interest in her, mainly from breeders. MLHR has a strict no-breeding policy so has decided to keep the mare for good, to best protect her welfare.

💙🐾

14/04/2026

The Aintree Festival was a bit of a let down. It certainly showed up the lack of horsemanship that is in racing today. There is absolutely no need to ride a horse into the ground. No trophy or money is an excuse for over-riding horses. All these jockeys have done, is play into the hands of the anti-horse racing brigade.

There have been a few instances lately, where I personally feel that the jockeys involved should be banned for life and not for a few days. And that is coming from someone who was in racing for an awful long time.

There is a jockey coaching programme, with excellent jockey coaches onboard. The British Horseracing Authorities (BHA) have their Jockey Coaching Program (JCP), their job is to help mentor and improve the performance of jockeys. They certainly need help in some cases. If nothing else, for the sake of the horses they are riding.

There is also a training programme to help racing staff with their riding. Racing Staff Development Program (RSDP), this is a program which can be tailored to various staff members needs. It also incorporates an equine first aid part. Which I think is a must for noticing when a horse isn’t quite right. When stable staff have finished their courses at racing school be it The British Horseracing School (BRS) or The National Racing College (NRC), they start work in a racing yard. These people are still learning their jobs, and the support they will hopefully receive from this training programme, will help them to improve with their basic handling and riding of thoroughbreds. I say hopefully as this programme is mainly free, it can also be subsidised, but in order for stable staff to have access, their employers need to be on board with this. I would like to think that in both these programmes that there is a section on actual horsemanship. It’s becoming more apparent that these riders are not thinking of their mounts as living beings, but as machines.

Before the cry goes up that racing should be banned. Stop. 🛑 Think for a minute.

If racing was banned, what exactly do you think would happen to all these thoroughbreds? You can’t just shut down an entire industry because of a few rotten riders. Educate the stable staff, that is where the jockeys come from. Teach them their jobs. Teach them to respect and empathise with their horses. If they can’t treat the horse properly then they don’t get to ride. To ride a horse well, you have to get inside their heads and understand them. It’s really not that hard.

07/04/2026

After the dry summer last year, there is not enough grass to sustain these Black Mountain Ponies.

They are starving to death. I don’t know how many ponies there are. Are they owned by someone like a lot of the ponies on Dartmoor? Why isn’t hay being distributed amongst them? The next question is who is going to pay for the hay?

Such a shame this is happening.

05/04/2026

Racing yards who have horses in training who are owned by syndicates are providing employment. It fills their stables and pays the bills. There are many horses who are owned by syndicates. Unfortunately the average horses owned by a syndicate are just that, average. I’ve ridden a good few along with talented horses. But there are some extremely good horses who are on offer through a syndicate.

But there is a shortage of stable staff and riders who can actually ‘do’ the job. By ‘doing’ the job, I mean staff who can handle near enough anything and ride just about any horse on the yard. When I started out, this was the norm for stable staff, when I came to the end of my racing career, there were quite a few staff who were actually scared of the horses they were looking after and riding.

I didn’t understand that then, and I don’t understand that now. I mean why have a job where you are scared of the animals you are paid to look after? Life is too short for that. For me it highlighted the lack of horsemanship that is around today. Not only in the professional equestrian world but with the happy hackers as well.

It also showed up the prejudices suffered by many senior staff who had been in the racing game a hell of a long time. They were treated as though they were the village idiots. These senior staff could mentor the younger more inexperienced staff, furthering their education in all things, not just horse related, these kids are often away from home for the first time in their lives.

There are some serious problems within the racing industry that only come to light when something awful happens. Yes they have Racing Welfare and NARS but they also need someone they can trust within their work environment.

02/04/2026

The thoroughbred market is flooded with horses who have been bred purely to satisfy a need to draw ordinary people into the horse racing world. There are a lot of people setting up syndicates. The idea being that people pay a set amount each month for the pleasure of owning a part in a racehorse. They get to see their horse on stable visits, watch them on the gallops and attend the races when their horse runs.

That is all well and good. But what happens when the horse doesn’t win a race or indeed come within the next two places? The horses invariably are sent to the sales and then forgotten about.

This happens with well bred horses, who you like to think will be bought and looked after till the end of their days, but it is becoming more rare as there are just too few homes available. So for the horses who have been bred to fill the syndicate market, their futures look decidedly dodgy to say the least. The lucky ones might be rehomed and retrained, but even then, with the basic lack of understanding that so many people have of the ex-racers, they can still end up in a slaughter house.

The cost of horses is just plain ridiculous. So a lot are being bred on a shoestring in the hopes that they will become the next Dream Alliance. News flash on that one. They, the owners were extremely lucky. And in turn so was the horse.

Part of the problem is that there are more racing fixtures. There is racing nearly everyday at some racecourse in the country. Having more racing has meant that the prize money in general has gone down considerably. There are more group 3 and 4 and 5 races than there are group 1 and 2’s. Yes, the racecourses have to make money, they are a business. But the standard of racing has suffered.

Back in the day, racing was mainly at the weekends, with true quality horses with decent prize money.

The standard has gone down and as per usual. The horse suffers.

Maybe if the standard of racing was overhauled and there were stricter rules on what mares were sent to stud, there could be a way out of this mess. There are far too many horses in the thoroughbred world being churned out. But then again there are far too many horses and ponies being bred indiscriminately.

People are far too shortsighted. They can’t see beyond the end of their nose.