Equine Head to Tail by Billie Morris

17/03/2026

I didn’t realise how few riding schools we have. Many children and adults have learnt so much, hopefully in a safe environment through riding schools. Back in the day I used to go to Cockington riding school and then Primley riding school. I didn’t have access to ponies when I was a child. As a teen I went to Offerton riding school which was an epic trek just to get there and back. Think of all the unwanted horses and ponies who could find a home if we had more riding schools. But then again, someone would find a new way of making them impossible to run. It’s funny how money is found to benefit small areas of people.

We need loads more riding schools! What is to be done!?

There are only about 1000 left in UK, 500 have ceased since Covid.
Why does no one want to run a proper legally licenced legitimate riding school?
The demand for it is out there!
Is it the difficulty recruiting and costs of staffing, the long hours, the overheads, the red tape, the increasingly expensive horses, or is it the sometimes over-demanding clientele (most of ours are great). Is it that there are some people out there intent on slagging off riding schools and the riding of horses in general driving kids back to their computer games. The H&S, the compensation culture, the high insurance? The list is endless.

I think riding schools never get enough recognition, a pat on the back or a helping hand as other sports often do. We have been failed by our governing bodies. We need horses to remain accessible to everyone (as they are in Europe in partially funded and supported centres). Even though UK government happily funds £36million for Winter Olympians to enjoy winter sports that most of us can never access!

No riding schools - no facilities to hire, no youngsters learning at the grassroots level, no children and teens learning pony care, moving in to owning, in to the Clubs, in to the competitions, in to qualifications, in to jobs, in to Team GB, in to running new businesses. The whole system starts to falter and break down. Soon horses will then have no homes, the sanctuaries will be too full, prices will fall to rock bottom, the wrong people buy the wrong horses and may fail to correctly care for them.

As another local School decides to not renew their licence, we are losing another well managed, regulated, inspected and licenced* option for safe structured learning in an environment where you can entrust your children and teens to be looked after (* as required by law) . The home ed provision, the SEN provision, the structured progressive learning, the choice of many different ponies to love, ,ride and learn from, the friendship, the outdoorsy fresh air and physicality of it all. Going, going, gone!
What can we do?
Oh well, back to the admin that is not about to do itself.

15/03/2026

15/03/2026

I’ve rattled a few cages!

My post on rehoming a dog.

I’m not going to apologise for wanting to rehome a dog from my own country.

But I do see what all the fuss is about.

An animal in need is just that. It needs taking care of, to have a loving home. There are far too many animals out there that no one gives a s**t about.

The animal rescues/rehoming in this country who are trying to do the ‘right thing’, aren’t actually doing a lot in many cases, apart from adding to their numbers.

Yes I agree that they don’t want their animals being returned, they want them to have a happy life till the end of their days.

Just because people have children, go to work etc, does not mean that an animal will be abused, ignored and neglected in anyway.

My beef is the amount of animals being imported to be rehomed.

This country is truly a dumping ground for everything. People forget that whilst these animals have been transported across Europe, destination Britain. There are other countries that could probably have people who would happily provide a good life for these animals. But they are hell bent on coming here.

And another thing to think about.

If these animals are so traumatised from their homes across Europe, and I’m not saying that they aren’t. Some have endured horrendous abuse. Is it right to put them in a crate for hours? They don’t understand what is happening to them.

We have our own abused animals here, in Britain, needing homes. If only our animal charities would loosen the apron strings a little. 🤨

As for horses being imported as riding horses. Don’t you think that we have enough riding horses here? Or is it because the standard of riding and horsemanship has gotten so bad that our own horses are beyond us.

14/03/2026

This👇
Breed less horses and ponies.

*** THE MANY REASONS NOT TO BREED FROM YOUR MARE ***

I’ve posted this before, but yesterday’s horrific welfare case made me think of how important this message is.

The idea of breeding a foal from your own mare is a lovely idea, but can have less than ideal outcomes. Instead of writing an article on breeding, I thought it was more sensible to write a piece on what to consider before breeding from your mare, and why it is often completely the wrong idea. The following is aimed at the one or two horse owner, and not at big breeding operations, obviously.

1. Do NOT breed from your mare because she is useless/dangerous/you don’t know what else to do with her. A dangerous or nasty mare, is very likely to produce a dangerous or nasty foal. Do NOT be tempted to breed from your mare just because the only other options you have left are giving her away (irresponsible;sorry) or putting her to sleep. Breeding from a mare in the hope it will mellow her, is not a reason to breed.
2. Do NOT breed from your mare because her conformation was so awful that she had to retire from a ridden career at the age of six. Unfortunate accidents and injuries not due to poor conformation, can obviously be forgiven.
3. Do NOT breed from your mare unless you are prepared to accept that nothing is guaranteed; your foal may pop out as a mix of the worst bits of both sire and dam, and you can’t return it!
4. Do NOT breed from your mare if you struggle to afford vet bills and feed etc for your current horses. You will need plenty of money available if you intend to breed a foal. Your stud fee is the tiniest portion of what it costs to get a healthy foal on the ground, unless you get very lucky. You may need to send your mare away to foal down; your mare may need veterinary help to foal; your mare may need a caesarian; your foal may need a plasma transfusion; your mare may retain her placenta. You get the idea.
5. Do NOT breed in the hope to make lots of money. Or any money.
6. Do NOT breed from your mare unless you are experienced in handling youngstock, or are prepared to seek help from an expert when needed. A badly handled foal will likely turn into a tricky yearling, and so on.
7. Do NOT breed from your mare because she is old. The risks of complications in older mares, is high.
8. Do NOT breed from your mare unless you have suitable facilities for a mare and foal. By this, I mean safe fencing, and ideally, other mares and foals. It’s not ideal to have just one foal in the field; this means the foal has no play mates, and makes weaning difficult.
9. Do NOT breed from your mare unless you are realistic about complications. You may lose your mare, your foal, or both. It happens.
10. Do NOT breed from your mare thinking the country needs more horses. Just look at the amount of horses at rescue centres/RSPCA/WHW/Blue Cross, to see that the country has more than enough horses and ponies.
11. Do NOT breed from your mare unless you have the time to check your horses at least twice a day, or the funds to pay someone to. In fact, don’t even have a horse if you can’t do that.
12. Do NOT breed from your mare and plan to foal down at home, unless you have the time and energy to stay up and check all night close to foaling.

Sorry for the slightly negative post, but there are many, many points to consider.
We have too many unwanted and neglected horses and ponies in the U.K.

If you do still want to breed from your mare after this post, then you have thought through all of the major points. I will end by reiterating again that you must never underestimate the funds you need to get a foal on the ground, and to weaning, let alone to the point of a ridden career.

Photo of my little Alfred when he was a teeny baby, with his beautiful mum, Molly.

13/03/2026

This is so right. Can I also add that this has missed out on the complete laziness of not grooming a hairy pony, but clipping it out instead. And making an utter shambles of that as well. 🤦‍♀️🤬

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

Once upon a time, in a land before TikTok tutorials and matchy matchy saddle pads, horse people actually knew how to take care of horses. Shocking, I know. Kids like me didn’t just rock up to the yard, hop on, and swan off afterward like some equestrian diva. No, we earned our time in the saddle mucking out stables that smelled like something out of a horror movie, filling haynets that somehow managed to tangle themselves around our legs, and lugging water buckets that felt heavier than our actual bodies.

And Friday nights? That was Pony Club night in Ireland, an unmissable ritual. First, the riding lesson, where we pushed ourselves to perfect our position or attempted (and often failed) to keep our ponies from launching us into orbit over a cross pole. Then, the real fun stable management. If you thought you were leaving without knowing how to spot colic, wrap a bandage properly, or pick out hooves without losing a finger, you were sorely mistaken.

But now? Stable management is disappearing faster than your horse’s dignity when it spots a plastic bag.

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐮𝐭

These days, many young riders don’t spend hours at the yard learning the ins and outs of horse care. They arrive, their pony is miraculously tacked up and ready, they ride for an hour, and off they go probably to post a reel of their perfect canter transition. And look, I get it. Times have changed. Insurance policies have made it harder for kids to hang around stables, and busy modern life means people want things quick and easy.

But here’s the problem: a horse isn’t an Instagram prop. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 1,000-𝙥𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙞𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙡𝙚. And without that old-school, hands-on education, we’re seeing the consequences. Horses suffering from preventable colic, riders unable to recognize when their tack doesn’t fit, people feeding their cob the same as a Thoroughbred and wondering why it’s suddenly the size of a small elephant.

And the worst part? People are accepting standards of care that would have been unheard of years ago.

I hear owners justifying no turnout like it’s normal. Oh, my yard doesn’t turn out in winter.My horse copes fine without it. No, they don’t. Horses are designed to move. Keeping them in a box 24/7, walking them for 20 minutes on a horse walker, and thinking that’s a substitute for actual turnout? That’s not horsemanship, it’s convenience. And it’s a ticking time bomb for their physical and mental health.

It’s not just kids, either. There is now an entire generation of adult horse owners who don’t actually know how to look after their horses properly. People who have spent years on riding school horses, never mucked out a stable, never bandaged a leg, never had to nurse a horse through an illness, suddenly finding themselves with their first horse and no idea what they’re doing. And instead of admitting they need help, many of them turn to social media (sometimes it’s ok, but not posts like is this colic?) for advice rather than a vet, a farrier, or an experienced horse person.

It’s terrifying. These are the same people who will argue in Facebook groups about whether their horse is just lazy instead of recognizing pain, who think a horse standing in a stable 24/7 is fine because he doesn’t seem unhappy and who will spend more on a glittery saddle pad than on a proper equine dentist. Owning a horse should come with more than just a financial commitment, it should come with a commitment to education. But right now, there are too many owners who simply don’t know what they don’t know.

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬, 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

So, what’s the solution? We need to bring back the grit. Pony Clubs, riding schools, livery yards everyone needs to make stable management a non negotiable part of equestrian life again. Not a boring add on. Not an optional extra. An essential, just like knowing which end of the horse kicks.

And for those of us who lived through the ‘earn your saddle time’ era? It’s on us to pass that knowledge down. Teach the young ones how to tell the difference between a horse that’s playing up and a horse and a horse that’s in pain. Show them that grooming is not just a way to make your horse shiny for pictures it’s how you check for cuts, lumps, or signs of discomfort. Explain why turnout isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.

𝐀 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞

I miss those Friday nights at Pony Club. The smell of damp hay, the constant background noise of ponies trying to eat things they shouldn’t, the feeling of pride when you finally got your plaits neat enough that your instructor didn’t sigh in disappointment.

We need to bring that back, not just for nostalgia’s sake, but for the horses. Because if we don’t, we’re going to end up with a generation of riders who can execute a perfect flying change but don’t know what to do when their horse colics at 2 a.m. And that? That’s the kind of horror story no equestrian wants to live through.

Sunny and the farmer spec gate 😂

10/03/2026

The Cheltenham Festival has started today. Let’s hope that it is what it is supposed to be, a festival.

I hope all the horses return safe and sound. Don’t forget that these horses are equine athletes, despite what anti-race goers say. These horses are bred for this. They love to run and jump. Although some aren’t that keen on the jumping side, a good trainer will either work on the jumping problem or be up front to the owner and say that horse doesn’t like jumping.

But the one consistent thing with thoroughbreds is their desire to run. Yes they might plant themselves at the start of a race, but that doesn’t always mean that they don’t like running. They might not be very fast in some cases and they might not like the actual racing part, but they do like to run. A lot of thoroughbreds take part in eventing.

Some horses like soft ground. I know of some who like it bottomless, they love wading through mud! Some like the going to be good, with some give to cushion them. Some like running and in some cases, jumping on ground that is like concrete. It’s their personal preferences.

It is the trainers job to work out which kind of ground the horse will like. Then he has to work out how far the horse will actually run. Is he fast over a short distance or is he a slower horse who likes to run over a longer distance? There are so many questions to ask and to keep the horse happy. An unhappy horse will not run successfully.

A happy horse will try his heart out for you. It’s our job not to abuse that.
It’s our job to look after them.
Quite simple really.

06/03/2026

I’m thinking of rehoming a dog. I’m looking at all the rescues. What I see is a hell of a lot of people advertising dogs from other countries. I’m not against dogs from other countries, but I want to rehome a British dog.

It seems to be a similar situation with horses. I heard from somewhere that 30 horses were imported from Malta. I expect all the protocols were followed, but what I don’t understand is why there were so many foreign horses imported as rescues, when we can’t even rehome the horses and ponies in our own rescues up and down the country. Seems like a kick in the teeth to the people who are trying their best to help animals in need.

Who is to say that in a year, two years, five years from now these imported animals aren’t sitting in our rescues, be it a dog or horse.

There just aren’t enough homes to go round.

Colts need gelding.

Cats and dogs need neutering.

Sorry if that offends, but tough.

03/03/2026

03/03/2026

The breeding season is well underway.

Look at all the photos of foals with their dams. How sweet they look.

I wonder just how many will have happy useful lives and not be shipped off to a slaughter house because an owner has too many, because the horse has been abused, because the horse is ill, because the horse hasn’t been trained correctly and is now ruined. Because the horse is no longer of any use to the owner.

Did you know that on average 4,900 Thoroughbreds are born each year in the UK. That many in the UK, imagine how many are being born all over the world? That’s not including all the other breeds being born. It’s not just racing who are over breeding, it seems to be mandatory in the horse world. The quest to breed the next best equine.

Here is something to think about…..

Why not train the horses and ponies who are trainable now, to be the next best thing in the horse world. Train them properly. Train people to ride properly, without gadgets for a quick fix. It takes time to train a horse correctly.

We need to go back to basics.
Everyone is in such a rush.
And that includes putting a horse on a lorry to slaughter.

03/03/2026

I fed my elderly mare soft feeds. Thankfully her teeth were very good. But I was also able to give her smaller feeds during the day. Old horses cannot take on huge feeds in one or two sittings. Spread the feeds out over the day if you can.

OLD HORSES CAN DIE OF STARVATION IF NOT GIVEN FEED THEY CAN CHEW

Many owners see their elderly horses or ponies getting thinner and thinner despite some bucket concentrate feed, and might assume that 'it's just their age'. These owners often have no idea that all the horse needs is feed in a form that the horse can eat.

Most elderly horses lose weight because they cannot chew very well, and this might be despite good, regular dental care. Horses' teeth grow continuously throughout their lives and will eventually loosen and fall out.

They literally 'run out' of teeth. Even those with teeth left can struggle to chew enough conserved forage (hay/haylage) to maintain condition, because the grinding surfaces of the teeth become smoother.

If these horses are fed just concentrates - especially low-fibre conditioning or veteran feeds - they will struggle, because they will be fibre-deficient.

Older horses who gradually get thinner must have their forage (hay, haylage and eventually grass) replaced with initially chopped forages, then eventually (or if they have diastema), ground fibre sources, soaked to a mash, and eventually may need 100% of their feed from a bag.

It is ignorance, rather than cruelty to let a very old - but otherwise healthy - horse get very thin. But it is absolutely 100% avoidable with the knowledge of what to feed!

The grey horse reflects how older horses can end up looking if they don't have their long forage replaced with chewable alternatives. I have helped a number of owners with old horses this thin.

The dun pony is how an older horse (late 30s) can look despite having lost most of their teeth, when fed 6-8kg forage-replacement feeds daily.

You can claim a free article on feeding older horses and ponies by commenting Oldies below, and you can find an affordable webinar all about feeding oldies on my website.

Please feel free to share
🐴🍏

01/03/2026

𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤

Horses and Ponies Wanted. Top prices paid. Immediate collection.

And we’re all meant to just… what? Ignore it?

If you’ve been around long enough, you know that wording. We used to see it plastered everywhere when the factory trade was strong. (In Ireland we call the slaughterhouse a factory),

Then it went quiet for years, you didn’t see these adverts and…..Now it’s back sitting in the classifieds like it’s normal.

There is no horse slaughter plant operating here. So let’s not play naïve. If someone is paying top prices for horses and promising immediate collection, in numbers, with zero mention of riding homes or resale, where do people genuinely think they’re going?

They’re being exported.

And all of them will end up in the meat chain abroad for human or pet. That is the blunt truth.

And what annoys me? The Irish Examiner running it like it’s just another ad for a second hand tractor. No context. No responsibility. Just a line and a phone number ( which I have blocked out for legal reasons)

We can’t spend years talking about welfare, traceability, responsible breeding, social licence and then act surprised when the bottom falls out of the market and the lorries start filling again,

When these adverts start appearing again, it means demand is back. Not demand for show horses. Demand for bodies. And bodies come from the bottom end of the market we don’t like talking about, usually come from the horses nobody wants to claim when they’re born.

That’s the part that should worry you.

Because every time we overbreed, every time we shrug and say ah sure someone will buy him, this is the safety net people pretend doesn’t exist.

Well. It exists.

You give away that campanion to a “forever home”, this is where he could end up!

And it’s printed in black and white in a national newspaper.