South Wind Equestrian Center

09/07/2025

Load Transfer: The Invisible System That Keeps Horses Sound (Until We Break It)

(This is probably the most significant blog I have written to date...and I am deadly serious.)

1️⃣ Why We Miss the Point

Most riders and owners look at legs, joints, or hooves when a horse goes lame. We obsess over hock injections, tendon scans, or shoeing tweaks.

But here’s the blind spot: horses aren’t Lego sets where you can just swap out a dodgy block and keep stacking. They’re whole systems where forces - rider weight, ground impact, propulsion - have to be absorbed, stabilised, and passed on like the world’s most complicated game of pass-the-parcel. That process is called load transfer.

If load transfer works, the horse moves fluidly, distributes force safely, and stays sound. If it doesn’t, the wrong bit cops the pressure - joints, tendons, ligaments - until it breaks. Cue “mystery lameness” and your savings account crying into a feed bucket.

2️⃣ What Load Transfer Actually Is

Load transfer is the art of sharing forces across the horse’s whole body:
- Hooves = shock absorbers (your horse’s Nike Airs).
- Tendons and ligaments = springs (boing, boing).
- Core and spine = suspension bridge (though honestly, comparing a living, moving horse to a bridge bolted to the ground is a bit crap - sorry Tami, I’ll get to you in a second and anyone else having a fit over my analogies :P ).
- Hindquarters = the engine room.
- Trunk = the bridge deck, carrying weight forward.
- Nervous system = Wi-Fi (sometimes 5G, sometimes “buffering…”).

It’s not one joint or one leg doing the work - it’s a team effort. And when one player drops the ball, the others cover… until they tear something.

3️⃣ How It Gets Compromised in Domestication

Here’s the catch: our horses don’t live or move the way evolution intended. Instead, we’ve gifted them the equine version of late-stage capitalism:
- Sedentary living → Wild horses walk 20 km a day. Ours do laps of a 20 x 60 and then slouch around on the couch bingeing Netflix. Fascia weakens, cores collapse, proprioception clocks off.
- Gut health issues → Ulcers, acidosis, restricted forage. Imagine doing Pilates with chronic indigestion. Goodbye stabilisers, hello bracing.
- Rider influence → Saddles, weight, wobbly balance. A hollow back under a rider = hocks and forelimbs eating all the force. “Congratulations, you’re now a wheelbarrow.”

And then we act shocked when the “bridge” collapses and the legs file for workers’ comp.

4️⃣ Why This Explains Early Breakdowns

A horse with poor load transfer isn’t just inefficient - it’s a ticking time bomb.
- Hock arthritis by six.
- Suspensory tears that never heal.
- Kissing spine in a horse that never learned to lift.

This isn’t bad luck. It’s physics. And yes, physics is painful. But so is paying vet bills the size of your mortgage repayments.

Once you see it, the endless cycle of injections and rehab isn’t fate — it’s the logical result of pretending your horse is four pogo sticks with ears instead of a system that has to share the damn load.

5️⃣ Why Talking About This Will Probably Annoy You

Here’s the thing: people who really understand the sheer magnitude of load transfer will most likely confuse you… or offend you.

My good friend Tami Elkayam is the one responsible for hammering this into my thick skull. And I’ll be honest: it took four clinics and two years of friendship before the penny really dropped. She will read this and her hair will stand on end, because load transfer and how the body works is far more interconnected and complex than I’ve made it here.

Because here’s the reality: there is a reason your six-year-old has the joints of a 27-year-old, or why your horse developed kissing spine. And while I’m pretty good at spotting when dysfunctional load transfer has already chewed through a part of the horse… my bigger mission now is to spread the word before more horses — and bank accounts — get wrecked.😎

It may sound like physics, and physics isn’t sexy. But this is physics that explains your vet bills, your training plateaus, your horse’s “difficult” behaviour, and that nagging sense of “not quite right.”

6️⃣ What We Need to Do About It

Instead of obsessing over the parts, we need to step back and care for the system:
- Movement lifestyle → Turnout, hills, hacking, grazing posture. (Not “arena prison with cardio punishment.”)
- Gut health → Forage first, low starch, fewer ulcers. (Because no one engages their core mid-stomach cramp...and that's not even mentioning how digestion impacts the whole things - that blog is for another day)
- Training for posture → Lift the back, wake up the core, balance the bridge. (“More forward” and "rounder" isn’t a strategy, in fact saying those things can be part of the problem...)
Rider responsibility → Balanced seat, good saddle fit, some self-awareness. (Yes, because we have a massive impact on load transfer and how dysfunctional we make it...but let's get the idea in our heads before we beat ourselves up.)
Preventive care → Conditioning, fascia release, thoughtful management. (“Wait for it to break, then panic” is not a plan.)

7️⃣. Closing

Load transfer is the invisible system that keeps horses sound. When it fails, the legs, joints, and tendons take the hit - and horses “mysteriously” break down.

The tragedy isn’t that we can’t prevent it. It’s that we’re too busy staring at hooves or arguing on social media about everything from bits to barefoot to notice the actual system collapsing under our noses.

Once you understand load transfer, you can’t unsee it. And once you can’t unsee it, you’ll never settle for patching symptoms again. You’ll start caring for the whole horse - because that’s the only way to keep the bridge standing, the system working, and your horse sound.

This is Collectable Advice 17/365 of my notebook challenge.

❤Please share this if it made you think. But don’t copy-paste it and slap your name on it - that’s the intellectual equivalent of turning up to an office party with a packet of Tim Tams and calling it “homemade.” This is my work, my study, my sweat, and my own years of training horses (and myself) before figuring this out (well with Tami Elkayam's patience too). Share it, spread it, argue with it - but don’t steal it.

08/17/2025

About right!

08/17/2025

Buckle up. It's a long one. Let’s talk about patience poles.

You’ve probably seen it on TikTok - a horse tied to a post or tree, short and high, left to “figure it out.”

The goal? To “teach patience.”

The result? Often misunderstood, and sometimes deeply harmful.

Here’s what’s actually happening.

A patience pole (some people use a tree) is typically a tall, fixed object where a horse is tied for extended periods.

It's often used to "break" fidgeting, pawing, pulling back, or other behaviors people consider rude or disobedient. Some trainers use it regularly. Some use it as a one-time “lesson.”

But what’s being taught isn’t patience. It’s something else.

So, why do people use them?

The idea behind it is that the horse will go through its tantrum, realize it’s futile, and “settle.”

What’s often interpreted as learning is actually a freeze response.

Because of the freeze response, this method continues because it looks like it works. The horse gets quiet. The behavior stops. But inside that horse’s nervous system, something entirely different is going on.

From a learning theory standpoint, patience poles rely on flooding - a technique where an animal is exposed to a stimulus it finds aversive until it stops reacting.

It’s widely discouraged in behavioral science due to its risk of trauma, especially when escape is impossible.

According to Paul McGreevy and Andrew McLean (founders of the International Society for Equitation Science), horses tied and unable to flee can experience extreme stress that engages the limbic system, the brain’s emotional and survival center.

When this happens, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for rational thought and learning, shuts down.

In other words, the horse isn’t learning anything. It’s trying to survive.

That stillness you see? That’s not patience.

It’s a conditioned shut-down response, or the buzzword of the 2020's - learned helplessness. When animals (humans included) believe there’s no escape, they stop trying. Not because they’re calm, but because they’ve given up.

Horses that panic under restraint are at high risk for physical injury.

Studies in equine biomechanics and veterinary medicine have documented the effects of poll pressure, neck strain, and TMJ compression due to sudden or repeated pulling.

Fractures at the base of the skull or cervical spine

Strained nuchal ligament and neck musculature

Lingering soreness that makes future handling or bridling more difficult

Behavioral sensitization or reactivity when tied, trailered, or confined

And of course, there’s the unseen trauma - what that horse now associates with being restrained, alone, and unheard. Sometimes that trauma buries itself - and you get an unexpected explosion months or years down the road.

My take: this isn’t training. It’s a shortcut.

Force enters the picture when education/patience runs out.

And yet, when someone chooses a gentler approach, shaping behavior, supporting regulation, creating safety, they’re mocked for being “soft.”

But here’s the truth: soft training doesn’t create dangerous horses.
Lack of education does.

We’ve normalized calling horses “bullies” or “brats” as a way to justify using harsh methods.

But horses aren’t manipulative. They’re not testing us.

They’re communicating as clearly as they can. If we don’t understand, that’s our gap to close.

So what can we do instead?

There are safer, more effective ways to help a nervous horse learn to stand quietly:

Teach standing behavior through successive approximation (small steps toward the final behavior, reinforced positively). Warwick Schiller teaches this - and well.

Use positive reinforcement (like food or scratches) to reward calm behavior

Address physical discomfort or anxiety that makes stillness feel unsafe

Teach patience while moving first - walking, stopping, rewarding

Use safer methods, like blocker ties or teaching ground-tying, as interim steps

Remember, if the horse is dangerous - protected contact is your friend.

But please, stay present. Don’t tie them and walk away or stare at them and call it training.

If you’ve used a patience pole this way in the past, this isn’t about shame. We all do the best we can with what we know.

But we’re at a point in our relationship with horses where we can’t keep clinging to tradition over truth.

You deserve to know how to train your horse with clarity, confidence, and compassion.

And your horse deserves to be trained by someone who sees behavior as communication, not disobedience.

I don't care if you came from a long line of cowboys who've trained 400 colts and we've always done it this way blah blah blaaaaah.

It’s time to retire the shortcuts.

Let’s do better, for them, and for ourselves.

Photo cred: Clinton Anderson 🙃

08/12/2025

“Where the Horse Carries the Mountains”

They say the horse is not just muscle and bone—
it is the memory of the land,
galloping through time.

Within its chest,
the sun rises over sacred peaks,
casting light upon the old paths
where ancestors once rode
with wind-braided hair and prayers on their tongues.

Its mane is woven from starlight and storm,
its eye holds the quiet knowing of the forest.

This is not just a horse.
It is a world in motion.
A spirit that runs between earth and sky,
between silence and thunder,
carrying mountains not on its back—
but within its soul.

08/11/2025

08/02/2025

What is your horse eating? Did you know horses digestive systems were designed to only process forage/grasses. Therefore, it is vitally important that you provide a forage based diet, test that forage, and then supplement as needed for missing nutrients regionally.

If you add grains for example, or sugars, it will in fact force your horse to expend energy and potentially suffer from inflammation as a result of introducing these into your horses body.

Domesticated horses completely rely on humans to provide their all of their nutritional needs, and so we must do the research. Please do your homework if you want your equine partner to be able to fulfill your expectations of it, whether that be competing, working on a ranch, trail riding, or providing therapy.

Here is an article for example on hay testing. Yes, you should ask for hay tests from your hay supplier, or test they hay yourself with a reputable lab. Horses should not be eating hay with protein content above 14%. It is simply to hard to digest. Additionally most hay does not have enough magnesium for horses, or often Vitamin E and Selenium. I also always recommend a loose mineral salt and ground flax for every horse in the barn. Now, go research!!! Your horse deserves it!

How veterinarians can use hay analysis to guide their clients’ feeding strategies and maximize equine health.

07/28/2025

😂

Bahahaa!! 🤣🤣🤣

02/13/2025

Please, please, please do not override your young horses. You should not be riding a horse that’s less than two years old, you certainly should not be cantering, loping around or jumping. Anything that will put too much pressure on their developing joints. Here is an article. Please read it. Please do not sentence these horses to short And painful careers for quick money, oftentimes having these horses ending up in the slaughter pipeline because of lameness.

Determining the best age to begin training young horses is a heated debate within the equine industry. While many believe that horses should be skeletally mature when training begins, others believe it is unnecessary to wait 6 years until skeletal maturity. An online poll by an equine feed company i...