LAEquestrian Coaching

𝗥𝗮𝗴𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁 | 𝗔 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁

The dreaded ragwort is flowering now and is easy to spot. It is also starting to go to seed, so any not removed posthaste will spread through its wind-borne seeds.

The safest way to remove it from horse pastures is to pull or dig it up, hopefully getting all the roots at the same time. Wear gloves and a face mask to protect yourself from the sap and pollen. Gather it into re-used feed bags and put the plants flowers down, roots up, to avoid inadvertently spreading seeds. Put pulled plants straight into the bags – don’t carry them around as this risks spreading seeds.

Once you have collected your ragwort, get rid of it. Take it to the local tip or burn it straight away, but don’t just leave it. It will continue to develop seeds even though you pulled it up and the seeds will spread far and wide on the breeze. Absolutely ensure that no animal can get near it, as once pulled up, it becomes palatable but no less poisonous. Ragwort poisoning builds up over the horse’s life, gradually destroying its liver.

Pony for Sale | Perfect First Pony 9hh | 14 year old | Mare | Brecon

I currently have a couple of absolutely amazing, kind, gentle, reliable and safe children’s ponies in search of new jockeys.

11hh Welsh Sec A Gelding. 19 years.

10hh Shetland Mare. 14 years.

Please get in touch for more info 🦄 🦄 🦄

Why are so many horses being “mis-sold”?

I’m not entirely convinced they are.

You go and try a horse, in its home environment, with people it knows, in a routine it understands. You like what you feel. Maybe you go back and try it again… same place, same setup. It all feels good, and you think this is the one.

Vetting passed and you bring your new horse home...and then everything changes.

New yard. New field. New stable. New people. New routine. New smells, sounds, expectations.

You give them a day. Maybe two. Sometimes not even that.
Then you get on. New tack, different bit, new arena, people watching.

But suddenly, you’re not sitting on the same horse you tried.
They feel different. Tense. Sharp. Spooky. Not quite what you remember.

So now you’re on edge. Watching for everything. Questioning every step, every reaction, every feeling.

And this is where it starts to unravel.

Because what we often forget, or maybe underestimate, is just how big that upheaval is for them.

We’ve taken them out of everything they know, everything that felt safe and predictable, and dropped them into something completely unfamiliar… then expected them to perform exactly the same, almost immediately.

When they don’t, it’s easy to assume something’s wrong.
That the seller wasn’t honest. That the horse isn’t as advertised.

And so the horse gets labelled ''not as described''. The lucky ones are sent back, the unlucky ones are sold on, some going on to boomerang from one place to the next.

But what if the problem isn’t that the horse was mis-sold…
What if it’s that we expect instant consistency from an animal going through complete change?

Horses don’t just arrive and slot neatly into our expectations. They need time to settle, to understand, to feel safe again. They need space to adjust before they can show you who they actually are.
If we don’t give them that, we’re not seeing the horse we bought, we’re seeing a horse trying to cope, and that’s a very different thing.

Maybe the question isn’t “why are so many horses being mis-sold?”
Maybe it’s… are we giving them a fair chance to be the horse we thought we were buying?

This…