Susan Nienaber - horse behaviour & rider confidence

Windsucking, Weaving & other Stereotypies
is the topic for this Saturday's Weekend Breakdown Session

Whether you have a horse that windsucks, crib-bites, weaves, or shows another stereotypical behaviour, or if you are just curious about horses in general, this is a surper interesting topic.

We will go beyond the "it's caused by stress"

Instead we will dive into

✅ What makes some horses more prone to this kind of behaviour ➡️ aka what happens in the horses brain that creates this type of behaviour (my behaviour professor in Uni did a lot of the studies on the neurology of stereotypies, so expect this to be a bit nerdy, but I promise I'll break it down in a way that is easy to understand)

✅ What you can do to prevent it from developing

✅ How you can fix it (if that's possible)

The details
➡️ Saturday @ 10 AM
➡️ Ohariu Valley, Wellington

If you're keen to join, you can RSVP by sending me a Message or text me on 020 4159 9111 😉

The cost is $20 and will include some morning tea & cake as it's also my Birthday on Saturday

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday!!

x Susan

Introducing: Weekend Breakdowns
One topic broken down simply on Saturday or Sunday over 45 minutes - weather permitting

Still going down the centre line wobbly while your coach says he's falling out through the shoulder, but no idea what to actually do about it?

Still stuck at level 1 because you get your body in a twist just thinking about doing a shoulder-in?

It's not rocket science. Most people just haven't been shown the right building blocks.

Session 1 this Sunday @ 10am, Takarau Gorge Road

This weeks breakdown: rhythm.

Because nothing else works without it. Not your contact, not your transitions, not your lateral work.

Come watch and ask questions, so you leave with something to work on.

$20 pp | Limited spaces

Flick me a message to rsvp

As a MSc student I was at a conference where this research got presented, and it stuck with me.

Over the years I've used it to send clients to the vet to get things checked out.

But it's also why I often ask weird questions about how saddles and rugs fit, or if your horse finds certain ridden things difficult when I help with something seemingly unrelated like float training.

Because the things your horse does can tell us a lot about what's really going on.

If your saddle consistently slips or your horse struggles to canter, it's an indicator that he might not want to go on the float because he's sore in his hind end, not because he's scared of going in.

We can then investigate that first before actually spending time getting him on the float.

The Great Saddle Slip Mystery🔍

Your saddle slips to the left.

So naturally, you buy a new girth.

It still slips.🤨

So you buy a fancy anatomical girth, a non-slip saddle pad, and perhaps a breastplate with enough straps to secure a small aircraft.

It still slips.😠

So you call a saddle fitter.

Then another saddle fitter.

Then one recommended by a friend who swears they transformed her horse's life.

It still slips.😖

At this point, many horse owners begin to suspect that they're somehow destined to spend the rest of their life searching for the mythical saddle setup that stays exactly where it should.

But before you spend another dollar on tack or lose respect for your latest saddle-fitter, let me tell you about some fascinating research by Line Greve and Sue Dyson.🤓

Because what they discovered put some very important information on the table to consider when you have a saddle slip issue.

The researchers investigated horses with persistent saddle slip and found that many of them had underlying hindlimb lameness.

Now, stay with me if you just rolled your eyes and think this isn't you case because your horse is clearly NOT lame....

The type of lameness identified was not the obvious kind where the horse is hopping around on three legs.

The subtle kind.🤔

The sort of issue that can quietly affect performance, behaviour, balance, and movement long before anyone recognises it as a soundness problem.

Why?

Because horses with discomfort or dysfunction or weakness in a hind leg often alter the way they move. They redistribute load, change how they push off the ground, and compensate through their body. Those altered forces travel through the horse's back and can gradually push the saddle off centre.

This doesn't just apply to horses with obvious injuries. It can occur in horses with mild lameness, asymmetries, weakness, developmental immaturity, or conditions affecting structures such as the stifle, sacroiliac region, suspensory apparatus, or other parts of the hind limb.

Now here's the part that many people find surprising.

The researchers found that saddle slip was actually associated with well-balanced saddles that had even contact and good flocking.😲

In other words, a saddle that slips isn't necessarily poorly fitted.

In fact, if you've had the saddle checked, adjusted, reflocked, replaced, and the problem keeps returning, there may be something else worth investigating.

The most compelling finding came when the researchers identified the source of the hindlimb pain and used diagnostic nerve blocks to remove the discomfort.

The saddle slip disappeared in 97% of cases.😱

Read that again.

Ninety-seven percent.😱

The saddle didn't change.

The girth didn't change.

The saddle pad didn't change.

The horse's movement changed.🤯

That's a pretty powerful clue.😎

One of the biggest challenges with horses is that we often focus on the symptom we can see rather than the cause we can't.

The slipping saddle becomes the problem.

The canter transition becomes the problem.

The spooky behaviour becomes the problem.

The horse drifting through the shoulder becomes the problem.

But sometimes these things are not separate problems at all.

Sometimes they are all clues pointing towards the same underlying issue.

So if your saddle consistently slips despite multiple fitting assessments and equipment changes, it may be worth considering whether your horse is trying to tell you something.

And if that saddle slip is accompanied by things like:
- Canter difficulties
- Resistance under saddle
- Reactive or spooky behaviour
- Struggles with engagement
then the possibility of an underlying soundness issue becomes even more important to investigate.⚠️

One of the most valuable lessons I've learned working with horses is that behaviour, performance, and movement are often connected in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

A slipping saddle may not always indicate a soundness issue...sometimes it can be a YOU issue, but that is for another article another day.

But if it keeps happening despite your best efforts to fix it, it might be worth looking beyond the saddle.💡

Sometimes the saddle is not the problem.

It's the clue.

References
Greve, L., & Dyson, S. J. (2013). An Investigation of the Relationship Between Hindlimb Lameness and Saddle Slip. Equine Veterinary Journal, 45(5), 570-577.
Greve, L., & Dyson, S. J. (2014). The Interrelationship of Lameness, Saddle Slip and Back Shape in the General Sports Horse Population. Equine Veterinary Journal, 46(6), 687-694.

Collectable Advice 226/365. Please SHARE or hit SAVE. Please no copy and pasting.

I’ve been low key obsessed with the voices of the men on the Boys over the last few weeks. Because how I feel when each one of them speaks tells me so much about how us humans perceive things but also about how each character perceives themselves… and it’s just fascinating to me.

Like why do I find Soldier Boy’s voice kinda hot, even though he is a bit of a wet blanket. And why do I still think Butcher is trustworthy when he speaks, when he has done so many bad things. And why does Homelander sound like he tries too hard?

So I know this comes back to things we’ve been taught to like.

Like a deep voice like Soldier Boy’s is something I likely learned to associate with masculinity, but his voice also sounds like it’s performing this, because it is. So it creates a dissonance, where on one hand it sounds enticing, but something still feels off.

Homelander just sounds like a whiny toddler, because he tries but he doesn’t actually believe in himself.

And Butcher still believes himself that he is doing the right thing and is trustworthy, even though his actions show he’s not.

And what this creates is incongruence. Who they are deep down does not line up with who they want to be. So they perform.

And it’s funny, cause I see this so often in my work. Riders who are very good at telling themselves stories of who they are, but it’s very easy to pick up that those stories and who they actually are don’t line up. And that incongruence is always low key unsettling, and often where riders frustrations with their horses come from.

Half the time riders don't know why the connection isn't there, and it's not because they're doing things wrong and it’s not because their owners are doing things wrong, but because they’ve never looked closely at whether what they tell themselves and the actual person underneath line up. And horses pick up on those inconsistencies quickly.

Someone can say they’re relaxed but a horse can feel they’re not. Someone can look like they are convincing and trustworthy when they are around their horse because they believe that, but their actions don’t line up.

The two characters on the boys who don’t perform are Hugie and Frenchie. You can hear it in their voices, they show genuine emotions and don’t make themselves sound like something they’re not. Hughie doesn’t subscribe to performed masculinity, and Frenchie, by the time we meet him, has clearly worked through things and is now honest.

The riders who don’t perform are often the ones who make the most progress. Because they are honest with themselves about who they are and what they can do.

Last year I ran a programme on the science behind how horses learn.

The participants told me afterwards that they got so much out of it and that it not only reframed how they thought about their horses behaviour, but that they also felt much more confident with their horses.

So I'm running it again, but an updated version.

The Science of Horsemanship is a 10 week live online group programme for riders, horse owners, and equine professionals who want to understand the why behind the what.

Not the why according to any one trainer or method. But the why that comes from the research in horse behaviour and learning. Translated into something that is easy to understand and that is easy to use with your own horse

Because when you understand how horses really learn, process emotion, and experience the world — horses are actually pretty easy to understand.
And you can make better decisions and read situations more clearly.

Whether that means you can finally make sense of a behaviour that confuses you.

Or that you can be more confident in your training — whether that's with a tricky youngster, in competition, or in the work you do with other people's horses.

10 live sessions + recordings
Small group
Science made easy

Comment SCIENCE and I'll DM you a booking link for a free 10 minute chat 💃

We hear a lot of talk a lot about how to train horses. But we talk much less about how horses actually learn. And that difference is quite significant.

A good thing to remember is that techniques are what works.
Understanding how horses learn helps you understand why those techniques work.

When you understand learning theory, the training you do starts to make a lot more sense.

You stop troubleshooting blindly and start making decisions based on what's actually happening for your horse.

⭐A few things that shift when you understand equine learning:

💚 You stop seeing resistance as attitude, and start seeing it as information. Information you can use to troubleshoot.

💚 You realise that timing isn't just important, it's everything in terms of training. Most things that aren't going well happen because of badly timed questions, rewards, moments.

💚 You start noticing what you're actually reinforcing, not just what you're asking for. This is really the key, when you know what you're reinforcing you can actually change your horse's behaviour (both good and bad)

Now here's the kicker, none of this requires a science degree. Just curiosity and a willingness to look at your horse a little differently 😉

What's one thing you wish you'd understood earlier about how horses learn?

You asked the Facebook/Reddit/grazers group about your horses behaviour.

Forty-three replies later you're more confused than when you started.

Someone said it's a dominance issue. Someone else said dominance theory is outdated. Someone recommended a specific bit. Someone told you to ditch the bit entirely. One person blames ulcers. Another blamed your saddle. One person tagged a trainer four hours away.

Sound familiar?

Here's the thing. Behaviour advice without understanding the basics of how horses learn and what drives their behaviour is just noise. Well meaning noise... But noise.

When you understand the foundations, you stop needing to ask everyone else about every problem. You start being able to read your own horse and trouble shoot yourself.

So how many tabs do you currently have open trying to figure out your horses behaviour? 👀

Besides the behaviour and rider confidence work, I also run horse assisted programs out in Ohariu Valley, and last weekend was a special one 🥰