I live in Ireland. It’s a beautiful place with lots of great horse people who are kind and thoughtful towards their horses. And it’s not unusual for horses to be ridden well into their twenties and beyond. 

But over the years I’ve started to notice some changes. 

• Horse owners who send their young horse away to be started, to a trainer who rides the horse over bent, on the forehand and with super strong rein pressure and hard hands. 

• Some dressage trainers who are known for being hard on horses, riding hyperflexed with arm muscles any bodybuilder would be proud of. 

• Some local racing yards who start horses at 2 years of age (or earlier). Because it is important that the horse is ready for large competitions, with a lot of cash prizes on offer. Regardless of the fact their bodies are immature and it will often cause the horse long term health issues.  

This is all done as it’s starting to become ‘normal’. Many people don’t see these training methods as ‘problems’.

In most parts of the world, things become fashionable, then become normal and we lose sight of the most important consideration for all horse owners – to protect our horse’s long term health. 

So I grabbed my camera & decided to do something about it. 

Armed with just a few cameras and an air of optimism, but with zero film qualifications, I decided to film a 7 part horsemanship documentary. 

I invited over 70 of the most inspiring & thoughtful horse people in the world to be featured in the movie. These included Mark Rashid, Jim Masterson, Dr. Robert Miller, Jeff Sanders, Steve Halfpenny, Eitan Beth-Halachmy, Lester Buckley, Smokie Brannaman, Carolyn Resnick, Warwick Schiller, Guy McLean, Kim Walnes, Dagmar, Julie Goodnight, Karen Rohlf and many more. 

Each of the 7 episodes focuses on one area of the horse’s life, including stories and lessons on groundwork, working with young horses and wild horses, ridden work, collection for your horses health, bodywork and animal communication.

The documentary also includes saddle fit, bitless riding, barefoot, the riders mind, building trust and confidence, stabling, home environment, building a great relationship with your horse.

I had lots of challenges getting the documentary made!

From computers giving up the ghost due to the amount of video processing I was doing, dramatically exploding hard drives, lost cameras and a runaway drone in south Australia. There was always something exciting going on!

Since it’s release, the documentary has been enjoyed by over 100,000 horse owners around the world. And it led to the creation of the inspiring online ‘Listening to the Horse’ community.

It recently won the ‘Best International Training Series’ award at the EQUUS Film Festival in the USA. My goal is to inspire people to listen to their horses & improve their health in everything we do. 

Free movie tickets available

Get a free movie ticket to watch episode 1 of Listening to the Horse’ online at www.listentothehorse.com