Summary

In Part 1 of our conversation with Bonny Mealand, she shares her journey into equine podiatry and the development of her HELP model, which emphasizes a holistic, horse-led approach to care. She discusses the importance of understanding horse behavior, building trust, and ensuring emotional safety in interactions. Bonny highlights the significance of observation in equine care and the important role of choice when developing meaningful relationships with horses. The conversation also touches on the challenges of rehabilitating traumatized horses and the potential for riding to be a positive shared experience when approached correctly.

Takeaways

• Bonny's work focuses on a holistic approach to equine care.
• The HELP model emphasizes safety and relationship building with horses.
• Understanding horse behavior is crucial for effective interaction.
• Observation of free-living horses provides insights into their natural behavior.
• Building trust with horses takes time and patience.
• The importance of emotional safety in horse handling cannot be overstated.
• Rehabilitating traumatized horses requires a long-term commitment.
• The HELP wheel serves as a framework for horse-human relationships.
• Touch should be initiated by the horse to ensure comfort.
• Riding can be a part of the relationship if approached correctly.

Kristen Closson possesses a unique trifecta of expertise. As a rider that knows how it should feel, a coach who knows how to create it, and a judge who knows how to assess it.

She has successfully competed through the FEI levels, and then diversified her attention to also include the coaching and the judging aspects of the sport. She assists riders of all levels from young riders to International Grand Prix riders with her keen eye.

Kristen is remains active in education and sports administration, and holds two committee seats at Equestrian NSW, as well as being a coach educator and a judge educator.

In this episode we discuss promoting harmony in dressage through learning how to ask questions and interpret answers, and the role our self awareness plays in this ability.

You can learn more about Kristen's work on her website https://www.clossondressage.com/

Karen and Meta share an interest in Systems Thinking and its potential applications to horse welfare in sport. So when Dr Megan Ross and her co-authors published a paper on wicked problems and systemic issues in Canadian dressage she had to be a podcast guest!

Dr Megan Ross has a background in dressage and eventing. She has an applied science degree from the University of British Columbia with a focus on Animal Welfare and has applied this background (and Pilates certification) as a trainer and riding instructor to support the horse-rider dyad.

She recently completed a PhD at the Atlantic Veterinary College and the University of Prince Edward Islandunder the supervision of Dr. Caroline Ritter and Dr. Kathryn Proudfoot. Her research focused on the human dimension of horse well-being/welfare, exploring owners’ perspectives of horse welfare in their daily life like management andtraining.

She is now conducting postdoctoral research with Dr. Katrina Merkies at the University of Guelph assessing the influence of interventions on rider and horse behaviour during lessons.

Link to the paper discussed in the episode

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388845023_A_wicked_problem_Systemic_issues_surrounding_Canadian_equestrian_dressage_and_dressage_horse_welfare

The map of the issues mentioned by Megan in the episode is available atthis link:

https://static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn%3Acambridge.org%3Aid%3Aarticle%3AS0962728625000028/resource/name/S0962728625000028sup001.pdf