July 17, 2026: Learning to Listen

One of the things I’ve realized over the past several months is that horses are constantly talking to us.

The problem is…they don’t speak English.

Instead, they communicate through tiny shifts in their body, their ears, their eyes, the way they carry themselves, and even through their feet. Learning to understand that language doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years, sometimes decades, and that’s exactly what struck me this week.

The Sixth Sense of Experienced Horsemen

Tuesday’s lesson with Sarah was what I jokingly called an “attitude adjustment” for Bee.

Truthfully, it was probably just as much an attitude adjustment for me.

Sarah has this uncanny ability to feel Bee thinking before Bee actually does anything. It’s difficult to explain unless you’ve watched someone ride at a very high level. Bee shifts her weight ever so slightly. A shoulder starts to drift. Her body begins to lean toward the barn. Before I even recognize what’s happening, Sarah has already made a quiet correction.

It’s almost like she’s reading Bee’s mind.

Of course, she’s not.

She’s reading Bee’s body.

That kind of feel isn’t something you develop after watching a few YouTube videos. It comes from thousands upon thousands of hours in the saddle.

The encouraging part?

I think I’m finally beginning to notice those little moments too.

Not always.

Not consistently.

But I’m starting to anticipate when Bee is about to become a “looky-loo” or decide she’d rather head back to the barn than continue our ride. I don’t always catch it in time, but I’m beginning to feel it before it happens.

That’s progress.

And sometimes progress is simply noticing something a second earlier than you did last month.

A Morning with Barrel Racers

We’ve also been making a concentrated effort to find Bee the right home.

Rather than advertising her simply as a trail horse, we’ve re-listed her as a barrel horse, which is what she was originally trained to do. The response has been encouraging.

This week, one of my sweet friends who lives near the barn invited us over to her property. Her daughter, Addison, competes in barrel racing, and they generously spent their morning helping evaluate Bee and capture new videos.

Watching someone experienced ride your horse is both exciting and humbling.

Addison’s assessment matched almost everything Sarah has been telling me for months.

Bee has all the buttons.

She’s athletic.

She’s willing.

She’s smart.

She also knows exactly how to take advantage of an inexperienced rider.

While Bee has previously competed in the cloverleaf barrel pattern and pole bending, it’s been quite a while. She isn’t as confident as she once was. She occasionally drops a shoulder around the barrels, misses the correct lead, and simply isn’t as strong as she needs to be.

The good news?

Every single one of those things is fixable.

An experienced rider willing to spend a few months rebuilding her strength, conditioning, and confidence would have a wonderful partner.

She’s the kind of horse that would make a fantastic second horse for someone looking to develop another competitor or an experienced rider wanting a fun horse for local play days.

She isn’t the right horse for me.

But she is absolutely the right horse for someone.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of the morning had nothing to do with barrels.

Addison rode Bee out onto unfamiliar parts of the property. Bee became nervous, just as I expected she might. But instead of spinning back toward the barn, she listened. Addison quietly worked through it, and Bee settled right down.

I couldn’t have been prouder.

Watching her trust someone else reminded me just how far she’s come.

I also couldn’t be more thankful to Addison and Rachel for donating their time, knowledge, and encouragement. Horse people are some of the most generous people you’ll ever meet.

What Bee’s Feet Told Us

Daniel Meeghan came out to trim Bee’s feet.

Farriers don’t just trim hooves.

They read them.

Daniel immediately noticed something else.

Bee has gained weight.

Honestly, that wasn’t a surprise.

Back at Equine Obsession she’s living her best life. The horses are fed generously, and during the summer they’re turned out at night where the pasture buffet stays open until morning.

Daniel explained something I hadn’t fully appreciated before.

When pasture grass is grazed very short, especially during periods of active growth, the plant stores more non-structural carbohydrates, or sugars. Easy keepers like Bee can consume more sugar than we’d expect just by grazing.

One place those dietary changes often show up?

The feet.

Daniel noticed Bee has what’s called stretched laminae in her front feet.

If you’ve never heard that term, imagine the inside of a horse’s hoof as thousands of tiny pieces of Velcro. One side attaches to the hoof wall while the other attaches to the coffin bone inside the hoof. Together, they suspend the horse’s weight inside the hoof capsule.

When those tiny structures begin to stretch, the connection weakens slightly. It often shows up as a wider white line near the toe or a slight flare in the hoof wall. While stretched laminae don’t automatically mean a horse has laminitis, they can be an early warning sign that the hoof is under mechanical or metabolic stress.

Fortunately, Daniel caught it early.

Why Good Farriers Don’t Rush

My first thought was simple.

“So…can’t we just trim it off?”

Not exactly.

Hooves grow slowly, about a quarter to three-eighths of an inch each month.

If a farrier tries to correct every imbalance in one appointment, the horse can become sore, tendons and ligaments can be stressed, and healthy heel growth can actually be compromised.

Instead, experienced farriers make gradual corrections over multiple trim cycles.

Think of it like orthodontics.

You don’t move teeth all at once.

You make small adjustments over time until everything lines up correctly.

The same philosophy applies to healthy hoof care.

Sometimes the fastest way to fix something is actually the slowest.

For now we switched into a different shoe and are going to work on her diet That means less alfalfa and maybe a grazing muzzle.

Remind me to tell you about hot shoeing!

Listening

This week reminded me that horses are incredibly honest.

They tell us when they’re unsure.

They tell us when they’re overfed.

They tell us when they trust us.

They tell us when our timing is a split second too late.

And apparently…

They even tell us what they’ve been eating by the way their feet grow.

The challenge isn’t getting our horses to communicate.

They’re already doing that.

The challenge is learning to listen.

Thankfully, I have some incredible people helping me learn the language.

And one pretty special mare who’s patient enough to keep teaching me.

Horse Sense - Why Experienced Riders Make It Look Easy

One of the biggest misconceptions about riding is that experienced horsemen simply have “better balance.”

While that’s certainly true, their greatest skill is often something you can’t see.

They develop what’s called feel.

Feel is the ability to recognize tiny changes in a horse’s movement before those changes become obvious. It comes from years of experience noticing weight shifts, muscle tension, rhythm changes, ear position, and countless other subtle cues.

It’s why an experienced rider often prevents a spook before it happens or redirects a horse before it decides to turn toward home.

The good news?

Feel isn’t magic.

It’s learned.

One ride at a time.