About fifteen years ago I took myself off to a riding stables to learn to ride. It wasn't my first experience of being on horseback - that was as a student, pony trekking with friends. My pony got impatient at the start of the ride, jumped a stream, causing me to lose...

This image was recently posted on Dressage Academy's Facebook page and I'm afraid I find it hilarious. There's something very amusing about seeing someone having a fright - in this case that someone being a 800kg horse.

A fright involves what's known as the 'startle pat...

As we all know, horses can be rather large. Forcing them to cooperate with us would be difficult but coercing them, fortunately, has brought dividends over many thousands of years. Whether you view a horse as a cognitive animal or an animal of flight, it's unique behav...