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understand your horse’s welfare with confidence

learn how to see what your horse is telling you about their needs, comfort and wellbeing, so you can make better decisions every day

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a practical, evidence‑based course using the CARE Framework to help you really understand what your horse needs, spot problems earlier and make better day‑to‑day decisions for their wellbeing

 

Horses make sense when we understand who they are — not through tradition or guesswork, but through their evolution, behaviour, and the needs they carry as a species. When we see them clearly, everything else becomes easier: their behaviour, their emotions, their movement, and the choices we make for their daily lives.

This short course gives you the essential foundations of equine welfare: the science behind how horses think, feel, move, and interact with their world — and the practical ways you can support them in real, everyday environments.

Whether you’re new to horses or looking to deepen your understanding, you’ll learn how to recognise natural behaviours, spot early signs of discomfort or stress, and make informed decisions about care, training, and wellbeing. Designed to be clear, compassionate, and immediately useful, this course helps you see your horse through an evidence‑led lens — and gives you the confidence to make small changes that create a big difference.

why I created this course 

When I bought Oisín home, I loved him fiercely — but I didn’t yet understand him.

I didn’t know how quietly horses show pain.
I didn’t know how much their environment shapes their behaviour.
I didn’t know how stress hides in “normal” behaviours.
I didn’t know how to advocate for him when something felt wrong.
I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

And because of that, he struggled in ways I didn’t recognise until much later.

This course is everything I wish I’d known back then — the foundations that would have changed everything for him. It’s designed to give you the clarity, confidence, and compassion I had to learn the hard way, so you can support your horse sooner, more gently, and with far less doubt.

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what you’ll learn inside the course

This is a 2–3 hour course with short lessons, quizzes and reflective workbooks to help you move from “I think I understand welfare” to actually assessing and improving it for your own horse.

by the end of this course you will…

Be able to assess your horse’s welfare using the CARE Framework

See beyond basic welfare checklists and understand what your horse is really telling you

Feel more confident spotting when something isn’t quite right, before it becomes a crisis

Know which changes will genuinely improve your horse’s comfort, autonomy, relationships and environment

Have simple tools (quizzes, workbooks and checklists) to regularly review your horse’s welfare over time

Feel less alone and more informed in your decisions about your horse’s care

what you get when you enrol

4 hours of video lessons, broken into short, focused modules

Downloadable reflective workbooks and checklists to apply CARE to your own horse

Quizzes to check your understanding as you go

Ongoing access to all materials, including any future updates to the course

what makes this course different?

Most welfare advice repeats the same checklists, but doesn't help us understand how to create a genuinely good life for our horses.
In this course, you’ll learn using my CARE Welfare Framework – a practical, evidence‑based way to understand what your horse really needs in daily life.

CARE stands for:

  • C – Choice & Agency:  How much choice and control does your horse have over their environment and interactions?
  • A – Access to forage: Is your forage appropriate, and freely accessible to your horse?
  • R – Relationships: Are their social interactions relationships supporting or harming their welfare?
  • E – Earth: Does their living and working environment truly meet their physical and mental needs?

The CARE Framework is built from current welfare research and existing models, simplified into something you can actually use in day‑to‑day decisions with your own horse.

 CARE gives you clarity, not checklists — a way to understand your horse’s needs in the real world.

understanding horses as a species

Learn how horses evolved, how domestication shaped them, and why their behaviour makes perfect sense when viewed through an evolutionary and biological lens. You’ll finally understand why horses act the way they do — and how to support their natural needs in a domestic world.

recognise welfare, pain & stress with confidence

Develop the ability to spot subtle changes in behaviour, posture, and expression. You’ll learn what good welfare looks like, how to identify early signs of discomfort, and how everyday management decisions influence your horse’s physical and emotional wellbeing.

build better daily care, training & communication

From nutrition basics and body condition scoring to learning theory, exercise, and annual health routines, you’ll gain practical, evidence‑led tools you can use immediately. This is the foundation for safer handling, clearer communication, and a more trusting relationship with your horse.

Is this course for you?

This course is designed for horse owners and carers who:

Are fairly new to owning or caring for a horse and worry if you’re “doing it right” 
 
Have learned the standard welfare advice but feel there’s more to understand
 
Want to catch issues early instead of waiting until your horse is obviously in trouble
 
Care deeply about giving your horse the best life you can, not just meeting minimum standards

 

You don’t need a perfect yard or perfect confidence — just the willingness to understand your horse more deeply.

 

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understand your horse: the essentials

  1. module 0: introduction

    4 lessons
    1. introducing Oisin
    2. how to use this course
    3. about your instructor
    4. Oisins' story

  2. module 0: continued

    1 lesson
    1. domestication and the modern horse

  3. module 1: the lens through which we see horses

    13 lessons
    1. the modern horse welfare crisis
    2. what is a horse?
    3. the biological horse
    4. how horses perceive the world
    5. why we must observe and question
    6. the horses emotional landscape: anxiety, stress and learned helplessness
    7. the body-mind connection
    8. behaviour as communication
    9. the language we use
    10. how horses learn
    11. the modern horse and the mismatch problem
    12. the lens through which we see horses - quiz
    13. evolution, behaviour, and the horse’s lived experience reflections

  4. module 2: welfare foundations

    11 lessons
    1. welfare Foundations: how we assess a horse's life
    2. the legal gap: why horses fall through the cracks
    3. why this matters: the case for change
    4. welfare foundation - quiz
    5. introducing CARE
    6. choice & agency
    7. access to forage
    8. relationships
    9. earth
    10. CARE framework - quiz
    11. CARE framework reflections

  5. module 3: when something is wrong

    8 lessons
    1. identifying when something is wrong
    2. recognising pain
    3. posture: a window into the body
    4. gait
    5. stereotypies and environmental stress
    6. the core message
    7. when something is wrong - quiz
    8. when something is wrong, reflections

  6. module 4: equine development

    3 lessons
    1. equine development
    2. equine development - quiz
    3. equine development reflections

  7. module 5: whole horse care

    10 lessons
    1. the importance of whole horse care
    2. body condition scoring
    3. hoofcare: function, not fashion
    4. dentistry: preventing hidden pain
    5. bodywork
    6. parasite management
    7. clipping, grooming, and rugging
    8. planning for the end of life
    9. whole horse care - quiz
    10. whole horse care reflections

  8. module 6: riding & training

    8 lessons
    1. riding and training
    2. why riding is not a weight loss tool
    3. why traditional lunging can be harmful
    4. assessing readiness to ride
    5. equipment - the saddle
    6. equipment - the bridle
    7. riding and training - quiz
    8. riding and training reflections

  9. module 7: management, advocacy & application

    5 lessons
    1. management, advocacy & real-world application of CARE
    2. how to have constructive conversations with professionals
    3. bringing it all together: CARE as a lifelong framework
    4. management, advocacy & real‑world application - quiz
    5. management, advocacy, and real‑world application reflections

  10. case studies

    5 lessons
    1. Django
    2. Jake
    3. Trigger & Tikka
    4. Stu
    5. Dart

  11. references

    1 lesson
    1. references

understand your horse: the essentials

£120

  • A complete, evidence‑led foundation in equine welfare, behaviour, and care — designed to change how you see your horse.

    • Short, accessible course
    • Evidence‑led lessons
    • Practical welfare, behaviour & care guidance
    • Downloadable resources
    • Lifetime access + future updates

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 if you’re ready to understand your horse with clarity and compassion, this course is your starting point.


small changes make a big difference — and this is where they begin.

👉 Join Understand Your Horse: The Essentials today

enroll now

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