Groundwork Horse Tech

16/08/2026

🐴 “Naughty.” “Stubborn.” “Rude.” They might seem like harmless words, but could they actually change how we treat horses?

At the ISES 2026 Conference, Susie Catherall Ostler presented “Words matter: The prevalence and impact of negative emotive language in the equine industry.”

In a survey of 355 participants, every participant had heard negative emotive language used to describe horse behaviour, and 97% admitted using it themselves.

But the most striking finding was what happened when researchers changed only the language used to describe a horse’s behaviour. Participants shown descriptions using negative emotive language were significantly more likely to suggest sedation and, in some scenarios, positive punishment, despite seeing the exact same video of the horse.

People who reported using this type of language more frequently were also less likely to suggest giving the horse time, considering their emotional state or physical discomfort, or using desensitisation.

The takeaway is simple but powerful: the words we use can shape the decisions we make.

Instead of labelling a horse as naughty, stubborn or rude, asking why they are behaving that way could lead us towards more horse centred responses.

14/08/2026

10/08/2026

The attention spans walking into your arena today are genuinely different from the ones you were teaching ten years ago. Some of it is neurodevelopmental from ADHD and other attention processing differences that require real adjustments in how you teach. Some of it I believe is due to a generation raised on short form video content and constant digital stimulation simply does not sit with sustained focus the way previous generations did. Either way the student is in front of you and the lesson needs to work for them. Here is how to make it work...

1. Shorten your explanations and lengthen their riding time.
The biggest mistake with attention limited riders is talking too much. A student with ADHD or a shortened attention span cannot hold a multi step verbal explanation in their working memory long enough to execute it so give one clear instruction and let them ride it. Correct in real time as they move rather than front loading the lesson with everything they need to know before they start. Less talking and more doing in the arena! The feedback loop of trying something and feeling the result is how attention limited riders learn best - not through listening.

2. Keep the exercises short and change them frequently.
A student who is losing focus on a twenty meter circle will find it again the moment you introduce a new task. Build your lessons in short blocks of so many minutes on one exercise before transitioning to the next exercise. This is not pandering to a short attention span, it is working with how the brain actually processes and retains new information. Frequent transitions between exercises also mean more transitions between gaits and more demands on steering and spatial awareness which is genuinely better riding education than drilling the same exercise until everyone is bored including the horse.

3. Use games and challenges to create focus without pressure.**
A rider who is struggling to maintain attention on a flatwork exercise will often lock in completely the moment you turn the exercise into a game or a challenge. Timed cone weaving. Ground pole courses. Counting strides between poles. Pattern challenges with a specific goal. The task creates focus in a way that a drilling exercise simply cannot because there is a clear objective and a clear result. The skills being developed are identical but the delivery is different and for an attention limited rider the delivery is everything.

4. Give them something to do with their hands and their body at all times.
Idle time is attention span kryptonite. A student waiting their turn in a group lesson while another rider works an exercise is a student whose focus is already gone by the time their turn comes. Keep everyone moving at all times. While one student works an exercise in the middle of the arena, have the rest of the riders on the rail practicing transitions or navigating a simple task. Nobody stands still and nobody waits. Nobody has the opportunity to check out because there is always something to focus on.

5. Break the lesson into clear segments with transitions between them.
Students with ADHD in particular benefit from knowing what is coming next. A simple verbal roadmap at the start of the lesson such as "today we are going to warm up, then work on transitions, then finish with a game" gives them a structure to hang onto that reduces the anxiety of uncertainty and makes it easier to stay present within each segment. It also gives you a natural tool for redirecting when focus drops to remind them of what is coming next and use the anticipation of the next segment to pull them back into the current one.

6. Praise specifically and immediately.
General praise lands poorly with attention limited riders because it does not give the brain the specific information it needs to repeat the correct behavior. "You are doing great" is meaningless but "You just kept your heels down through that whole transition without me saying a word" gives the brain a precise moment to remember and repeat. Specific immediate praise is one of the most effective focus tools available in a lesson context and it costs nothing to deliver.

7. Adjust your environment where you can.
For riders with genuine ADHD, too much happening in the arena at once such as multiple horses moving, noise, activity at the gate, etc can make it genuinely impossible to filter out distraction and focus on the lesson. Where possible, teach in a quieter environment for these students. A consistent but predictable lesson structure that reduces the number of unexpected inputs competing for their attention. You cannot control everything but small adjustments to the environment make a significant difference for some riders.

8. Work with the parents.
A parent who understands their child's attention profile can give you genuinely useful information about what strategies work at school and at home that you can adapt for the arena. What helps their child transition between tasks. What tends to derail them and what motivates them when focus drops. That conversation makes you a significantly more effective instructor for that specific rider and it builds the kind of collaborative relationship with the family that keeps the student in your program long term.

The student with a short attention span is not a difficult student. They are a student whose brain needs a different delivery system for the same content. I say that from personal experience as I have navigated both ADHD and an auditory processing disorder myself which basically means I only hear so many parts of a spoken sentence. I know firsthand what it feels like to sit in a lesson and genuinely want to absorb what is being taught while your brain processes it completely differently from the person next to you. I know how much it means to have an instructor who figures out how to reach you anyway rather than assuming the problem is effort or attitude.

The students in your program who are struggling to focus are almost never struggling because they do not care. Their brain is just working differently and your job is to find the delivery system that works for that brain rather than expecting the brain to adapt to a system that was not built for it.

How do you keep attention limited riders focused and engaged in your lessons?

29/07/2026

The Equine Documentalist ♥️
The best in the biz!

And if you’re in the USA? 🇺🇸 .. check out Yogi’s US tour coming up!

29/07/2026

27/07/2026