Welcome to Grey Mare

Thinking harder about horses.

I’ve been around horses for most of my life. Long enough to have watched ideas about feeding, training, veterinary care, management and welfare come into fashion, disappear and occasionally return twenty years later with a new name and a higher price tag.

And after all those years, I find myself with more questions, not fewer.

Are we actually getting better at looking after horses?

How much of what we do is supported by evidence - and how much is simply the way horse people have always done it?

When everyone says the horse comes first, what happens when putting the horse first conflicts with money, competition or ambition?

And what about the enormous industry built around our desire to do the best for our horses? Do they really need everything we're being persuaded to buy?

These are the sorts of questions Grey Mare is here to explore.

Experience, evidence and horses

I’m Henrietta Forrest. I’m 59 and I've spent decades riding, owning, breeding and competing horses. I currently have six, from youngsters through to retirees.

That experience doesn't make me an expert on everything. If anything, it has made me increasingly suspicious of people who are.

There is more research into horses and their welfare available to ordinary owners than ever before. Some of it confirms what good horsemen have known for generations.

Some of it challenges it.

And some of it is decidedly inconvenient.

Still riding. Still learning. Still asking questions.

That's usually where things get interesting.

Grey Mare will look at research, current thinking and what's happening in the horse industry and ask what it actually means for those of us who own, ride and care for horses.

I'll talk to people who know more than I do. I'll look for evidence. I'll question accepted wisdom. And I'll bring the perspective of somebody who has spent enough years on yards to know that what works beautifully in theory doesn't always survive first contact with a horse.

The horse world has plenty to argue about

Turnout. Shoes. Bits. Feeding. Supplements. Training methods. Breeding. Competition. Retirement. Rider weight. Horse prices. Veterinary intervention. Welfare.

Mention almost any of them among a group of horse people and somebody will eventually become cross.

That's fine.

Grey Mare isn't about manufacturing outrage or pretending there's one correct way to keep or train every horse.

But it is about being willing to ask awkward questions.

Why do we do it that way?

Who says it's better?

What's the evidence?

Is it better for the horse - or simply more convenient for us?

And occasionally: are we kidding ourselves?

Why Grey Mare?

Because I'm old enough to remember quite a lot, curious enough to keep learning, and experienced enough to know that horses have an irritating habit of making fools of anyone who thinks they've finally got them figured out.

There'll be research, opinion, interviews and stories from the horse world. Sometimes I'll be serious. Sometimes I won't.

I won't always be right, either.

But I will try to find out.

And if something you read here occasionally makes you stop and think:

Hang on. Why do we do it that way?

Then Grey Mare is doing its job.

Welcome to Grey Mare.

Subscribe if you’d like to keep reading. Comment if you’ve got something to add. Disagree if you think I’ve got it wrong. Good conversations about horses shouldn’t require everyone to agree.