The Elevated Equestrian

There's more horse information at your fingertips than ever, and somehow owners are more anxious than ever. Fran of The Honest Equine wants to help you become a better observer of your horse without becoming an anxious one.Fran is an equine musculoskeletal and rehabilitation practitioner based in the north of England. She spent years in racing and racehorse retraining before studying equine therapy and rehabilitation at university, and her work now spans functional assessment, hands-on treatment, rehab, prehab, and owner education. She's built her practice around knowing her scope, working as part of a team with vets, farriers, saddle fitters, and trainers, and being honest with owners about what their horse is actually telling them.We get into what "evidence-based" really means (it's not finding one study that agrees with you), why sometimes the most evidence-informed answer is "we don't know yet," and why a horse with horrendous X-rays can be going beautifully. We talk about prehab as building the capacity your horse needs before it becomes the thing holding them back, why variety in surfaces, terrain, and work matters, and how long lining or watching someone else ride your horse shows you what you can't feel from the saddle. Then we walk through the rehab path for a kissing spines horse: what injections and mesotherapy actually do (they don't create space between the spinous processes, they buy you a window), why groundwork comes before the rider, and why Fran works within the limits of the horse, not the rider. We also talk about serviceably sound horses, Sue Dyson's Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram, and why not every behavior is a diagnosis.If you've ever scrolled past a post and thought "oh no, my horse does that," this one's for you.Follow The Elevated Equestrian so you never miss an episode, and if this one lands, send it to a horse owner who's drowning in information.

Every horse professional has been told there's no money in horses. Colton Woods thinks that belief is exactly what's keeping you broke.Colton spent a decade training hunters, jumpers, and dressage horses in Lexington, Kentucky before pivoting to what he does now: helping established horse professionals build businesses that actually pay them. He and his wife Meredith run Horse Business Builders out of North Texas, and in this episode he walks through his own story, from starting with $3,000 and a two-door Acura full of tack, to a half-empty barn at $800 a month full training, to the mentor phone call that changed everything. The people who wanted to send him horses weren't holding back because he was too expensive. They were holding back because he was too cheap to take proper care of their horse. He raised his prices 50% and had a waitlist within 90 days.We get into why marketing is an act of service and not a sales pitch, his CVC framework for getting clear on your calling, your vehicle, and your client, why a decision literally means cutting everything else away, and the question his wife uses to keep him honest: does this take your face, your voice, your skills, or your talent? If not, why are you the one doing it? We also talk about what "sustainable" actually means when you're mentally, physically, and financially drained, why mindset is most of the coaching he does, and the single most powerful question he asks every professional he works with: if you could do your very best work with the right horse and the right client, what would that look like, and what would have to be true to make it possible?If your business feels more like a cage than a vehicle, this one's for you.Follow The Elevated Equestrian so you never miss an episode, and if this one lands, send it to a horse professional who needs to hear it.

What if you worked out your hourly rate and it came to six pence? That's exactly what happened to one barn owner — and it's more common than you think. In this episode, Samantha Baer sits down with Cheryl Johns, founder of LiveryList (the UK's leading livery yard directory) and the Yard Owner Hub, to talk about the business side of the horse world nobody wants to discuss: why barn owners consistently undervalue their time, why cheap yards stay full while high-quality barns struggle to fill stalls, the guilt culture around raising board prices, and how unregulated the livery industry really is. Cheryl shares how she built LiveryList from a literal dream in 2010 into a 15-year business with 800+ yards, plus the organizational systems that let her run it all solo. Whether you run a barn, board a horse, or dream of doing either, this conversation will change how you think about what horse care is actually worth.Follow The Elevated Equestrian wherever you listen, and find everything Samantha is up to at samanthabaer.com.

Not everyone with a deep passion for horses ends up making a living riding them. Some of them end up orbiting the sport instead — building the products, platforms, and services the rest of us depend on. That's what this new series is about.First up: Laura St. Clair, Hanoverian breeder and co-founder and CEO of ICONEQ, a sport horse platform people tend to describe as Zillow for sport horses. Every horse in one place, fully searchable, pedigrees hyperlinked, priced, located, and not buried under fifty Facebook groups.Laura's background is commercial real estate, and it shows — she came into this looking at how we present and market sport horses in this country and found most of it counterproductive. We talk about why the breeding market is struggling, why "inquire for price" is quietly costing sellers buyers, what actually makes a listing work, and how registry partnerships with the American Trakehner Association, KWPN-NA, and the American Hanoverian Society are changing where horses get discovered.We also get into Yards, ICONEQ's newer functionality that makes training services searchable by location, why recognizing young horse trainers matters, and how a technology company ends up trying to make this industry more human rather than less.Find Laura: iconEQ.com | ICONEQ Technologies on Facebook More from me: samanthabaer.com — training philosophy, blog, and Ride Along, my audio subscription that puts you in my pocket for real rides with real horses. Start with the 2 free lessons.

Why does your horse stand crooked — and what is it costing him? In this episode, Dr. Karen Gellman, veterinarian and research scientist behind Postural Rehabilitation, explains how neutral posture is the foundation of soundness, and why the most common lamenesses we treat trace back to a horse who simply can't stand up square.We cover the three factors driving abnormal compensatory posture — the hooves, the teeth, and the upper cervical spine — and why fixing only one of them means the horse reverts within weeks. Dr. Gellman breaks down how the TMJ is hardwired into postural control, why an untreated overjet or offset jaw changes where a horse loads his feet, and how negative palmar angles crush the navicular bone and cause navicular disease.We also get into hypermobility and ECVM, why instability presents as anxiety and spookiness, and what "up foot/down foot" really tells you about a horse's whole body.If this episode gave you something to look at differently, follow the show wherever you're listening — it genuinely helps more horse people find it.For training resources, ride-along lessons, and everything else I'm working on, head to samanthabaer.com