07/06/2026
Axle Blue Equine Services
Often l tell my students aspiring to train horses, "Horses, only reach as far as we set the bar". If you're ok with sloppy transitions, a sluggish back up or poor response that's what you'll always get. Until you expect more and push them more, you'll never get different results. Often we make excuses for why they don't do better when it really comes down to just a lack training. I've seen a lot of posts the past few days of upset people within the equestrian world about fireworks. The fact is, the 4th of July comes around every year without fail and we know it will. Why not properly prepare our horses for a holiday that comes every year? Our horses lack of training isn't our neighbors responsibility. Lack of proper desensitizing is lack of training. Horses have been used for 100s of years in battle. During the civil war they'd charge right into enemy fire, pulled wagons of ammunition and often taught to lay down as a shield to their mount as a musket was fired over the top of them. We have horses like Comanche from the civil war then Black Jack from WW1 who died with full military honors. These warriors didn't come out of the womb fearless of bright explosions, loud sounds, or a trembling earth, someone took the time to prepare them. Horses potential hasn't changed from war times, our standards and expectations have. Blaming the environment or the neighbor isn't going to ever fix the hole in training. I can say living next to a bombing range and the loud after burner of jets flying over daily has probably been a great desensitization for my herd, but l always enjoy seeing them stand with their feet cocked watching the neighborhood fireworks every year. It turns out they were only born with the potential of actually enjoying the fireworks as much as l do, but l did take time to teach them fireworks were alright. We've got almost a full year till next July therefore more than enough time to prepare them. If we demand bands on fireworks, what next will we demand bans on within in our horses environment? Why not just create better, more reliable horses?
