Distrust is a widespread phenomenon in all types of relationships, including the bond between horse and human. When horses lack trust in their rider, they learn to anticipate, resist, tune out, or display disobedience bordering on aggression. Of course, their distrust is often masked by traits such as spookiness, hypersensitivity, sluggishness, hard-mouthed resistance, or impulsiveness—and the list goes on and on.

However, we must not forget that we, too, lose trust in our horses. Unfortunately, the only real way to rebuild our own confidence in a horse is to learn to trust them again—not to simply look for a new one. To be sure, some horses make it easier for us to regain our trust, but the results are often short-lived. Later on, if we fail to actively cultivate that trust, the old problems will inevitably resurface.

I am not a big fan of rigid, one-size-fits-all systems, so I will simply share ten ways you can use to rebuild trust—at your own discretion and in whatever order works best for you.

1. Personal Responsibility

It is all too easy to blame a speechless horse, labeling them with all sorts of negative terms. By doing so, you shift the responsibility right off your shoulders and onto theirs. How many times have you heard other riders—or even yourself—say that a horse is simply "lazy," "stubborn," "spooky," or "difficult"?

Every time you categorize your horse this way, you instantly absolve yourself of responsibility and reinforce the idea that you play no role in resolving the issue. "I can't do [x] because my horse is [y]."

Try giving your horse a fond, affectionate nickname, describing them as the partner you wish them to be. It is admittedly hard to use warm words when you feel frustrated or angry, but this mental shift is a proven psychological tool. It relieves the horse of the blame in your mind, shifting your focus toward finding real solutions rather than faulting the horse.

2. Acknowledging Your Weaknesses

Just like our horses, we all have weaknesses—whether physical, mental, or emotional. Even top-level, highly successful riders have flaws; they are simply better at managing them so they remain invisible to spectators.

When we attempt to ignore or deny our weaknesses, we destroy any chance of correcting them, creating a barrier between ourselves and our horses. Horses sense these shortcomings and often mirror them right back at us. We might struggle with our seat at the trot—or simply dislike working at that gait—and then wonder why our horse shows the exact same reluctance to trot.

You can work through your weaknesses both independently and alongside your horse. Grab a pen and paper, and draw two columns: one for yourself, one for your horse. Begin by listing every weakness you feel your horse has. This could be physical asymmetry (a stiff or one-sided horse), leaning on the bit, or lack of balance. Mental flaws might include delayed reactions to your aids or, conversely, over-reactivity. Emotional weaknesses could be noted as "anxious when left alone in the paddock" or "nervous in the trailer."

Next, review the list and identify corresponding weaknesses in yourself. "Fears being alone in the paddock" might mirror your own "fear of riding in the arena alone, without my trainer." Be brutally honest with yourself and open up completely. By genuinely understanding both your horse's struggles and your own, you lay the foundation for mutual trust as you begin solving these challenges together.

3. Auditing Your Relationship

There comes a time in life when we pause to question whether a relationship is truly as good as it seems. We might realize that someone is taking advantage of us, reaching out only when they need something, acting out of self-interest, or trying to manipulate us. The exact same dynamics can unfold in our relationship with a horse. Take a moment to reflect on what truly drives you to visit the barn.

Do you feel driven by a sense of obligation? Are you forcing yourself to go see your horse, train, or enter competitions? Is there something you secretly wish you could change? Are you simply burnt out?

Sometimes riders arrive at the quiet, difficult realization that riding no longer means what it did a few years ago. Perhaps it is time to step back, take a break, or shift your focus to a different discipline. Continuing out of sheer habit or resentment only leads to burnout, and that emotional fatigue will never help build trust with your horse.

4. Establishing Healthy Boundaries

How do you feel about people who ignore your personal space during conversation? Do you trust them right away and let them close, or do you put up a wall? Most of us prefer interacting with those who respect healthy interpersonal boundaries.

If a young horse is never taught how to conduct themselves around humans, building a trusting relationship with them later becomes remarkably difficult. They will invade your personal space whether you like it or not, and the longer you postpone teaching these core boundaries, the harder the process will be.

However, this is a two-way street. While teaching your horse to respect your space, you must also learn to respect theirs.

How do you respect a horse's boundaries? For instance, when a horse is eating or resting, refrain from bothering them—let them be. But this does not mean tolerating unwanted behavior when you need to handle them. A horse should not crowd you, run away in the stall, or resist when you put on a halter.

5. Consistency and Predictability

To draw an analogy from human relationships: it is exhausting to communicate with people who are inconsistent, constantly changing their minds, or impossible to read. Likewise, it is difficult to build a connection with someone who drops into your life for a few days only to vanish for six months.

A rider can be equally erratic in their horse's eyes—giving conflicting aids, showing up once a week, and demanding something entirely different every time. This unpredictability erodes trust.

You can only trust your horse when you can anticipate their reaction to a given signal or situation. But how can you ever establish a reliable response if your way of communicating keeps changing?

6. Seeking Help from Experienced Riders

There are moments when our own experience simply isn't enough. In the process of rebuilding trust with a horse, this often means stepping outside our own narrow perspective on the problem. Reaching out for guidance from more experienced riders or coaches can offer invaluable insight and bring much-needed clarity to the situation.

7. Working in the Right Environment

When the riders around you in the arena use harsh aids, shout, or overuse their whips, it becomes virtually impossible to focus on building trust. Choose times to ride when the arena is shared by people with a calmer, more mindful approach. Surrounding yourself with a peaceful atmosphere keeps you in a positive mindset and prevents your horse from losing focus. Observe your barnmates and find a group whose riding philosophy aligns with yours.

8. Giving Room for Mistakes

Trust is fragile and can easily be shaken by doubt. At the same time, true confidence comes from knowing that if you make a mistake, your horse will remain understanding and calm.

You can only fully trust a horse that trusts you enough to forgive an accidental error. If you accidentally brush your leg over their hindquarters while mounting, or lose your balance and fail to sit cleanly in the saddle on the first try, your horse shouldn’t panic.

Occasionally, it is helpful to gently introduce these harmless accidents on purpose. This helps your horse realize that small mishaps are not dangerous, giving you the peace of mind that you will stay safe no matter what happens.

9. Punishment vs. Changing the Task

When we realize we’ve made a mistake, we rarely want to be punished for it. Yet we often punish our horses instinctively, without taking the time to understand what actually went wrong. A horse stops before a jump, and our immediate reaction is a whip and spur. But could they be exhausted? Painful? Bored?

Take a step back and analyze the situation! Pay attention to how your training sessions unfold and listen to what your horse is trying to tell you. If you’ve spent 20 minutes working over cavalletti and your horse suddenly starts hitting the poles, it is time to change the exercise—perhaps by switching to a figure eight. Unjustified punishment will never fix a mistake; it will only shatter your mutual trust.

10. Less is More

The less a person speaks, the more weight their words carry—they speak to the point and only when necessary.

Ensure that every action you take in the saddle or on the ground has a clear purpose. Don’t clutter your riding with background noise or constant, meaningless cues. Listen to your coach, remain present, and cultivate quietness. When you do use a vocal cue to guide your horse, they will actually tune in and listen.

Less is truly more: the more intention you bring to every signal and word, the more trust your horse will place in your guidance.

Cosmos is on a recovery diet right now. Four years without ridden work, and this spring he lost a serious amount of weight on top of that. Eighteen is already a significant age for a horse — the body starts behaving differently than it used to, and the diet needed a full rebuild, not a tweak. On top of that, hay in our region is fairly poor quality — even the stuff that looks decent often doesn't deliver what it should.

When I decided beet pulp would be the backbone of his recovery diet, people started trying to talk me out of it. One piece of advice was literally: feed him corn, because "we've had a few horses put on weight fast that way." An eighteen-year-old, unworked horse. As for beet pulp, mostly what I heard was skepticism — that it's a cheap filler, not anything genuinely valuable.

So, I stuck to my guns: beet pulp is a superfood, and I'm ready to back that up with facts.

Beet pulp is a byproduct of sugar beet processing. What makes it interesting is the sheer amount of soluble dietary fiber in it — mostly pectins, around 20% of dry matter — with almost no starch or lignin. Pectins get almost completely fermented by the microflora in the hindgut, producing volatile fatty acids — essentially clean energy. And studies show that beet pulp's non-starch polysaccharides disappear through the GI tract more efficiently than hay or oat hulls do.

The main advantage: energy without starch. The classic problem with most rations is too much starch from grain, which doesn't get digested in the small intestine and ends up in the hindgut instead. There it ferments rapidly, drops the pH, and kills off the normal microflora. The result: dysbiosis, colic, laminitis. Swapping part of the grain for beet pulp cuts that starch load dramatically without losing digestibility. Energy-wise, beet pulp is comparable to a lot of grains, which makes it a solid "fiber" alternative for lowering colic risk.

For Cosmos, that's exactly what he needs: calories without a starch load on a gut that isn't as young as it used to be. Here's what's currently in his ration:

✅ Oats — about 300–350 grams of whole oats a day. There's starch in there, so the portion is strictly measured. Piling on more starchy feed on top — whether more oats or, worse, corn — isn't an option.

✅ Beet pulp — 1 kg a day (the actual backbone for energy and gut health).

✅ Wheat bran — about 150–200 grams of pelleted bran a day.

✅ Sunflower meal — 0.5 kg a day (I'd happily switch to flax meal, but it's temporarily unavailable from suppliers).

✅ Vegetable oil — 100–300 grams a day.

Once it gets cold, I'm also planning to add alfalfa pellets (or mixed-grass pellets if that's not available) and an herbal supplement — I'll cover what's in that separately.

Low glycemic response — and that's not a nice-to-have, it's a necessity for horses with metabolic issues. Unmolassed beet pulp shows a tiny glycemic index, right in line with hay, while grains and corn send it way up. Swapping grain for beet pulp smooths out glucose and insulin spikes — the sharp swings just disappear.

Important caveat here though: nearly all of these benefits apply to beet pulp without molasses. Molassed beet pulp is loaded with sugar (sometimes 20% or more), and its glycemic response can end up significantly higher than legume hay or even grain. So for older horses like Cosmos, you need either unmolassed pulp, or pulp that's been rinsed and soaked to strip out the sugars.

Beet pulp is also great at holding water and swelling up. Soaked, it adds extra fluid to the diet — which for an older horse with less-than-ideal drinking habits is a real plus. On top of that, pectins help keep the hindgut pH stable.

Now, what beet pulp doesn't do — and where the skeptics have a point.

It's not a hay substitute. Ever. Beet pulp doesn't provide the long chewing time or stimulate saliva production the way long-stem hay does. Free access to hay is the foundation of any ration, and you can't replace a significant chunk of it with beet pulp — especially with hay as poor as ours.

Corn, though, which is what I was pushed toward instead of beet pulp — that's the actually dangerous option. Corn is a high-starch feed with a brutal glycemic index. Feeding it to an older horse is a direct route to metabolic trouble: dysbiosis, insulin spikes, laminitis. Sure, a horse on corn will probably gain weight fast. The question is at what cost. Gaining weight isn't the goal in itself, not if you're trading it for a pile of new problems.

Protein in beet pulp is also low — around 9-10% crude protein, and it's less digestible than what you get from grain. So the ration has to be balanced for amino acids separately, which matters a lot for Kosmos right now — he needs to rebuild muscle, not just put on bulk.

Choke risk is real. Dry pelleted beet pulp is highly hygroscopic and can swell up fast in the esophagus or gut, leading to a blockage. Soaking it until fully softened isn't overcaution — it's non-negotiable. Dry pulp needs to be completely out of reach. Though to be fair, some commercial feeds do include it unsoaked, but only in small pellets and a very small percentage of the overall mix.

Minerals and vitamins are also thin on the ground, and pectins bind calcium on top of that. Building a ration around beet pulp alone, with no balancing, is a guaranteed path to deficiencies.

So — superfood or not? I think yes. Beet pulp ferments beautifully, delivers energy without acidifying the hindgut, keeps blood sugar steady, and generally supports gut health — and let's be honest, most stalled horses have had gut issues going back practically to weaning. For a horse with Cosmos's situation, it's one of the few feeds that actually solves several problems at once. And it's a far smarter call than piling on more grain or corn.

But "superfood" doesn't mean "miracle cure," and it definitely doesn't mean you get to stop paying attention. It's just a good tool — one that requires proper prep and decent hay alongside it to actually work.

What do you supplement your horses' diets with for the off-season or weight gain? Drop it in the comments, I'd love to compare notes.

All those pretty bags of muesli and pellets get bought for one reason — convenience. Instead of bothering to build a ration by hand, weighing out oats, bran, oil cake, and oils and minerals, it's easier to just buy a premix labeled "fully balanced." You scoop it in, and your head stops hurting. But does it actually work the way the shiny packaging promises?

If you look at real market research, a pretty funny picture emerges. Turns out the lion's share of feed sales rides on branding and a nice picture, not the actual composition. Manufacturers are simply cashing in on the gap between the complex science of nutrition and ordinary owners who genuinely believe "the factory knows best what a horse needs."

Now let's look at the numbers from rider surveys. The picture that comes out is something else:

• The overwhelming majority of owners (87–96%) feed ready-made concentrates.
• About half measure them "by eye" — using random cans and scoops instead of an actual scale.
• More than half have no idea how much hay or water their horse actually eats or drinks per day.
• Fewer than half use a body condition score.
• The predictable result: nobody's actually calculating anything. People just dump "two routine scoops" out of the bag, handing full responsibility over to the manufacturer.

Taking marketers at their word is a pretty bad idea. Testing of commercial feeds keeps turning up surprises:

• Fat is a mess across the board: every tested sample came in significantly under the stated amount (shortfalls of 45–73%).
• Protein, on the other hand, runs over — up to 22% above the labeled amount.
• Energy is all over the place too — some bags barely hit what's claimed, others blow way past it.
• In short, getting the bag to actually contain what the label says isn't something manufacturers seem to be in a hurry to do.

And a special shoutout to the labeling practices that let this slide: a lot of feeds list ingredients using vague collective terms — "cereal grains and grain by-products," "plant protein products," "processed grain products" — instead of naming what's actually in the bag. This is called least-cost formulation: the manufacturer is only locked into hitting certain numbers (protein, fat, energy), and is free to swap whatever raw ingredients are cheapest that month. So under a label like that, today it might be oats, next month wheat, and after that whatever grain or by-product happens to be cheap — including things that aren't great for a horse with food sensitivities or a touchy gut. And good luck proving to the manufacturer why your horse suddenly developed health issues, since the label never told you what was actually in there to begin with.

None of this needs a long lecture to explain. First, it's just a plain time-saver — scoop it out of the bag and you're done, no need to think about amino acids. Second, marketing does its job, creating the illusion of a magic pill. On top of that, there's a basic knowledge gap and the classic barn-aisle advice loop: instead of consulting a vet or a nutritionist, people are more likely to listen to the person in the next stall, their trainer, or the guy at the feed store.

Ready-made commercial feed is a great tool for a busy person, but it's far from a cure-all for a horse. It saves time — it doesn't replace an actual working brain and an individual ration calculation.