One could say that to work with horses is to work under pressure: the physical pressure we employ in communicating to our horses, time pressure, and even peer pressure. A wise horseperson has a sense of timing and knows when it’s fitting to yield or resist.

A hot humid day. One rider. One horse. Both are exercising at a moderate level. Who is more likely to overheat? It might surprise you to learn that your horse gets hotter much faster than you and is more susceptible to the negative effects of heat stress. Prof. Michael Lindinger, an animal and exercise physiologist at the University of Guelph, explains: “It only takes 17 minutes of moderate intensity exercise in hot, humid weather to raise a horse’s temperature to dangerous levels. That’s three to ten times faster than in humans. Horses feel the heat much worse than we do.”

A daily anxiety for many owners of senior horses is that there may be little time left for the riding and activities they have enjoyed until now. As a horse approaches and then passes the age of 20, good rides start to feel numbered. The swayback, gait irregularities, lack of energy… these outcomes seem to be only a matter of time. And without clear reason to do so, many owners start backing off, easing the horse into retirement. Ironically, this approach usually hastens a horse’s decline instead of delaying it.

Not long ago, I toured a Western art museum and found myself absorbed in the works of Russell and Remington. Their paintings, alive with movement, depicted the unforgiving life of the cowboy — scenes filled with dust, tension, and the raw energy of untamed horses. These animals, used for transport and survival, stood in stark contrast to the roles horses now occupy in our world — companions in leisure, competitors in sport, and trusted partners in training. But one detail in every piece caught my attention and left me uneasy: riders with rigid hands pulling back, and horses resisting, mouths wide in distress.