Changing Rein

Glen Cousquer’s interdisciplinary background in veterinary work, education, and human geography shapes his focus on awareness-basedpractice. In this episode we discuss a paper he published in 2023:
Cousquer, G. (2023). From domination to dialogue and the ethics of the between: transforming human-working equine relationships in mountain tourism. Austral journal of veterinary sciences, 55(1), 35-60.
It’s available at this link: https://www.scielo.cl/pdf/australjvs/v55n1/0719-8132-australjvs-55-01-35.pdfand really rewards reading.
In our discussion we explore how professional training can narrow attention, so that practitioners miss the wider context and relationships that influence an animal’s welfare.
Drawing on a 1995 experience in Morocco andlater work in the High Atlas, Glen describes mules whose pack-saddle injuries are plain to trekkers yet overlooked by guides and obscured by the systems around the animal. He introduces the idea of response-ability, which directs attention to agency and reciprocity in light of the constraints faced by seasonal muleteers. He also discusses how traditional bits can cause severe mouth trauma, and how practices that go unseen can normalise harm and silence animals.
A case study follows Mohammed’s move to a head collar, supported by his employer, his family, reflective video and agentle mule. We hear how reviewing trek footage prompted group conversations about animal care and exploitative tourism arrangements, and how Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects spiral informs Glen’s approach. The conversation closes on the entangled realities of retirement and end-of-life care for working equids,and what they mean for collective change.
His most recent paper which expands on some of the themes inthe 2023 paper is
Cousquer, G. (2026). From the bit to the between: an autoethnography of friendship. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 13, 1865934.
It is available at this link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2026.1865934/full
Glen mentions Scharmer’s Theory U – you can find out more atthis link:
https://www.presencing.org/theoryu
JohnMuir (1838-1914) was a Scottish-born ecological thinker and environmental advocate widely regarded as the founder of the modern conservation movement. This website provides resources on his life and work:https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/about-us/about-john-muir
Joanna Macy (1929-2025) was an American scholar of Buddhism, systems theory and deep ecology. You can read more about her work at: https://www.joannamacy.net/main
Glen’s other research output is available on Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4elQtg4AAAAJ
Glen has also written a book on exploring nature inEdinburgh:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Glen-Cousquer/249045325

What if the problem in equestrian sport isn't the riders who make the headlines, but the culture that produced them?
In December, five-star eventer Matt Brown and FEI dressage rider Cecily Clark posted an open letter to the equestrian world. It struck a nerve — thousands of reactions and a flood of private messages from people who'd felt the same unease but thought they were the only one.
In this episode, the husband-and-wife team behind East West Training Stables sit down with Karen and Meta to talk about what it really costs to compete at the top, and why Matt describes being named an Olympic alternate as one of the lowest moments of his career. Together they move the conversation away from singling out individuals and toward something harder to look at: the culture we've built around competition, and the things we've simply grown to accept.
Along the way they explore the horses who've gone quiet in the warm-up ring — shut down, chins to their chests — the education gap that leaves even professionals unsure how a horse actually sees the world, and why choosing the slower, kinder path so often feels like failure long before it feels like progress.
An honest, generous conversation about welfare, culture, and change — and why none of us needs to be perfect to start trying to do better.
📩 Read the open letter that started it all

"It's in their constitution to be injured."
"We've bred them to be like this."
Both of these came up in the same conversation — and the paradox sitting between them is one of the patterns Jessie McCarthy's research surfaces about how racing talks to itself about risk.
In this week's episode, Karen and Meta sit down with Jessie McCarthy, a final-year veterinary student at the University of Surrey, with a Master's in Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law from the University of Glasgow. Her recently published paper, co-authored with Euan Bennett and Heather Cameron-Whytock, takes a less common approach to social licence in racing: rather than starting from outside the sport, she interviewed twelve insiders about how they perceive the risks horses face, and the language they reach for when things go wrong.
What emerges is a quietly revealing portrait of a sport in conversation with itself. Risk often gets reframed as a communication problem rather than a welfare one.
Responsibility gets dispersed across the sport — until, as Jessie's research shows, it often quietly settles on the horses themselves. Their fragility. Their nature. Their breeding.
But of course — we bred them.
In this conversation, we explore:
Why the words we reach for ("accident," "incident," "adverse event") shape what we believe is possible
How tradition and identity in the horse world can act as a brake on reform
Pin firing, generational change, and what the next generation of equine vets is choosing differently
Why a horse's welfare may be shaped less by race day than by the other 360 days
The question of equine consent — and why only one of twelve stakeholders raised it
And, offered any wish in the world, Jessie's is gloriously simple: more turnout, more friends, more forage
A thoughtful, generous conversation with a young vet whose research invites the horse world — insiders and outsiders alike — to reflect on the stories we've inherited.
🎧 Subscribe and share with someone who loves horses.
🌐 changingrein.com.au
📧 team@changingrein.com.au
#ChangingRein #EquineWelfare #SocialLicence #Racing

We love our animals. But is that enough?
Captive animal welfare specialist Georgina Groves joins Karen and Meta for a conversation about the uncomfortable gap between what we know about animal welfare and what we actually do.
Georgina's work takes her into some of the world's most under-resourced zoos — but the parallels she draws for horse people are striking. Stables that haven't meaningfully changed in a century. Animals who've forgotten how to be their own species. A health-centric idea of care that protects the body while quietly constraining the life.
This is an episode about welfare washing, moral duty, and the difference between caring for an animal and caring about one.
Featuring the story of four bears who had to relearn how to be bears — and what that might mean for the horses in our care.
🎧 Listen in, then join the conversation.
Guest: Georgina Groves, captive animal welfare specialist and co-founder of Wild Welfare
Hosts: Dr Karen Luke and Meta Osborne
GEORGINA'S LINKEDIN POSTLINK TO WILD WELFARE

Erica Cheung is a horse owner, mixed-practice (including equine) vet clinic co-owner, and PhD candidate living in rural central Alberta, Canada. She obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta, a Master of Science in clinical animal behaviour, and is currently studying under the supervision of Professor Daniel Mills and Dr. Beth Ventura for her PhD at the University of Lincoln, UK. She has lectured at the University of Alberta on One Health, animal behaviour and welfare. Her PhD work is focused on the sociocultural factors that may influence how performance horses are trained and managed.