Are we allowed to talk about our least favorite? Because I find raleighlink14 extremely troubling. It’s just misinformation, bullying, and recreational outrage under the guise of being an “animal activist”. She is not. It’s straight outrage porn. I have nice things to say about most of them even if they’re not my cup of tea, but the fact that Raleigh has such a huge following makes me concerned about the younger generation of equestrians.
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Was it the video of hers where there was a section of her crying and the horse was a big black one, or was it a different one? I could be thinking of one of her younger friesians that she took to a show who was being a bit off.
The hotness or unsteadiness could totally be throwing her off, I remember my first time experiencing what I like to call the “Green Bean Wiggle” and it was a bit frazzling to say the least.
We all have our own learning curves and such, however it’s my personal opinion that someone with issues like clamping down/trying to force control when they’re scared/unsteady shouldn’t be working with green horses. I’m not saying that you have to be perfect, with horses you’ll never have totally perfect days all the time, however I think that reacting like she did (almost trying to force the issue, adding ‘more’) instead of pausing, taking a step back and going “ok, how can I make this easier for both of us?” is a signal (to me) that you might want to work on yourself first, before taking on the huge project of restarting a horse, which can be harder than just starting a horse. Even if you take a couple days out of the week to just go on a trail ride or ride outside of the arena around the property.
It’s unfortunate she’s so malicious to the people in the comments of her videos peacefully pointing out what she might try/what she’s doing that’s pushing the mare over the edge.
Also, I think she’s rather lucky to work with the mare (isn’t her name Aurora or something?) just because she seems like a smart, wants-to-please kind of horse, I think it could take an even worse turn if she was working with a stubborn, hotter horse.
You’re not alone, friend. I also find it troubling that out of the equestrian youtubers, she has one of the largest followings (something like 250k+ subscribers, right?) and seems to attract younger audiences. I’m glad she appears to have softened her views on bits and actually rides with a helmet nowadays, but I totally agree, idk how you expect to get your point across when you’re swearing, screaming and attacking people. I agreed with her dairy farm video about the severe cow abuse and I think her video about the musserola (?) nosebands made some valid points and it looked like she used actual research to back up her claims, but she hasn’t changed much from when I first saw a video of hers in 2017.
This might come off as petty/not letting things go, but I’ll never be able to get over the fact that she said “helmets are for riders who are scared” or some bull**** like that. HUH?
I think it was a different one, I remember it not being a Friesian and it being bay?
I went through to find her comments and couldn’t see any, but I’m disappointed she’s behaving so poorly to people’s reactions to her videos. If I had a lot of people telling me the same thing, I’d be more inclined to listen and look inward/reflect on what I was doing wrong vs lashing out at them for pointing out my mistakes. If she had done that with my horse when he was fresh off the track, he would’ve been fried and ruined. I know because someone else DID that to him, and by the time I got him, his mind was fully blown and it took a long time to fix him.
It seems like she’s a bigger name with a large online platform who is unfortunately reinforcing the stereotypes because of her own shortcomings, and by hearing that her responses are so nasty, apparently she doesn’t see herself as the problem. It’s those crazy OTTBs instead :rolleyes:
Oh, those CRAZY OTTBs are totally the problem. Who could work with the demons of horses except for the most brave with a death wish?? :lol:
She might’ve deleted them.
I’m so sorry about your boy, but I’m glad he has a knowledgable owner like you now 
TBs are some of the most magical horses.
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It’s not even that I find her views necessarily wrong I just find her to be a hypocrite. She’s spent YEARS blasting anyone who keeps their horse in a stall. But then she moved to California to peruse her influencer career and her horse now has to live in a stall and she deleted all her old videos on the topic. Which, fine I’m not judging. But that just proved she was never really passionate about animal welfare, she was just a bully. When all you do is make money from outraging a bunch of children you’re just hurting the actual conversation around animal welfare. She could actually use her platform to talk about actual issues in the horse world but that won’t get you as many clicks as “this tik tok equestrian needs to be stopped!!!”.
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He lives in a stall now? Huh, I must not be paying enough attention. How interesting, I never knew. Well, that certainly adds to the mix.
She did an Instagram live with Shelby Dennis which I found a little comical when Shelby was talking about her views on turnout and Raleigh was like wellll I turn Link lives in a stall but I turn him out into the arena every day! Way to move the goal posts Raleigh. She backtracked on a lottttt of stuff. It’s clear that’s she just doesn’t know what she’s talking about. But hey, her audience isn’t watching to learn stuff they’re watching because they want something to be outraged over.
Oh yes, that! I was bummed I didn’t get to watch it live and haven’t had the time to watch all of it. Maybe I can listen to it like a podcast while I’m doing barn chores lol.
Like you said, I find it a bit troubling her main audience is so young. I think that social media and platforms where people can make their voices heard to those outside of their immediate vicinity has changed equestrian sports a lot, for worse or for better it depends.
This isn’t super on-the-nose, but I found how angry she gets over Clinton Anderson videos a bit comical. Of course he should be bashed, he’s not a good person or horseman, but I just found it comical in that she’s so angry and up in the air about him swearing and beating the horses when I’ve never seen her post anything really training-related? I haven’t seen a riding video from her in a long time, but I don’t follow her on Instagram or anything so idk.
Didn’t she say in one, or more of her videos I’m not sure, that she’s had Link since she was 14? Not bashing her at all for having a green horse at a young age, but to my knowledge she never consistently worked with a trainer on him. I just remark on it because I remember seeing a reaction video of hers where she got sooooo mad about someone’s horse having a not-so-great topline when Link didn’t really had a super noticeable topline until she started dressage with him.
I also thought on Your Riding Success that she was well out of her comfort and knowledge zone with the OTTBs. I suspect she has been riding Friesians that are more of a push ride, more naturally “round” and upheaded, and way less reactive for so long that the OTTBs confused and scared her.
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Oh and Rick Gore from Think Like a Horse is another one I can’t stand. He’s just gross and misogynistic and untalented. It makes me sad how easily people are just attracted to such a narcissistic personality because they mistake that arrogance for confidence which misleads someone into thinking someone knows what they’re doing when it’s blatantly obvious they don’t.
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I started watching “Think Like A Horse” when I was bored at work a few years ago. Some of the videos I thought were interesting, and made me rethink the way I had done certain things, and why certain situations went badly. Then I got bored with the rants about helmets, “pain bits”, and women.
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Yea he’s right about some things the same way a broken clock is right twice a day.
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I cannot help myself, I am a Wocket Woy Fan.
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I like watching the Begijnhoeve videos, two Dutch(Belgian) guys but the videos are in English. They just finished building their new multi million dollar equestrian property, and they have some great “how to” training videos! As well as a lot of info on their breeding business
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So they aren’t on youtube so much but Kizzy and Ettie are about the cutest things on my fb feed, they do more fox hunting and jumping than I’ll likely ever do!
Very much worth the like.
I adore Emma Massingale. She is an eccentric (LOL) trainer in the UK with a bunch of ponies, horses, dogs, donkeys and a cat, and does a lot of liberty training and goes on super wild adventures. She has a really special relationship with all of her animals. She does strange things like travelling long distances with a couple of shetland ponies in a trailer being pulled by a bicycle, and taking a pony on a camping trip to an island and “breaking it in” while she travels from one side of the island to the other. She does camping trips with a bunch of ponies, dogs and a cat in a backpack, LOL. Her videos are just pure joy. I don’t do any liberty work, but I just love watching her relationship with her animals.
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Wendy Murdoch has been doing some great webinars interviewing various people in the horse industry since the pandemic (Hillary Clayton, Jillian Kreinbring, competitors, vets, farriers, bodyworkers). They are available on YouTube under SureFoot Equine. They are pretty much all 1-2 hours, but really great, educational content.
I love her too. She’s absolutely crazy sometimes, but love watching a bunch of fuzzy ponies on a beach. They just make me smile.
I also love Matt Harnake and Jesse, such kind souls, I loved their horseback safari trip.
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