I do love Holly’s horses. And the videos of her dad riding Fiona!
2 Likes
I follow her on facebook but for some reason never thought that she would have a youtube channel too!
Loved Evention as well.
I agree with others in loving Elisa Wallace and Harmony Horsemanship.
I’m learning about new channels, so this is a fun thread!
1 Like
Broncs and Donks makes me laugh and they have a lot of fun equine related content.
Pat & Deb Puckett because Pat reminds me so much of my grandpa who was also a horse trainer like Pat.
Ross Jacobs but his content is very sporadic but usually quite nice when he does post.
I prefer Warwick Schiller’s subscription video site to his youtube as it is much more in depth and has way more content but I also enjoy his youtube channel.
This thread is rather old but I thought I’d just add about YourRidingSuccess: I used to really like her, but recently she started a series where she’s working with an OTTB and retraining it which could be interesting, but she’s turned it into videos just perpetuating the stereotype of ‘Crazy TB, stay away, advanced rider + handler only’. Not on purpose and I think she has good intentions, but holy hell it’s a train wreck. I and a couple other people commented remarking on it and I got…not the nicest response to put it lightly. She’s pushed the mare over her threshold multiple times.
I’d add that also Shelby Dennis is a good one to watch, I love her work with her horse Milo. She’s smaller channel-wise and I think some people don’t like her because she’s quite open and loud about her beliefs in training/handling etc, but overall she’s pretty good. She also has a series of videos about her homebred colt Banksy who’s gorgeous and she’s done quite a good job with him.
3 Likes
Amelia Newcomb for dressage. It’s helped me a lot as a beginner dressage rider, adding to my jumper’s training. 
Count me in for loving Evention when it was current. Great stuff, and some humor.
2 Likes
Glad this got bumped 
Nobody mentioned Pontus Hugoson?
Swedish Eventer who did the Mini “rider” on Rollerblades video :lol:
He also has some of him Eventing with family, including his father.
And some very silly ones with him in Pippi Longstocking-esque pigtails.
1 Like
I bolded that part. Omgosh I’m so glad someone else feels the same way. Initially I was really excited to see an OTTB series on her channel, but with each video that comes out, I’m more and more irritated with the whole thing. She’s immediately trying to get Little Brown round and pushing from behind and with moderate contact…but the horse knows nothing and is kind of a worrying/anxious type, so the horse gets overwhelmed a lot of the time and her answer is to just add a bunch of leg and push her into MORE contact. For a baby who doesn’t know anything about ANY of those aids, that’s a recipe for disaster (which we are all watching unfold with each video.) She had one video where she actually got frustrated and started complaining that she “just doesn’t get it, why does Little Brown keep (having some sort of meltdown) because if she’s going to be a dressage horse she needs to understand contact.” Well, yes, many many months from now. But right now? No.
I’m glad it’s not just me feeling like that watching her videos.
5 Likes
Right?! I have no doubt that she’s a well-meaning person and she’s very obviously a fantastic rider (only a finished horse, it might seem :ambivalence:) but to work with a horse that green and just expect it to hop right onto the dressage train? I feel that it’s especially important with OTTBs, just because ‘normal’ riding aids and the aids they’re taught at the track differ greatly. If it was a purpose-bred horse with u/s training already I might get where she might’ve been coming from but 
. And as for the “if she’s going to be a dressage horse she needs to understand contact” I just honestly had to close the video at that point. How does someone who’s competed up to GP dressage (I might be getting that wrong, but regardless a high level rider) not understand that horses must be gradually taught collection, contact, etc. Maybe someone should just sit her down in front of the training pyramid.
2 Likes
She posted another video a while ago (not OTTB related) of her taking some WB of hers (or a client?) to a show, and she got really frazzled because the horse was a hot(ter) type, and she went in depth about how she’s used to really quiet horses. So I’m wondering if that’s part of the problem, the hotness or anxiousness or irregular/unsteadiness of a fresh OTTB is frightening to her so she clamps down to try to maintain control?
I don’t think she does it maliciously and she truly seems like a nice person, but wowsa there’s a major lack of understanding/education on her part about restarting an OTTB.
2 Likes
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.
6 Likes
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.
2 Likes
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!!!”.
1 Like
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.
4 Likes
