Shelby Dennis
speaker
575 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 4 Jun
Shelby Dennis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 2.
Appearances
I think that a lot of this is sitting right in plain sight like as you're alluding to is like a lot of this stuff we can actually just see it by looking at the horse right but it's about what we're choosing to see or choosing not to see. The cognitive dissonance in the industry is really really bad and I think that's also why when you point this stuff out people get really angry and defensive because I think deep down a part of them knows and as someone who used to react that way and be defensive and defend a lot of the things that I now criticize
i got that riled up because i knew that something was off and i could feel it internally even if i wasn't consciously aware of it because now when people say stupid things about rewards-based training or horse behavior it doesn't it doesn't anger me in the same way like sometimes i do get annoyed and frustrated because i'm like how can people be this obtuse and they're harming horses and i'll get mad from the on behalf of the horses so
But when I was getting mad before, it wasn't about protecting the horses. It was about protecting my use of the horses and protecting myself. So it was very selfishly motivated. And I was defensive because if they were right, then it would dismantle my entire worldview of the industry as a whole. And having that happen, very unpleasant, not a good time, really sad to have that ego death and to basically have the veil pulled from your eyes so that you see things as they are because...
It's really hard, especially if you grew up believing everything that you're told and like the magnificent bond between horse and riders and like how magical these people competing at the top levels are and how it's a partnership and all of these beautiful buzzwords that they use to try to get you to believe that what you're seeing is actually true. But then when that veil is pulled, you see
how in conflict everything actually is the horses are fighting a lot of these riders every step they look really unhappy they look really mentally shut down and checked out and their bodies look messed up because they just have all of these deformities and like swelling and joints where there shouldn't be any my recent thing the last two years is noticing hoof health and oh my god i just want to say that and terrible hoof balance right like it's so bad we'll feed in the show ring
i someone um i think it was the plaid horse magazine or something but they posted hooves and legs from jogs and oh my god all of them were so bad and i was like these are like the horses that are competing at the pinnacle of the sport and then it's being defended because people are well these are the best of the best horses and riders it's like under what like what what standards are we defining that through like other than what we want to believe yeah yeah you know i'm like
100%. It's not just horse owners. Our vets are struggling too, the ones that are trying to push this information, right? I think there's a reason why vets have such a high suicide rate. And horse vets, I think, are some of the worst because the level of pressure that they're under to overlook certain things and keep horses in competition is immense. And it's very normalized to be able to push
like to have clients essentially push vets around so I do really feel for them especially the ones that work in performance because even if they initially started out being critical I think you get desensitized when you're seeing a lot of things repeatedly and it's just hyper normalized and you're trying to do what you can to help the horse based off of what their owner is willing to pay for and what they want to do and if you know that they're just going to go ride the horse anyways then there's the argument of oh if I just pump them full of corticosteroids at least they won't feel pain and
and i kind of see where they're coming from but i think that's the important thing too is even vets experience cognitive dissonance and they'll defend things that are harmful and what kind of jumps to my mind when you said that is it's it's the same idea as how oil executives can hire environmentalists and like environmental scientists to defend what they're doing and to say that it's fine and say that climate change is not real and it's like
if you're on the payroll of the bad guys like you you can get people who have credentials to defend anything especially when there's industry pressure and when you risk the loss of your career and for vets in specific it's like they've spent like hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their education and to get to the point that they are and if you're gonna get ostracized from your community if you decide not to work with the competitive people
Who are the people who are giving them the most money? Because like everyday people keeping their horses in fields, not only do our horses tend to have less problems, but we're not doing the full performance veterinary stuff where there's the most money involved. And that's not to say that all vets corrupt because of that, but it's definitely the same idea as how we see horse people corrupt.
yeah and the fine print and i do think like what to kind of close like one thing that i think i've heard a lot of people say is that the racing industry has helped contribute to a lot of advances in veterinary and whatnot and research which it has but i think that the key is that it could still do that while reflecting and adjusting practices like it still has the same value even if they change what they're doing and get with the times and follow where the information is
Because they can still be performing all of those studies and doing the vet med stuff, but it can just be done through the lens of prevention and not just like letting things get as bad as they do. Because honestly, having horses break down and have these issues is not normal. Injecting the crap out of horses to keep them sound to jump big fences is not normal. And like at some point, if the sport is truly about the love of the horse, we need to look at how often people's actions are in conflict with that.
100%. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on. This was great. And I think that the, the discussion about bones and when the joints fuse and stuff, I think will be really eyeopening to a lot of people and also provide them with context that will help them maybe be able to talk to other people about this and also reflect on their own decisions and just be considerate of how they're developing their horses. And yeah,
absolutely and also taking the time that it takes to help their bodies is going to be quicker in the long run than ignoring those things and trying to get there faster because you will pay for it long term ask me how i know yeah me too yeah but yeah thank you so much for coming on this is awesome thank you so much for having me shelby perfect
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