PODCAST · education
An Equine Conversation
by Sarah Nickels
This podcast aims to help you, the horse owner, improve your knowledge by giving you access to top quality information that will help you be the best horse owner you can be so that you can give your horses the best life possible.Through An Equine Conversation, I’ll share my expertise with you along with helping you connect to and hear from some amazing experts in their own fields – because while I have a lot of knowledge, I am by no means the expert in all of the things. We’ll also be talking with horse owners about their journey with their animals.We’ll explore ways our horses can be physically and mentally healthier through topics around training, horse-health, enrichment, emergency preparedness, history, our own mental wellbeing and physical health and more. We’ll be giving you practical actions you can implement with your horses and information to explore, consider and further investigate.These podcast episodes are absolutely designed to be thought-provoking and they may bring y
Episodes
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S6 E8: The Path to Connection Training - with Hannah Weston
This is an episode that’s been a long-time coming on An Equine Conversation. Hannah Weston was one of the very first people who, unknowingly, introduced me to the world of online learning about positive reinforcement training with horses back in 2013 through her business Connection Training. It…
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S6 E7: Sarah's Story - part 2
Back in S6 E4, I shared the start of my horsie origin story. In this episode, I share more of the memorable moments that helped shape who I am as a horse person and coach today. These memories include: poking poo with a stick, horse’s birthday celebrations, attempting breeding, finding a career...
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S6 E6: Blondie's New Life - with Dr Michaela Hempen
I’m delighted to welcome Dr Michaela Hempen back to An Equine Conversation. We first met Michaela back in Season 3, Episode 4, where we heard about her Masters research project in crib-biting with a palomino horse call Blondie. This episode, we’re getting to hear more about the journey that was...
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S6 E5: How a Table-top Game can make you a better Owner/Trainer - with Mary Hunter
To the uninitiated, suggesting that a table-top game can make us be better horse trainers may sound a bit bonkers. But to those of us in the know, and those of us who have played this and similar games, we have experienced just what a positive difference they can make to our training in what is a...
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S6 E4: Sarah's Story - part 1
Throughout An Equine Conversation, we capture many of our guests horsie origin stories… but of course, being the interviewer, I’m the one asking the questions. In this episode, I’m going to share with you the early years of my own horsie origin story & some of the strong memories I have along the...
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S6 E3: Lucy & Tao's story - with Lucy Chester
I so much enjoyed recording this conversation with Lucy Chester from Lucy Chester Horsemanship in England. I’ve followed Lucy’s work for a while and admired her care of her horse Tao, and the work she has been doing to raise the profile of more ethical training approaches. I wanted to hear Lucy’s...
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S6 E2: Yes, but...
In today’s episode, I’m going to chat about my training approach. Why it’s not just about positive reinforcement training. Late last year, I was asked some great questions about my training approach that really got me thinking. And as this has become clearer to me, well, nothing’s changed, it’s...
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S6 E1: Acknowledging Country - with Terori Hareko-Avaivilla
We are so excited to be back with Season 6 of An Equine Conversation. This episode, to start off Season 6, is a little different. I’m straying, on purpose, from the particularly equine-focused discussion, to instead share a conversation with you on something that is really important to us here at...
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S6: Trailer
Hello there lovely listener, I'm Sarah Nickels, your host, and I am delighted let you know that Season 6 of An Equine Conversation starts next Wednesday. As always, Season 5 includes 8 episodes, released weekly on a Wednesday morning (Melbourne time, GMT+10). Be sure to subscribe so you never…
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S5 E8: The path to mules - with Ellen Cochrane
I’m delighted to welcome Ellen Cochrane back to An Equine Conversation. We heard from Ellen in Season 4, talking all about equine agility and The International Horse Agility Club. This episode is something quiet different: We’re hearing about Ellen’s journey to and experiences in working with...
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S5 E7: My Accident
On the 8th of June 2008, my life changed forever with a split-second accident that saw me trampled by my then 2.5-year-old horse, Fernando, and air-lifted to Hospital for life-saving surgery. This episode is the story of that accident, what happened, the damage that did and where that’s left me...
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S5 E6: The Horse's Mouth - with Dr Paul Owens
I am so pleased to be welcoming our 2nd first time guest to An Equine Conversation for Season 5. We’ve had some super wild weather here in my part of the world this Spring that meant this guest and I had to reschedule recording this episode multiple times. Despite the severe storms…
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S5 E5: Conscious Consumerism: how not to tank the market - with Erin Moore
Please note: this episode does contain 'conversational profanity' I am so grateful for the knowledge that business coach, Erin Moore has brought into my life & so I’m delighted that Erin is back with me on An Equine Conversation this episode, to share more of her wisdom with you. In this episode,...
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S5 E4: Why Virtual Learning's Worth Exploring
In today’s episode I’m going to chat with you about the awesomeness of virtual learning in the horse world. This episode is inspired in part by Ivy sharing her experience in last week’s episode and just how integral Michelle’s remote support has been to Swagger and Ivy’s journey and progress. But...
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S5 E3: Swagger's journey - with Ivy Starnes
Today we welcome our first new guest for this Season. Ivy Starnes caught my attention through her generous sharing of videos documenting her journey with a horse called Swagger, a young, now gelding who was previously living in the wild. I’ve been captivated by Ivy’s training with the support of...
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S5 E2: The Hard
Today, I want to speak about ‘the hard’ in horses. I recently shared a post on our Abbey’s Run Equestrian Facebook page about this & it resonated with a lot of people. This topic is inspired by those who in the past few months have shared their hard with me, just how tough-a time they’ve had of…
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S5 E1: Introducing a new horse - with Dorothy Heffernan
I’m delighted to be starting Season 5 of An Equine Conversation with a returning and very popular past guest, Dr Dorothy Heffernan. In today’s episode, we catch-up, get an update on Rio, Dorothy’s New Forest pony with Equine Metabolic Syndrome (although, this was recorded back in August 2024, so...
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S5: Trailer
Why hello there listener, I'm Sarah Nickels, your host, and I am delighted let you know that Season 5 of An Equine Conversation starts next Wednesday. As always, Season 5 includes 8 episodes, released weekly on a Wednesday morning (Melbourne time). Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an…
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S4 E8: Equine Scent Detection with Dee Horwood & Cortney McCartney
This is the FINAL EPISODE of our Special Edition Season of An Equine Conversation on ‘What Else Is There?’ besides riding. Last but by no means least, I’m absolutely delighted to welcome our Australian guests for the season, Dee Horwood & Cortney McCartney, owners of the business Scent Horses...
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S4 E7: Cooperative Care with Peggy Hogan
In this episode of our Special Edition Season of An Equine Conversation, focusing on ‘What Else Is There?’ besides riding, we welcome the incredibly experienced & knowledgeable, Peggy Hogan to chat with us on the topic of Cooperative Care. Cooperative Care may be a new term for some of you. It’s...
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S4 E6: Equine enrichment with Maja Bagdziun
I’m excited to introduce our next topic & guest on our Special Edition Season of An Equine Conversation, focusing on ‘What Else Is There?’ besides riding. I suspect some of your will be familiar with the work of Maja Bagdziun. Maja shares a heap of beautiful, inspiring training videos through her...
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S4 E5: Horse Play with Nicky Ross
This episode of our Special Edition Season on ‘What Else Is There?’ we are connecting with the far west coast of Scotland to speak with today’s guest Nicky Ross, owner of the business Horse Play. I first discovered Nicky some years back through a training group we were both in on Facebook and I…
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S4 E4: An Owner's Story - with Chris & Michael
This episode of our Special Edition Season on ‘What Else Is There?’ takes a little bit of a different view. Today, instead of us meeting with those who engage in this space in a more professional capacity, it is my pleasure to introduce you to a couple who are horse-owners and to share their…
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S4 E3: 'The Non Ridden Equine' Facebook group - with Vicki Yates
In this episode of our Special Edition Season on ‘What Else Is There?’, I’m delighted to introduce you to Vicki Jayne Yates and the Facebook group she established with her husband Steve, ‘The Non Ridden Equine’. This free group that continues to grow weekly with a current membership of over…
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S4 E2: Equine Agility - with Ellen Cochrane
I’m so excited to introduce today, our first guest of our Special Edition Season on ‘What Else Is There?’ (besides riding). I’ll be straight with you and say that one of the joys of podcasting is having a reason to speak to some awesome humans in our industry, because uh, I want to connect with...
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S4 E1: Why this special edition season - 'What Else Is There?'
I have spent many hours thinking about bringing this Special Edition Season of An Equine Conversation to you, and then of course planning & sourcing guests & editing episodes. The more I thought about it, the more and more important and the clearer the WHY for this episode became to me. And it...
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S4: Trailer
Hello lovely listener! I am so excited to be back & bringing you this, our first Special Edition Season of An Equine Conversation. Just like previous Seasons of the podcast, Season 4 includes 8 episodes, the first of which will drop next Wednesday. Thank you to Matthew Bliss for podcast…
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S3 E8: An Irish start & another EMS pony - with Dorothy Heffernan
Here we are at our final episode for Season 3 of An Equine Conversation. The months & months of recording & editing have all finally finished & you now have the whole season to listen to & what an epic season it has been too. Stay tuned at the end of the conversation for some announcements. I’m...
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S3 E7: The wine cellar
Let me invite you today, to come for a little journey into the wine cellar with me, which is kind of ironic, given I don’t drink alcohol, but hey, I can still appreciate the amazingness that is a wine cellar… so come on this little journey with me. Why are we going to the wine cellar? Well, for...
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S3 E6: How learning with horses can teach young people key life skills - with Bex Tasker
From the age of about 10-11 years old, it was my dream to have my own children’s riding school. I started instructing at 16 and taught a lot of young people. Initially at riding schools & then at Pony Club where I often taught the youngest members, the more junior groups. In my mid-to-late 20’s,...
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S3 E5: Farts & Unicorns
Today’s episode is a really short & snappy one, dare I say, a mini-sode. Despite being short, it’s an important one, where I’m sharing 2 valuable training tips that I’ve been talking about with my students for more than a decade: farts & unicorns. These are two training tips you can take away...
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S3 E4: A game changing crib-biting study - with Dr Michaela Hempen
It was a few years back now when I first heard about Dr Michaela Hempen’s Masters Research on Crib-biting, which, for those uninitiated, is a stereotypic behaviour that horses can develop. I heard about the research and then had the good fortune to see some of the timeline film of the project...
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S3 E3: Young & green horses
Having young and or green horses is awesome. But also, it can be confusing and overwhelming. We hear conflicting information on young horses – that we shouldn’t start them under saddle too early because their bodies need to develop. But then we also hear that they need a job to do and we often…
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S3 E2: The differences & similarities in training dogs and horses - with Hannah Branigan
I am ridiculously excited to have Hannah Branigan as our guest on An Equine Conversation this episode. If you don’t know Hannah’s work, you should make a point of getting to know it. Hannah’s education programs and content in the animal training space with a focus on dogs is next level excellent....
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S3 E1: Movin' to the country - with Benn Sheffield
This episode of An Equine Conversation is quite a different one: In late 2015, Benn & I moved to the country, from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. Yep, we did eat a lot of peaches initially (we knew people with a prolifically producing tree), and have since planted 2 peach trees of our own LOL.…
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S3: Trailer
Hello lovely listener! We are delighted to be back with Season 3 of An Equine Conversation, a podcast brought to you by Abbey’s Run Equestrian. I’m your host, Sarah Nickels. Just like the previous Seasons, Season 3 includes 8 episodes (plus this trailer). Episodes will drop on a Wednesday…
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S2 E8: The difficulty of language with Julia Inglis
I’m delighted to welcome our good friend, Julia Inglis back to An Equine Conversation. We first met Julia in Series 1, Episode 8 ‘Julia’s story - a tale to learn from’. If you want to hear Julia’s story, you can jump back and listen to that episode. Julia & I talk so much about training, so we...
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S2 E7: Advocating for your horse with Erin Moore
*Please note: this episode does contain profanity* I first encountered Canadian-based Erin Moore when a friend pointed me to a podcast episode Erin had done last year on running a successful dog training business and I immediately resonated with Erin’s work. I loved what Erin was all about &…
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S2 E6: Set up for success: it takes a team
We want your training with your horse to be fun & enjoyable for your both – in short, we want you to be really successful in your training. When we think about training with our horses & being successful with our training, we often think about the time when we're actively training 1:1 with our...
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S2 E5: The impact of periods on participation: a Pony Club Australia study
In early 2022, I started to become a more ardent feminist as I became increasingly exposed to staggering statistics and information around the gender inequality still facing women. This isn’t to say I was ignorant or not a feminist beforehand; it’s more that my focus has become even sharper the...
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S2 E4: The 'truth' in buying a horse
In my almost 3 decades of teaching people with horses, there are some things I have been asked about many times. Questions around or support in buying a new horse has been one of these. Horse shopping, much like property shopping, can be an emotional roller-coaster of an experience. Then when you...
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S2 E3: Why ruling out pain in horses is hard with Dr Lisa Walter
How many people do you know who’ve had some kind of pain or illness that the human medical professionals have not been able to get to the bottom of or provide relief from? Or where it’s taken some time and robust investigations, often driven by the person or their family to figure out what’s…
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S2 E2: What's in a name... and a logo?
We recently released our brand new and long-awaited logo for our business Abbey’s Run Equestrian. The bones of this logo have been rattling around my head for more than 2.5 years and we were finally in a position to bring it to life with the help of Evie Francesca Design Studio. While the logo...
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S2 E1: A trainer, a donkey & a Golden Globe winning film - with Megan Hines
Late last year I started seeing promotions for the film The Banshees of Inisherin, an Irish film that included a miniature donkey Jenny as one of the stars alongside a cast of several other animals and the human actors including Kerry Condon, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. I’m not always a…
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S2: Trailer
We are super excited to be back with Season 2 of An Equine Conversation. Check out the trailer for a glimpse of Episode 1 & some fun training action we’ve got going on. As with Season 1, Season 2 episodes will drop on a Wednesday morning, Melbourne/Sydney time. The season consists of 8 episodes...
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S1 E8: Julia’s Story - A Tale to Learn From
In today’s episode, I’m speaking with Julia Inglis, a very good friend of mine who I met virtually through a mutual friend. Julia lives over in Western Australia, the other side of the country from me, and we’re actually yet to meet in real life. Julia and I are messaging one another and…
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S1 E7: What IS training with positive reinforcement?
In the previous podcast episode with Sara Jackson, and in the next episode with Julia Inglis, you’ll hear mention of ‘positive reinforcement’ as a training approach. We’ve mentioned it ourselves too in talking about our Start Your Engines course+workshop. I suspect that some of you listening will...
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S1 E6: A journey to speaking horse with Sara Jackson
In this episode, I’m speaking with Sara Jackson who is across the other side of the Country from me, over in Western Australia. For those unfamiliar with Australia, that’s a 4-hour flight, plus the drive at each end to the airport, which at my end is over 3 hours. We’re speaking about Sara's her...
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S1 E5: But it says ‘horse’ on the label…
It is so easy to fall into the trap of assuming that because it says horse on the label, or comes from a saddlery, or produce store, that your horse will know what to do with, whatever the thing is. Especially if you believe that your horse had some life experience before it came to be with you....
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S1 E4: Preparing for Bushfires as a Horse Owner with Sharon Merritt
In this week’s episode, I chat with Sharon Merritt from Victoria’s Country Fire Authority, better known here as the CFA, on preparing for bushfire (or you might know it as wildfire events) when we own horses. This is something we feel strongly about having had friends and family impacted in some…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
This podcast aims to help you, the horse owner, improve your knowledge by giving you access to top quality information that will help you be the best horse owner you can be so that you can give your horses the best life possible.Through An Equine Conversation, I’ll share my expertise with you along with helping you connect to and hear from some amazing experts in their own fields – because while I have a lot of knowledge, I am by no means the expert in all of the things. We’ll also be talking with horse owners about their journey with their animals.We’ll explore ways our horses can be physically and mentally healthier through topics around training, horse-health, enrichment, emergency preparedness, history, our own mental wellbeing and physical health and more. We’ll be giving you practical actions you can implement with your horses and information to explore, consider and further investigate.These podcast episodes are absolutely designed to be thought-provoking and they may bring y
HOSTED BY
Sarah Nickels
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does An Equine Conversation have?
An Equine Conversation currently has 54 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is An Equine Conversation about?
This podcast aims to help you, the horse owner, improve your knowledge by giving you access to top quality information that will help you be the best horse owner you can be so that you can give your horses the best life possible.Through An Equine Conversation, I’ll share my expertise with you along...
How often does An Equine Conversation release new episodes?
An Equine Conversation has 54 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to An Equine Conversation?
You can listen to An Equine Conversation on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts An Equine Conversation?
An Equine Conversation is created and hosted by Sarah Nickels.
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