The principle that underlies 'Understanding Horse Performance: Brain, Pain or Training?', previous 'Book of the Month' in Horse magazine, is that your horse can only communicate pain or discomfort through his behaviour or performance. But how do you distinguish between the horse who is playing you up, the horse who doesn't understand what's being asked of him, and the horse who is genuinely uncomfortable? My experience is that many people assume misbehaviour initially, and it can be several months or even years down the line before the search for discomfort begins. By this time, the relationship between horse and rider is often damaged beyond repair, if they've even managed to stay together that long. Too many horses are passed from home to home because of difficult behaviour, when all they're trying to do is explain to their owners that they are hurting somewhere. The problem is blamed on the rider - you're too inexperienced, too nervous, you need to be tougher on him, you sit wonky, you just need to kick on, etc. The 'gadgets' come out to stop the horse from expressing the behaviour, or the more experienced rider rides him through the problem, but the horse continues to suffer.