Guides and articles

Publications

The management software for pony clubsAt a pony club, a rider is often six years old, with two parents, a brother who rides on Wednesdays and a sister on a holiday course. Ekilog brings all of it together, so the team spends less time in the office and more in the arena.Ekilog
Horse coat colours: recognising every colour, from bay to tobianoThe coat colour is the colour of the horse: his coat, his mane and tail, and his skin. There are dozens, but they are all named with the same method, by looking in the right places. From the three basic colours to pied and spotted coats, here is how to recognise them without a mistake — and why there is no such thing as a “ginger” horse.Ekidemy
Horse white markings: star, blaze, socks, stockings and whorlsTwo horses of the same colour are told apart by their white markings and their whorls. These features do not change with age: named properly, they let you pick a horse out of a hundred. Here is the official vocabulary, from a trace of white to a white face, and the method to describe a horse without missing a thing.Ekidemy
Parts of the horse: from the poll to the hoof, the full vocabulary“Pat his neck”, “the girth goes just behind the elbows”: to follow an instruction, care for a horse or report an injury, you need the name of each of its parts — and to be able to point to them. Here is the outside of the horse, from the three main regions to the details of the leg, in the words of the yard.Ekidemy
E-invoicing: is your equestrian centre ready?France’s e-invoicing reform comes into force on 1 September 2026. For an equestrian business registered for VAT, it changes how invoices are received, then how they are issued.Ekilog
The horse skeleton: the bones, from the skull to the phalangesUnder every part of the horse you can name lies a bone or a joint. Knowing the skeleton means understanding why the withers are the high point of the back, why the horse’s knee is not a knee, and what your saddle sits on.Ekidemy
Horse muscles: the engines of movementThe bones are the levers; the muscles are the engines. Knowing what each main group does means understanding what your exercises work — why a horse builds muscle slowly, and why its tendons are watched so closely.Ekidemy
Horse digestion: from the mouth to the large intestineThe horse is a herbivore built to eat a little at a time, but almost all the time. Every feeding rule on the yard — forage first, several small feeds, no sudden change — comes from a feature of its digestive tract. Here is the route the food takes, organ by organ.Ekidemy
Horse gaits: walk, trot and canter, and how they workA gait is a way of moving. The horse has three natural ones — walk, trot and canter — that you learn to recognise by eye, by ear and from the saddle. Here is how each works, foot by foot, what makes a good gait, and what the pace, the broken trot or the piaffe are.Ekidemy
The beats of the canter: how it works, leads and counter-canterThe canter is the only one of the three gaits that comes in two versions: on the right lead and on the left lead. Knowing its three beats and the order in which the legs land means telling the lead from the ground and in the saddle, striking off correctly, and understanding what a disunited canter and counter-canter are.Ekidemy
Types of bits: recognising each bit and understanding its actionThe bit carries the rider’s hand to the horse’s mouth. There are dozens of them, but they all fall into a few families: snaffle bits, which act directly, and bits with shanks — the double bridle, the pelham — which act by leverage. Here is how to recognise them, what each one is for, and why the best bit is still the hand that holds it.Ekidemy
The software for livery yardsIn a livery yard, every horse has its owner, its livery and its care. Ekilog follows them one by one and invoices what was done, with no spreadsheet on the side.Ekilog
The saddle and the bridle: the parts, the fitting and the careTack is what joins the rider to the horse: the saddle on the back, the bridle on the head. Knowing every piece, and how to put it on, fit it and look after it, protects the horse’s back and mouth — and your own safety. Here is the full vocabulary, from the pommel to the noseband.Ekidemy
The horse’s hoof and shoeing: from the bare foot to the farrier’s work“No foot, no horse,” as the old saying goes. The horse’s whole weight rests on four hooves that absorb every stride. Knowing the parts of the hoof, what lies under the horn and what good shoeing looks like means being able to say exactly what is wrong — and knowing when to call the farrier.Ekidemy
Grooming a horse: the brushes, the order and the right movesGrooming cleans the horse, massages it and gets it ready for work. It is also the moment to examine it from head to foot and check that it is well before you saddle up. Here is the full kit, the order of grooming, and the moves that protect the horse — and you.Ekidemy
Feeding a horse: the feeds, the needs and the rationFeeding a horse is not filling a manger: it is meeting its needs with three groups of feed — forage, concentrates, mineral supplements — not forgetting water, in a form its small stomach can cope with. Here are the basic feeds, the quantities to remember, the principles of a good ration and what a feed label really says.Ekidemy
Toxic plants for horses: what never to let them eatSome plants kill a horse within hours; some feeds that look wholesome make it ill because they are mouldy or soiled. Left to itself, a horse avoids most toxic plants, which are often bitter. It gets caught out when it is hungry, when the plant is dried and mixed into the hay, or when someone throws it hedge clippings. Recognising them is part of a rider’s job.Ekidemy
Horse and pony breeds: origin, height and how to recognise themA breed groups together horses or ponies that look alike in size, outline and ability, and pass their features on to their offspring. Each breed keeps a register of its births, the stud book. Here are the breeds you meet most often in French riding clubs, ponies and horses, and what makes each recognisable at a glance.Ekidemy