About The Trainer

Chavez Selvaratnam is a 4th generation horseman with a background in horse racing, who walked away from the sport formally in 2020. Today, Chavez works with horses as an equine practitioner, particularly with highly strung horses and is the founder of a sustainable horse bedding solution company called Hüsk Bedding.

Drawing from his experience of working with horses, Chavez works particularly with highly strung or nervous horses to help horses to overcome their temperamental issues, nervousness, fears, and anxiety on the ground. His work is in effort to help horses have a calmer nervous system in their stabled lives, more comfortable, and ultimately create a stronger bond between the horse and their guardians.

Chavez’s approach is patient, gentle, all on the ground, and consensual. His work is built on a bond of trust between horse and human. He works with physical touch, body language, sound, and gentle handling.

Chavez’s work provides horses with a whole range of mental benefits to their lives in turn. Horses will be calmer, more open to human contact, gentler in their temperament toward humans, and experience a better quality of life.

Happy horses live happier lives, and this shows up in all aspects of their lives including their “performance”.  Whether you just care for your horse as a pet, ride leisurely, or compete together, this groundwork will improve your horse’s overall quality of life, and in turn benefit other aspects of working together with your horse.

He was born and raised in the UAE where he grew up at Jebel Ali Stables and Racecourse where his father and uncle trained for the Late Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Chavez spent his childhood surrounded by racehorses being taught by his father the intricate details about horses and racing, spending his days in the stables, his weekends going racing, and his early mornings on the gallops with the horses. He started to ride as a young kid and spent a lot of time riding leisurely in the desert; he later went on to play Polo for his University in England. In 2015 Chavez started to formally work in horse racing, starting his formal employment at the legendary training establishment of Jim Bolger’s in Carlow Ireland during his summer holiday. Chavez then went on to assist his father in the training Sheikh Ahmed’s racehorses in 2017 and started his own bloodstock company. After completing university Chavez went on to follow his father’s footsteps to become a racehorse trainer by becoming a pupil assistant/barn manager for the renowned trainer Andrew Balding at Parkhouse Stables in Kingsclere, UK. After deciding to leave the horse racing world, Chavez quit his job in 2020 and developed his own sustainable horse bedding – Hüsk Bedding - to create a bedding that benefitted horses mentally and physiologically and one that did not need to be changed frequently. Chavez reflected that during his time working in the UK, he spent all his time caring for his horses’ mental and physical well-being. Nothing else mattered than seeing his horses healthy and happy. The past years he has been developing Hüsk Bedding – bedding over 100 horses now for top equine establishments. Having spent time away from the racing industry, but close to horses in nature, Chavez has reconnected with his spirit and is pursuing his calling with horses to work with them one on one. No chains, no tethers, no bridles, no reins. Permission, consent, connection, mutual respect, and love.

Chavez has always been hands on with his horses and has now created a program to share with the world to help horses feel safe, comfortable, and heard. He strives to bring horses who are stabled into more comfort, care, and acknowledgement, and wishes to help horse guardians/owners to come closer to their horses too. Not on the saddle, but as equals on the ground.

Why Horse Softening?

Some horses are box walkers, some horses have become extremely nervous, some horses are depressed. There is a reason behind all these issues. A root cause. A lot of these issues persist with horses who have been stabled in isolation or have experienced trauma.

There is certainly not ‘one cure’ that can help a horse overcome whatever they are going through especially when we look at horses as individuals having their own lived experiences, and not a being that we must dominate to get our will.

Like humans, such issues take time to be recognized, confronted, worked through, and consistently given care toward, if we want to respect the horse rightfully as a conscious being having an experience on this earth, just as we are.

Stage 1 – Meeting

Horses are flight animals, and need time to build a foundation to meet some one new and build a trusted bond. Horses are mirrors and reflect how we are feeling.

When we are nervous, stressed, or angry in their circumference, horses feel this and mirror this back to us as natural response for their own protection.

In the same way, when we are calm, centered, and patient, horses feel this too, and this creates a safe space where we can meet.

In this initial discovery stage, Chavez will spend time meeting your horse, getting to know each other, reading body language, learning the boundaries, understanding the issues, talking. This initial stage is for building a foundation of trust and mutual respect, from where we can build from.

Stage 2 – Confrontation

Confrontation is where we will begin to work on the issues that have come up during the initial discovery stage.

Chavez will go in to triggering these issues in a controlled manner and setting to understand what arises, learn why these issues are present, and to understand what we can do to help your horse move through and past these patterns.

Habits take time to form, and there is a root cause behind them. Such patterns take time to work through, but confronting them in a patient and gentle way is the first step towards creating new pathways where your horse can learn other ways of reacting to stressors and feel safe.

Stage 3 – Working through the issues

Through different activities, changes in routine, and through a series of rituals and prompts, Chavez will work with your horse to overcome their learnt patterns.

Now we can work on finding new ways to work through the to help the horse overcome their fear, anger, anxieties, or nervousness - what ever it is.

Stage 4 – Alchemy

This stage is where the horse guardian is brought back into the picture. With the information Chavez has collected, studied, and started to implement, the guardian is now invited back into the space to work through these issues with their horse to gain a deeper understanding of their horse and their behaviour, and the why and how to manage such triggers.

This is where the guardian is invited to continue the work that has been initiated and continue to implement the new ways of being with the horse into their relationship and to spot the moments where your horse may need an extra bit of attention, care or to be seen.