If you follow me already, you will know that I'm a massive fan of walk exercise for horses!

Whether rehabbing, starting a horse, bringing back into work, strengthening, correcting posture, working with a senior horse, specific walk exercise will help with all of these scenarios with horses. 

I tend to work with horses that have current injuries, or in the long term management of injuries, so do spend a lot of time in walk with horses, in particular at the beginning of any process. And...

The winter months can be a great time to be doing some foundation level improvement with your horse.

Short days and difficult weather conditions mean for a lot of us that we are doing less riding (I’ll admit to this - I’m more of a fair weather rider these days!!).

BUT there’s still plenty that we can turn our focus to with our horses training, to be getting ready for springtime! 

I use and teach both core mobilisation and core activation exercises, these are quick to...

It’s mid January and this weeks tips are all about practical ways to manage your horse when the weather and conditions are against you, to keep their systems functioning well.

Last weeks blog was on Winter Exercise - ways to keep your horse moving, and the week before that was Winter Management for horses with arthritis, again some practical management tips for you. 

Tip 1: Snow / stabled days

There are SO many factors to consider when it’s been snowing - safety, enough food...

The winter months in the UK sure can be difficult for horse owners! Snow, ice, frozen ground, wind, rain, mud, short days, all of this makes life hard to keep our horses in exercise! 

But it's really important for us to keep them moving as best we can, and as safely as we can, for so many reasons, and especially if they are stabled for long periods. AND if you're dealing with Kissing Spine, or Arthritis, even more reason to maintain your exercise regime for your horse, in an adapted...

Arthritis Management in the Winter

The winter months in the UK can be difficult for horse care and management, and in particular horses with arthritis can struggle over the winter with joint pain and stiffness.

At this time of year I do see a lot of horses having ‘flare ups’ and needing veterinary attention to deal with pain levels and lameness.

I work with horses owners post diagnosis and vet treatment, to help make plans to manage the horse on an ongoing basis, and adapt their...

Mobilise - Activate - Strengthen: this is a simple strategy that can be applied to EVERY HORSE!

Whether going through rehabilitation, bringing your horse back into work, correcting your horses posture and movement, following kissing spine diagnosis, starting young horses, working with senior horses to improve and maintain their flexibility, horses with arthritis…. ALL of these horses will benefit from working on these important foundations!

And by using mobility and flexibility work,...

How it all fits together...

My posts and talks this month have all been about Posture, Core Strength & Natural Crookedness in the horse, so now I will bring it all together! 

Horses aren't evolved or designed to be ridden or do the sports that we would like to do with them. We as humans decided to domesticate horses, and they are quite accommodating partners for us! BUT this doesn't mean that they are suitable for riding unfortunately. 

In the wild, they learn to 'carry on' even...

Natural crookedness in the horse, or 'handedness' (left- or right- handed!), or laterality, whatever we call it... is such an important topic to understand - our horses are naturally crooked, and we need to adapt our training methods to help our horses with this issue, and train their body to be as symmetrical as possible...to help prevent injury.

There is a theory that crookedness in the horse comes from the grazing pattern they choose to adopt as a foal, and this makes perfect sense to...

Core Strengthening work to improve horses posture is an area that I have worked in extensively, and it's a large part of my job as an Equine Physiotherapist & Rehabilitation Specialist. 

Horses are not a good design for riding and sports, and certainly not evolved to be doing 'human' activities. We sit on the lowest part of their back, which is a common area for 'kissing spine' to develop, and in a lot of cases horses aren't strong enough in their back to carry a rider - definitely...

As a Spinal Therapist and Equine Physiotherapist, working with horses professionally for over 10 years, I have become specialised in back pain in horses, and the reasons that this occurs in horses. 

To help horse owners with learning about WHY their horse is suffering with back pain, and what they can do about it, I like to step back to the evolution of the horse, and start most of my talks in my members groups with this...

Horses are not designed or evolved to be ridden, it's as simple...