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...

In my talks in my training groups, I quite often start with asking members to consider 'horses in the wild' as a concept, as I think it is so very important to consider the needs of the wild horse based on how they evolved, and apply this to our modern / domesticated horses, to give them the most natural lifestyle as possible. 

There are so many pieces to the jigsaw with horses, to give them what they need to survive in our domesticated world that we keep them in! And if one piece isn't...

As a horse owner in addition to being a physio, I really understand feeling stuck with your horse...

Horses are such big, magnificent animals, with their own ideas and personality, and their own background/past. And they are wild animals, even though we have domesticated and trained them, the 'tiger in the hedge' episodes are real for them! 

Horses can actually be overwhelming, and I have experienced this with my horse Azuro,  in behaviour, personality traits, assessment, working...

Summer time can either be really easy with your horses because they can live out full time without issue...or it can be fraught with issues if your horse is a 'good doer', prone to weight gain, has had laminitis, has EMS, or any type of grass related issue. 

If you're in the latter camp with your horse, I feel your pain, as I know from my own experience that it's a really difficult juggling act. 

Through experience I have found ways to manage horses weight, to keep them slim and...

What is your exercise regime with your horse? Do you cross train, ride every day, or only ride at weekends? Do you already do some non-ridden exercise with your horse?

I'm a fan of mixed exercise for horses, and looking at their exercise plans as you would an athlete, considering fitness, strength, flexibility, core strength, co-ordination, symmetry, and looking at what you actually want your horse to do, and working backwards from that point! 

Horses are naturally crooked, and not a...