As horses are not evolved or designed very well for us to ride them, unfortunately they do suffer with back problems - we sit on the lowest part of the back and they are not always strong enough to carry the weight of the saddle and rider. Back problems can range from sore muscles or tightness, restricted joints, to bones touching in the spine which is extremely painful for them (this is 'Kissing Spine'). 

Some horses show signs of back pain very clearly, while others just carry on with...

LONG & LOW POSTURE FOR YOUR HORSE

Does your horse work in a 'long and low' posture with an elongated, lowered neck and a lifted core?

Or is this something that you struggle to achieve?

Maybe you can achieve this to a degree but your horse isn't consistent in this beneficial frame, or he actually falls onto his forehand instead of carrying himself?

Long and low posture is beneficial for our horses for many reasons! Gravity and the weight of the organs have a downward pulling effect on the...

If I could recommend just ONE thing for you to do, to do to improve your horses posture and way of going, it would be to add daily CARROT STRETCHES to your routine! 

'Carrot stretch' exercises activate the horses core muscles: their abdominals and waist muscles. These muscles are the direct opposite to the big back muscles, so if we activate and then strengthen the abdominal and waist muscles, we can have a direct influence on the horses back in terms of posture and...

CROOKEDNESS IN HORSES

Horses are naturally crooked. What do I mean by this?! They are one sided by default. Like we are - one hand is dominant, it’s the same in the horse.

Does your horse bend on one rein better than the other? Are his lateral movements better on one rein than the other? These are examples of the horse being crooked. 

There is a theory behind natural crookedness, that it comes from the grazing pattern as a foal, where they can’t reach the ground as their legs...

In my work as an Equine Physiotherapist / Rehabilitation Specialist / Spinal Manipulation Therapist, many of the horses that I see need postural improvement, to transform them from a hollow, tight back, to a strengthened body and lifted core and back, which enables the horse to ‘work over the back’ in a long and low posture.

This is all achieved through a combination of treatment and specific exercises and work routines to retrain the horse and develop core strength!

Postural...

As spring in the UK is DEFINITELY around the corner now (!!) this weeks Top Tips are about bringing your horse back into work.

There are various things to consider with our horses if they have had time off, or less exercise over the winter months, to bring them back into work safely, so that we don’t risk injury, poor posture developing, or the start of an overuse syndrome in the body.

Tip 1: Make a plan!

I love a good plan with horses, it’s so effective and so much safer to bring...

This weeks Tips are all about your horses posture, how important their posture is, and what we can do to improve their posture.

This area has become a specialist topic for me, as a Physiotherapist and Spinal Therapist, dealing with back issues in horses. I have a lot of experience in this area, and have found what works to improve your horses posture!

The most simplistic way to describe poor posture in the horse, is that if they have a weak ‘sagging’ back and belly, they are more...

This weeks Top Tips are all about walk exercise, the benefits, and what a transformation you can actually make just with walking!

I use walk work at the beginning of all rehabilitation plans, for correction, strengthening, for warm up, cool down, mobilisation of body, so in lots of different ways!

In most rehabilitation plans I walk horses for 6 weeks, and have totally transformed the horses posture and strength in this time, just with a progressive hand walking plan!

Benefits:

There are so...

As we are approaching Springtime, it’s time to start thinking about what we can/need to start doing with our horses to ‘get them going’ if they have had downtime or less work over the winter months.

Last week I was talking on my page and in my Practical Tips group about Motivation, and how making small manageable changes to your routine can make such a big difference to your horses!

To get ahead for Springtime, especially if you and your horse are ‘coming out of...