Spring has finally sprung here in the UK!! It has felt like a long winter, and I imagine all horse owners are now planning what they might want to do with their horses this summer (me included!)! 

So I just wanted to write a post with a few tips and ideas for things to consider with your horse as you start to increase their exercise this Spring. 

I like to consider and talk about injury prevention, and all of the ways that we can strengthen and correct our horses body and movement,...

Is your horse ready? Ready for what?! Ready for whatever you want to do!

In the UK we are about to enter Springtime (anytime now!), so you may be about to increase exercise with your horse, start competing, or bring your horse back into work after time off/reduced exercise over the winter months. 

At this time of year I like to recommend stepping back, physically and mentally (!) with our horses, to consider what they have been doing over the winter, where we would like to get to with...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...