Developing Correct Movement, Training Series Part 6: Training the hindlimbs 

The natural crookedness pattern in the horse makes them effectively left or right handed. So we have uneven weight bearing and movement as a natural pattern in their body from day 1 of their life. 

So in training / rehab we need to work on our horses symmetrical use of their body and limbs within movement, to develop both strength AND flexibility into the horses body and limbs. The crookedness pattern...

Developing Correct Movement, Training Series Part 5: Moving on from long and low

If you haven't yet read parts 1-4 in this series, you can read them on the blog, this is a series that works together! 

In the earlier posts in this series, I have discussed why 'long and low' posture is important to develop, and then once we have improved that part of the horses movement, how to then see if your horse is now on the forehand...the next layer of training! 

So once we have...

Developing Correct Movement, Training Series Part 4: The fine line between ‘working over the back’ and ‘being on the forehand’! 

This is a training exercise where you need to ‘get your eye in’ so to speak! 

In Part 2 of this blog series, I talked about horses being heavy on the forehand, and that we can positively affect this in the horses body! Part 3 was about why we seek long and low posture in the horse. 

This weeks blog is looking at...

Getting your horse off the forehand

You might have heard this said about your horse…get him off the forehand, or he’s heavy on the forehand?
Does your horse feel heavy in the contact like he’s leaning on the bridle / your arms? Does he pull you down the reins or pull you out of the saddle? Is he a bit unresponsive in the contact, lacking ‘brakes’, feels like he runs into the ground so to speak, looks downhill in his body?

These are all signs that your horse is...

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...

Did you know that your horse is either left or right handed? All horses are 'one sided', crooked, stiffer on one rein, whatever we want to call it...they are all crooked to one degree or another. And it affects the whole body unfortunately. 

One sidedness is present in our horses bodies throughout their life, and it means that they can do movements in one direction better than the other. They prefer to take their weight on one hindlimb/diagonal pair more than the opposite...

If you have followed me for a while, you will know how much I LOVE and RECOMMEND some non-ridden exercise for our horses! 

Whether horses are in rehabilitation, coming back into work, you are working on specific movements for competition, or you are working with a senior horse, or a horse with a previous injury...any of these horses will benefits from specific in hand exercises!! 

I have been working on In Hand Exercises with my own horse, as well as clients horses, for years, so...

How it all fits together...

Next week (7-11th March 2022) I will be running my 5 Day Free Online Training Event for the 3rd time, on Posture, Core Strength & Natural Crookedness in the horse, so wanted to write a brief blog post as an introduction to what we will be delving into next week!

The downside about horses first...

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...

As an Equine Physiotherapist I work with a lot of horses with injuries, and something that has really stood out for me during my professional career with horses over the last 10+ years, is that they really are not a good design for riding. They are not evolved or designed to do what we do with them, and are definitely not a good natural design for being ridden...hence breakdowns and injuries happening. 

So just taking one element of this within this post...horses weight distribution is...