The Jigsaw Puzzle that is HORSES!

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 right, the horse doesn't work as a whole. 

WILD HORSES => DOMESTICATION

So a few unfortunate facts...

• Horses aren't evolved / designed to be ridden 
• Horses are naturally crooked (left or right handed)
• Horses are 'nomadic' meaning they travel a large number of miles per day in the wild looking for food, water, shelter, in a herd, THIS IS NORMAL FOR THEM 
• Horses are evolved to eat rough grasses, bushes and trees, and are trickle feeders 
• Domesticated life for horses is the opposite of how they are evolved to live and survive 

So when we consider horses in this way, it might be easy to see how and where things can go wrong with horses. Hence the 'Jigsaw Pieces' idea...there are so many considerations to give our horses the most natural lifestyle that we can, so that they are in balance with themselves. 

Here are the main pieces of the jigsaw as I see it...: 

• DIET: the grass in the UK is largely way too 'good' for our horses, and we feed them processed feeds = digestion is under stress 
• MANAGEMENT: stabling results in less movement, gaps of time without food, separation from the herd = stressful and unnatural for horse 
• NATURAL CROOKEDNESS: horses are naturally left or right handed, and this is something we need to work on LONG TERM in training to equalise our horses body and limbs = uncorrected this can lead to injury 
• SOUNDNESS: horses can be good at making subtle postural changes to adapt to minor injury (wild horse thinking kicking in here) = is your horse fully sound? 
• POSTURE: horses aren't evolved to be ridden, and we sit on the lowest part of their back = back pain / injury if not trained and strengthened correctly 
• EXERCISE: artificial surfaces, unnatural forms of exercise, horses broken in too young before their body is ready etc = injuries

How does all of this translate onto your horse and how he lives? Can you see how all of this links together? 

If your horse is affected by some/most/all of these jigsaw pieces, he is out of balance, just by living in a domesticated environment. Which is why it's so important to consider the pieces of the jigsaw for your horse, and look at how you can make your horses life and environment as natural as possible, so that he can be relaxed, healthy, injury free, and happy! 

If you would like to read a bit more about all of this, please click through to download a copy of my FREE Ebook 'Posture, Core Strength & Crookedness in the horse': Free Posture Crookedness Ebook

If I can help you any further with all of this, just get in touch via the Contact page on my website...Jenny x