This weeks Blog is on the different parts of your horses movement that you can improve! 

Whether they are heavy on the forehand, not working over the back, crooked in their limb patterns, these are all parts of the horses movement that we can positively influence, and actually the effects are far reaching in terms of both the movement AND the horses wellness. 

Last week in my Blog and posts I talked about the thoracic sling, the sling of muscles that suspends the front section of...

Postural improvement work with horses is one of my specific areas of focus, especially as I have a lot of experience with horses going through 'kissing spine', which is often a postural issue. 

I like to share my knowledge around posture, and how to assess your own horse, so that you can keep an eye on your horses posture and notice when things maybe need improving. Making changes before your horse starts struggling is always the best option...or even better, is to have your horse in...

As an Equine Physiotherapist & Rehabilitation Specialist, one of the main parts of my work to is look at improving the horses movement, and when I make amendments to horses' exercise/rehab plans to develop more full body strength, the difference in their movement and ability is quite transformational!! 

A horse can be doing 'ok' and able to do most of what is required BUT when you add some specific strength work to the horses routine, to genuinely strengthen the core and condition...

In my work as an Equine Physio & Rehabilitation Specialist, I look at the whole horse as well as the injury site in terms of rehabilitation. I am also qualified as a Spinal Manipulation Therapist so adding all of my skills and experience in together gives me quite a unique view of horses, that I like to share with horse owners to help them understand their horses better. 

So is 'kissing spine' a whole horse issue? My educated, experienced opinion...YES undoubtedly. And for lots of...

There is a definite grey area with horses...in between good/sound/all ok and lame. And the grey area is the 'not quite right' area. And it's where I work a lot, with the posture and movement improvement work that I teach. Many of my training group members find me and ask for my help because their horse is a bit stuck, or they just can't quite get back to ridden work. 

Here's what I see and have experienced...

Horses that have had an injury/some sort of issue, been through the vets and...

'Carrot Stretch' exercises are one of the most effective sets of exercises that you can do with your horse! They have been PROVEN in a research study, to increase the size of the postural muscles, the multifidus, along the spine, and they help maintain space in between the DSP's - done correctly, these exercises make a huge difference to your horses back and core, and are PROVEN to work. 

We have been digging into the technique around actually doing these exercises correctly and...

Following on from last weeks Blog on the important Multifidus muscles in the spine, I wanted to write about the next step...actually strengthening the multifidus muscles to help create space in between the DSP's (the bones that touch in kissing spine). 

You can read last weeks Blog here: Multifidus Muscles Blog post

Strengthening the abdominals in the horse has the effect of shortening the abdominal line of the horse, therefore lifting the core and back. So the abdominal work is the...

The multifidus muscles in the horses spine are small muscles, but of HUGE importance to the horses back health. 

I talk about them a lot in my groups, and when I'm talking to clients about Kissing Spine prevention...I love that my clients ask me about this, as it means that all of the blogs and posts and talks that I put out are reaching horse owners that want to do the very best for their horses! 

So I wanted to explain about the multifidus muscles, what they are, why they are...

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...

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...