Mobilise, Activate, Strengthen – My 3-Step Formula for Every Horse

When it comes to training and rehabilitation, it’s easy to get caught up in complicated routines, conflicting advice, and endless “must-do” exercises. But over the years – through working with countless horses in rehab and performance, and even rehabilitating my own horse Azuro after kissing spine surgery – I’ve come back to a simple truth:

👉 Every horse, no matter their age, stage, or discipline, benefits from the same 3-step approach.

I call it Mobilise, Activate, Strengthen.

It’s my tried-and-tested formula for helping horses move better, feel better, and build a body that supports long-term soundness.

Step 1: Mobilise

Before a horse can carry themselves correctly, their body has to be free enough to move. Stiffness, tightness, and restrictions often show up as crookedness, lack of suppleness, or even resistance under saddle.

Here’s the key: you don’t want to reinforce crookedness patterns, and you don’t want to strengthen negative posture. That’s why mobilisation always comes first.

Mobilising is about gently “unravelling” the horse’s body – creating freedom through the joints and soft tissues, and preparing the horse to move in balance.

⚠️ If you skip this stage and jump straight to strengthening – especially after injury or time off – you run the risk of building strength on top of dysfunction. In other words, you’ll be strengthening the wrong patterns.

Some simple ways to mobilise include:

• Core mobilisation exercises - lifts and weight transfer exercises

• Walk polework for variety and range of motion

• Walk hacks or loose schooling in walk to warm up gently

Mobilise first → then everything else falls into place.

Step 2: Activate

Once the body is mobile, it’s time to switch on the right muscles. Many horses naturally overuse their under-neck, shoulders, or hindquarters in the wrong way, which can contribute to poor posture or even injuries over time.

Activation exercises are designed to wake up the stabilising and postural muscles – especially the core.

👉 Here’s the danger: if you skip activation, your horse will default to compensating patterns. They’ll look busy but won’t actually be using their body correctly. It’s like building a house with the foundations switched off – everything you add on top will eventually collapse.

Some ways to activate your horse’s core and stabilisers:

• In-hand exercises that encourage stepping under and lifting through the back

• Correct use of transitions to spark engagement

• Lateral exercises that ask the horse to balance evenly left and right

Think of this stage as turning on the engine. Without activation, strength training becomes ineffective or even damaging.

Step 3: Strengthen

Now that your horse’s body is mobilised and the correct muscles are activated, we can layer in strengthening work.

Strengthening builds resilience, power, and stability – so your horse can carry a rider comfortably, perform at their best, and stay sound for the long term.

But here’s the trap: if you push into strengthening too soon, you’ll just create a fitter, stronger version of the wrong movement pattern. That leads to breakdowns, not breakthroughs.

Strengthening looks like:

• Core stability & strength exercises (hill work, raised poles, collected transitions)

• Consistent, progressive training loads that build muscle gradually

• Maintaining balance between left and right to avoid reinforcing crookedness

This is where the long-term transformations happen. Strength creates a horse that isn’t just moving well today, but has the physical capacity to stay healthy in the future.

Why This Formula Works

So many rehab or training approaches skip straight to strengthening without the foundation. But if the horse is stiff (not mobilised) or switched off in the right muscles (not activated), the strengthening either doesn’t “stick” – or worse, it builds the wrong patterns.

That’s why Mobilise, Activate, Strengthen works every time.
It’s simple, it’s logical, and it respects the horse’s body.

This formula has carried me through rehab yards, physiotherapy cases, and my own horse’s journey back from kissing spine. And it’s the structure behind every exercise programme I teach today.

Where to Start With Your Horse

If you’re ready to put this into practice, the best place to begin is with the core.
That’s why I created my Core Exercises for Your Horse course – it’s the absolute foundation for mobilisation, activation, and strength.

And when you’re ready to deepen the work, my In-Hand Exercises for Your Horse course gives you the tools to activate and strengthen from the ground, with precision and confidence.

✨ Start with the core. Build from the ground. Transform your horse’s body, step by step.