When Azuro came home after his kissing spine surgery, I tried everything.

Different exercises. Different sequences. Different approaches to rebuilding his strength and getting him comfortable in his body again.

And through all of that trial and error — working with him day after day, session after session — two things happened.

We both became experts at the exercises.

And I started to notice something I hadn't fully appreciated before.

The days I did his core activation exercises first — before anything else, right there in the stable — everything that followed felt different.

He moved more freely. He was easier to work with. His body felt more available.

And the days I skipped them?

I could feel it. He could feel it.

Something was just a little more stuck. A little more resistant. A little harder to unlock.

We still do them most days now, 8 years later — and at 21, Azuro is looking absolutely amazing. 🦄

That speaks for itself.

That's when I understood what core activation actually is — and why it matters so much more than most people realise.

It's not just a warm-up.

It's not ticking a box before you get on.

It's the process of switching on the deep postural muscles that hold your horse's body together.

The muscles that support the spine. The muscles that allow your horse to carry themselves properly. The muscles that, when they're not engaged, mean your horse is working on top of a system that isn't fully online yet.

Here's what most owners don't realise.

Your horse doesn't walk out of the stable ready to work.

Their deep postural muscles — the ones that actually matter for how they move, how they carry weight, how they build strength over time — are often switched off.

Not because something is wrong. Just because that's how bodies work.

Human bodies do the same thing. It's why physios and personal trainers spend time on activation before they load a joint or ask a muscle to perform. The body needs to be switched on first.

For horses, those few minutes of targeted stable-based exercises before you work them aren't optional extras.

They're the foundation everything else is built on.

Skip them, and your horse starts every session working around the very thing you're trying to fix.

The crookedness is still there. The weaker side is still compensating. The postural muscles are still waiting to be asked.

And then we wonder why progress feels slow. Why some days feel good and others feel like you're starting from scratch. Why the exercises you're doing don't seem to be sticking.

This is what I see every single week with horse owners who are putting in real effort and still not getting the results they deserve.

It's rarely the exercises that are wrong.

It's that the body hasn't been prepared to receive them.

Azuro taught me this more clearly than any textbook could.

When I got it right — activation first, every time — his whole way of going shifted. The work landed differently. His body responded.

And that's what I want for your horse too.

The good news is that core activation doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming.

The exercises are stable-based, gentle, and most horses actually enjoy them once they get used to the routine.

You don't need equipment. You don't need an arena. You just need to know what to do and why you're doing it.

That's exactly what my Core Exercises Course gives you — a clear, step-by-step guide to the exercises I use with Azuro and every horse I work with. The same ones that shifted everything for us.

Right now it's just £9 / $12 with lifetime access.

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👉 CORE EXERCISES COURSE