Free Flow Equine Therapies - Susan Rousak

02/01/2026

Great info to explain why bodywork helps to support looking term change in your horse.

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How Muscles Change: The Short-Term, Mid-Term, and Long-Term Timeline for Massage and Conditioning

Understanding how and when a horse’s muscles change is one of the most useful concepts for trainers, riders, and bodyworkers. Muscles can change in a single week — negatively through tension, positively through massage — but true structural development takes time. Massage and exercise work together, each influencing different stages of the adaptation process.
Below is a clear, trainer-friendly breakdown of how muscle change actually happens.

Short-Term Change (Immediately to 7 Days)

Negative change happens fast. A single ride, a slip in turnout, stress, or discomfort can lead to:

tension

bracing

shortened stride

crookedness

protective muscle guarding

These defensive patterns can appear within minutes to hours.

Positive change also happens rapidly through massage. Massage and myofascial work produce immediate functional improvements, including:

reduced tension

improved hydration and fascial glide

better proprioception

restored firing sequences

reduced guarding

freer, more symmetrical movement

These changes meaningfully improve movement quality, but they are not yet full structural remodeling.

Mid-Term Change (2–8 Weeks)

During this window, both massage and exercise begin creating deeper neuromuscular adaptation.

What exercise contributes:

improved coordination

recruitment of better motor patterns

early development of healthy muscle fibers

strengthening of postural and core muscles

improved endurance and stability

What massage contributes:

maintaining clean firing patterns

preventing compensatory muscle from forming

improving circulation and oxygenation

reducing chronic tension so correct muscles can activate

increasing the horse’s ability to use the right muscles

slowing the return of old restrictions

Movement becomes more fluid and correct in this phase, even if visible muscle change is still subtle.

Longer-Term Change (8–12 Weeks)

This is the conditioning timeline trainers know well — the point where the horse’s body begins true structural remodeling.

Exercise initiates structural development:

measurable hypertrophy

improved muscle density

visible topline changes

stronger thoracic sling and hindquarter recruitment

stable, long-lasting strength

Massage supports and shapes that development:

ensuring new muscle is symmetrical rather than compensatory

keeping the back swinging so the core can engage

reducing fascial drag for cleaner biomechanics

improving the productivity of training sessions

maintaining range of motion and joint mobility

enhancing the quality of the muscle being built

Around the three-month mark, horses begin to look different — not because massage built muscle quickly, but because it cleared the way for training to build the correct muscle.

Long-Term Remodeling (3–12 Months)

This is where lasting, meaningful transformation occurs. Over this period, consistent work combined with massage promotes:

stable postural change

healthier connective tissue through collagen realignment

improved fascial elasticity

balanced topline and core strength

stronger neuromuscular pathways

long-term injury prevention

greater overall soundness and resilience

You’ll begin to see:

a different outline

smoother, more efficient movement

sustained self-carriage

improved muscle texture

increased strength with less tension
enhanced longevity

These are long-lasting changes, not temporary improvements.

The Core Message

You can change a horse in one week — negatively through tension, positively through massage.

But true structural muscle change follows the same 8–12 week timeline as conditioning.

Massage doesn’t replace training; it ensures that training builds the right muscle.

Massage clears restrictions and restores normal neuromuscular patterns.

Exercise builds structure.

Time integrates the change and makes it lasting.

https://koperequine.com/improve-your-riding-training-with-serpentine-exercises/

29/12/2025

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Making Bodywork Stick

There are many types of bodyworkers in the equine industry—chiropractors, myofascial therapists, massage therapists, PEMF, MagnaWave, and more. When done correctly, all of these modalities can be beneficial to the horse. However, it is important to understand that you are the most important bodyworker of all.

You are the primary physiotherapist for your horse. You spend the most time with them, and because you are the one riding the horse, you have the greatest ability to either improve or hinder your horse’s physical development.

When you receive feedback from your bodyworker, it is essential that you make subtle—or sometimes significant—changes in how you work your horse. If a bodyworker identifies a troubled area and relieves it, but you continue to ride in the same way that created the issue, the horse will return to that state within a ride or two. At that point, both the time and money invested in bodywork are wasted.

If you are a rider who does not adjust your work based on what you feel in your horse—or ignores what your bodyworker tells you—then the problem is rarely just the sore spot itself. More often than not, you are the source of the issue.

Be mindful of how your horse feels and moves. Use the feedback your bodyworker gives you; they may feel things you cannot yet feel from the saddle. Developing a horse is a constant process of listening, adjusting, and riding in ways that meet the horse’s changing needs.

Bodywork can help—but correct riding is what makes it last.

27/12/2025

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How horses read us (and why it matters) 🧠🐴

Horses don’t meet us through words or training techniques first.
They meet us through emotion and survival.

They engage with us through the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for safety, connection, and emotional response. The way two nervous systems influence and sync with one another is known as limbic resonance.

Limbic resonance is non-verbal, nervous-system-to-nervous-system communication. It’s how emotional states pass between mammals without words. In humans, it’s the foundation of bonding and empathy. In horses, it’s essential for survival.

This is why internal state matters.

The limbic system works closely with the nervous system, shaping breathing, heart rate, muscle tone, posture, and movement. Together, these create your internal state and that state is never hidden.

We broadcast it constantly through our body, breath, tension or softness, rhythm, and chemistry. Other mammals don’t analyse this. They feel it automatically.

Horses are exceptionally sensitive to this.

As prey animals, their survival has always depended on detecting subtle emotional and physical changes in others. Within the herd, this silent communication keeps them safe. It is their primary language.

When you’re with a horse, you’re stepping into that system.

Before you act or speak, your horse already knows whether you feel calm, unsure, confident, or tense. This is why your inner dialogue matters.

Seeing something unfamiliar, a tarp, a gate, a strange object can trigger a moment of tension. That doesn’t make you a bad rider or handler. It makes you human.

But when the thought becomes “this could go wrong”, the nervous system tightens and the horse feels that shift immediately. Often, that shared tension is what actually triggers the reaction.

If instead you pause, soften your body, slow your breathing, and think “it’s okay, I’ve got this”, the nervous system settles. Your horse can feel that steadiness and borrow it.

This is why breathing matters. 🌬️
Slow, steady breathing regulates the nervous system at its source not pretending to be calm, but genuinely becoming calm.

When a horse feels safe, connection follows naturally.Not because they were forced or managed, but because your presence feels good to be near.

Horsemanship isn’t about doing more.
It’s about understanding how horses feel, process, and respond.🤍

24/12/2025

Merry Christmas everyone 🎄🦌
I hope you have a great day celebrating with family and friends 😊

21/12/2025

Thank you to all my clients for an amazing 2025!

I'm now off to enjoy my Xmas break and will be back to work after 13 January 2026!

I hope you all have a fantasy holiday season, stay safe and enjoy your pony time 😄❤️

19/12/2025

This!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BdN5CBmGo/

This morning I had a question posted in my Equine Functional Posture Course and I thought it would be good to post here as it is an important question

“My horse has been cleared by the vet to be ridden… but when is the right time to actually start riding?”

This is such an important question!!

Being cleared by the Vet means tissues have healed enough to tolerate load.
But healing and readiness are not the same thing.

Before we climb back into the saddle, it’s worth asking a deeper question:
👉 Is my horse’s body prepared and able to carry me well - physically, posturally, and emotionally?

True readiness is about function, not just timeframes.

I look for signs like:
• Can they maintain balanced posture at rest?
- Limb alignment and positions
- Head and neck position - braced or relaxed?

• Do they have mobility and strength through the thoracic sling to enable lift at the base of the wither and maintain balance and weight off the forehand

• Is the core able to support the spine, or does movement collapse under load?
- Is there mobility of the spine in a belly lift?
- When they trot is the back well supported or is it dropping downwards with a disconnect to the pelvis

• Are they moving with ease, confidence, and symmetry or guarding and compensating?

• How do they respond to light requests - calmly and softly, or with tension and resistance?

🐴Riding too early doesn’t always look dramatic.
Often it shows up quietly:
– Loss of balance
– Subtle resistance
– Changes in behaviour
– Tension, stiffness, or reluctance
– Patterns that become “training problems” later on

💡 The ideal time to start riding is when your horse can carry themselves before they carry you.

This is where groundwork, posture work, controlled loading, and progressive reintroduction to movement become acts of welfare, not delays.

Because of the horse…
we owe them the time to rebuild balance, strength and confidence in their body not just return to work.

If you’re unsure, listen to what the body is telling you.
Posture and behaviour are always communicating - we just need to learn how to hear them.

💜🐴

17/12/2025

The beautiful Minnie enjoying some PEMF after her bodywork. PEMF in this case is being used to help alleviate discomfort and inflammation 😍

My HERO PEMF

17/12/2025

Thinking of trying to go bitless? Read this article first 😀

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Setting up for a Smooth Transition with Confidence and ClaritySwitching to a bitless bridle or sidepull can be a fantastic way to improve communication and comfort for your horse—but timing and preparation are everything. So, how do you know your horse is ready? And what exercises can help set the...

14/12/2025

Some considerations if you want to go bitless 😄

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Setting your Horse up for Success with the Right Fit and DesignWhen it comes to riding bitless, the bridle isn’t just a piece of tack—it’s your main line of communication with your horse. A well-fitted bitless bridle can make the difference between a soft, responsive ride and a frustrating one...

05/12/2025

Slowing ourselves down is so important for our horses. Take the moments, watch your horse reactions, wait until you both take a deep breath

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𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Spend an hour watching a herd and something uncomfortable becomes obvious.

They are not slow.
We are frantic.

We have normalised a pace of life that is biologically unsustainable.
Instant replies. Same-day delivery. Tescos 𝘞𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘩. The obsession with immediacey.

The constant low-level vibration of what’s next?

Our nervous systems are stuck in a permanent high-frequency buzz.

Then you walk into the stable.

A horse does not live in “Clock Time” (Chronos).
They live in “Deep Time” (Kairos).

They do not know it is Tuesday.
They do not know you are late.
They only know Now.

When you enter their space, you hit a wall of stillness.

And if we are honest, at first it’s annoying.
You want to rush the process. Hurry up and catch. Hurry up and groom. Hurry up and get the job done.

You arrive carrying the momentum of your entire workday.

But the horse refuses to hurry.

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗿.
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗺 🌧

This is where the science of entrainment kicks in.

Physics tells us that when two oscillating systems meet, they eventually sync.
The stronger rhythm pulls the weaker one into line.

A horse’s heart rate is slower.
Their breathing is deeper.
Their electromagnetic field is larger.

They are the stronger rhythm.

They drag you out of the speed of wifi and drop you back into the speed of blood.
The speed of breath.
The speed of the earth turning 🌎

You think you are waiting for them to react.
But really, they are waiting for you to arrive.

Because until you slow down, you are not truly there.
You are just a body vibrating with tomorrow’s to-do list.

By the time you leave the yard, you haven’t completed a task.
You have stepped out of the rat race and remembered you are a mammal. 🐴

Slow down.
The email will still be there tomorrow.
This breath won’t. 🫁

03/12/2025

I've been collaborating with the amazing Lagoballo and written an article on what to look for in a bridle 😄

Enjoy!!

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Why Bridle Brands Matter for Ultimate Bridle FitWhen it comes to horse riding, the bridle isn’t just a piece of tack—it’s your main line of communication with your horse. A well-designed bridle can make the difference between a responsive, comfortable ride and a frustrating one. So, with the t...

01/12/2025

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Fascia hears before the brain does.

Fascia is one of the most sensory-rich tissues in the body — packed with far more nerve endings than muscle.

It contains:
• Mechanoreceptors that sense movement, pressure, and loading
• Nociceptors that detect discomfort or pain
• Interoceptors that track the horse’s internal state and safety

Equine fascia is constantly reading the environment. It detects tension, stretch, compression, shear, vibration, temperature, and internal shifts with incredible speed and precision.

These receptors fire faster than conscious processing.

Because of this massive sensory input, fascia acts as the horse’s predictive and corrective system, adjusting posture, balance, muscle tone, and protective responses before the thinking brain ever engages.
It’s why horses react instantly, fluidly, and sometimes explosively — their fascia responds first.

The fluid layers within the fascial network also behave like a biological antenna, transmitting and receiving subtle mechanical and energetic information through wave-like patterns that travel across the whole body.

Your horse’s fascia is always listening — and responding —
long before the conscious mind catches up.



https://koperequine.com/where-horses-feel-it-most-common-soreness-zones-in-muscles-and-fascia/