Meraki Equine Services

17/02/2026

🔥 2026 — Year of the Fire Horse 🔥
(17 Feb 2026 – 5 Feb 2027)

The Year of the Fire Horse is about momentum, courage, reinvention, and forward movement.
Bold — but not reckless.
Powerful — but purposeful.

Fire Horse years ask us to shed what no longer fits, trust our instincts, and move with intention rather than fear. Favouring those willing to evolve, adapt, and step into alignment with who they’re becoming — not who they’ve been.

At Meraki by LeanneLi, this year feels deeply aligned.

Behind the scenes, there has been quiet restructuring, refinement, and listening — to the body, the nervous system, the land, and the work itself. The Fire Horse doesn’t rush… it moves when it’s ready.

✨ New offerings
✨ Deeper integrations
✨ Refined ways of working
✨ And a stronger emphasis on regulation, resilience, and meaningful change

This isn’t about doing more.
It’s about doing what matters — with clarity, heart, and intention.

If you’ve felt a shift stirring… you’re not imagining it.
The Fire Horse energy is here — and new things are coming.

Stay tuned.
🐎🔥💛

— Meraki by LeanneLi
Consistency, not chaos — that’s the key.

Pic is actually the rearing image of my beautiful Miss Cinnamon Mist (aka Cinny)

01/02/2026

29/01/2026

Quick horse mum reminder… cinch length matters!

When fitting a western saddle, correct cinch length isn’t just about looks — it directly affects comfort, balance, pressure points, and how secure your saddle sits.

I’ve just finished restoring the rough-out seat on Xena’s new saddle (so excited 😍), and now it’s time to buy the correct cinch. I’ll be following Wendy Winn’s fitting instructions to make sure I get it right from the start — because a well-fitted saddle starts underneath.

Happy horse = happy ride 🩷
Always learning, always adjusting.

27/01/2026

For those interested in how the restoration of the rough out on my saddle came out … here she is. Pretty chuffed actually. It was so slick and smooth I was slipping on it … now she’s a butt grabbing machine 🤣

27/01/2026

Down 15.7kg — and it’s not just about the number on the scale.

It’s about feeling stronger in my body. Lighter in my energy. Clearer in my mind (i do still have menopausal / adhd brain fog at times 😂🤣 but thats another story lol).

When you feel good about yourself, it shows. Your whole posture & the way you carry yourself changes.
Your balance improves and your confidence rises.

And here’s the truth horse people already know:
horses feel EVERYTHING.

They pick up when your energy is low and sense when your beliefs about yourself are heavy. They respond when you start showing up grounded, positive, and aligned.

Looking after your body isn’t vanity — it’s self-respect.
It’s choosing good energy and presence. It’s choosing to be the best version of yourself… for you and for them.

Because healing, connection, and performance all start within, always with Meraki. 🩷🌸🐎

26/01/2026

Available now at Meraki Equine Services 🩷🌸🩷

24/01/2026

Three years on Jessica, and your light, wisdom, and legacy live on through all you touched. Forever grateful for the woman who taught, guided, and believed. Not gone — just carried forward in every lesson, every connection, every heart you shaped.

24/01/2026

Did you know? This posture is usually built off the horse. Riding just exposes it.

The image on the left is not a “riding fault”.
In most cases, it develops long before someone ever sits in a saddle.

This pattern forms through everyday life.

Long hours sitting.
Screens and driving.
Forward-focused work.
Chronic low-level stress.
Strength training that prioritises bracing over movement.
Breathing patterns that favour holding and tension.

Over time, the body adapts in a very predictable way.

The ribcage drops.
The thoracic spine stiffens.
The pelvis loses independent control.
Tone increases to create stability.

From a biotensegrity perspective, this is a system that has shifted toward compression and tension dominance, with reduced elastic force distribution. It is not broken. It is adapting successfully to modern demands.

It just happens to be a terrible strategy to sit on a horse with.

How common is this? Very.

Research on the general population consistently shows:
• reduced thoracic mobility in most adults
• altered lumbopelvic rhythm in seated workers
• widespread breathing pattern dysfunction linked to stress

Among riders specifically, biomechanical studies repeatedly find:
• asymmetry is normal, not rare
• inconsistent pelvic control even in experienced riders
• compensatory trunk strategies under load

If you ride, the odds are high that you bring some version of this pattern with you.
Not because you’re bad. Because you’re human in a modern world.

What happens when this body sits on a horse

The moment you sit down, your body becomes a boundary condition the horse must work within.

Biomechanically, this posture creates:
• increased vertical stiffness through the saddle
• reduced shock absorption from the rider
• asymmetrical force transmission if collapse or rotation is present
• noisy, inconsistent loading stride to stride

The horse responds by reorganising its own tensegrity:
• increased thoracolumbar stiffness
• altered spinal motion
• compensatory limb loading
• higher muscular co-contraction to stabilise the system

This is not resistance.
It is not behavioural.
It is physics.

The horse is stabilising against a rider who cannot distribute force efficiently.

Over time, that adaptation shows up as:
• one-sidedness
• loss of swing
• difficulty lifting the back
• uneven loading
• so-called “mystery” soundness issues

Adaptation is not the same as health.

The uncomfortable truth

There is no neutral seat.
There is no “I’m not doing anything”.

Your posture, tone, breathing, and movement quality are inputs.
Your horse organises around them every single stride.

Riding doesn’t usually cause this pattern.
Riding reveals it.

This is exactly what we break down in our upcoming webinar:
• how these postures develop off the horse
• how they alter force transmission on the horse
• what riders actually need to restore (and what they don’t)

Because loving your horse also means being honest about your own body.

Join myself and Gus from The Rider Movement the other guy in the pic 😉😂

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/riderbiomechanics

24/01/2026

Received my second hand Kim Thake Wade Skeleton saddle yesterday afternoon. She’s a beauty 🥰 but I noticed the seat appeared quite slippery and it should have been rough out leather, judging by the original photo I found on saddle makers FB Page.

𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵-𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿: 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝗻 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗹

Rough-out leather is meant to be grippy, breathable, and fibrous — not shiny, slick, or oiled to death.

🚫 𝑫𝒐 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝒐𝒊𝒍 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉-𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓.
Oil soaks into the fibres, collapses the nap, darkens the leather, and turns a beautifully grippy seat into a slip-n-slide. Rough-out doesn’t want to be “conditioned” — it wants to stay open and textured.

𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉-𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒈𝒐 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚
Even without oil, friction from riding can lay the fibres flat over time. That doesn’t mean the leather is ruined — it just means the nap needs to be re-raised.

🪥 The fix can be simple (and very satisfying, if it hasn’t been excessively oiled):
• Dry brush to lift the fibres (raise the nap)
• Absorb excess oil with cornstarch or talc if needed
• Brush again to restore texture and grip
• Repeat gently — patience beats aggression

✨ The goal isn’t to remove leather — it’s to restore the fibre structure that gives rough-out its magic.

𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ-𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑒.

These pics are original seat, seat upon arrival, corn starch after brushing nap. Will post pic in comment tomorrow after I brush it again. Corn starch has to stay on for 24hrs. I’m admitting here, how impatient I am lol. It’s a struggle not to brush it off right now 🤣😂🤣

23/01/2026

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲?

Horses are absolute pros at reading energy — and not in a woo-woo way (although they’d probably smirk at us arguing about it). Their survival has always depended on sensing the tiniest changes in their environment.

That headache you’re pushing through?
Your horse knows.
The stress you’re masking with a smile?
Yep — clocked.
That new perfume you love but suddenly can’t understand why your horse won’t come near?
To them, it might smell like a chemical crime scene. Think walking past nail salon smell💅😱

Horses read:
• muscle tension
• breathing patterns
• heart rate changes
• posture shifts
• scent (and they have far better noses than we do)

When you’re uncomfortable, unwell, overstimulated, or emotionally charged, your body language and scent change — and horses notice immediately. Some horses will lean in to check on you. Others will politely (or not so politely) opt out and create space. Not because they’re “naughty”… but because they’re responding to what your nervous system is broadcasting.

It’s also why forcing interaction on an “off” day rarely ends well. A horse stepping away isn’t rejecting you — they’re communicating. And honestly? That’s emotional intelligence we could all learn from.

So next time your horse dodges you in the paddock, pause before taking it personally. Ask yourself:

🌸 How do I feel in my body today?
🌸 What energy am I bringing with me?
🌸 What do I smell like to a prey animal with elite senses?

Because horses don’t read our words. They read US.
And they’re usually right. 😉 Sometimes connection isn’t about doing more…It’s about 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁.

𝙈𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙠𝙞𝘽𝙮𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙇𝙞 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧: show up whole, grounded, and honest — your horse already knows the truth anyway. 🐴🩷🌸🩷

23/01/2026

Let’s talk about horses and water 💦

Specifically… why your horse will happily drink from a muddy puddle but politely decline the crystal-clear, freshly scrubbed bucket you just carried like a hydration spa offering.

𝑬𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒊𝒕 (𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆):
Horses are extremely sensitive to smell and taste. New buckets, new hoses, new locations = suspicious vibes. Some horses will reduce water intake just because something changed — which can increase the risk of dehydration and impaction colic.

Cinny wouldn’t drink the water at Nebo from the tap, but would happily drink the water from the concrete trough that was full of moss (and filled by same tap system) I reckon it was because the fresh from tap water may have smelt like chlorine or treatment chemicals; and the
concrete trough with moss had been in the sun and stabilised.

Also because of minerals & biofilm (the mossy bit) - that green film isn’t just slime — it contains:
• Natural minerals
• Micro-organisms
• A slightly altered pH

Cinny was like “Mossy trough yes, vintage water. Aged to perfection.”

𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒑𝒔:
✔️ Keep buckets consistent
✔️ Rinse with plain water (skip strong detergents)
✔️ Add a splash of apple juice or molasses when travelling to encourage drinking
✔️ Check daily intake — guessing is not a strategy

𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆:
Your horse isn’t being dramatic.
They’re conducting a full FBI investigation into that bucket. 🕵️‍♂️🐎

Stay hydrated, stay humble, and remember:
You work for your horse 😉