Stride Performance Equine Therapy

11/27/2025

Are we really dissecting performance if we’re missing these signals?

Everything we do as equestrians is to try and become better. To move up in a class, to have a faster time, to score higher in our hunter rounds, to keep our horses happy, healthy and fit.

But we are missing a key component to our assessment and integration process — eyes and ear tension

Horses get headaches. Horses feel discomfort. Horses have preferences. Horses have, a living, breathing, ACTIVE nervous system

It’s important that we are considering all factors in our performance and biomechanics assessments. Not just the statistics

Want better statistics? Start looking at these key components

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👩🏻‍💻Melissa Cochrane 𝘊𝘌𝘔𝘍𝘛 | 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩
📧 strideperformanceequine@gmail.com
📱 613.921.0299

11/24/2025

Oh the things we’ve grown through

I remember the years of being continually frustrated and feeling misunderstood by those I sought help from

More rides and interactions ended in frustration than not

I was seeking answers about him from everyone but him

Everything changed when I began seeking answers from him. Listening to his no’s, figuring out why the no was there and learning how to better ask so that we could be in harmony together

The peace and stability we were looking for wasn’t going to be found where we were or with what we were doing

And I’m so glad I started listening to him because our relationship, his health and my health have never been better

As they say, nothing changes if nothing changes

Sometimes we just need to be asking a different question and answering in a different way

And sometimes, everything has to change 🫶🏻

11/21/2025

The more we know the more we know! Just because something has always been done, doesn’t mean it should be

11/19/2025

From a distance, this work looks almost uneventful.
But up close, every micro-movement is part of the conversation.

Slower, softer work creates the conditions for the horse’s body to unwind without activating the protective reflexes they rely on to stay safe. When the nervous system feels supported—not pushed—the fascia can shift, the tissue can reorganize, and the horse can let go in a way that actually lasts.

Nothing is forced.
Nothing is rushed.

We follow the horse’s lead, and the body does exactly what it’s been waiting to do.

When we honour the nervous system, the body always gives us more than we could ever take by force.

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👩🏻‍💻Melissa Cochrane 𝘊𝘌𝘔𝘍𝘛 | 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩
📧 strideperformanceequine@gmail.com
📱 613.921.0299

11/18/2025

Something I’ve been talking to clients about a lot this week is perception

The way we perceive information—or communication—can either limit our understanding or expand it.

We often get stuck in limiting perception. For example, “My horse is just spooky in the winter” comes from a narrow view of what the horse is communicating.

But when we reframe it to “Why is my horse spooky in the winter?”, we open ourselves up to a deeper layer of information. We challenge ourselves to perceive the behaviour differently.

One major reason horses tend to spook more in the winter is that their baseline energy is higher.
We all learned at a young age that horses need extra energy to stay warm—but what we weren’t taught is that an increase in baseline energy can also show up as heightened anxiety or stress behaviours.

When we don’t perceive all the information available to us, we can accidentally end up fighting the very thing that’s causing the problem.

With deeper perception, we can say, “Okay, if my horse’s baseline energy increases in the winter, I need to slow things down a little and give their nervous system—and their body—space to adjust.”

For many horses who become more reactive or “behavioural” in the winter, this simple shift resolves a large portion of the issues.

The way we perceive a horse’s communication can either limit our knowledge or expand it.

Where might your perception be limiting your horse?

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👩🏻‍💻 Melissa Cochrane 𝘊𝘌𝘔𝘍𝘛 | 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩
📧 strideperformanceequine@.com
📱 613.921.0299

11/16/2025

It is not about what we do, it’s how we do it

We don’t all need to be doing the same thing. And we never will be. And that’s okay because because it’s not what we do, it is how we do it

Regardless of what we do the body will communicate what is and isn’t working

When we do anything with a horse with that in consideration then it doesn’t really matter what we do, it matters how we do it

Any of the situations I speak about have the ability to be minimal stress environments or tasks — and this would create a healthier horse physically and emotionally — that is why I speak about them

I’ve seen horses change inside of performance programs, inside lesson programs and horses who don’t even work

Because it’s not what we do, it is how we do it

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👩🏻‍💻Melissa Cochrane 𝘊𝘌𝘔𝘍𝘛 | 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩
📧 strideperformanceequine@gmail.com
📱 613.921.0299

11/14/2025

11/14/2025

Everything we need is in the details we miss 🙏

11/13/2025

These were always my favourite sessions and I started to prefer booking later into the evening rather than starting early or working through the day

Sessions at this time are powerful for two main reasons:
1. The horses days are done so they are able to more easily drop into parasympathetic— this more typical during show environments because the days are high stress so the horses are in a prolonged state of sympathetic activation
2. The environmental energy shifts in the dusk through the evening — energy is happening all around us and when the hustle of the day starts to slow the energy of an entire environment will shift

It’s these moments that I miss the most, and who knows, maybe one day there will be more of these moments again for now enjoy these stunning moment with this handsome boy who always had the deepest releases when he really dropped into his body 🙏😌

Here we are watching him process emotions and memories in real time — the ears going back is something that happens when a painful memory rises out of a muscle during release. The soft, slow and deep blinks happen when horses are really internalizing and moving energy — allowing softening, the movement and twitching we see is a reaction of fascia and tissue contraction/expansion — this happens are the area I am working on transfers energy through the network

The body is such a beautiful beautiful thing to connect with and understand and it will forever have its hold on me

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👩🏻‍💻Melissa Cochrane 𝘊𝘌𝘔𝘍𝘛 | 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩
📧 strideperformanceequine@gmail.com
📱 613.921.0299