Pony Posture

10/09/2025

The best boy Patchy enjoying his pink (TMJ) and green (Hamstrings) taping today! Equine K Taping UK

Patchy is currently on box rest after having tendon surgery at the start of August, and so he carries a lot of tension through his face and neck (mostly: the TMJ, bracchiocephalic, rhomboideus + nuchal ligament) as well as his pectorals and hamstrings!

And as he’s a bit of a menace with taping and manages to get it off quicker than I can blink - his supportive tendon taping from my last visit lasted a few hours before he pulled them off (his owner let me know he was the same with his bandages post surgery 🤦‍♀️) - I’ve made my anchors a LOT larger for his hamstring taping in the hopes that it’ll at least last until tomorrow🙏

- London, Essex, Hertfordshire (+Surrey for patchy and his brother every so often)

08/09/2025

Winter problems: As per usual with the weather getting wetter and the ground becoming muddier PLEASE ensure your horses are clean and dry when I come to see them!

🌱 WhatsApp, call, text - 07936 967998
🌱 Instagram - PonyPosture
🌱 Facebook - Pony Posture

📍London, Essex, Hertfordshire and surroundings

06/09/2025

As we’ve had a bit of rain & cooler nights, some green shoots of rich grass are starting to come through so quickly the horses are eating them before we can even see them…!

This puts them at risk for -

Laminitis - Large amounts of undigested sugar can overload horses gut to produce toxins that enter the bloodstream and travel to the laminae! This causes inflammation and softness in the soft structures of the hoof. In some severe cases this can cause the pedal bone to rotate.

Colic - Going from a drought with a low grass sugar content to a downpour and lots of new growth can disrupt the digestive system! This is because the high sugar content can ferment in the horses gut and cause a painful gas build up or a spasmodic colic!

An overall increase in weight - When horses dramatically put on lots of weight this can cause multiple issues. Excess strain their joints, tendons, and ligaments, and can lead to serious health issues like laminitis (a painful inflammation of the hoof), Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS), digestive problems, and difficulty breathing. As well as cause tack to no longer fit properly and causing pain responses!

Ensure to monitor your horse’s weight, top line and any changes in behaviour and movement that could correlate to saddles not fitting correctly.

🌱 WhatsApp, call, text - 07936 967998
🌱 Instagram - PonyPosture
🌱 Facebook - Pony Posture

📍London, Essex, Hertfordshire and surroundings

05/09/2025

✨ HEALTHY BACKS are ESSENTIAL ✨

When you have a horse that is loosing muscle through their back, you start to balance on a fine line between manageable and danger.

Muscle wastage and dents are signs of chronic nerve damage. When muscles are compressed with too much pressure for too long never damage occurs, this turns into the nerve of beings firing off signals to the brain that say “too much pain! Do not use this area”

Many people assume that this lack of muscle and use is localised to one area, however! This will have a knock on effect to the rest of the body a common sign that many people over look is tail and even tongue positioning.

- Essex, Hertfordshire & London

31/08/2025

29/08/2025

🌱 Why hacking isn’t just a break 🌱

There are multiple different scenarios where hacking a horse may not be easy; location, behaviour, fitness, and weather, to name a few.

✨ MENTAL WELLNESS ✨
Horses were initially free-roaming, wild animals! Being confined in an arena for every ride can be detrimental to their mental well-being! My horse loves hacking out, he’s as safe as they come, but SO extremely nosy and more often than not, there’s a branch hanging out of his mouth as he MUST take snack breaks when he goes out for a ride.

✨ VARIATION ✨
I see so many clients whose horses have become ‘school sour’, and this can be due to a few reasons. Pointing out the obvious two first, correctly fitting tack and health issues do cause this. Variation is essential to keeping horses switched on and happy by providing mental stimulation and a time to relax and explore new things.

Use hacking as a time to plan a route that has lots of physical and mental challenges for your horse that they would usually not encounter by schooling, ie, tree roots, uneven tracks, water and hills, etc. These challenges will encourage your horse to naturally engage their core, lift through their back and refine their proprioceptive skills to lift limbs with precision.

✨ LOW INTENSITY JOINT AND CONNECTIVE TISSUE STRENGTHENING ✨
Varied surfaces, from road to soft sand, will place variable degrees of stress and strain on your horse’s soft and hard tissues. This is so important to developing stronger tissues and joints to reduce the probability of injuries in the future. Riding on one type of surface may seem like the safest option, but it limits how much you can strengthen your horse tremendously!

✨ RIDER FUNCTIONAL FITNESS ✨
If you’ve ever hacked out, you’ve likely come across low-hanging branches, hills and ditches. all of which improve our functionality as riders and improve our fitness.

28/08/2025

A very good decision to put the horses welfare first 🤍

After much consideration, the team at Pontispool have made the decision to run their ODE slightly differently this time.

Given the crazy warm and dry weather we have had this year so far, they aren’t 100% confident that they can get their ground to a point that they are happy with…

So, they have decided to utilise their incredible arena! They will run dressage and then show jumping as normal, but rather than competitors heading out onto a lengthy grass course, the cross country will follow immediately after your show jumping round to enable the cross country course to run partially in the fabulous all weather arena. The remainder of the cross country will be on grass areas where the team can give their utmost attention to producing safe going.

Competitors will still get a proper competition but without the worry of hard ground and the negative effects that may have on your horses and ponies!

If that isn’t enough to tempt you to join the fun, the late entry surcharge will also be waived.

If you haven’t already got your entry in, head to www.cotswoldcup.co.uk to see the schedule and book your spot!

PRB Horseboxes
SPILLERS
SE-Solicitors
Hook Norton Veterinary Group
Vanderbilt Insurance & Risk Management
Yard and Stable Hygiene Services Ltd
Stable Shield
Smulders
Concierge Medical Practice
HorseQuest
KBIS British Equestrian Insurance
The London International Horse Show
W1M
DS Churchill
Perdix Partnership

25/08/2025

‘What do you do when you’re not working?’

Help the kids pick blackberries from the top of the bushes to feed the horses with 🤣

24/08/2025

💭💭

Most riders who use auxiliary reins do so owing to others’ influence and their own lack of skill, research has found – and those who use them tend to have less knowledge of equine biomechanics than those who do not. Read more below

22/08/2025

Why is hindlimb activation important?

Recently I’ve seen a lot of people riding in ‘contacts’. The problem with a false contact is that it requires no muscle engagement and does more harm than good!!

To have a true contact the horse muscle be working FROM BEHIND! Hind quarter engagement is necessary to have a horse working forward properly.

When a horse doesn’t work from behind it has a knock on effect onto the rest of the body -

- Lack of core engagement
- Lack of long back muscle engagement
- Wither compression
- Poll tension
- the front limbs have to work harder to ‘drag’ the rest of the body forward
- Lack of balance and suppleness (no forward movement, lack of mobility, rough transitions)

This is why it’s SO important to properly engage your horses in any form of work whether that be on the lunge or ridden.

And remember! A ‘contact’ doesn’t always mean they’re working properly!

08/08/2025

As the heat is starting to turn back up, I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that your horses are getting the correct nutrients! Just like us, they also struggle to focus and often have decreased coordination in the summer heat!

🧑‍🍳 RECIPE: Equine Rehydration Drink 🟰
1 litre of water ➕ 2 scoops of Aqua-Aide ➕ handful of pre-mashed Speedi-Beet! 😋

Our apple flavoured 🍎 Aqua-Aide Electrolytes aid rehydration and therefore, recovery.

If you don’t replace the loss of electrolytes, this could lead to:
⚠ General and muscle fatigue
⚠ Inability to concentrate
⚠ Reduced co-ordination

British Horse Feeds

💚

08/05/2025

The sweetest girl today 💕 At the start of the session missy was SO untrusting and fidgety but eventually I got her to relax with a little bit of patience and perseverance!

Seeing horses go from unsure to relaxed when they realise I’m only here to help has to be the BEST part of my job!!