Emma Barber Veterinary Physiotherapy

08/05/2026

We often think of pole work as lots of poles in exciting patterns, ridden in trot or canter.

But is this kind of pole work helping our horses or is there an easier way?

I often recommend a simple line of walk poles, starting with them flat on the floor, and gradually raising them to encourage a higher step.

This type of work removes the elastic energy out of the tissues which promotes increased muscular activity. It allows horses to engage and activate their postural muscles, improves focus, encourages increased mobility of the limbs, and is a general fantastic exercise that can be simply incorporated into your daily routine!

A recent study from the University of Tennessee provided strong support for something trainers, movement specialists, and bodyworkers have observed for years:

Ground poles significantly increase activation of important postural and core muscles in horses.

What the Study Found

Walking over ground poles increased activity in:

• Longissimus dorsi — a major topline and spinal support muscle
• Abdominal muscles — critical for core stability and support of the spine

Even at the walk, poles require the horse to:

• Lift the limbs higher
• Stabilize the trunk more actively
• Organize posture and balance with greater precision
• Continuously adjust limb placement and timing

At the trot, researchers also found increased activation of the abdominal muscles.

Trotting over poles requires greater dynamic stabilization, and the increased limb elevation demands more coordinated control of the trunk, pelvis, and spine.

What This Means

These findings support the long-standing use of cavaletti and ground poles as a low-impact way to:

• Strengthen the topline
• Improve abdominal engagement
• Support spinal stability
• Enhance proprioception and coordination
• Encourage improved posture and self-carriage
• Develop better movement organization through the whole body

One of the most important aspects of pole work is that it influences both sides of the postural system:

• The dorsal chain — including the longissimus muscles along the back
• The ventral chain — including the abdominal support system

This balance is essential for efficient movement, force transfer, and development of a healthy, functional topline.

But pole work is not only muscular.

It is neurological.

Each pole creates a movement problem the horse must solve in real time.

The horse has to:

• Judge distance
• Adjust stride length
• Control timing
• Stabilize the trunk
• Organize the limbs in space
• Adapt moment-to-moment to changing demands

That process requires attention, coordination, body awareness, and ongoing nervous system regulation.

In many horses, poles appear to improve focus not simply because the horse is “behaving,” but because the nervous system is becoming more engaged and organized around the task.

Pole work may also influence neurological tone — the background level of muscular and nervous system readiness that affects posture, movement quality, stiffness, and coordination.

For some horses, this can help reduce excessive bracing and improve adaptability through the body.
For others, it can help improve postural engagement and overall organization.

Why It Matters

Regular pole work can benefit many types of horses:

• Young horses developing coordination and posture
• Performance horses improving strength, agility, movement quality, and limb awareness
• Horses rebuilding core control and stability after periods of weakness or reduced work
• Older horses maintaining mobility, coordination, and movement confidence

Importantly, many of these benefits occur even at the walk, making poles accessible to horses across a wide range of ages, disciplines, and fitness levels.

Rather than simply “making horses pick up their feet,” poles appear to challenge the nervous system, postural system, sensory system, and muscular system together — encouraging the horse to organize movement with greater control, awareness, and adaptability.

https://koperequine.com/step-by-step-the-benefits-of-walk-poles-for-horses/

08/05/2026

Fascinating!

Strangulating lipomas in older horses

Strangulating lipomas in horses are benign, fatty tumors that develop in the abdominal cavity, primarily in older horses, that grow on a long stalk (pedicle) and wrap around the intestine. These tumors cause severe colic by cutting off blood supply and interrupting digestion, often requiring emergency surgical intervention to remove the tumor and damaged intestine.

What are Strangulating Lipomas? A benign tumor (lipoma) of fat tissue that develops within the mesentery (tissue connecting the intestines).

Over time, the fat mass develops a long, cord-like stalk (pedunculated). This stalk can wrap around the small intestine (in 90% of cases) or small colon, acting like a noose. The constriction tightens, obstructing intestinal flow and cutting off blood supply, leading to rapid tissue death and severe abdominal pain (strangulation).

Primarily affects older horses, typically over 15 years, as it takes time for the tumors to grow and develop a long stalk. I also see calcified and pedunculated lipomas in the omentum. This is an extremely common way for older horses to go in agonising pain. This horse was a scheduled euthanised because he was stiff and lame, statically he looked the picture of health at 28 yet inside these time bombs wait.

For videos on this problem head to patreon.

01/05/2026

Some of your barefoot horses may be struggling with being increasingly footy at this time of year due to the changing cycles of weather and ground conditions.

Ellin has been barefoot for around 2yrs now, but at this time of year it can be more of a struggle for her to get across the harder stony ground so is brought in wearing hoof boots to add more protection.

Below discusses why the horse might be struggling and brings more clarity to the changing cycles in the horses feet.

WHY YOUR HORSE IS SUDDENLY FOOTIER — AND IT'S NOT JUST THE GROUND

Edited for accuracy and clarification on the horn hydration mechanism.

The ground was soft all winter. Now it's baked hard in a week. And your horse is picking their way across the yard like it's made of broken glass.

This is one of the most common spring presentations in the UK, and it tends to prompt a lot of anxiety. Some of it warranted. Most of it manageable.

Here's what's actually happening.

WHAT MONTHS OF WET GROUND DOES TO A HOOF

Horn — the structural material of the hoof capsule — is a keratin composite whose mechanical properties are directly tied to moisture content. But the hoof wall is largely impermeable. It regulates its own hydration internally, via blood supply to the underlying dermis. Environmental wetness doesn't change wall moisture content the way it's commonly assumed.

The sole is different. The sole can absorb moisture from the environment. That affects sensitivity and bruising risk directly. And after months of wet ground, that matters.

THE TRANSITION PROBLEM

The problem isn't prolonged wetness. It's the transition.

Repeated cycling between wet and dry states creates mechanical stress — water molecules breaking and reforming bonds within the horn matrix. When the ground hardens rapidly, that cycling intensifies at exactly the point when the foot is least prepared for it.

Classic research by Bertram and Gosline (1987) measured the stiffness of hoof wall keratin across different hydration states. Young's modulus — the measure of material stiffness — increased from 410 MPa at full hydration to nearly 14.6 GPa when completely dried. That's an enormous range. The hoof is designed to operate somewhere in the middle, with maximum fracture toughness occurring at an intermediate hydration level — roughly 75% relative humidity, which is within the normal in-vivo range for healthy hoof wall.

Stable conditions, even persistently wet ones, are less mechanically damaging than constant fluctuation. A foot that's been cycling through wet and dry all winter is not in that optimal middle range.

WHAT'S ACTUALLY HURTING

The solar corium — the vascular, nerve-dense tissue that sits just beneath the sole and produces sole horn — is protected by the horn layer above it. That corium must always be well-protected, covered by adequate sole thickness to keep it safe from ground contact and concussion.

The sole, having absorbed environmental moisture through the wet months, may be softer and more vulnerable than usual. The wall above it is a different story — wall integrity isn't the issue. It's what's underneath. What the rapid transition does is intensify the cycling stress on a foot that's been in unstable moisture conditions for months. The solar corium — already less protected than ideal — now faces harder ground.

Injury to the sensitive tissue beneath the sole can cause bleeding between the sole and the pedal bone — forming a bruise or haematoma that causes pain and lameness. In harder cases, that bruise becomes an abscess when bacteria find their way into the damaged tissue. The pressure of building pus inside a rigid capsule is what causes the acute, sometimes severe lameness owners describe.

FOOTY VS LAME — NOT THE SAME THING

This distinction matters and it's worth making clearly.

A horse that's footy is shortening its stride, picking its way carefully, choosing soft ground where it exists. It's responding to surface information. The foot contains mechanoreceptors — sensory structures including Pacinian corpuscles, found in the digital cushion, heel bulbs, and around the frog — that respond to pressure and provide critical sensory information during ground contact. On suddenly hard, unyielding ground, that sensory input changes dramatically. The horse responds accordingly.

That's different from lameness. Lameness involves pain — nociceptive signalling from damaged tissue. A bruise, an abscess, an inflammatory process. The horse isn't just reading the ground differently. It's protecting a structure that hurts.

The two can look similar from a distance. Both produce shortened stride and reluctance. But footy tends to be bilateral, consistent across all four feet, and resolves when the horse moves onto softer ground. Lameness tends to be localised, persistent regardless of surface, and accompanied by other clinical signs — heat, pulse, swelling.

A horse that's footy on hard ground and sound on soft is telling you something different from a horse that's lame everywhere.

THE LAMINITIS RULE-OUT

This matters because spring footiness has a differential diagnosis that cannot be ignored: laminitis.

Laminitis is inflammation of the laminae — the interlocking tissue that suspends the pedal bone (coffin bone, or P3) within the hoof capsule. In early or subclinical cases, it can look identical to general footy behaviour. Spring grass is a significant trigger for horses with underlying insulin dysregulation — a condition where the normal insulin response to dietary sugars and starches becomes dysregulated, driving lamellar damage through mechanisms distinct from simple carbohydrate overload. Horses with equine metabolic syndrome or PPID are the primary at-risk population.

If your horse is hesitant on hard surfaces and you notice an obvious digital pulse or heat in the feet, contact your vet. Increased digital pulse — felt at the back of the fetlock — is a flag that warrants proper assessment, not watchful waiting.

The presence of digital pulse changes the conversation entirely. Transition footiness from wet-to-hard ground typically doesn't come with a bounding pulse. If it does, rule out laminitis first.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Check all four feet. Pick them out and press on the sole with your thumbs — a normal sole should feel hard and unyielding. If it feels soft, that's relevant information

Feel for heat and digital pulse. Assess the walk, including tight turns on firm ground.

Hoof boots provide immediate comfort and are worth having in the kit for exactly this time of year.

WHAT RESOLVES IT — AND WHAT DOESN'T

Uncomplicated bruising generally resolves within two weeks. Abscesses resolve once drained, though the timeline varies.

What doesn't resolve: the underlying vulnerability if the foot is chronically cycling through wet and dry, or has structural issues that leave the solar corium inadequately protected year on year. That's a longer conversation about management, trim approach, and sole depth — but it starts with getting through the immediate discomfort first.

The horse isn't being dramatic. The ground changed faster than the foot could.

29/04/2026

20/04/2026

18/04/2026

I have always had a weaker right leg and a stronger left leg, likely due to being left-hand dominant.

This became really apparent to me when I was swimming—my left leg delivered a strong, effective stroke, while my right leg flopped around doing its own thing!

Last year, I started to focus on improving the stroke of my right leg. I wasn’t obsessive about it, but I would concentrate on producing a few really good strokes, followed by some of my usual, less efficient ones.

It only took a couple of sessions before my right leg suddenly “clicked” and began to move in a much more stable and coordinated way on its own.

This experience made me think about how we train our horses. We often repeat exercises over and over in the hope of improving their movement patterns, when in reality, it may only take a short period of correct movement to trigger a significant change.

This is where in-hand work and groundwork become essential in equine training.

Allowing horses to understand their own movement patterns, adjust their balance, and learn how different movements feel without a rider is key to developing a balanced and adaptable horse—one that can regulate itself and respond to changes in its own body.

Periods of stress or anxiety can often cause movement patterns to revert to previously dominant reflexes. For me, this happens in very cold water (below 10°C 🥶), which overrides my improved pattern and brings back a kind of “lifesaving floppy leg syndrome.” It makes sense—the brain reverts to what it knows has kept us alive.

This is why continued, gentle practice of correct movement patterns is so important. It allows them to become firmly established as the brain’s default.

Improving movement—for both ourselves and our horses—doesn’t require complexity. Simple exercises can have profound effects, and in horses, I believe much of this comes from correct, consistent groundwork.

If you would like to know more about how in hand training can help your horse, please get in touch!

Like and share 😁

17/04/2026

The iliopsoas is a group of muscles I often find is under stress in our ridden horses.

15/04/2026

Not all equine therapists are the same!

14/04/2026

Shutting horses down 🐴

I want you to imagine you’re really sore, you’ve perhaps got some hidden arthritis in your neck and the way you’ve had to compensate has made the muscles all down your neck and through your back really sensitive.

I also want you to imagine that you’re surrounded by people who you cannot communicate with vocally. They keep touching you and putting things on your body that make it really hurt and making you run around while you’re in pain. You now feel snappy and defensive about even the lightest touch as you know what might be coming, you are trying to communicate your pain to these people by pulling angry faces, trying to kick and snapping your teeth, they do not seem to understand and continue anyway.

A new person comes in and goes to touch your shoulder, you pull an angry face and he immediately starts violently flapping a flag on a stick in your face, you run backwards in fear but you can’t get away properly because he has you on a rope, he doesn’t let up, you eventually stop pulling the angry face and the attack stops. This is repeated again and again until the new person is able to touch you on your sore back and neck and you don’t react at all. You stand there with an empty smile on your face, as that is what you have been taught you have to do to get the horrible flag to stop. Everyone seems really happy with you now, you are still in pain, you no longer try to communicate.

This is what is happening again and again when we treat our horse’s communication as a stand-alone behavioural problem to be fixed. Pulling faces/nipping/biting is communication. When we use punishment to suppress behaviour, we are not treating the cause, we are shutting the horse down and it is a horrible way to treat anyone.

People often justify this sort of treatment as necessary for “safety”. Horses that bite are so dangerous and it will escalate! When you start to look at pulling faces and biting as communication, you can see that it won’t escalate if you actually listen to what they’re saying and help them. If you continue to make stupid choices then yes the horse may have to shout louder at you to try and get you to stop.

Even if the horse isn’t in pain, a horse that is resorting to biting is highly stressed, we help them by addressing that, not by putting them in situations where they bite and telling them to shut the hell up or else. Nippiness in hand is a sign of stress, tension and frustration, it is not a bid for world domination.

Sometimes I go out to horses with these issues and people are amazed their horse hasn’t bitten me as they have others before me. Its not magical, its not horse whispering its just listening and not feeling entitled to the horse’s space and body. Then the horse can start to relax around you, trust that you are going to listen and we can actually start to help them.

The industry is full of training like this marketed as ethical and good for the horse, misinformation about behaviour is everywhere, its so hard to navigate when we are so indoctrinated into this idea that the only way to deal with horses is to apply pressure to them until they comply. There are so, so many other things to consider and most of it looks nothing like conventional training.

If your horse is pulling faces at you, they are desperately trying to communicate their discomfort or distress to you, if you’re not sure what to do please reach out, my inbox is always open. 🐴

09/04/2026

A deeper look into what our horses need.

A few decades ago, animal welfare researchers began to look more deeply into the basic needs of animals, and they came up with what is known as the Five Freedoms, and these are:

🌀 Freedom from hunger and thirst
🌀 Freedom from discomfort
🌀 Freedom from pain, injury and disease
🌀 Freedom to express normal behaviours
🌀 Freedom from fear and distress

These 5 freedoms are all about the proper care of animals, like horses, to enable them to live in a healthy way.

If you look at them more closely, you will see that they are all about providing the bare essentials to life; they are not focused at all on how to make a horse’s life more worthwhile or enjoyable for their own sake.

Part of the reason that this has not previously come into our consciousness is because the study of positive welfare states of animals is quite new.

More recently, scientists began to look beyond what gives an animal a physically healthy life, to now considering what can we do as animal caretakers, to make an animal’s life worth living.

As we began to learn more about the effects of depriving animals from certain other mental needs, a new model emerged, known as The Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare.

The Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare focuses on moving beyond the basic care of animals to a ‘life worth living’. It is about the difference between care and welfare.

The welfare of an animal comes about when we enable it to access an optimal life.

The 5 Domains Model focuses on four major areas of an animal’s life that each contribute to the fifth domain, which is the mental domain (mental welfare).

💡 Attached is a summarising diagram of The 2020 Five Domains Model of animal welfare for equines from Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 1 which is available for purchase on our website.