Hannah Foley - ACPAT Chartered Physiotherapist

27/10/2025

Thank you 🦄🙏💫

Feedback like this warms my heart. Enhancing horses comfort, happiness and wellbeing is my soul mission. 🦋

27/10/2025

This is a great paper on balance pads and answers some questions about the movement of the horse on different 'squishiness' levels of them. These pads are used to challenge postural stability with the theory that the effects train proprioception, aiming to reduce the risk of injury.

From their results:
🐴Four pads cause more sway, than pads two under the fronts or the hinds
🐴 Medium-density pads in all four limbs induced the greatest sway of the forse forwards and backwards, and the faster rate of sway.
🐴 Soft-density pads in all four limbs resulted in the greatest mediolateral sway.
🐴 All four limbs placed on medium, soft, and firm-density pads, and forelimbs placed on medium and firm-density pads were statistically different from baseline (no pads).

We know that standing on the pads over a series of sessions, reduces the amount of sway . We also know that their use is associated with changes in the deep stabiliser muscle multifidus (Cathcart et al., 2024; Ellis and King, 2020).

Now what would be amazing would be to link to gait and performance, and injury in horses. Tricky but I suspect a few research groups are on this already!
It is so exciting to see the development of this research area 💪

Colla, S. and King, M., 2025. Evaluation of Postural Sway in Horses Standing on Balance Pads of Varying Densities and Limb Placement. Journal of Equine Rehabilitation, p.100042.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949905425000246

24/10/2025

24/10/2025

🌟 Well done to Sponsored Team hoof hearted achieving 3rd place at the BD quest regional finals at Moreton Equestrian Centre 🌟

🏵️ Laura, Debbie, Jo & Willow rode some brilliant tests.

🏵️ The team are keeping their fingers crossed for a wild card to the nationals as only top 2 teams qualify!

🏵️ Willow And solo came third in the novice my quest and qualified for the national championships as an individual 🎉

🏵️ Leandra rode both Spirit and Casper to finish 8th and 10th.

24/10/2025

🧠💥 Stress and pain are not separate experiences - they are deeply intertwined physiological processes.

When we work with animals in rehabilitation, it’s easy to think of pain as a purely physical problem, something rooted in tissue damage, joint pathology, or nerve irritation, and stress as an emotional or behavioural state. But research continues to show that the two are inseparable.

Here’s why 👇

🔄 The Pain-Stress Loop
Pain activates the body’s stress response. Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline flood the system, preparing the body to protect itself. But when that stress response becomes chronic - because the pain is ongoing, because the environment is overwhelming, or because the animal feels unsafe - it changes how pain is processed.

The nervous system becomes sensitised. The pain threshold drops. Pathways that were once only triggered by actual tissue damage can now be activated by much lower levels of input - or by the anticipation of pain.

💡 In other words: chronic stress makes pain feel worse, and chronic pain increases stress. The two feed into each other, creating a self-perpetuating cycle that can derail healing.

🐶 What This Looks Like in Practice:
You’ve probably seen it 👉 the dog that guards a limb even after the injury has healed. 👉 The horse that braces its back long after the saddle fit has been corrected. 👉 The patient that seems “stuck” despite good clinical interventions.

These are not stubborn patients. They are animals whose nervous systems are still in protection mode. Their bodies haven’t received enough evidence that it’s safe to let go, so they keep holding tension, moving defensively, and interpreting neutral sensations as painful.

🩺 Rehab Implications 👇
If we focus only on the musculoskeletal system, we miss a huge part of the picture. Stress states affect:
👉Muscle tone: chronically elevated, leading to stiffness and reduced range of motion.
👉 Posture: protective patterns become habitual and hard to break.
👉 Healing: stress hormones slow tissue repair and impair immune function.
👉 Movement quality: anticipation of pain alters gait long before tissue tolerance is reached.

This means that even the best-designed exercise program can fail if the nervous system isn’t ready to participate.

🌿 How We Can Intervene:
✔️ Incorporate calming strategies into rehab sessions: slow handling, predictable routines, familiar environments.
✔️ Educate owners about stress-reduction at home: consistency, positive reinforcement, and safe spaces matter.
✔️ Use graded exposure to movement, gradually re-teaching the nervous system that it is safe to move without pain.
✔️ Combine physical treatment with emotional support: because regulation of the autonomic nervous system is part of rehabilitation, too.

💡 The takeaway: If we want to reduce pain, we must also reduce stress. Rehabilitation isn’t just about muscles, joints, or fascia - it’s about the entire system, including the brain’s interpretation of safety and threat.

21/10/2025

20/10/2025

20/10/2025

✨ Sponsored rider Ryan Le Monnier is an inspiration to all! Ryan is extremely dedicated & determined to reach his future goals and aspirations. We wish Ryan all the best for his future competitions in the UK & Jersey ✨

20/10/2025

Can horses really smell our fear? 🐎👃😨

It’s often said that “a horse can sense when we’re afraid” – and science now shows there’s truth to it!

🔬 A recent study tested 43 Welsh horses, applying cotton pads with human scents collected during:
➡️ moments of fear (watching a horror movie 🎥👻)
➡️ moments of joy (watching funny/uplifting videos 😂✨)
➡️ or clean cotton pads (control)

The outcome?
👉 Horses reacted very differently depending on the scent:
➡️Fear – they were more frightened, had higher heart rates ❤️‍🔥, and avoided human contact.
➡️Joy – they behaved calmer, more open, and interacted more with people.

This confirms that horses can literally “pick up” our emotions through smell – meaning our inner state directly influences their reactions and willingness to cooperate. 🌿🐴

More about this study in the following post.

Source: Jardat, P., et al. (2025). Human emotional odours influence horses’ behaviour and physiology. Animals.
📸 Photo: Alberta Farmaexpress

18/10/2025

When a horse doesn’t respond the way we expect, it isn’t disobedience, it’s simply feedback. 🐴

Every reaction is the horse showing us exactly what we’ve asked for (whether we realized it or not).

Maybe we asked for the canter but didn’t follow through with the seat aid. Maybe we thought we gave a clear aid, but the horse understood something different.

Instead of blaming the horse, take a pause and reflect: What did I actually communicate?

This perspective not only softens our response to “mistakes” but also sharpens our riding. The horse is our most honest mirror, we just have to be willing to listen. 💡

15/10/2025

🐴 MENTAL DEFICIT AND NEURODIVERGENCE IN HORSES III 🐴
Or how to work with horses showing signs of mental deficit or neurodivergence
The most important principle is that every horse is unique, and we must always adapt to their individual needs. The following recommendations are simplified and generalized for the sake of brevity.

🧠 HORSE WITH NEURODIVERGENCE (a horse whose nervous system functions differently – e.g. extreme sensitivity, trauma, hypersensitivity, unstable regulation)
👉 Our primary goal is to support regulation of the nervous system – so that the horse can stay present and feel safe even in mild activation.
It’s not important whether the exercise succeeds; what matters is that the horse remains calm and mentally present.
👉 If the horse doesn’t feel safe (shifting on the polyvagal traffic light from green to orange or even red), we pause the training and focus on returning to a state of calm.
A neurodivergent horse is usually unable to function or think when under pressure, overstimulated, or feeling unsafe.

🧠 HORSE WITH MENTAL DEFICIT (a horse with real neurological or developmental limitations – e.g. after hypoxia, injury, or CNS degeneration)
👉 We try to simplify and stabilize the world surrounding a horse with a mental deficit.
👉 We establish and reinforce routines and predictable patterns, repeat familiar activities where the horse feels safe and confident, and avoid overwhelming them.
Training should only go as far as the horse can comfortably manage — our own ambitions must take a back seat.

❗️IN BOTH CASES, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO:
👉 work calmly,
👉 set clear boundaries, but punish as little as possible – and never for misunderstanding an exercise or responding slowly,
👉 support the horse’s social environment – suitable herd or tolerant companions; both mentally challenged and neurodivergent horses may struggle with socializing,
👉 create safe, predictable routines where they can find security,
👉 be their steady point and anchor in the universe,
👉 praise them, support them, and love them – even when they are more complicated or “different.”

And above all – have understanding and patience for them.
K.

15/10/2025

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