Equine Athletes Veterinary Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation

03/09/2025

This is a really interesting read (for my fellow geeks!) and I’m very excited to see that the conclusion was reached that, regardless of the pathology, rehab should always include focus on neuromotor control.

This is something I have believed for a long time - there is little point focusing on strengthening if you haven’t considered the neuro pathways the horse is using to achieve movement. If these are faulty or compromised (because of previous injury/dysfunction) all you will achieve by using repetitive movements to strengthen the horse is to push the horse further into dysfunction and eventual breakdown.

Every rehab program we design for the horses here starts with a focus on neuromotor control - helping the horse understand how to create healthy movement patterns before we increase the workload. We use our Equine Gym, inhand work, Surefoot pads and resistance bands to help with this- some of these techniques are mentioned in the paper in more detail if you would like to know more!

I have put a screenshot of the highlights from this paper in the comments for anyone who doesn’t have time to read the whole paper.

29/08/2025

Long reined Austin today, I was happy that he went well, he was happy that he didn’t lose any of the hay he had brought with him in case starvation struck suddenly mid session. A good result allround 🤣.

27/08/2025

One of my long term obsessions is playing about with bits to see what the horse prefers- they are often extremely sensitive to small differences. We have a couple of horses here at the moment who fall into this category!

Pictured are 3 different types of plastic bits - Sprenger, Nathe and Beris. If I am honest they all look and feel pretty similar to me so I would have thought it was enough to try one of them to see if your horse likes a straight bar plastic bit.

However, I would have been wrong! One horse hates the Sprenger bit to the point where he was quite unsettled and unhappy in it but as soon as we changed him into the Beris he became more relaxed and comfortable in the contact.

Another current resident much prefers the Sprenger to the Nathe. Again, it is enough of a preference to affect posture, movement and mental state.

Obviously there are many other different types of bit to try but I thought it was interesting that even bits that appear very similar can have a markedly different effect.

Everyday is a learning day with horses and I think it is very important to keep asking the horse what they think/feel about any changes we make.
Hopefully this helps lead us to a happier, more comfortable horse!

22/08/2025

2 gorgeous boys learning to feel relaxed with a rider on while they develop their fitness and footwork. Small things can make a big difference!

20/08/2025

Something we do regularly with the horses here throughout their rehab is what we call ‘stretchy lunging’ (or long reining in this case). Super Sammy here shows us how it’s done!

We work the horses with the equibands on as appropriate then encourage them to work in a slow trot in relaxed frame.

We don’t use anything to force the head down we just help the horse feel comfortable to stretch their head and neck to wherever they want to do so. By keeping the trot slow we can focus the effort on their muscles- both core muscles for stability and the movement muscles for slow, controlled movement.

The faster the horse goes, the more likely it is that they will put pressure on their joints - both in the back and in the limbs- and feel they have to brace their soft tissue to create stability. This is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve!

We don’t do it for very long as a little bit of this work goes a long way and we alternate this with other types of strength and conditioning work depending on what each horse needs.

14/08/2025

Haha- I have definitely done at least 11 of these and about 6 of them in the last couple of months 🤣🤣

12 out of 15. Who can top that? 😂😂
Meme created by Jess Rudkin ❤️

12/08/2025

Austin and I practising an exercise we often use to improve pelvic stability and control over hindlimb movement. I am asking him to leg yield along the fence down the side of the arena.

To do this he has to stabilize his back and forehand, then work to stabilize the standing hindlimb while he abducts the other hindlimb.

Then repeat with the new standing limb and adducting the following hindlimb. He is also coordinating his forelimb movement at the same time and supporting his rider (who, for some reason is leaning off to the left- this is not part of the exercise 🤣).

I am using it as part of my warm up but we often use it to help horses who have hindlimb or pelvic weakness.

07/08/2025

Beautiful Tali dancing in the sun 🌞.

24/02/2025

Something that gives me great joy is hearing that clients of Equine Athletes have been out enjoying their horses 😊.

This weekend was a bumper weekend for EA friends- Chloe Terry attended a xc clinic with her young horse and smashed it! Charlotte L Hall, Sophie S Hall’s fabulous pony, Bunty, had a great time at the Arena Eventing Champs at Aston le Walls as did Sophie Hunt and the wonderful B! Then Sophie Pedlar scored a PB at Adv Med with her super talented boy, Solo.

It made my weekend to hear about them all- keep up the great work guys, I am v excited about the season to come for all of you 👏👏👏

20/02/2025

Meet our gorgeous new rehab client, he is with us to help with his recovery post-surgery for kissing spines.

We start, as always, with inhand postural rehabilitation. For me posture is not a static condition- it is how the horse interacts both with its body and with the world around them.

Often when the horse has been dealing with long term pain and dysfunction they have lost connection with their own body and are stuck in survival mode. This means they will use whatever means they have at their disposal to remain upright and able to run if necessary!

Frequently they will be working overtime with their movement muscles to create stability because they can no longer access their postural muscles to do their job effectively.

This horse is a good example of what this looks like- because his back has been/is painful he has lost muscle tone in his topline. He has to create stability to feel safe so he is overusing his neck and thoracic sling for support. It presents as poor posture- high head and neck and flat through his back with visible muscle tension throughout his body.

Remember he is not doing this by choice, he is doing it because he believes it is the only option he has to remain upright!

We work with him using gentle inhand exercises to show him that he has other options. The bottom pic is only a few days later but he is already looking very different. As yet he needs help to find this posture- Stacie is using a light touch on his chest to help him deactivate his pectorals and reactivate his spinal stabilisers.

Over time he will be able to do this for himself and, eventually, maintain this posture long term as he gets stronger.

I love doing this work because it is hugely rewarding helping horses to help themselves 😊.