Rose Kimberley BSc - Equine Sports Therapist

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Rose Kimberley BSc - Equine Sports Therapist

Rose Kimberley BSc - Equine Sports Therapist I am a qualified Equine Sports Therapist with a degree in Equine Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation covering Suffolk and surrounding areas.

12/05/2026

🥱Groundwork🥱
With a big push on ground work at the moment I thought it would be a good topic to touch on. I personally love ground work and it is a big goal of mine to get better at it. It’s so rewarding to see the horse’s face, posture and movement patterns change throughout your session plus all the releases that come with it. Bonus is, if you’re short of time, it doesn’t have to be very long and you can still achieve so much.

This video is a clip that I took of my four year-old who I am in the process of backing. I didn’t have a lot of time and I’m conscious of mixing her sessions up. At her tender age it is important for a lot of reasons to venture out of the school and to include variety. But while sitting on her the other day, I just didn’t like the way she felt underneath me. She was stuck through the neck, front feet, rib cage and subsequently couldn’t move the hind leg.

If anyone is interested in ground work and is curious about the benefits for your horse I strongly suggest that you head over to ’s instagram page and give her a follow. She also runs a Patreon page brimming with healthy knowledge on the subject as well as running a 30 day ground reset including live sessions on a Tuesday lunchtime for only £10 a month unlimited access.

06/05/2026

HARD GROUND!
Despite the small amount of rain we have had recently the ground remains very hard. Galloping increases the forces that must be absorbed through each limb to roughly three times their bodybodyweight. The muscles are also put under greater strain. The risk of injury greatly increases when the core is weak, the muscles tired which leaves the strain to be taken up by the connective tissue. There are ways to minimise this risk…
🐎 only gallop if horse and rider are fit confident and have balance and control 🐎 thorough warmup is a must as well as a thorough warm down is just as important - allow heart rate to return to normal. 🐎 environment must be safe and ensure the surface is consistent and appropriate (like above I am galloping on a safe artificial surface)
🐎 do not gallop a tired horse 🐎 do not gallop a horse too often

01/05/2026

🤪 FUN FACT 🤪 raising poles alters the footfalls of the canter. The diagonal pair disassociates and results in the horse rocking between front and hind limbs. This is why poles are such a good core strengthening and back mobilising exercise.

23/04/2026

The competition season is upon us…

Finally, the nice weather has returned and many of us are making the most of it with some getting out to clinics and some of us venturing out to compete. To do either of these things and in any discipline it requires the horse to be suitably physically fit. All systems need to be appropriately trained for soundness, performance and to avoid overload and subsequent injury.

These Systems respond best to a gradual increase of type, volume and intensity of workload and fitness training. It is important to keep in mind that young or previously untrained horses are allowed adequate time to build physical strength slowly - horses that fall into this category benefit from a well planned basic training program before making discipline specific demands.

These systems include:
💪 cardiovascular fitness
💪 respiratory fitness
💪 musculoskeletal fitness

Video of the amazing Pykie who was a prime example of a horse who lived for his job. He had kissing spine as a young horse and so conditioning him appropriately to event was paramount to allow his body to be able to do this successfully.

15/04/2026

While backing my latest young horse it got me thinking…
Young horses…it’s such a big topic. With Young Horse Classes where horses from 4 years old are expected to be performing at an unreasonable level, racehorses started off in training at anywhere between 18-24 months and a big push on horse welfare what are the facts?

A strong well developed skeletal system is essential to ensure optimum structural support, limb loading, strain and concussive forces imposed on bones and joint structures.

Bones develop from mineralised cartilage which progressively hardens and ossifies at the horse matures. When born the foal’s skeleton is approximately 20% mature increasing to approximately 75% by the end of their first year.

Post finished in comments…

03/03/2026

Moving on a few weeks after attending the fantastic Soundness and Symmetry Conference it has got me thinking… (the speakers at the conference said that this issue perhaps highlighted more questions than answers and I think I agree!)

We are always striving for symmetry in our horses - BUT is this our horse’s detriment? Are asymmetries necessarily bad? Should we be changing them and in what cases should we not be?
Are these compensational? Are they adaptational?
For example a tennis player will have a higher level of bone density in their dominant arm. They wouldn’t need their other arm to be the same in this case… and this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

Are we as riders so obsessed with horses asymmetries we are ignoring rider crookedness? Do horses have a preferential leg - as in are they right or left handed like we are? What does this mean for them?

What about hoof asymmetry?
What about…
Genetics
Conformation
Trauma
Training or incorrect training
Saddle fit
Rider imbalance
Posture

🤯🤯🤯

23/02/2026

Decompartmentalising from a fantastic weekend away with hosted by Gillian Higgins all about soundness and symmetry. My brain is brimming with new ideas and a bit of a refresh. The speakers were truly inspirational and included Dr Sue Dyson, Dr Gillian Tabour, Dr Kevin Haussler, Dr Chris Pearce and a seriously interesting interview with Ros Canter on promoting Soundness and Symmetry in the elite event horse. Huge thank you to for being great company.

13/02/2026

The Canter
Canter is the only gait where the horse rocks from back to front
🟢 If you vary the speed of canter it encourages more movement and greater symmetry at the lumbosacral junction giving your horse a complete abdominal workout
🔵 Great for strengthening the thoracic
Sling muscles
🟡 Diagonal pairs in canter - they should land together. If they aren’t or if your horse is regularly disunited there could be a reason for this

05/02/2026

⭐️THE WALK⭐️
The walk as a gait is often overlooked. Working in walk has huge benefits…
🔵 Great way to develop muscles and stamina
🟢 The horse in walk can be safely worked for longer periods of time as it inflicts much less strain on the body
🟠 No suspension phase meaning that it’s a great way to mobilise a stiff back due to the spine being able to move more
🟡 In a good meaningful walk, the horse’s muscles are working much harder than you realise. Because there is much less elastic energy in walk than trot for example the muscles are actually working harder. Making it a great way to develop core strength - especially when poles/raised poles are introduced

Anna Beran “what does not work in a walk won’t work in trot or canter”

03/01/2026

To all my clients… whether you use me regularly or whether you have used me once I am forever grateful for your support. Wishing you all a happy new year ❤️

28/12/2025

The power of ‘backing up’

This simple, low impact exercise is beneficial for strengthening many key areas of the horse, including the flexor chain of muscles - particularly the hip and lumbosacral junction, thoracic sling and the iliopsoas muscles.

At the same time the horse is encouraged to mobilise lift and flex its back and increase rotation. Other benefits include the back and hamstring muscles are gently stretched. The horses weight is shifted back onto the hindquarters thus simulating collection.

This horse (my horse) has had his sacroiliac medicated and is on low intensity slow walk work (boring I know). This exercise is beneficial in getting him mobilised again - although care must be taken and not introduced too early in his rehabilitation.

Attention must be on straightness, head position and meaningful steps.

Address

Sunshine Cottage, 9 Badingham Road
Woodbridge
IP139HS

Telephone

+447773694931

Website

https://rosekimberley.wixsite.com/equinesportstherapy

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