Equine Bodyworks and Sports Therapy

10/15/2024

❄🐴🌾 Is it safe to graze horses after a hard freeze? What do I need to consider before turning them back out on pasture? Also, what defines a hard freeze?

🌡 A hard freeze refers to a frost that is severe enough to end the growing season. The National Weather Service defines a hard freeze when temperatures fall below 28ºF for a few hours. Cool-season grasses commonly found in Midwest horse pastures go into dormancy for winter and conserve their energy stores (starches and sugars) following a hard freeze.

❄️ We recommend keeping horses off pastures for at least 7 days after a hard freeze. Frost-damaged pastures are higher in nonstructural carbohydrates (starches and sugars) because plants can not use up their energy stores as efficiently. It can take plants 7 days to return to more normal nonstructural carbohydrate levels. Higher levels of nonstructural carbohydrates can lead to an increase risk for laminitis, especially in horses diagnosed with or prone to obesity, laminitis, Cushings, and Equine Metabolic Syndrome.

The decision to graze again after a hard freeze depends on the condition of your pasture. After a hard freeze, no additional regrowth of the pasture will occur, even though the pasture might appear green in color. If your cool-season grass pasture is

✅ taller than 3 to 4 inches, then grazing can resume 7 days after a hard freeze and can continue until the pasture is grazed down to 3 to 4 inches.
❌ shorter than 3 to 4 inches, then no grazing should occur after a hard freeze. Grazing below 3 inches can harm the plant and may be a health concern for horses sensitive to nonstructural carbohydrates.

🌾 Plants rely on stored nonstructural carbohydrates in the lower 3 inches for energy. Therefore, the 3- to 4-inch minimum height recommendation is necessary to help maximize winter survival and can help predict a vigorous and healthy pasture come spring. We do recognize horses rarely graze uniformly and pastures tend to have areas of both over and under grazing. You will need to base decisions on the average appearance of your pasture

03/31/2024

03/16/2024

02/05/2024

“I don’t want much, I just want to groom once in a while and go for an easy trail ride here and there”-

This is a statement folks often make, which makes perfect sense from a human point of view. It doesn’t require much time, effort or skill gaining, and the expectation appears low- for the horse to just stand quietly, or happily trod along down the trail.

From a riders perspective, grooming requires relaxing and enjoying brushing their horse. Trail riding usually involves relaxing and leaving the horse mostly alone to enjoy the outdoors and company.

From a horses point of view, however, this is not so easy a task. To ”just be brushed,” the horse has to have enough confidence to leave the herd, the skills to lead well to the barn, the ability to stand tied quietly for a length of time in isolation away from friends, to stay focused enough to stand despite the distractions and movement around them in the barn.
That’s a lot!

To “just trail ride,” the horse has to have the afore mentioned skills, plus load in a trailer, ride in the trailer and unload (those are all separate skills), leave friends quietly and ride calmly past all kinds of input and stimulus- they have to know what rider input to tune into (legs and reins), and which to shut out (rustling around to get a granola bar out of saddle bags, yammering to friends). They have to manage terrain with balance, leave or join other horses, or ride past other people, dogs, bikes, etc. They often have little guidance from a rider who’s expectations and attention to the horse is low (who is relaxing and enjoying company or scenery, not giving attentive communications to the horse).

That’s a TALL order for a horse, and quite a drastic difference in expectation between horse and rider in terms of education, attention and workload.

Think from the horses point of view. Don’t skimp on the education, the awareness, and don’t leave your horse to their own devices for “simple tasks.” A horse is a horse, and not a human- and they see our world very differently. It’s on us to prepare and guide them.

01/02/2024

Gratitude is an essential element of confidence.

I am fortunate that I was encouraged from a young age to practice gratitude. To look for the good. Long before it was fashionable and became something of a self help buzz word.

I think we are all familiar with the idea that gratitude is an essential element of cheerfulness. But of confidence?

A lack of confidence can be, first and foremost, the result of a lack of knowledge or ability. Incompetence to put it baldly. That one is a relatively easy fix- knowledge and ability can be gained.

An unfortunate experience can also bring about a dip in confidence. This one’s harder, but a negative experience can be over-layed with lots and lots of positive ones and gradually confidence can be won back.

But where things get trickier is when the lack of confidence is there as a result of deeply rooted self limiting beliefs.

You know, the little voice that sits on our shoulder saying: “You’re no good/ not worthy/ nothing ever goes well for you…”

The trouble is that we are hard wired for the negatives. The things that cause us fear and worry need special attention, after all they might be sabre toothed tigers. Being hard wired for the negatives is a survival mechanism. Our subconscious latches on to them- files them under “Important: for repeated close examination on sleepless nights”.

The sub conscious is not just incredibly powerful, it is busy! Processing 2000 thoughts a second, while the conscious mind can only deal with a mere 40 (still sounds like a lot to me). And the thing with the subconscious mind is that it wants to be RIGHT, far more than it wants you to be happy. If someone asks you a question and you know you know the answer, but you just can’t bring it to mind. Long after, probably days later, the answer will pop unbidden in to your head- the subconscious has been busy.

Confirmation bias is powerful aspect of the subconscious mind. It will seek out information which fits your existing core beliefs. If you’ve ever filled out one of those online questionnaires that are supposed to deliver great insight into our personality, they often seem uncannily perceptive. The reality is that the questionnaire might deliver six pieces of information supposedly about your personality and our brains will automatically zero in on the three that confirm our existing core beliefs about ourselves, and we will gloss over the three that didn’t quite match.

When we tell ourselves “I’m unlucky” or “Nothing ever goes well for me” our subconscious mind will actually work in such a way to make that seem true. We notice all the little things that go wrong- all the things that prove our existing beliefs of being unlucky or unfortunate.

You know, when you’re in a hurry and you catch your sleeve on the door handle? “Damn it, that ALWAYS happens!!” But does it really always happen? Or are we just much more tuned in to life’s little mini catastrophes than we are to the thousands of mundane minutes that go by when nothing awful happened at all? How many times did you NOT catch your sleeve on the door handle when you were in a hurry… ?

We can think of the subconscious mind like a garden that we plant seeds in. If we want to grow roses, there’s no good planting ragwort!

We need to plant some good seeds in our subconscious minds:

‘I did good today’
‘Anything is possible’
‘Okay, so I face planted in the mud but yay me for managing to not kick the cat…’

Gratitude doesn’t have to mean joyfully singing “Thank you for the sunshine and thank you for the rain…”

Gratitude is really just bringing awareness to when things went right. The hundreds of moments when things actually were simply ‘okay’- they might not have been earth shattering, but they weren’t disastrous either. The ‘bits in the middle’ between those two imposters triumph and disaster, when we tend not to pay any attention at all. Noticing that when you hacked out today even though fifteen pheasants flew up under your horses’ nose he didn’t particularly seem to care; noticing that when you schooled, your horse picked up the correct canter lead in at least one of your transitions on the tricky rein; noticing even that your horse managed to scratch himself but thank goodness he did it while you were there so you could take action…

A while back a section of panel fence blew over in the wind and took out a section of my horses’ fence which could have meant that they escaped. Was that unlucky that it happened? Or lucky that I was there and saw it happen so was able to repair the fence before the horses even saw their opportunity?

Gratitude is bringing your awareness to the good or even to the silver linings in the not so good. And when we practice ‘seeing the good’ we become more aware of just how much of it there is… and we stop thinking the universe has got it in for us, and that is hugely confidence giving!

The little blip we might have had on our last hack out will seem an awfully lot less significant when we view it in context of the all the rides before that one, when nothing bad happened at all.

I promise if you start counting all the little microscopic wins, they add up to a whole big deal indeed.

Photo: well, at least he didn’t panic….

12/30/2023

The same is true for things like bowed tendons and torn ligaments. They don’t come on suddenly, it’s many micro tears that don’t get a chance to heal. This is why you should monitor your horses legs and know every lump and bump like the back of your own hand. And watch for small changes in gait. Catching a small problem before it becomes a big problem will save you time and trouble

When a galloping horse suffers a catastrophic breakdown, so often people will try to salve their conscience by saying things like---“He just took a bad step. It was just an accident. Could have happened running in his pasture.”

The study here found just the opposite, that many smaller injuries contributed to what seemed like a sudden injury---

Read this if you have ever drunk the “just a bad step” Kool-Aid. It may open your eyes.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/111180/ky-necropsy-program-disproves-bad-step-myth

11/15/2023

11/03/2023

There's a statement I think about a lot because in my job I hear it a lot.

"That's just the way they are" or "they've always been like that"

This is usually with direct reference to a behaviour or presentation, which may or may not be problematic for the horse, that myself or another person has drawn attention to.

My issue with this statement is that, regardless of the timeframe in which the horse has been exhibiting said behaviour, dissmissives like "they have always been like that" have the power to condemn the horse to that state indefinitely.

And I believe this becomes a slippery slope to poor welfare state.

I appreciate that the path of least resistance feels like the safest route to follow, but when catching yourself thinking "this is how it is"

Maybe you could challenge yourself to think "does this have to be how it is?"

Or "has anyone made a concerted effort to get a different result?"

-

The Fundamentals of Horse Posture:

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/fundamentals-of-horse-posture

11/02/2023

The first day of November brings about one of my more controversial opinions.
Almost every equestrian has heard "No Stirrup November". It's a catchy little phrase intended to challenge people to become better riders by riding without stirrups.

While I'm obviously all for becoming a better rider, challenging yourself, and being able to ride without stirrups, I think this phrase and how we approach no stirrup work should be put out to pasture and never brought back. (Pun intended)

Why?

Well for many reasons.
First of all, you should be working on yourself *all year round*, not just one month a year. And working without stirrups all year round (obviously not on a daily basis, and not the entire ride).

But more importantly, I think the phrase creates many bad situations where people ride without stirrups for entire rides and for the entire month. Why is this bad? Well because typically this means that the horse is getting punished. Unless you are a professional rider who rides 8+ horses a day, you most likely do not have the muscle or abilities to ride without stirrups all ride, every ride.
You get off-balanced and pull on the horse's mouth to balance yourself.
You bounce harsher on their back, causing them discomfort and possibly even pain.

Ask any top level rider if they immediately start in the sitting trot when beginning to work a horse. The answer is no. Because posting helps the horses back warm up and get looser.

There are SO many ways to become a better rider than by punishing your horse with no stirrups all ride, every ride.

Go to the gym.
Get a personal trainer for a month.
Try new physical activities.
Try yoga/pilates/any other sort of stretching activity.
Heck, if you want to improve your physical fitness, maybe even ask your barn owner/manager if you can help for a day mucking stalls, carrying buckets, unloading and stacking hay. It'll be good exercise for you and it would mean the world to them to have some extra help, even if its just a day. I still say I was never as fit as I was when we owned our big boarding barn. So many steps each day, throwing hundreds of bales of hay every week, and so much more.

And you can still ride without stirrups. But my advice for this is:
-Wait until after you and the horse are warmed up.
-Drop your stirrups only for a short time frame.
-As soon as you feel you are starting to compromise your position/balance/aids, take a walk break and/or pick your stirrups back up.

Because as soon as your position gets fatigued and weak, you begin riding incorrectly. And riding incorrectly not only doesn't benefit you and your progress, but it also is unfair to your horse.



Photo credit: Jj Sillman from Cayenne's Training Long Format in 2015 (I think)

10/04/2023

🌟 Assess the Wither 🌟

When we approach strength in the horses body, the neck, hindquarters and the back are the main areas that are discussed.

But the withers can be a great indicator of not only IF your horse is building muscle, but HOW.

And that is super important as muscle should be developing to enhance your horses body, not to support its compensations. And often when the withers are not showing signs of functioning at optimum biomechanically, it can be a sign that your horse may not be building strength correctly.

The characteristic atrophy and compression of the thoracic trapezius, dip in front of the wither and over-recruitment of the nuchal ligament as a supporting lever, over-development of the underside of the neck and reduced ability to flex the neck either side or maintain a consistent contact are an accumulation of signs potentially indicating wither dysfunction.

A full blog post to come on this soon, as it’s an area of practice I am fascinated with.

But, just momentarily today, have a glance at this part of your horses body and make a note of what you see. A smooth continuous outline, or dips and pockets?

Of course - conformation does play a factor, but it is always best to discuss this with your physio.

10/03/2023

Holding the whip with good technique
Picking up the reins without pulling backwards
Regaining a stirrup without stopping the seat
Holding the lunge line without pulling the head off center
Re-organizing the lunge line without losing focus on the horse in movement
Walking beside the horse in a straight line without pulling the horses shoulder toward them
Saddling, girthing and mounting without tightening the horses back
Taking a horse through a gate with balance and calm

These are essential skills to being a good rider and horseman.
Where are these being taught? Do people still know or care about them?

Everywhere I go, I hear people talk about canter transitions, lateral work, improving a jump -

But I rarely see excellent basic skills

As a teacher, this is where my focus lies. Until you can get organized and balanced yourself, there’s no amount of progress your horse can gain that you can’t disorganize in short order -

Everyone wants to do the fancy stuff. Who wants to get really good at holding their equipment well, putting it on quietly without disturbing the horse, walking better, breathing better, and just being better to a horse in general?

08/08/2023