08/21/2025
If you know me, you know I preach posture!
The Body Doesn’t Lie
I’m a little (a lot) increasingly worried and frustrated about the postures I am seeing horses worked in. I saw a post yesterday of a horse being worked in side reins comparing day one of using them to day two; day one — bracing; day two — horse sucking behind the side reins, opening mouth, compressing the wither (and everything else) to avoid pressure.
The day before that, one professional rider riding a 4 year old hyperflexed with draw reins in one clip and a tight martingale in another.
The day before that, a client told me that another therapist had told them to just shut their horses mouth with a flash to stop contact evasions… when in fact this horse is experiencing significant discomfort.
Today, a video saying if your horse leans on the contact to just give them a sharp upward motion of the rein to get them to sit back… because there surely isn’t a physical or rider issue why they do that!?
IF you DON’T think what you are doing is wrong, LOOK and FEEL your horse.
If you’re ignoring their signals in every other way, their body won’t lie. If you’re doing everything right, they’ll look right.
If you’re constantly battling with the same issues, if your physio keeps noticing a tight poll/lacking muscle/stiffness, if you can see your horses ligament clicking and flicking over the top of their neck every time you change bend, please please widen the gaze and realise — this is not right, this is not normal for their body, what is going wrong?
There is no shame in breaking away from a trainer you’ve used for years; or changing from a saddle you once loved to a new one; or giving your horse a little while off whilst you sort your body out and make sure you’re not hindering them. This is the part of the “sport” (I hate that word in this context) that has been so massively overlooked of late.
Even if you’re a professional rider only riding a horse for 30 mins a week, we are our horses GUARDIANS on this planet. Every interaction means we should care for every part of them whole heartedly. If something isn’t right, they will try and tell us however they can — big or small.
Speech and panic over… resume your day 🙃
