Pilates-style exercises for your horse can help him to feel good both physiologically and in turn psychologically. Using these exercise are

Equine fascia and kinetic lines are important concepts for understanding how the horse moves and functions. Fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds and supports the muscles, bones, organs, and nerves. Kinetic lines are the pathways of movement and force transmission that run through the fascia. By studying equine fascia and kinetic lines, we can learn how to improve the health, performance, and well-being of our horses. Some of the benefits of understanding equine fasc

Horsemanship - a term that encompasses the skills, knowledge, and understanding needed to form a harmonious relationship with a horse. It involves treating the horse with respect and working with its natural instincts and behaviour to create a positive and safe riding experience. Horsemanship is the foundation of all riding disciplines and is essential for both horse and rider. Creating a partnership with the horse is key Ultimately, horsemanship is about creating a partnersh

When I first heard world renowned Equine Veterinarian and Dental Vet Specialist Dr. Chris Pearce from the Equine Dental Clinic present at the Horses Inside Out Conference in February 2023, I came away with mixed feelings. What I had just heard and learnt from Chris was absolutely fascinating and exciting for horses and the future of Equine Dentistry whilst at the same time making me feel uneasy about some of the dentistry practices, dental complaints and bitting injuries th

My first introduction to Dr Jessica Kidd was at the Horses Inside Out Conference in February 2023 where Jessica was a guest speaker and presented lectures covering ‘An Update on Diagnosis and Treatment of Back Conditions & Upper Hind Limb lameness in horses’. Jessica is based in Oxfordshire and is a consultant surgeon who works with equine practices throughout the UK. Her areas of expertise are orthopaedic and soft tissue surgery as well as lameness investigations and associa

In our last blog Dr Sue Dyson highlighted the importance of correct front feet for long term soundness in horses. In this article, we chat to another of our Equine Conference 2024 speakers, Dr Simon Curtis, farrier, author, lecturer and horse hoof-care expert. Simon has been a farrier for over 50 years. He has spent most of his career and is probably best known in the industry for his work with foals, studying their conformation and how farriery can be used to aid them and pu

As I sit here writing this article I am looking out over the North Sea in the lovely Danish town of Hirtshals on the last of my international trips this year. I have been delivering a two day CPD course for professionals equine therapists on Joint Mobilisations and Musculoskeletal Testing for Bettina Hvidemose and her team at the Center for Dyreterapi. This inspired me to write an article on how understanding anatomy of joints and joint movement can help us to improve and ma

A strong thoracic sling will improve your horse's performance, health, and well-being as well as enhancing his agility, power and lightness of the forehand. It can also reduce the risk of injury and lameness. A strong thoracic sling will reduce the stress on the back and spine making him better able to cope with the weight of the rider. Essentially, a strong thoracic sling means a happier, healthier horse. What is the Thoracic Sling? The horse has no collarbone and the thorac

Correct training and riding are key to keeping your horse happy, comfortable and sound. Combine this with a thorough understanding equine anatomy and how the horse works and you will be better able to train, ride, reduce the risk of injury allowing your horse to perform at his best. All horses are different in the way they move and think and it’s important to recognise and work with what you have got and train each horse accordingly. There is no such thing as a perfect horse.

PART 2 Understanding the process of skeletal maturity in horses is crucial for appropriate management, training and care. Skeletal maturity refers to the point at which a horse’s bones have fully developed and growth plates have ossified. In this, the second part of our blog about young horses, we explore the age at which horses generally reach skeletal maturity and the timeline of growth plate closure in different anatomical regions. Skeletal maturity in horses signifies the

I have already attended three of Gillian’s 2 Day courses so was excited to add another one to my growing list. This time round it was the One-Day Interactive Anatomy course. Now, I LOVE anatomy - it's a bit of a thing of mine - so I arrived nice and early to grab a seat at the front! The classroom - a specially converted barn - looked amazing and was filled with skeletons and bones! There were two fully assembled skeletons on what looked like giant skateboards; a painted mod

A happy, comfortable horse is something all owners and trainers are striving for. Good management, feeding and training all play an integral part together with correctly fitting tack. Bridle fit and bitting is now, and quite rightly, seen as being just as important as the saddle and can have a huge impact on your horse’s performance and well-being. Having a clearer understanding of equine biomechanics and anatomy of the head highlights the huge influence that using a correctl

Nature versus nurture is often talked about whether it’s considering child development or more relevant to us, in horses. Dr Andrew Hemmings has carried out lots of research that reveals that by having a detailed knowledge of innate biological characteristics (nature) can help us make decisions about the best management practices of the domestic horse (nurture). Generally, when you read about nature and nurture, the nature element very much refers to what's going on in the an

All owners want their horses to be happy, healthy and sound. Recognising when your horse isn’t performing as he should is key to his welfare. We know that neck and back pain has a negative effect on equine performance, but they can go untreated as they can be tricky to diagnose. However, with access to more diagnostic tools and targeted treatments, conditions in the neck and back can be treated successfully. To help you learn more about the current thinking in this area, Equi

Following a packed first day, would the second day deliver such a wide ranging set of presentations? The resounding answer is yes it did! Watch the Conference on Catch Up here: www.horsesinsideout.com/conference-2023 The first two talks given by Dr Chris Pearce and Dr James Cooling covered the subject of bitting but both complemented each other perfectly. Comfort First and Foremost Chris discussed bitting injuries and how to avoid them, and he started by quoting from a book,

It was a year in the making but all the blood, sweat and tears was worth it as the Horses Inside Out Conference made a welcome return. Our last conference was in February 2020 just before the pandemic and the HIO team wasn’t sure whether, after a few years away, the conference would still be popular. We needn’t have worried, the two-day conference held at the Holywell Conference Centre, Loughborough was a huge success. The atmosphere was buzzing and everyone who attended in p

If you work in the equine world, you’ll know how rapidly things can change – thanks to new research, products and techniques the way horses are trained, treated and kept is constantly evolving. This is why it’s important to keep abreast of these techniques and skills by pursuing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – for many professions it’s necessary to complete CPD on an annual basis. Continuing Professional Development describes the learning activities professionals

Caring for tendons, or managing a horse with a tendon injury is probably every horse owner’s nightmare. A horse with a tendon injury used to mean months of box rest, which is stressful for all concerned, and with no real guarantee of a full return to fitness at the end of it. Thankfully, vets are now learning better tendon healing strategies from human sports medicine that don't include ice, bute and box rest. You may be surprised to learn that experts now recommend preventio

This is a blog I have been wanting to write for a while, and yet for some reason, every time I sit in front of my laptop with the intention of doing it, I seem to get a mental block. Not because I don’t have anything to say on the subject, but quite the contrary, I don’t even know where to start. But I know that this is a story I want to tell, as I am hoping it might inspire others…. When I first qualified as an Equine Massage Practitioner I had completed my studies over the

In the first part of this series of blogs about the paces we will look at the biomechanical effects and benefits of walk and also share tips on how to assess different qualities in the walk and how to improve them. You can learn so much more about this topic in the horse movement video course Anatomy in Action. Walk is a regular four-beat gait and compared to trot and canter, walk uses the most thoracolumbar rotation and lateral flexion - this is why it's great for mobilisin