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 prevention, precision...

In the second part of this blog about the paces we are looking at the biomechanics and benefits of trot. We will also study how to assess your horse's trot and there are tips to improve this pace too. Take a look at our horse in movement video course to discover more about trot Anatomy in Action. Trot is a two-time symmetrical, rhythmical gait where the horse springs from one diagonal pair to the other with the hindlegs at opposite phases of the stride as any one time. There is a moment of...

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 course of a...

With life being such fast paced it can be so easy to overlook things that may be staring us in the face. This is also true for our horses – as we rush round trying to juggle family, work and horses we can be guilty of not listening to them and this is when the early signs of a health issue may be overlooked and not dealt with until the symptoms are really shouting at us. The topic of biosecurity is now in the forefront of our minds and there is a lot we can do on a daily basis to ensure the...

In this blog article, Jay Mackay, equine osteopathy student and Horses Inside Out social media assistant, reviews the online seminar, Pain Related Poor Performance with Dr Sue Dyson . The seminar recording is available (with handouts and CPD certificate on completion) to purchase and view in the Horses Inside Out Academy. Knowing Sue Dyson’s seminar was going to be 6 hours long, I cleared my Saturday schedule and made a flask of coffee just in case I needed perking up a few hours in. But...

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 mobilising the back. The...

Struggling with finishing off your shopping for your horsey friends? We're here to help you with some cracking gift ideas that provide education direct to your computer - and you don't need to rely on the post! There's a whole host of fascinating online courses and packages available from the Horses Inside Out Academy. Collections of Recorded Webinars - Series 1, 2, 3 or 4 These recorded webinars give the perfect opportunity to learn about how the horse works, anatomy and biomechanics. Each...

Hind gut health is a phrase we hear a lot about at the moment, and it is an important issue. A healthy hind gut has so many positive effects on the horse, so it’s well worth understanding a bit about it. In this blog vet Liam Gamble gives a basic overview of the importance of good hind gut health and the microbiome. Liam was one of our guest presenters at the Horses Inside Out Conference where he discussed this topic in lots more detail. An introduction to the gastrointestinal microbiota The...

I think most of us realise when it comes to horses you just never stop learning. These days, the way we find information has changed hugely –type a few words into a search engine and you’ll find all the information you need. But for me, you can’t beat a good book – curling up on the sofa and giving it your total attention for a few hours. It’s a chance to really focus as you turn the pages. There’s something really special about reading a book – the turning of the pages, the smell of the...

Whatever discipline you do, adopting a correct, progressive and methodical training system that instils confidence in both horse and rider will bring you the most success and pleasure. This ethos is something that event coach Caroline Moore FBHS firmly believes in. Over years of coaching many event riders, Caroline has developed a unique training system. The best testimonial to her training is the career of the horse she co-owned with Ros Canter, Allstar B. We were excited to announce that we...