Step Inside the Horse Like Never Before
- Horses Inside Out
- 12 hours ago
- 4 min read
Imagine standing beneath a full equine skeleton leaping through the rafters above your head. Envisage holding a real hoof, comparing it to forty-nine others laid out beside it. How about finally understanding why your horse moves the way he does, why he struggles with certain schooling movements, or why your equine therapist keeps mentioning the sacroiliac. Now you can stop imagining and wondering why, when you book your ticket to the Horses Inside Out Inside the Horse Anatomy Exhibition this August.
There's genuinely nothing else like it in the UK.
"I feel more passionate than ever about how crucial it is to have a good understanding of how horses work," says Gillian Higgins. "This allows us to improve the way we ride, train, manage, and look after our horses. The Inside the Horse Anatomy Exhibition is the perfect place to come along and really improve your knowledge."
With social licence increasingly front of mind across the equestrian world, that understanding has never mattered more and this exhibition delivers it in a way that no textbook, video or online course ever could.
What to Expect
Let's talk scale. The 2026 exhibition is spread across more than 1,700 square metres. Two barns, a classroom, an arena, an outside yard and stables, ten distinct spaces packed with over 2,000 bones, five fully built skeletons posed in motion (yes, including one jumping clean through the rafters of the classroom), and three further disarticulated full skeletons alongside additional spines and leg examples. There are 10 different skulls to compare, 50 hooves to examine side by side, 6 muscle models and teaching aids, and 10 specimens and models dedicated solely to tendons and ligaments. The digestive system display alone illustrates a capacity of more than 30 metres or 150 litres. This reveals why horses are so complex, but it doesn't need to feel daunting.
The aim of the exhibition is unwrap equine anatomy, make it easy to understand and make it genuinely fun. To help, there are 20 anatomy puzzles and games, 25 interactive challenges and activities to test and build your knowledge, and 16 painted horse models dotted throughout. There are QR codes linking to videos, information booklets, and answer sheets to every activity. Everywhere you turn, something new catches your eye and every single thing you can touch.
Phew....that's one serious exhibition! The number of hours needed to thoroughly study everything in the exhibition? That's entirely up to you stay for a few hours or the whole day, it's up to you. Many visitors come back for more.
The Stars of the Show
At the heart of the exhibition are the skeletons themselves, each one with a story to tell. Freddie Fox, the star of the show, is built in full trotting pose, his veteran bones revealing a lifetime of history and a wealth of pathologies. In contrast, Marvin's skeleton is remarkably clean, making the two side by side a masterclass in comparison. Lulu, a younger skeleton, carries the poignant history of a horse who had laminitis but she is a beautiful example of equine structure at the age many horses begin work, her growth plates still visibly open, telling you everything you need to know about why rushing youngsters into hard training can be so damaging.
Together with a further skeleton showing all growth plates fully open, the collection traces the horse's development from foal to veteran and a unique way of studying them from the inside out.
Helping Your Understanding
Gillian's approach to anatomy is deliberately holistic.
"How can we really help people learn about their horses? How can we help riders visualise their horses, the problems that they have? This is what the Anatomy Exhibition does — it helps people to learn more about equine anatomy in a hands-on and visual way that anyone can understand."
The exhibition covers an extraordinary breadth of conditions and systems. Pathology displays include arthritis, kissing spines, fractures, cervical anomalies, thoracolumbar anomalies, lumbosacral anomalies and sacrocaudal anomalies, the kinds of diagnoses that horse owners hear from vets and physios but often struggle to visualise. Here, you can see them. Touch them. Understand exactly what's going on inside your horse's body and why it matters.
Everything is broken down into individual systems, then built back up so that the connections between them become clear. Because in the end, everything connects to everything. That is the big idea, and this exhibition makes it impossible to forget.
Something For Everyone
Whether you are a first-time horse owner trying to understand the basics, a competitive rider wanting to ride with more empathy and precision, or a professional (physio, farrier, saddler, vet, coach) looking for a genuinely excellent CPD day, the exhibition has you covered. It is approved for CPD by the British Horse Society, British Dressage, the Pony Club, the RDA and the IVCA.
Younger visitors have their own dedicated zone with hands-on activities, and each day includes a live pole work demonstration at 2.30pm showing biomechanics in action in real time.
And it is not just educational, this is genuinely enjoyable. The atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, there's cake and coffee, the spaces are beautiful, and you'll leave buzzing with things you wish you had known years ago. Your horse has been trying to tell you some of this stuff for a long time. Now you'll finally be able to recognise and understand it.
Book Your Place
The Inside the Horse Anatomy exhibition runs from 7th to 28th August 2026 at Wavendon Grange, Lawn Lane, Old Dalby, Leicestershire, LE14 3LW, open 10am to 4pm.
Early bird tickets are £25 if you book before 31st May, after that, £35, with under-16s always £25. On the door tickets are £40, so get in early and save.
Private tours with Gillian are available. Group bookings for professional organisations, riding clubs, student groups and CPD courses are also welcome.
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