Riding Free Equine Therapy

22/08/2025

The key is to sit light in the saddle for the horse to effectively engage the core 🫶

How Does Pole Work Improve Your Horses Topline?

1. IF ridden correctly in a lighter seat, the action a horse has over poles causes them to lift their core and back.
2. This requires their muscles to activate through their abdomen, lifting their entire spine with more effort from the thoracic, lumbar and sacral areas.
3. If you sit too heavily while training pole exercises you will impede the horses ability to maximise positive effects from this type of training. It might look a bit ugly in rider position, and you might feel a bit out of your comfort zone… but having a light seat or even better a two point seat will help your horse develop over the back more effectively when training pole work.
4. If you use specific poles exercises and patterns you can encourage your horse to move straighter, be more balanced and activate muscles they may not have been using.

This particular horse had been sent to me for a short two week stay. He’d been spun at a dressage test for being lame. Appropriate vetting had taken place to show he was not sore anywhere… just travelling with an irregular movement.

He had a slightly tipped pelvis and was very jelly like over his lumbar. So I alternated his training between poles, hills and hack outs. This activated his lumbar muscles, regulated his gait and he went off to score well at his next comp.

04/08/2025

Crazy how many nerves are cranial. Might help you to rethink that nose-band, bridle or even the bit you use 🥰

What is the polyvagal theory?

The polyvagal theory is theory that disagrees with the older theory that said horse’s (and human’s) nervous systems were either functioning in “fight or flight” mode or “rest and digest” mode.

Because horses are prey animals we would teach that their theoretical “trigger” was quicker to be flipped to function in the fight or flight mode of their nervous system.

The polyvagal theory discuses a third branch of the nervous system that helps to regulate the transition more like a dimmer switch in a light than a flip switch on a light.

The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that exits at the base of the skull and reaches far and wide in the body including the heart, gut, diaphragm, and face. It plays a monstrous role in nervous system regulation and has 2 components of its own.

The polyvagal theory says there is a dorsal vagal complex, a ventral vagal complex, and the sympathetic nervous system.

Three total components rather than two.

The ventral vagal complex is thought to be the primary “dimmer switch” in the system.

The dorsal vagal complex is primarily responsible for the freezing response. Think of fainting goats.

The sympathetic nervous system is primarily responsible for the flight response. Think of untouched barn cats.

The ventral vagal complex is the dimmer switch that allows them to be calm, but alert. Aroused to play hard, but not feel a sensation of panic.

This makes more sense really. I can have anxious, physical symptoms in my gut about telling someone disappointing news, but that feeling would be much more intense if I had to tell someone they lost a loved one.

Same with my horses. I’ve seen the high headed, ears perked, prancing trot of them wondering what is in the woods making that noise over there.

I’ve also seen the head down/ears down, running at top speed, oh 💩 there’s a bear in the woods over there.

Same feeling, completely different intensity.
A dial - not a switch.

A horse’s ventral vagal engagement (the dimmer switch) can be managed. Horse’s are social! They rely on others to give them feedback on how low or high the dial should be cranked.

I have one horse I can keep calm by talking to him. He responds best to my voice.

I have another horse I can keep calm by petting him. He responds best to my touch.

And all of my horses calm each other too. Or send each other into alert mode over quickly moving leaves 🙃🙃

Your energy and your presence matters.

A much more in depth explanation of the polyvagal theory is here at this link by Sarah Schlote.

https://equusoma.com/the-polyvagal-theory-and-horses/

04/08/2025

This is a very common issue I see with many of my clients’ horses.

21/07/2025

A great exercise, that will also build their topline!

12/07/2025

20/05/2025

How the horse chooses to naturally stand, can tell you a lot about somatic dysfunction.

It starts with a small “tweak” of a muscle or a slight “tightness” and then we enter the compensatory patterns the horse will enforce to avoid pain.

Regular bodywork is crucial in order to avoid bigger injuries caused by compensatory patterns and prolonged pain.

Homeostasis is key, bringing the horse back into alignment

31/03/2025

People can be oblivious to the ramifications of starting horses too young and asking more from them than they can ‘physically’ give, but the horse does anyway, as is their nature.

The result, permanent damage that can remain unseen or unnoticed for many years. This may present in the following excuses:

🙄 He’s just girthy
🙄 That’s just him, he is quirky
🙄 He just needs a lunge before ridden work
🙄 That’s just his personality.

Under the surface; however, you could be dealing with something much more sinister, for example, a dropped hip (pictured), or a sprung pelvis (also pictured).

All behaviours deserve investigation to rule out pain and injury. The horses welfare comes first, always!