08/09/2026
People really underestimate the impact emotional experience has over their horses body. This is a long one, so buckle up.
I see videos online of horses showing unwanted behaviors and the comments are typically full of "kissing spines!", "ulcers!" or "PSSM!". Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we've moved away from the days where comment sections would be saturated with suggestions of stronger bits. I'm glad people are trying to think of the "why" behind behaviors and not immediately thinking the horse is naughty. Unfortunately, I also see a trend where people almost seem to WANT their horse to have a physical issue. Not in a Munchausens kind of way, but in a "I'd rather throw endless money at the vet to find something wrong than admit I don't know as much as I thought I did and change the way I interact with my horse."
Now, before you come for me, if there's something wrong there's something wrong🤷♀️ But what about when those ailments are successfully treated yet the behaviors remain or even escalate? You did all the injections, all the medication, all the rehab and yet here you are, still getting yeeted from A to C because a gazelle farted in Namibia. You took care of the result, but you still didn't get to the cause 🤷♀️
The thing is that serious soundness issues don't start as serious soundness issues. They start as small postural changes. These small postural changes happen from the moment we approach our horses. The most example I've seen over the years:
You do everything from the left so the horse is naturally more wary of things on the right. This causes the horse to always have his head turned slightly to the right, using it as a subtle barrier to stop you going on that side. This pushes all his weight down the left shoulder and onto the lateral side of his left front hoof. The hoof wears faster on this left side due to the uneven weight distribution and now the horse is lower on the left front, with the thoracic sling dumped forward and the back begins to drop and twist subtly to the right. You notice your horse is hard to bend to the left, but no worries- just keep at those biomechanically cancerous 20m circles and half arsed leg yields your highly qualified instructor has been doing with you for the last 3 years, he'll learn eventually! You get "the back man" out and that helps for a few rides.
You continue with the circles to 'help' the bend. Unfortunately the more you do, the more your horse overloads his left front and the weaker he becomes in his hind end. He begins bucking in his canter transitions because it's the only way he can organize his hind end. Anticipating this, you shorten your reins to keep his head up- he can't canter at all like this, but he can't tell you that, so the only thing he can do is slam the brakes on every time he gets to the gate. You push him forward and then it happens- he rears. Finally, you listen and get him checked out and the horse is found to have a ligament injury on the left front and four bothersome spinal processes. You're flabbergasted at the financial hit but relieved it's something fixable. You diligently do the rehab and the day finally rolls around where you can get back on board. To your dismay, as soon as you ask him to leave the gate, the horse goes straight up, even higher than he did before now that he's sound with a mobile back. You get the vet back out, saddle reflocked, back man out- none of it helps and there's two options. Put the dangerous horse down or get me to come and look at it. If the second option is chosen, I take one look at your horse, immediately see this head tilt to the right and spend the entire session getting hour horse ok with me walking around to the right. It feels like a waste of money, you want to RIDE your horse! But then you start to notice things- he's suddenly standing square. He's standing still without fidgeting, he's stretching down and forward while moving and is that an inside bend starting to develop? You decide to stick with me afterall and despite your skepticism after your last disastrous post rehab ride, the first ride goes beautifully and you have your horse back. Because the issue didn't start with pain from kissing spines and lameness, it started with a defensive postural change which has now been taken care of.
How your horse feels about what you do with him affects him physically. You can do all the technically correct exercises and spend all the money on diagnostics in the world, but if your horse still feels tense or defensive about what you're asking he will never move or even stand without some sort of compromise in his body. Relaxation in all your interactions isn't everything, but it's a damn good start!
Here's Dario learning how his topline works for the first time in his life
