Kinetic Equine Medicine, LLC

11/12/2026

Layup is not a break from hoof care. 🐴

I hear it all the time: a horse goes on layup or into rehab, and the farrier visits get spread out, or the shoes come off to save money until the horse is back in work.

But a horse in rehab still stands, walks and turns on its feet every hour of every day. Sore feet feed pain into the same body we’re trying to heal, and they can slow every recovery.

Pulling shoes on a horse that’s used to wearing them can lead to bruised soles, cracked walls and even abscesses. That means new pain right when your horse needs it least.

For horses in pain management, regular and often more frequent farrier care keeps changes small, mechanics consistent and problems caught early.

10/29/2026

Kinetic Equine Medicine is heading to Southern California! 🐴🚚

Dr. Beth Byles will be in the Temecula and Los Angeles area December 17–19, offering sport horse lameness and kinetic chain performance evaluations with a focus on the neck, back, and pelvis.

Appointments are limited, so reach out early to request a spot:
📱 Text (253) 878-8098
✉️ [email protected]

We look forward to meeting you and your horses!

10/29/2026

The kinetic chain approach treats the horse’s body as a series of linked segments: limbs, joints, spine, neck, and pelvis, connected by muscles, fascia, and ligaments. They work together to produce movement, so force and motion travel through the whole system. When one link stops moving well, the others have to absorb more load, change their timing, or move in ways they weren’t designed for.

In practice, the place where a horse shows a problem isn’t always where the problem started. A horse that is short on the right fore may be compensating for lumbosacral pain behind. Neck stiffness can limit forelimb protraction. Back pain can change how the hind limbs push. The visible lameness is often where the chain finally gave way, not the original source.

A kinetic chain evaluation therefore goes beyond blocking and imaging the lame limb. It asks how the whole horse is moving and why:

Movement assessment across gaits, on straight lines and circles, under saddle and in hand, looking at how the head, neck, back, and pelvis move along with the limbs.
Axial skeleton evaluation of the neck, back, and pelvis, since these coordinate balance, posture, and how force passes between the front and hind ends.
Mapping primary versus compensatory problems, so treatment targets what’s driving the dysfunction and not only what’s most obvious.
Treatment and rehab that address the whole chain, combining targeted therapy at the primary site with conditioning and movement retraining so the horse doesn’t keep relying on old compensation patterns.

Why it matters: treating only the loudest problem often gives temporary relief, and then the lameness returns or moves somewhere else. Looking at the full chain explains why the horse is sore, not just where, and that is what leads to lasting soundness and better performance.

The concept comes from human sports medicine and physical therapy, where clinicians routinely trace a knee or shoulder complaint back to the hip, core, or spine. The same principle applies to the horse, arguably more so, given how much force a performance horse’s body has to transmit with every stride.

Interested in having your horse evaluated Contact Kinetic Equine Medicine for an evaluation! 👉https://www.kineticequinemedicine.com/

Kinetic Equine Medicine takes a kinetic chain approach to sport horse performance, looking at how the neck, back, pelvis, and limbs work together. We help horses move, perform, and feel better through advanced diagnostics, targeted treatment, and rehab.

10/26/2026

What an honor! 🐴🇨🇦 Dr. Byles had the privilege of speaking at the Association des vétérinaires équins du Québec on recognizing pain in working equines and sport horses.

This is an incredible association of talented, dedicated veterinarians, and the conversations didn’t stop at the podium. Some of the best moments were the in-depth discussions on the neck and back, two areas central to how our horses move, perform, and feel.

Grateful to the AVEQ for the warm welcome. Always learning, always improving! 💙

AVEQ

09/04/2026

VET RECORD PUBLISHES ARTICLE ON HOOFING MARVELLOUS!

The Veterinary Record has published an article around information being disseminated by Hoofing Marvellous. This is a barefoot trimming group that claimed earlier in the summer that laminitis is not an endocrine/metabolic condition but purely the result of incorrect hoofcare. A wealth of published peer-reviewed evidence directly contradicts this view.

09/04/2026

👀 Test your eye.

What do you notice about this horse’s walk?

Don’t overthink it, watch the rhythm, the footfalls, and how the front and hind limbs coordinate with each other.

I’m curious what stands out to you. Tell me what you see below 👇

I’ll post this same horse one week later next.

08/18/2026

08/16/2026

Sometimes the best saddle fitting appointment... is the one where you don't fit a saddle.

This horse recently arrived a few days ago with their owner after spending over a week in transit.

One of the first things I noticed was the loss of topline. Long-distance shipping is incredibly stressful on a horse's body. Changes in routine, hydration, nutrition, limited movement, and the stress of travel can all contribute to muscle loss in a surprisingly short amount of time.

In addition to the loss of muscle, I also noted some mild asymmetry through the topline. Whether that's a result of the shipping, previous compensation patterns, or simply where this horse is today, it's another reminder that this body is still changing.

As a saddle fitter, my job isn't just to find a saddle that fits today. My job is to think about where this horse is headed.

The owner of course wants to ride because she's excited. Could I have adjusted or flocked a saddle to fit this back? Probably. But should I? I don't believe that's in the horse's best interest. There is not healthy back to support a saddle just yet.

Instead, today we completed a full set of topline tracings to establish a baseline. Those tracings will allow us to objectively track this horse's muscle development over the coming weeks rather than relying on memory or photos alone. As the horse regains condition, we'll repeat the tracings and compare them so we can see exactly how the back is changing and determine the right time to move forward with a saddle fitting.

My homework for the owner was simple: focus on helping this horse recover. Good nutrition, appropriate conditioning, time to settle into the new environment, and consistent work on the ground will do far more right now than trying to make a saddle fit a body that's still in transition.

I asked the owner to keep me updated with photos and progress, and once this horse has rebuilt its topline and we're seeing more consistency, I'll head back out.

Sometimes the best thing we can say is not always the easiest thing to say. No one wants to hear they shouldn't ride their new horse. But MOST horse owners love and care for their animals so that once I point out the issue, are more than willing to be patient so they don't risk further damage.

Its not always easy to have the hard conversations. But fitting the horse always comes before fitting the saddle.

03/28/2026

Not every horse with resistance, hind-end issues, or “attitude” problems is being difficult. Some may be showing signs consistent with sciatic pain. The more we learn to recognize pain patterns, the better we can advocate for our horses.

👉 Read more at Kinetic Equine Medicine Blog: https://tinyurl.com/f3jc8xsh
👇 Listen to Dr. DeClue Equine podcast on Sciatia posted in the comments.

03/27/2026

Great summary from this weekend!

Things we often say but took on new meaning this weekend at the
"Inside the Equine Body: Understanding the Structure and Function of the Pelvis" clinic.

✨️It's all connected✨️
Sure, we know that theoretically like 🎶"the leg bone's connected to the knee bone" 🎶. But I have found that I cannot truly grasp this concept unless I see it for myself. If you're a visual learner or even a sensory one - you'll understand.

Looking inside a horse's body during several distal limb dissections in the past and one whole body dissection has made this real for me. Watching Dr. Byles flex the lumbosacral joint and watching the pelvis and psoas move was wild. Watching the femur move and what went along with it. Imagining how my back would feel if anything in my lumbar area was fused/in the process of fusing. Seeing the interplay between muscle, fascia, and nerves. The strength and bounce of the spinal cord, the deep digital flexor tendon, the glutes, and the biceps femoris. The straight tidy lines of the ribs coated in overlapping muscle and fat. The gleaming white bone of the femur head and hip socket. The iridescent sheen of fascia in gold, blue, silver, purple. The sharp bone spurs and the crunch of adhesions where there should be none. The nuchal ligament flowing into the supraspinous ligament, suspension in motion.

It's all working in tandem inside the horse's body. The more you understand, the more you can see what's happening inside based on what you're seeing outside.

No issue exists in isolation. It's not "just" a suspensory tear or a hock that "needs" injecting or a "cold backed" horse. Leading right into my next point....

⚠️That's not normal⚠️
Common is not the same thing as normal.

"They've always been like that."
Okay, so this is historic and chronic dysfunction then?
Long term problems don't = normal.

"That's just their conformation."
Or is it chronic pain, bad posture, and the resulting body lameness and dysfunction?

Moving in a asymmetrical or unbalanced way? Not normal.
Able to lift 3 but not the 4th leg for the farrier? Not normal.
Able to lead change one direction but not the other? Not normal.
Bucking under saddle? Not normal.
Rearing on the lunge line? Not normal.
Biting at their girth? Not normal.
Constantly losing the gait? Not normal.
Tongue sticking out? Not normal.
Can't stand square? Not normal.
Repeated tail swishing? Not normal.
Stumbling or tripping? Not normal.
Dragging their toes? Not normal.

Not a bad horse - not normal.

Being "not lame" is not the same thing as sound.

⏰️"They're just being ______" (insert preferred description of unwanted behavior here).⏰️
Watching some of the videos shared this weekend was eye opening in a more gut punch kind of way. Through the lens of a movement analysis and lameness evaluation, you see things differently.

A horse looking good at the trot but worse at the walk isn't lazy.
A horse rearing on the lunge line and suddenly changing direction suddenly makes a lot more sense when you notice how she was moving in the moments just before.
A horse being asked to lift a hind leg but then leaning, flailing, and spasming isn't trying to kick you but is in pain.

Unable to perform the task asked of them.
Not unwilling necessarily but unable.

The gut punch moment for me was watching videos of horses showing their pain or inability to do something and then *bracing myself for the human to get violent.* It didn't happen because these horses were in front of a vet who was curious and wanting to see them at their worst to understand the issue.

But how many times have we watched people punish horses for communicating?
How often do we ignore their stress signals and push harder?

Every day I go to work and have very good horses trying their very best for me even despite physical pain, weakness, muscle tension, and imbalance in their body. Some horses are more willing and tolerant than others.

I remember a horse I trimmed who I could tell was in a lot of pain. She had a lot going on but especially in her right knee. When I would bend down to cue her to lift her front leg forward to the hoof stand, she would close her eyes, grimace, and then try her best. It was awful. She never got aggressive or angry, just went deep inside herself and tried for me.

Not normal. Not okay.

🐴
I chose this picture to share something uncommon but normal - horses running out to pasture with their friends..