equestrian - The Horse Physio - Sue Palmer

Tag: equestrian

Which stretches should I do with my horse?

By Sue Palmer on March 13, 2024

In terms of which body parts to stretch, you might be guided by where you feel your horse is stiff, tight, sore or restricted. It might be that your physical therapist has suggested that you stretch a particular muscle group or that your horse has a specific movement restriction that could be eased with stretching. Your instructor may have told you that your horse needs to be looser or more flexible in his ridden work, or they may have pinpointed a specific area for you to work on. In these cases, you may focus more on some of the exercises in my online course "Stretching Your Horse: A Guide to Keeping Your Equine Friend Happy and Healthy" than others. There is no right or wrong. Every horse is an individual. Trust your instinct; you know your horse.

How do you keep warm with horses?

By Sue Palmer on January 18, 2024

How do you keep warm? Do you know what a 'piece of string day' is?

Brain, Pain or Training?’ Practical Exercises: Introduction

By Sue Palmer on May 11, 2023

This may be the most important chapter of this book.Here you’ll find a set of ten practical exercises that you can do with your horse to help assess whether he could be suffering some discomfort that might affect his behaviour or performance. The aim of these exercises is to assess balance, comfort, ease and freedom of movement, muscle tone, reaction to touch, soundness, symmetry of the musculoskeletal system, and symmetry of movement. Unexpected responses could flag up weakness, discomfort, stiffness, restriction in range of movement, muscle spasm, unsoundness, and asymmetry in either the horse’s musculoskeletal system or his movement.

“Please listen to me”

By Sue Palmer on April 23, 2023

I don’t want to buck you off. There’s a sharp pain every time I go into canter when you’re riding me, and I can’t help but react to it. I don’t understand it, it doesn’t happen if I canter in the field. Please listen to me. I know you love me and want the best for me. I don’t know how else to tell you I’m hurting.

Observations during showjumping warm-up

By Sue Palmer on March 12, 2023

Alternatively, I could say that I was promoting the concept that comfortable horses are ‘happy’ athletes and providing evidence that they are likely to perform better than horses experiencing discomfort. I also had the opportunity to spend several hours watching the warm-up arena for the showjumping competitions and was struck by a number of observations, some of which I will discuss.

17.12.2022 Vote for World Horse Welfare

By Sue Palmer on December 17, 2022

You may remember that, thanks to wonderful supporters like you, we won £12,000 in this year’s SEIB Giving Charity Award, which was brilliant news – but now we need your help again! Could you spare a minute to nominate us for SEIB’s 2023 Charity Award?