Recent content by sbloom

Side reins cannot replicate a riders hands, unless it's a fairly uneducated rider with stuff arms carrying their hands down by their knees....acting very harshly on the bars. So it's a hard no from me. I'd also suggest looking at very simple, short sessions of closer in hand work for posture...

It can slightly depend on the saddle, most English saddles won't stay straight (and comfortable for the horse) with weight only in one stirrup and the right hand not at least partly balancing the weight across to the off side.

They now make "rechargeable" (microwave or even just leave to dry in or out of the sun) 1kg sacks that use less plastic, I have one in my van but it's only been in a couple of days so can't completely report back on how well they perform!

The fact the Pessoa was included in the rehab programme should definitely be encouragement to do your own reading to put any further advice on context. And bear in mind that, as a result of KS soften being a result of a compensatory movement pattern, other parts of the body are always affected...

If you search in here you'll find loads of posts asking about this, and lots of guidance @cremedemonthe makes a wonderful waxy conditioner. All saddles pretty much, except heavily oiled calfskin, needs conditioning from new. The more you care for it in those first few weeks, within reason (it...

Vets vary. A lot. They are not educated, and they have told me as much, in healthy movement patterns and posture. If they want to learn this stuff they have to find it themselves and the same does apply to bodyworkers too, even physios. They are trained to find and treat pain, they are not...

Exactly. There IS the argument that how the horse moves may well have stayed the same (and I always argue the absolute hardest horses to fit always have postural compromise, the extreme version of the same thing, where it's not surprising saddles don't work) but this is why it's still not...

And remember it's not just about "strong", most horses and ponies I see as a saddle fitter have some sort of postural compromise, and this is so often a large part of why these things happen in the first place. I feel really strongly that many vets and bodyworkers are still giving out really...

Not read the whole thread, and I only ever get a tiny handful of non-payers, or very late payers, but if I had the admin help, and could afford that extra chore for every customer (because most will have extra charges for work done on the day, so it's two invoices) I would take payment in...

I'm pretty sure they're all, or at least mostly, collagen granulomas but it's still not really known exactly why some they develop in some situations and not others.

They do to us, but not to the majority of the dressage "fans" I see on social media. The koolaid has been in circulation for 40 years, we have a way to go yet.

Some very well fitting saddles can get them underneath and I'm not sure they're really fully understood, still. I would not personally use a foam pad in these cases, keeping the skin cool and dry is going to be important. I have access to a highly rated synthetic fleece (ie like Nuumed wool...

Agreed, I struggle to see how we can make dressage truly horse centric in this competitive era where there is big money involved. I mean we have riders with millions (billions?), VC firms involved in various places...I am not sure we can get the genie back in the bottle.

Many would beg to disagree, and would point to race saddles of various kinds being at least part of the reason so many have KS. I would absolutely not recommend one. Groundwork first and foremost, riding can wait. I direct my customers to the Slow Walk Work (featured posts within it) on...

And yet a big proportion of commentators would say that ALL of her riding is very strong, hard handed even. Horses get used to that, especially when they ARE given regular breaks (which is of course a good thing!). No-one sabotages their career out of the blue, really they don't. It's never...