Devloping a keen eye on posture?

[toppedoff]

Odd one but I really find conformation and rehabilitation of horses super interesting but I don't know where to begin studying (not course, in own time) about posture and such. Only say this because a racehorse retraining and rehabilitation centre I follow has a new one in and stated that "the picture alone shows her posture won't help her do her best." And it just looks like a normal picture to me I remember from an HHO's friend of finding an ex racer but said why x one wouldn't be suitable and said things I would've never ever picked up on and I'd love to be able to start learning how to pick up on that? If anyone has any pointers, books or resources?

I'd love to have a go in that field once i got that experience of course but the most I can do for myself is just learn from home.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Start by looking at leg placement when the horse is just resting does the horse stand square or are the hind legs camped under the belly, do the front legs not look straight are they slightly to far back under the front end, then look at the top line is it under developed is the belly hanging a bit low so the appears to look fat when it's actually just a lack of abdominal muscles.

bad posture is normally caused by pain somewhere so the horse compensates by standing strangely to feel more comfortable, then that has a negative impact on the body and it becomes a viscous circle.

 

[stangs]

Deb Bennett's book on conformation is a good place to get started; I don't think you can fully get to grips with posture without having some eye for conformation. Gillian Higgins also did a book called Posture and Performance; she has webinars on the topic too if you'd rather watch than read. There's also lots on the internet: if you search up "equine abnormal compensatory postures" or "equine normal neutral posture", you'll find the more reliable science-y stuff.

The main thing to keep in mind is that healthy body is variable - repetition of an asymmetric movement/position suggests pain.

 

[Haniki]

I have the Gillian Higgins book. This is her website:https://www.horsesinsideout.com/
They used to do talks/demos called ‘Horses Inside Out’ using horses / riders with skeletons/muscles etc painted on them to show how they act when the horse moves - fascinating stuff, biomechanics.
There are lots of horse books on conformation. Robert Oliver (show rider) did a photographic guide.

 

[ycbm]

I think you're talking about two separate things TO.

First of all there is "what is good conformation?".

Secondly there is, "for the confirmation that the horse has, does it have good posture?".

So, take the hind legs as one of the most easily identifiable good/bad parts of the horse. There are lots of draft and cob type horses being sold at the moment which have very straight back legs. There isn't as much bend in the hock as a purist would like to see. The reason the purist would like to see more bend in the hock is that straight back legs put more strain on the hocks and the top of the suspensory ligaments, and coping with that may well transfer issues up to the sacroiliac too.

Of course there will be lots of sound horses with straight hocks, and the most notorious I've ever seen in real life was the grand national winner Party Politics. His were absolutely shocking. So straight legged horses aren't automatically crocks. But here comes the second bit, you really want to see all horses, but especially ones with a conformation defect, stood on top of their legs with the cannon bones dead upright. And if you draw a line through the middle of the cannon bone downwards, you really want the back of the foot to support that line, not be out somewhere in front of it.

And if they can't or don't usually have that, then there's almost certainly an issue somewhere that will need rehabbing soon even if it doesn't already.

So my advice is to split your learning up, start with confirmation and when you think you've nailed what good confirmation should look like, move on to postural problems.

 

[sbloom]

Equitopiacenter.com has some great resources, cheap to join and you can see a lot of stuff in one month, and keep an eye on Yasmin Stuart, Vet Physio, she has some sort of programme coming out. I post and share a load of posture related stuff on my FB page if you hunt me down.

I think the key is learning what is posture and what is conformation, and sometimes even the experts can't be sure - for instance improve the angles of the feet through trimming etc and the angles of the limbs can change. A lot less than we thought is immutable.

 

[toppedoff]

All very interesting. I have definitely gotten the two confused will be interesting to start learning and looking at. I did some search of balance a few weeks ago and wrote everything down but I couldn't continue on

Have forgotten things of course though lol!

Will now have a look at what everyone has said, thank you

 

[irishdraft]

The equine documentalist Yogi Sharp does alot of stuff on posture mainly in relation to feet as he is a farrier. I think you can subscribe to his platform.

 

[skint1]

Jenny Adamson (if you look it up on Facebook) sometimes does a free 5- day course on assessing posture and what it all means and some exercises you can do to help your horse. She has a lot more info and tools available too, all good. Well, I thought it was very good, very easy to follow and I learned a lot, I can now look at a horse and see if it stands evenly or is if it's putting more weight on the right or left side (I am not explaining very well, but it's really good)

 

[anguscat]

I can’t recall who publishes it but every year I get sent a fat book showing all the TB stallions at stud in U.K. and maybe Eire. Because all the stallions are similarly posed it’s interesting to look at and notice differences between horse (all TBs admittedly).

 

[toppedoff]

I can’t recall who publishes it but every year I get sent a fat book showing all the TB stallions at stud in U.K. and maybe Eire. Because all the stallions are similarly posed it’s interesting to look at and notice differences between horse (all TBs admittedly).

I'd love something like that! Funny enough I enjoy looking at pedigrees as well

 

[anguscat]

I'd love something like that! Funny enough I enjoy looking at pedigrees as well

Home | Thoroughbred Stallion Guide

Fully comprehensive stallion guide providing breeders with all the information they need.

www.stallionguide.com

Might be a paper version of this I’m sent.
This is really interesting too

prominentsirelines.com

Prominent sire lines wheel chart of the hundreds of past and present stallions that have made an indelible mark on the breeding stock we know today

prominentsirelines.com

 

[toppedoff]

Home | Thoroughbred Stallion Guide

Fully comprehensive stallion guide providing breeders with all the information they need.

www.stallionguide.com

Might be a paper version of this I’m sent.
This is really interesting too

prominentsirelines.com

Prominent sire lines wheel chart of the hundreds of past and present stallions that have made an indelible mark on the breeding stock we know today

prominentsirelines.com

On the first one it asks for your mares name I don't know what to put there lol but thank you very much!

 

[anguscat]

On the first one it asks for your mares name I don't know what to put there lol but thank you very much!

Maybe someone here with a TB mare might let you ‘borrow’ the name for the form

 

[toppedoff]

Maybe someone here with a TB mare might let you ‘borrow’ the name for the form

Hopefully someone with 2 TB mares on here wouldn't mind if they see this lol

 

[MerryMaxmas]

I have the Gillian Higgins book. This is her website:https://www.horsesinsideout.com/
They used to do talks/demos called ‘Horses Inside Out’ using horses / riders with skeletons/muscles etc painted on them to show how they act when the horse moves - fascinating stuff, biomechanics.
There are lots of horse books on conformation. Robert Oliver (show rider) did a photographic guide.

She also has a youtube channel Horses Inside Out which might be interesting

 

[sbloom]

Gillian was my entry point to a better understanding of anatomy etc, and, on the course for saddle fitters she put on, did say "the vast majority of injuries are caused by repetitive strain" which brought me up short, to say the least. Good resources and courses but notice it's not what I link to above; if you start there (I used to carry her DVDs and booklets for customers for this reason) DO move on to others and have a hard objective look at photos of any horse used as an example on any course, it's often very helpful in judging how high a bar the course has.