Went to a vet talk last night

Clodagh

Clodagh

Playing chess with pigeons
Joined
17 August 2005
Messages
28,937
Location
Devon
Visit site
About injuries and rehab.
A physio had the last slot and was talking about kissing spines and other back trouble. She was saying you need to do groundwork exercises to supple your horse, you can’t expect them to lift through their back with you and a saddle on if they can’t while standing in the stable.
She treats a big showjumping yard and said since she had taught pre riding exercises to the owner she visited there loads less as the horses just weren’t getting the problems.
I don’t ride any more, and tbh rarely venture in tack room. So is that something everyone is already doing? It made such sense to me.
 
Funnily enough I also went to a vet talk last night about similar topics! Although unless you’re in NI I don’t think it was the same one…
Carrot stretches, back lifts, pelvis tucks would be the ones we discussed last night, all activations really for getting the horse to use their core and engage thoracic sling.
Sorry if my terminology isn’t quite 100% but you’ll get the idea!
 
Sounds like it was an interesting talk.
It does make sense and I'm determined to do better as Little Madam comes back into work after maternity leave. We're already trying to do carrot stretches every day and I will build up from there until Pippin is weaned and she's ready to be ridden.
It is also something I should really be doing with the horses I currently ride, but it is often hard to find time to do it when rushing from one lesson to another or of an evening after work. Enormosaurus is FAT so I'm prioritising exercise at the minute to try and burn up some calories. Only just trying to fit in more rides on Green TB, and it's stretching my timetable as it is.
 
Clodagh said:
About injuries and rehab.
A physio had the last slot and was talking about kissing spines and other back trouble. She was saying you need to do groundwork exercises to supple your horse, you can’t expect them to lift through their back with you and a saddle on if they can’t while standing in the stable.
She treats a big showjumping yard and said since she had taught pre riding exercises to the owner she visited there loads less as the horses just weren’t getting the problems.
I don’t ride any more, and tbh rarely venture in tack room. So is that something everyone is already doing? It made such sense to me.
Click to expand...

It’s one of those things that are easy and quick to do if you get into the habit. 2 mins!
Mobilise back, activate the core.
Back lifts, butt tuck’s and a new one my physio taught me for core stability is to pick up a front leg and then put them slightly off balance by just pushing the wither gently away and towards you. My physio hates carrot stretches btw!
 
Yes, it all makes sense, and our equine physio has been instructing us to do this for several years. It really does help them. It helped our ponies particularly from age 4-8 when they are strengthening up and finding their balance. We do it when we remember. Trotting through deep heather is also good!
 
Clodagh said:
About injuries and rehab.
A physio had the last slot and was talking about kissing spines and other back trouble. She was saying you need to do groundwork exercises to supple your horse, you can’t expect them to lift through their back with you and a saddle on if they can’t while standing in the stable.
She treats a big showjumping yard and said since she had taught pre riding exercises to the owner she visited there loads less as the horses just weren’t getting the problems.
I don’t ride any more, and tbh rarely venture in tack room. So is that something everyone is already doing? It made such sense to me.
Click to expand...
Sounds great! I suppose it's the horse equivalent of a sportsperson - be it a runner, skier, tennis player, gymnast, whatever - doing gym work. You don't just train for your sport by doing that sport, you cross train and work on strength, stability and suppleness too? Sounds like a really useful talk. Who was the vet/physio?
 
poacher82 said:
Sounds great! I suppose it's the horse equivalent of a sportsperson - be it a runner, skier, tennis player, gymnast, whatever - doing gym work. You don't just train for your sport by doing that sport, you cross train and work on strength, stability and suppleness too? Sounds like a really useful talk. Who was the vet/physio?
Click to expand...
West Ridge Equine, I can’t remember the physio… maybe Amanda? Maybe something else 🤣
 
ihatework said:
It’s one of those things that are easy and quick to do if you get into the habit. 2 mins!
Mobilise back, activate the core.
Back lifts, butt tuck’s and a new one my physio taught me for core stability is to pick up a front leg and then put them slightly off balance by just pushing the wither gently away and towards you. My physio hates carrot stretches btw!
Click to expand...
She said she wasn’t going to talk about carrot stretches as she wasn’t focussing on the neck but on the lumbar vertebrae. But all the exercises you say are what she did.
 
Last edited:
Since having my slightly cold backed boy (full work up/x-rays done), I have always done groundwork before getting on. It has made a huge difference, when I started he had to have his saddle on for at least 20 minutes and then do 10 minutes of groundwork. Now i do his stretches and can get straight on and he walks out. :)
 
Yes, for clarity when I say carrot stretches she meant getting them to bend so as to engage the core, not to just bend the neck in weird & wonderful directions. Easier to explain verbally than typing 😂

Smolmaus, this one was done by KR Equine, it was really good. They’re planning another one soon to talk all things colic - keep an eye on their social media pages if any of that stuff is of interest!
 
ihatework said:
My physio hates carrot stretches btw!
Click to expand...
Did they say why? I think they're great if you do them properly and slowly. I can't see any downsides to gentle stretching and suppleness, just as in humans. I think in short they're just problematic if you go too fast, just like if we were to bend in ways that aren't comfortable straight away.

Re. the OP, it's a great point. I've switched over the past year to my horse's workload being 90% ground/pole work and 10% riding.
 
sheep said:
Yes, for clarity when I say carrot stretches she meant getting them to bend so as to engage the core, not to just bend the neck in weird & wonderful directions. Easier to explain verbally than typing 😂

Smolmaus, this one was done by KR Equine, it was really good. They’re planning another one soon to talk all things colic - keep an eye on their social media pages if any of that stuff is of interest!
Click to expand...
I will! I do follow them so must have missed it. Wonder if Chris would remember when Sadie colicked and almost rolled on top of him 😂 Hopefully not!
 
smolmaus said:
I will! I do follow them so must have missed it. Wonder if Chris would remember when Sadie colicked and almost rolled on top of him 😂 Hopefully not!
Click to expand...
I dunno, I think sometimes they carry memories of the weird and wonderful with them for a long while… my horse who had a tendon injury 3 years ago is still on first name terms with his vet 😂
 
Static stuff, imo, is good for testing (can they do a belly lift or are they stuck?) and stretching is good for maintenance, but dynamic work is what improves balance, posture and movement patterns. So yes, I absolutely agree that in an ideal world everything we want them to do under saddle would be established in hand first, but would take a slightly different slant.
 
Interesting topics! I had a physio out for the bay boy after a year of owning him and just getting him moving around more first (he was enormously fat and lame), and combined with massage therapy, I set up a sort of track/equi central set up to encourage more movement and poles set in strategic places and at varying heights, so there was a bit more effort involved in being a field ornament! The difference in all of them is noticeable, but especially him. Physio is very pleased with the progress, I'm pleased with the transformation, managed a little hack (10 minutes, flat) on him for the first time over the weekend. I do overthink a lot and wonder if getting back on him is selfish and inconsiderate of me, due to the stresses on the back though
 
My horse’s physio has long maintained the importance of off horse activations and stretches. I recently went to a horses inside out demo which was very interesting and happily, I’m already doing a lot of the exercises daily.

I have noticed a huge improvement in my horse’s backward steps since doing it daily, he lifts his back and instead of shuffling and dragging his feet he picks them up and takes better quality steps
 
I’ve been doing them for the last 6 weeks.
Just a few carrot stretches, back lifts and tail pulls. Plus I’ve been using the massage pad before and after riding where I have time, even if just 10mins.

My Mctimoney Practitioner noticed a huge difference this time around. I’ve been having my horses back tested regularly in the two years I had him and he always resented the back lifts from the back person but this time he did an amazing one without a murmur. I was amazed and thrilled. So I’m going to keep doing them.
 
@Clodagh The Workout Book for Dogs is a good guide to this sort of postural/conditioning work for dogs. A lot of similar concepts to what is described with horses - e.g. exercises to improve proprioception, ‘carrot’ stretches (just with treats or nose targets instead), etc.
 
IrishMilo said:
Did they say why? I think they're great if you do them properly and slowly. I can't see any downsides to gentle stretching and suppleness, just as in humans. I think in short they're just problematic if you go too fast, just like if we were to bend in ways that aren't comfortable straight away.

Re. the OP, it's a great point. I've switched over the past year to my horse's workload being 90% ground/pole work and 10% riding.
Click to expand...
I’ve been told it’s very easy for horses to ‘cheat’ while doing carrots stretches (flexing to the side). Rather than properly flex their rib cage, they tilt it so their withers tilt to the outside. This is the opposite of what you would want them doing in ridden work. When on a circle your inside leg should hang a little lower than your outside leg, ie their withers should be tilting inwards slightly.
 
stangs said:
@Clodagh The Workout Book for Dogs is a good guide to this sort of postural/conditioning work for dogs. A lot of similar concepts to what is described with horses - e.g. exercises to improve proprioception, ‘carrot’ stretches (just with treats or nose targets instead), etc.
Click to expand...
Thank you
 
little_critter said:
I’ve been told it’s very easy for horses to ‘cheat’ while doing carrots stretches (flexing to the side). Rather than properly flex their rib cage, they tilt it so their withers tilt to the outside. This is the opposite of what you would want them doing in ridden work. When on a circle your inside leg should hang a little lower than your outside leg, ie their withers should be tilting inwards slightly.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm a little wary of carrot stretches and prefer a blend of bodywork, some stretches and static work but lots of postural groundwork, only the latter truly establishes better ways of moving. And yes, we need the inside of the ribcage to drop on a bend, and ideally equally on both reins. Most horses will never be completely "de-rotated" but the vast majority are stuck more in one rotation, and most often to the right hence saddle slip on the left rein as the ribcage is doing entirely the wrong thing. Carrot stretches won't change this.

These principles I bang on about ARE in classical texts but are especially expanded on in Science of Motion - a bit controversial but the only "major" training programme I know that addresses physical forces and uses "tensegrity" to explain and change how a horse moves. It makes sense to me, even if it's yet another programme run by a challenging individual. You can learn a fair bit just by following the FB page and reading the ton of free resources on his site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top