Reaching Strides Equestrian Centre

03/24/2025

Lease gals at it again.

03/21/2025

Well said. It’s that simple.

Don't rush young horses!

I see it all the time.

Someone buys a young horse full of potential. They are excited to get started with riding and competing. I often see these horses a few years down the road when they are struggling with injuries and their owners are disappointed in the lack of progress.

Look...

I totally get the excitement of starting your young horse, but the truth is these are large animals and they take a long time to develop their bones, musculature, and mental maturity.

The top photo is of a 2 year-old horse during his first bodywork session with me. His neck and shoulder are visibly weak and immature. He is tight along the lower portion of the neck and underdeveloped along the topline, with a dip in front of the withers. If this horse was pushed to work too hard, too quickly, it would be setting his body up for failure.

The bottom photo is this same horse now as a 4 year-old. There is significantly more muscle mass throughout the body. The muscle development is also much more mature and appropriate. The topline and middle portion of the neck have filled in, giving the neck a softer, rounded appearance. As this horse's workload begins to increase, he is showing some tension near his shoulder blades and triceps... which is where I come in as a bodyworker (PS. this is why young horses need bodywork too). 😉

While I won't get into when is the exact right time to start young horses (as it really depends on the individual), I urge horse owners to be patient! Start your youngsters slowly, with an emphasis on developing their muscles so that they can be healthy, strong adults.

03/21/2025

03/21/2025

Gabriella and Malia hard at work with their lease horses. Ba****ck to establish a good feel for the seasons new education.

03/21/2025

Lease gals at it again. Horses getting slowly less whale like. They’re still square but hey it’s only March.

03/21/2025

❤️ Rocky

Rocky’s 2nd vet visit ❤️

Today he turned a week old 😊!!

And………Dr. Longoria was THRILLED with how he’s doing!

I have held my breath for today all week. Dr. Longoria is so much more than a vet to me, and I value her opinion above all else. I also wanted to protect her. Some may have noticed I stopped saying her name in post and just said our vet. After seeing another rescue post that the vet that didn’t euthanize him when we got him needs their license revoked…..ya’ll. That was kinda the full stop for me. I would never want to shed a negative light on her ever. She’s the most Godly, faithful led, ethical, compassionate, loving, and willing to not only take a chance but wade through the muddy waters for an animal. So we are not gonna play that game with her. Period. Over half of the horses we have would not be alive today if it wasn’t for her. She’s been with us for 8 years, since day one and she was my personal vet before then. She spoke at my precious grandmothers funeral. I would never want a decision we made to possibly take her away from her calling and the animals that she helps. So what she said today would be it for me.

She says Rocky is basically a normal foal, especially in his mind. She said he’s happy, not in pain, and thriving. His dropped fetlocks are improving so much she wants to wait a week on any corrective measures and allow him to correct himself as he gets stronger. Mentally he is 100 percent. Physically he is adapting to every scenario he needs to and hitting all foal milestones. He walks, runs, jumps, bucks and kicks. He has never fallen since he’s been here. Is able to get up and down on his own and has never needed assistance. I’ve never seen a foal take to milk replacer as well as him and he’s eating the entire recommended amount for his age. He’s engaged and curious. I’m not sure what more anyone could ask of him right now. She said really, to euthanize him at this point in her eyes would be unethical, when we were talking about all of the hatred. She plans to make her own Facebook post about him and i will share that when she does.

We know all the things that may happen later. We are prepared, but most of all just really happy to see this baby thrive. I look forward to sharing him with you all and thank you for loving him just as he is.

Ava’s surgeon’s team reached out as well in support of Rocky and us. Offering his recommendation, none of which included euthanasia ❤️.

03/20/2025

Lease gals hard ar work.

03/19/2025

Another excellent read.

Unlike humans, horses don’t have collarbones. Their shoulders are held to the rest of their skeleton via a sling of muscles and ligaments instead, often referred to as the “thoracic sling.”

Why is this important? We often ask our equine athletes to perform complex movements that require tremendous strength and coordination, and horses carry the majority of their weight in their front end. Therefore, it is imperative that the bulk of the muscles that support the front end are kept healthy and conditioned, and the horse is trained to use their “motor” — that is, engaging the large hind end muscles as much as possible to avoid excessive weight bearing on the front end.

If the front end of the horse is consistently overweighted or not at an appropriate level of fitness, repetitive biomechanical stresses get transferred down the leg to the smaller ligaments and tendons that were not designed to bear this weight, which can then lead to injury.

Brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee.

03/19/2025

Super interesting read

Tails tell a story

I thought I would add a little more in

Often tails are forgotten when we look at the horse we may pull them, or use them as an access point for other parts of the horse but often tails and how they sit in line with the rest of the body can indicate other things which may be happening

Anatomy

The tailbones are called the COCCYGEAL and on average there are 15-18 bones which begin at the end of the sacral bone, the first two are located internally and often the little triangle above the tail will indicate where these are or by moving the tail up and down you can usually feel where the sacrum begins as this is not as mobile as the tailbones
The tail can move up and down and side to side, it has muscles which can help with posture (slow twitch) and movement (fast twitch).
Even though there is no spinal cord here it still contains many nerves and also many soft tissue connections which reach further forward along the horse
Tails are great for communication we can tell alot by the tails movement and not just when riding, fly swatting and balance
If we look at the connection between the big ligaments that are effective between the tail and sacroiliac joints then we often find restriction in either will have an effect on the other and also a more global effect

A tail should feel like there is some resistance then relax when we work on it a bit like goldilocks and the three bears it should not feel to rigid nor to relaxed it should be just right 😁

I think of the tail as a rudder of the ship its used for balance, can indicate how your horse is feeling and we often only think of diagonals with a compensation pattern a straight line from right to left or vice versa when often when we look its usually a zig zag pattern as the horse tries to find a more normal pattern throughout the body sort of trying to right itself at each junction and more often than not if we have a tail off to one side the zig zag pattern of compensation will end up with the head favouring the same side that the tail is sat

Tail off to one side

Often this usually happens way before your therapist comes to work with your horse and its already a deep established pattern throughout your horses body, remember the tail and sacrum are interlinked so usually I come across this if the horse has had some strain around the pelvic area, maybe the horse had a slip or a fall as a youngster and that is why it is so hard to correct it as its usually been a long standing issue and a pattern is ingrained into the body, it's now the horses normal crooked tails are still not well documented as to the whys
So it's important if you see your youngster slip in the field to get it checked, often the bony landmarks hit the ground and you can see its all connected and mostly what I see is the Tuber Coxae that is most affected is the nearside and most tails I see are always favouring to the left side

Tail rigid and stiff

Again for me this may be an indicator that the horse is trying not to move things too much in this area think of the rudder of the ship if it is stuck in one position often intricate movements are hard, the horse is usually ok in straight lines but may struggle with schooling moves, again do not just think of the tail as a single entity you have to think of the connections and muscles in the tail can have connections further up the back

Clamped down tail

This is usually the polar opposite of the rigid tail but again is the horse trying to keep the area as still as possible often the engine is switched off in these horses so they often struggle to power their hind end as the easiest way I explain it to clients is pull your knickers up your bum and then try to run, it's not so easy

Different breeds will have different tail carriages, and different personalities will have different tail carriages as well but we must remember the tail is an indicator of the mobility of your horses spine, and the health of the soft tissue, a non-moving tail is trying to protect an area and like I say we come in much later so there may be no pain but a restriction and it's important we do the work in small parts to allow the horse to adjust and reset

We also have to think of the huge fascial sheets across the horse and the effects of fascial restrictions and patterns throughout the body remember we have to work on the whole horse even if we think it’s a hind end or front end or middle part of the horse for the connections of the tail go much further than the tail bones, think of the top of the tail in a little fascial pop sock

We often only think of steering is a front-end issue but if the rudder fails then the steering will never be right the tail should be able to move with the body counterbalancing the body and we have to work with what we have in front of us, often the owners have done all the vet checks and we are just trying to bring more balance to the body without it having to work so hard

03/19/2025

Lease gals at it again. Everyone’s getting fitter and less crazy.

03/19/2025

A good read, and yhis time is coming up soon enough. Let’s do right by our horses this season. Follow a proper introduction to grazing schedule so your equine partner can avoid issues like laminitis and metabolic syndrome this season.

03/19/2025

ATTENTION EVERYONE. OUR SPRING SEMESTER AND OUR 25th SEASON WILL OFFICIALLY BEGIN ON APRIL 1st for our lesson program. Spaces are very limited this season with only 15 lesson program slots available, so please get in touch asap if you’re wanting in on any of our programs. Spaces will be on a forst come, first seeve basis. Casual lessons will be super limited, and will only be available if space permits. I’d encourage you to get signed up into the lesson programs while theres spaces available. Registration waivers for both lessons and camps are now available on our website. www.reachingstrides.com

Beginners to advanced riders welcome. No experience necessary. Need funding? There’s grants available both through the Canadian Tire Jump Start program as well as the Sport NS Kid Sport program.

Looking for a show lease? See what we’ve got available for on property leases.

Have a horse that needs training? Chat with us on what we have available to offer you. We start all horses from the ground up, and tailor our training program for each individual horse and owner combination. Our trainer has over 30 years of experience with natural horsemanship, training so called problem horses and dubbed untrainable horses, educating, starting youngsters, and restarting horses with experience, show prep, etc.

We are located at 423 Dunmore rd in Port Hood CB. Please contact Nadine at 902-870-1583, [email protected].

03/18/2025

03/18/2025