Serenity Equine Therapy

01/17/2025

01/16/2025

Amazing work as always!

01/08/2025

01/06/2025

12/18/2024

Very interesting!

Asymmetrical whorls

When assessing horses before euthanasia I try to be as thorough as possible, gathering information is a huge part of the process. Something I have noted in a number of the ECVM cases I’ve seen is whorls on the pectoral muscles that don’t match. The theory is that whorls form in relation to the tissue below it.

This guy was certainly asymmetrical and you can also note the rib cage rotation in both the points of the shoulder and the sternum sitting to his left side. In fact he was so destabilised that his p***s symphysis was completely unfused at over 8 years old.breaking it in half was easy because there was zero fusion occurring to strengthen the area. This horse had multiple lower hind joint injections that on dissection were relatively clean. The sloppy appearing joints in stifles and hocks were coming from the pelvis in my opinion. He was a well bred 17.2hh warmblood gelding.

To follow his dissection findings he has an album on my patreon page.

https://www.patreon.com/collection/857132/edit

12/11/2024

Made of a composite material that does not compress but is flexible to conform to the underside of your saddle tree. Inserts right into your saddle between the tree and the bottom side of your saddle underneath where the fender attaches.
I always have multiple sizes on hand for saddle fitting sessions.
Available for purchase alongside a booked saddle fit session.

12/11/2024

Love your before and afters!

12/05/2024

This

One of the biggest things I see is people wanting to know what to do for an underdeveloped topline…

Well let me tell you what, an avid rider hates to see me coming because the first thing I’m going to tell you is to GET OFF OF THE HORSE’S BACK.

Get out of the saddle and stay out of the saddle until the muscle comes back.

You don’t build a topline by riding… meaning,

You can’t strengthen something that isn’t there to begin with- so if your horse’s top line musculature is depleted, you aren’t going to fix the problem by riding.

You add a rider once you have foundational muscle.

And I think that’s where the disconnect lies. Riders, trainers, breeders etc. have all convinced themselves that underdeveloped muscle is just fine and they call it ‘fitness’.

If you want real results you have to do real work.

You start building muscle once you’ve stopped the pain cycle. Once you’ve addressed tensional patterns.

Look at the situation for what it is.

These horses are started too young, they’re ridden in tack that doesn’t fit with restrictive training aids that don’t allow for the appropriate muscles to build and engage. On top of that, most don’t receive enough natural movement in their routines because they’re confined to a stall.

The formula is easy folks. We’ve created the problems. Just modify a few things and you’d be surprised how good that horse’s topline looks. You don’t need to make it harder than it has to be.

Poor topline= get off the back

⭐️You can check out my ‘rehabbing the topline’ freebie here- it has a few helpful tips. This is something I’m going to be going into a lot more detail about in a project I’m working on🤭 stay tuned

https://stan.store/abequinetherapy?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabvCH-69u_CN5SKDBf_5lM_kU4dalF5a3AYGjMygLAsth4hFe7RApPEV-s_aem_hjVz7GmOrGgBeRkAWuE9hw

11/27/2024

Get off my energy.

Climb down out of my mind.

Get out of my business.

Detach from my story.

My needs are not yours to change.

Your needs are yours and mine are mine.

Don't push your life onto my life. Don't push your choices onto my choices.

Get off.

From that distance, I can love you better. And more importantly, you can love yourself.

Stop looking for "You" in others. Look for others in others. Understand them, without your filter.

You are not entitled to have the whole world, designed for your needs, your preferences, your tastes.

Your horse needs you to know this. Your horse feels claustrophobic from you and you're not even in the field yet.

You've projected. You've attached without rapport.

You have inserted yourself, inappropriately. Zero awareness that your behaviour is outrageous.

The horse pushes back, and you are shocked. You're the victim of the push. Because you had no awareness that you pushed first. Some horses have a volatile response to this type of energy. And to be frank- if I was a horse, I would be in this category. All the way.

So the horse goes down fighting. Or goes down dissociating. They disconnect from their identity, because you pushed your identity onto them. Bumped them off their personality because you wanted their talents, skills and services, but you didn't want the being that housed those talents skilled and services, because you frankly lack the social rapport to understand an other.

Like a driver on the highway, tail-gating, flashing their high beams at you to drive recklessly like they are.

Sticky beak. Meddling fingers. Intrusive energy and invasive entitled mindscapes.

Climb down out of it. And you'll find, the grass is much greener on the other side. Where everyone has space to be themselves. And you are able to connect, and honestly build rapport. And communicate without being pushy.

11/27/2024

What an incredible journey between human and horse. This is such a powerful video. Showing how much impact loving and compassionate energy with no hidden agenda can accomplish.

11/12/2024

How high or how low do the heels need to be?
Every hoof is individual and if you look for the red markers/ stress lines these will give you the biggest indication of where the heels need to be.
Remember tubules that run straight are going to be stronger and when they get too long they bend and weaken.
Tubules don’t just grow at straight angles otherwise all hooves would grow like tin cans.
If you force your interpretation of heel height on a hoof, beware you might get a reaction by the rest of the body or joints that you might not want.

11/12/2024

THIS THIS THIS!!!

If a horse is too expensive to risk turnout, then people don’t deserve their worth 👀

Turnout is an essential basic need of EVERY horse.

11/10/2024

ENGAGE THE SLING BEFORE YOU DRIVE FROM BEHIND

baby race horse getting thoracic sling engagement 😊😊😊🧡🧡🙌🐴

You can see how in the before picture this horse appears collapsed into the ground. His feet are splayed and chest is wide and soft and looks like it is falling into the ground. This is called ‘columnar loading ‘ it means that the horse is loading into the ground like a building, it is the opposite of ‘tensegrity’ which implies a balance of the compression elements giving you suspension and recoil. If your not using your tension elements and just start collapsing into your front end the only way you can really hold yourself up is by tensing through the elbow and thus splaying your front feet.

This baby is 1 year old, never been ridden and already is collapsing into the front end and is losing the ability and desire to engage and lift the thoracic sling.

There is no pectoral activation in the before. He is wide and collapsing in front. For a race horse this is a posture that will make him prone to injury because as he fixates this way it will be more and more difficult for him change and get his front end out of the way.

In the meantime those folks that don’t believe in spinal flexion of the thoracic spine will insist on driving into this braced, blocked, fixated front end that is now being stabilized by the elbows that will externally rotate and brace and a activated brachiocephalicus muscle which will further contract trying to stabilize the neck trying to prevent further compression as the hind end is driven into a front end that is locked down and collapsing into the ground.

I learned in vet school that when there is much opposing discussion about things it usually means none of the answers are correct.

If you cannot lift and engage your thoracic sling so that you have the ability for suspension and recoil as in tensegrity please do not think that driving into it is the solution. If you want your horse to feel like a motor boat you have to have the lift first and then you can drive into it.

Yes you need drive but the road must be open

If you don’t have lift the drive will cause more compression and collapse, creating more dysfunction.

Does that make sense ?

So the answer is your need lift for the drive to have a place to go otherwise you just drive into a brace.

The horse on the right has an engaged thoracic sling. This only took about an hour and this particular little fellow still had a lot of restrictions that will need follow up. But it’s a start - he can now get his front end out of the way allowing for hind end to come under instead of around.

He will be able to push off the ground instead of collapsing into it allowing triceps activation and development.

He will be able to open up his rib cage and breathe deep fully expanding into his diaphragm and creating internal lift to his back. His waist will lengthen, lumbar spine align and psoas relax creating movement to the pelvis and softening the angle so the hips now in alignment can push back at the ground with their full power.

All this in an hour.
All this from re training your nervous system out of dysfunction into function
Lift your sling to lift your back.

Please don’t drive into your horse if he cannot engage his sling and definitely do not back these horses up !!

10/14/2024