MAJIX - Equine Training & Health

15/02/2024

31/01/2024

31/01/2024

THIS IS DRESSAGE!🤩

Horses embodying health, happiness, athleticism, strength, lightness, and power.

Riders showcasing balance, compassion, thoughtful communication, and an impeccable feel.

Together, painting a portrait of a harmonious partnership.

They may not boast gold medals or even compete at all, yet, in my eyes, they epitomise the essence of dressage.

I strive for this ideal with my horses, and I hope that one day I can be even half as good as the riders shown here!

Pictured riders:
• .foundation (Anja Beran)
• (Karen Rohlf)
• (Anna Marciniak)
• (Belinda Bolsenbroek)
• .biolik (Bettina Biolik)
• (Juliette Cimetriere)

31/01/2024

Ponte en contacto conmigo 👍🏻


📸 .ibiphoto

06/01/2024

15/12/2023

11/12/2023

The modern sport horse is ridden, trained and valued by a posture and movement pattern which is too round of neck.

Why?

If we stopped for a moment, stopped ourselves. Asked ourselves if what we are seeing in sport horses is healthy and valuable? What would the answer be? If we asked the horses, what would they say?

I think I understand it. We see a horse with a rounded neck, and we correlate bascule as basic excellence. Bascule IS one of the LAST signs of a properly collected and moving horse. Without it? They are still on their journey. They aren’t there yet.

We want to identify with the best of the best. And when the top competitors are rewarded for hyper flexion or excessive rounding of the neck off the reins the trickle down effect is enormous. The butterfly effect; a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Mexico and then in Japan, it snows. The concept that everything is an interconnected web, is made sense on our obsession for roundness. Because a gold medalist at the Olympics waves to a crowd and then 10 years later, on the opposite side of the world, a total amateur in a dark forgotten stable in some suburb somewhere clips on a draw rein trying to emulate some top sportsperson they never knew.

The modern sport horse is ridden with an obsession and fixation on roundness. But roundness is not the problem. This is where I’ve gone wrong at times. Throwing the baby out with the bath water. Associating roundness and the pursuit of it as a problem. It wasn’t.

The accelerated and exacerbated fixation in roundness from the beginning is the problem. True bascule of the cervical spine is truly the cherry on top after many years of slow behavioural and physical conditioning. Not to mention the connection, trust, and horsemanship required to gather a horses consenting cooperation to achieve such high level excellence.

Yet, horses are being held into roundness within minutes of their first ride, particularly in sport and sport derivatives. But sport isn’t the problem.

So what is? Impatience? Ignorance? Money?

The damage that does to a horses mind a body is profound, when we ride too round too soon. And yet they forgive us. Like us. And show up again and again. These modern sport horses have been bred with incredible temperaments, their ability to tolerate huge pressure, to not fight, to cooperate. They are selectively bred to confirm roundness from the beginning as an OK thing to do.

I’ve said for years, try holding round a mustang, or one of the mountain bred, backyard Spanish rehab cruzados I cut my teeth on, or the ordinary Arabian TB cross agricultural village horses I learned on. I’ve rarely had access to top sport horses, until I did. And the ones handed to me with the label of ‘sensitive and quirky’ turned out to feel dull and obedient to me, compared to the super touchy, opinionated horses I learned on that us lower income level mortals get access to.

Not to mention that ECVM and other genetic abnormalities are about to completely implode the modern sport horse breeding industry, so many of these horses ridden round functionally cannot stabilize their body, with or without training. These horses medical needs surpass their functional capabilities and not many manage it to top competition. It is changing, a top sport horse breeder in Germany this week openly publicized the castration and rehoming of one of their breeding stallions due to an ECVM diagnosis. They are the exception rather than the rule.

And in training, to retrain these horses to not give their rider a hyper round position requires the rider to basically start them again. Their bodies aligned with the pressure, the fear, the perfectionism communicated to them through unrelenting and misguided hands and now they don’t want to depart it. These horses feel as if it is their duty to give that to you. Because that’s what they know. And they are confused… often annoyed by us, when we don’t demand it.

It’s complex. It’s strangely controversial yet really shouldn’t be. I’m not the only voice here, at this point, hundreds of professionals, smarter and older than I have spoken on this.

Yet we continue to want to see a rounded horse.

Is it vanity? Is that what this comes down to, plain and simple? A rounded neck looks prettier than a flat one? It’s the conclusion I return to when my mind gets to wondering

06/07/2023

This photo really resonated with me when I saw it on my feed.
Not only for the sentiments of the text, but for the photo used.

I believe it is lost on the general populace just HOW the equine body functions in motion, and why I have such a strong stance against head setting mechanisms or methods.

And it is precisely what this photo captures:
• The shoulders/thoracic sling steer the horse.
• The head/neck functions as a counter lever or balancing rod, much like that of a cheetahs tail.

When you interfere with this with head setting aids, you inhibit the horses innate balancing mechanism.
It actively disables the thoracic sling and creates compensation that shows up through the neck and jaw. Putting the horse further on the forehand.
Remember, if your horse cannot lift through the chest, he will ALWAYS be on the forehand, no matter where his head is.

Thoracic sling strength takes time. It cannot be expedited with quick tricks.

Only when the horse is developed through the thoracic sling and has adequate vertical balance may the head and neck assume functioning SEPARATE from the shoulders as the balancing rod of the body.

05/05/2023

After the saddle fitting course. I have been checking many different horse’s their backs and the fit of the saddle checked. I feel grateful that I have such a magnificent community of professions around me to learn from and help me with my non stop learning curve 🫶🏻🐴

⚠️ Are you in Ibiza or Palma and you not sure if your saddle fits?

In the next 3 months I’m doing FREE* saddle fit evaluations, in order to continue my education and to help horses be more comfortable. *travel costs (10).
Let me know if you want me to come out and see your horse.

09/03/2023

🫶🏻🫶🏻

23/12/2022

Be in the moment, be aware of where you are and what you see and you will notice beauty and joy around you.
Felices fiestas from Ibiza☀️🎄💚

02/11/2022

1 month progress photos

30/10/2022

Happiness is dressing up 👻🧙🏼 🖤🤍

29/10/2022

Can you guess what my next subject of study will be?? 👀

A slow growing fascination has finally firmly placed its foot in my brain, demanding more attention.

Bring it on!!

25/10/2022

I grew up in South India, it was something else! It has allowed me to really develop myself in the area of horsemanship.
Betweeen age 11 and 18 I was out and about, amongst the rice fields, ba****ck, chasing goats and stray dogs.
Since there were no other horses around I have a massive list of experience from those years.
I had to learn most of my skills through trial and error, due to the lack of mentors or people to learn from.

Today and now it’s left me with a confidence that I can learn anything. A love and drive to practice things I learn online and no fear to say what I think or fail in what I am learning. 🫶🏻
stewart 📸 thank you for the photos .. 2010 was it?

****ck #2010

23/10/2022

Could it really be ibiza??
Yes!! 💜🫶🏻🦄

22/10/2022

No you don’t need a fancy dressage outfit and saddle to do piaffe 🫶🏻

Just a happy concentrated balanced horse and soft communication 🦄

Photo credit .ibiphoto 📸

10/10/2022

Bloody brilliant video, such a great explanation.
Follow Luke for 364 more videos!
He is doing a full year of daily tips.

Thank you Luke Thomas Horsezenship

10/10/2022

Why is your horse difficult to shoe?
Is it a sign of pain?

Similar to Dysons ethogram, Mannsman et al. (2011) suggested a pain ethogram for the shoeing process. The study expressed that the behaviours can be the result of bad training, improper handling, or the recall of past pain/punishment but its findings correlated with Dyson and concluded that pain must be considered first!

When shoeing horses we can be asking them to make unnatural body compensations to facilitate our work. The image below shows how shoeing the hinds can affect all the way along the dorsal myofascial line. Horses presenting with pathology along that line will struggle. A common "behaviour" can be hopping around, also snatching or slamming the leg down. Something I have experienced often in horses presenting with negative plantar angles. However, often these horses can have great feet and we are experiencing the effects of higher pain.

Very often the amount of difficulty can be proportionate to how poor the feet are, as they improve with remedial farriery the signs of pain reduce.
In the meantime simple considerations can be made. A horse with very thin soles or pr*****ed frogs, leave the opposite shoe on and do one foot at a time, for example.

As farriers we are well placed to note these "behaviours" as possible early signs of otherwise unrecognised discomfort, or even reactions to obvious poor hoof conformation. Not label the horse as "bad"!

In my experience, and supported by Mannsman et al. (2011) these behaviours desist with the improvement of the feet or higher issues.
Horses, in general, are genuine animals. Recognising pain in the horse is an obligation for anyone working with them and mentioning shoeing observations can be the first step in saving horses from unrecognised higher issues.

Further reading at this link..
https://www.theequinedocumentalist.com/post/recognising-pain-in-the-horse

10/10/2022

How do Swedish show jumpers win world titles on barefoot horses? New research photos, video on shod vs shoeless grand prix jumpers on The Hoof Blog.

05/10/2022

It all started with my first pony.. Flicka.. in India 2002..
Thank you to to help me remember!
#2002

02/10/2022

🔎 Getting up close and really studying the new growth and angles is really important when going through a controlled rehabilitation.
🦄 This is a mare that walks in a way that she rasps down her own hind heels, to the point that the side wall is being used as the supporting heel.
We have tried to manage this without artificial support, but with the hard ground and the amount of km this horse works, the angles don’t get a chance to catch up.
She is currently being few a excellent supplement from the Uk the hoof and skin health formula that has added biotin as well as all the missing minerals ✨ in the local hay. So internally she is set up do grow strong healthy feet. 💪🏻
With these pictures, I am observing the new angles, the hairline shape and making a plan for the next trim. 👀
I want to add. She is 100% comfortable barefoot and we are using duplo shoes for 4 cycles (3 weeks on, 1 week on + repeat) as a tool to fix the angle of the hind feet.
In addition we are doing the correct physical exercises 🤸🏼🐴 and body work to work on the issue of the angle 📐 of the sacro joint and the pelvis to make sure that the problem or tightness doesn’t come from above. This is a rehabilitation that wouldn’t work if you just changed one thing, as I learned in my studies, you have to look at the whole horse. 🐎
Horse details: 🦄👀
16 years old
Pre mare
Diet of heno, salt and forage plus supplement, slow feeder nets
Track paddock in a herd of 4 horses, with many hills and obstacles to navigate
Walks 7km per 24 hours in the paddock (gps checked)
Stay tuned for the next stage of her rehabilitation. 🔜

18/09/2022

The equine thoracic sling is a hot topic at the moment, but what exactly is it and what is all the fuss really about?

Unlike us humans; horses (and many other quadrupeds) lack any bony attachment (collar bone) between the forelegs and the thorax (body). Instead, the thorax is suspended between the forelimbs by a ‘sling’ of muscles, known as the ‘thoracic sling’. Exactly which muscles should be included under this term is an area of some debate. In future articles I will take a more detailed look at the most commonly discussed structures; how they should function to aid efficient and healthy locomotion, and how disfunction may be impacting our horses.

The thoracic sling is made up of various muscle groups, these include:
• Muscles of the chest including deep and superficial pectoral muscles
• Muscles of the shoulder including omotransversarius, subscapularis and subclavian
• Muscles of the ribs including ventral Serratus and latissimus dorsi
• Muscles of the wither and upper neck including rhomboid and trapezius
• Muscles of the lower neck including the brachiocephalic and sternomandibular

When conditioned effectively these muscles enable the horse to elevate the thorax (body) independently within the shoulder girdle. This much coveted phenomenon can make the difference between a horse who appears croup high / ‘on the forehand’, and one who floats effortlessly with their withers and back raised, and freedom through the shoulders.

While for some horses this may seem to come naturally, conditioning of the thoracic sling requires regular activation of the correct muscles. Many horses develop poor or weak posture from a young age, this may be due to conformational weaknesses or injury; but I believe that lack of active engagement of the thoracic sling muscles in daily movement is also a significant factor.

Modern management practices often leave horses stood for prolonged periods in stables or small paddocks, with limited variation of terrane and forage. This can result in horses who no longer use their bodies as nature intended; to balance up and down hills, stretch to reach browse nor walk for vast distances in search of food.

Over time muscles which are not regularly used will weaken and atrophy, resulting in overall postural changes and reduced performance. It is therefore essential that we assess the impact modern husbandry may be having on the development of our horses, and consider the implementation of environmental enrichment where ever possible; as these can have a greatly beneficial impact on long term movement patterns and postural development.

The muscles of the thoracic sling enable the forelimbs to move inwards or outwards from the body, shifting the centre of mass or balance from one forelimb to the other. This allows the horse to turn and manoeuvre efficiently at speed and when effectively conditioned, enables the horse to perform lateral movements from a basic leg yield, to the canter half-pass and pirouette.

In addition, these muscles control the movement of the scapula; both forwards and back, up and down (as well as towards and away from the body), while maintaining the integrity of its connection at the wither, absorbing concussive forces from limb impact and (in the case of the thoracic serratus ventralis) storing and returning elastic energy to aid efficient movement. It is therefore of vital importance that the thoracic sling is able to work effectively; without restriction or discomfort.

Regular assessments from a qualified body worker can help pick up any tension or restrictions which may be occurring through the muscles of the thoracic sling. Addressing issues early on will reduce the risk of injury occurring, and enable the horse to build healthy posture and maintain long term soundness.