Equinacentro Valencia

22/01/2025

21/01/2025

Lynette.... Why are you placing my saddle so far back? I may as well be on their butt!

But seriously, where should your saddle be positioned? How do you know it's right?

We come from a nation of saddles on top of shoulders. Taught to set the saddle above the wither and the panel legs over the shoulder. We warm up and saddle has "slipped back", jump off put it back on top of their ears, sorry shoulders., and still we don't realise the saddle doesn't actually belong there.

The SMS teach a saddle should be 5cm behind the scapula. The IASF teach you to place the point of the saddle behind the shoulder rotation. You will see me lift a leg and check how far the scapula rotates. Most often 2.5" (so SMS guidance) but sometimes it's just an inch, or 3inches. This determines where I place your saddle. Then the final panel contact must not be past T18. This is how I determine what length of saddle (which alters by brand and model) will sit nicely on your horses weight bearing area.

The scapula is lined with soft cartilage, your horse should be able to move the scapula freely without contacting the tree points.

Once placed correctly your girth straps should hang naturally inline with your horses girth grove, hence why we have shaped girths. But that's a whole other post!

This post was a client request... Keep letting me know what interests you and I'll do my best to deliver 😍☺️
❤️

Excellent illustration borrowed from Natural Horseman Saddles.com Natural Horseman Saddles

10/12/2024

09/12/2024

02/12/2024

I got to talk about it

We cannot just make stuff up to make it sound appealing to the audience while at the same time the horse is not on the same page as you.

The equine Nervous system
I have held off, stayed quiet yet I see so much made up s**t which may make you feel good yet the horses not so.
I think the comment that tipped me over the edge was the horse wiggling it's nose was the Vagus nerve making it move 🤐 like no just no step away from the cranial nerves and just pick up a book just get educated a little before and as always you are being sold a course so the misinformation just gets spread around like a wildfire that is soon out of control

We know only a teeny amount about the horses brain, we still know only a small amount about the human brain yet we have people who will interpret equine behaviour and often make up inconclusive facts about what they see and tell you what makes you have a fuzzy feeling, now we can all have our own opinion yet often I see the horses actions not reflecting the humans words.

Horses control their own Nervous system we can help by providing a safe living enviroment, and in safe I mean the ability to move away if they feel threatened, a good diet to help the Enteric system, because as we know the gut/brain relationship will provably supercede any other, allowing the horse to express more than one emotion, and having the awareness for us as the human that for the most part we ask horses to do things which may affect how it functions

Posture; placing a horse in a posture that we deem relaxing is only relaxing for the horse If it wants to do it, do not determine your whole session on wether you get a lick, chew or yawn for if you do you need to find the reason why there was such an outward release of tension build up and often when you stop and the horse does this it may be because however gentle your approach you were dictating what the horse does and it may have been internally resisting yet all we focus on is the external aesthetics.

What is the one thing horses will do if they don't feel safe??? They will move.
What is the one thing we do to make us feel safe in that moment??? Make the horse stand still

I hear over and over again people talking about the Nervous system and telling you how important it is for you to understand yet coerce and control is being touted as the answer to "self regulation" eurghh I really hate how that word has been basterised

We can interpret because we still know so little but please it's never about an end result it's the process to get there and if someone is educating you to only look at the lick, chew, yawn as a get out of jail free card for anything that came before then I am sorry to say they should not be educating you on how the nervous system works

For the horses sake we need to really learn before we educate and I personally do not like to see a horse like a robot with only one emotion, how can we ask horses to engage with us if we have switched them off to the world around them

Sorry rant over but I can't take looking at another horse being uncomfortable and the yapping of the handler telling you made up s**t.

01/12/2024

01/12/2024

Your Horse's Lumps & Bumps

24/11/2024

16/11/2024

The muscles of mastication or can they tell us more??

We often think if we see a problem in one area then that is the area that needs to only be addressed yet I have seen horses with overworked Temporalis muscles due to a pain response in the hock

Teeth and feet are often the root cause of many issues but not the root cause of every issue and we often address an area then do not think beyond the issue we feel it was as we often hear the words all checks have been done

But we always must ask the question if everything checks out right then why is our horse still telling us something is still wrong??

It's why I strongly advise having one professional to do each job, for then you always have a second opinion on the work that has been done, and also the horses system gets a break in between the work that has just taken place.

I will be delving deeper in my my new course to help you understand what stories these muscles are telling us x

22/10/2024

This is why we TRAIN. Here are *just* 8 ways that your horse’s body adapts to better do their job! The body is truly phenomenal. Training and conditioning your horse in a well-balanced program (with the Equiband Pro System 2-3 times/week 😉) causes an entire cascade of physiological changes to make your horse more effective as an athlete.

Some of these changes are visible (i.e. muscles getting larger and more toned), but many of these changes are not visible to the naked eye (e.g. enzyme activity, neuromuscular coordination, etc.).

Trust that the body is improving everyday. Because it really is! 🧡

24/09/2024

Do long toes and low heels lead to superficial digital flexor injury?

Superficial digital flexor tendon injury accounts for 75-95% of injury. And long toe low heel is the most common hoof balance, coincidence?

Most SDFT injury is caused by cyclic overload, a build up of micro damage caused by the tendon exceeding its elastic capacity repeatedly.

This can be caused by poor hoof balance, namely a long toe and low heels!

When you have a basic understanding of biomechanics this is easy to understand.

Join myself and The study of the equine hoof on 3rd Oct at 7pm BST for a class in basic biomechanics and understanding the physical effects of long toes, low heels and a broken back hoof Pastern axis..

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/digit-biomechanics-101