Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio

03/02/2025

Your horse's head and neck position directly influences their ability to breathe(!)

I appreciate that sounds obvious, but I think there are a lot of people who don't realise that this doesn't just refer to hyperflexion -

It refers to head and neck positions that a lot of training methods adopt, whether intentionally or not.

Cehak et al. (2010) found that the diameter of the horse's pharynx decreases when their head is in a flexed position, maximally so when their head is flexed and neck elevated.

They found that their pharyngeal diameter was at its largest when their head was extended and at a midway height.

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You can try this yourself -

Drop your chin to your chest and inhale - how easy do you find it? Not very, I expect.

Now keep your chin tucked while you raise your eyes to the sky and inhale - I bet that feels even more difficult?

And then bring your nose to centre, look straight forward and inhale - notice how this feels the easiest?

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I don't want to demonise movement, because healthy movement is access to all of it;

We have elasticity in these structures for a purpose; to support range of motion and adapt to locomotion. So decreasing and increasing pharyngeal diameter is an important function as part of this.

But prolonged periods of time spent with reduced pharyngeal diameter is going to be making life very difficult for your horse.

I'd really like to think that we are at the point where we can acknowledge that rollkur and their respective variants are not in any way appropriate methods of training.

But there are frames that fly under the radar, where perhaps the horse is more flexed at the poll than the rider appreciates -

Rather than shame, maybe what we can do is use the images as a guide - what one does your horse mostly look like when you train?

Then you can pair that with recognising their muscular development,

And then with that you can determine whether you are helping your horse... or not.

And if you realise you aren't helping, now you can choose to do something different!

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Cehak, A., Rohn, K., Barton, A. K., Stadler, P., & Ohnesorge, B. (2010). Effect of head and neck position on pharyngeal diameter in horses. Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound, 51(5), 491-497.

29/01/2025

Modern Centaurian ✨️

A horse partnership built upon a combination of evidence, intuition and feel to cultivate a horse's physical and emotional wellbeing.

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I've wanted to do this for such a long time and the reason behind it isn't actually horse-related.

A number of years ago, I suddenly found myself to be freed of a not very healthy relationship. I was sat in the ashes of what once was, and I had absolutely no idea of who I was anymore.

I didn’t know what I liked or disliked. I no longer had any sense of self.

Thankfully, we lived in a time where social media was blossoming and I had the fortune of stumbling across some pages that left a bread crumb trail for me to find myself again - starting with appreciating the small things, curating healthier daily habits and trying new things on a very small, sustainable scale.

I would say that this changed my life and I am very grateful.

This also trickled over to my work with the horses - unconditional permission to explore everywhere and find what resonated for me and most importantly, what resonated with the horse.

I also observed the - forgive me - toxic side of horsemanship. Where people had lost their sense of self and lost their north star, no longer being able to see their own horse -

Creating a stifling cycle of frustration because the horse's wellbeing and the horse/human partnership where being compromised at the hands of aspirations decided by dogmatic practices.

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Ultimately for me, whilst I care about people, I really care about the horse.

And with this I want to empower you - to filter in research, in a way which grows corn, and also to help you navigate that appropriately for your own horse whilst developing your own feel and trusting your intuition.

And I wanted this resource to be free.

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But what to call it??

Not to be disrespectful, but the term 'equestrian' didn't really encapsulate what I was feeling. It felt clinical and performance based.

I wanted to capture that feeling where you are truly at one with your horse, transcending performance and prizes, becoming one entity.

The thing that I think a lot of people are searching for.

And I happened across 'centaur' and then 'centaurian', first seen through Emily Frost's work: Centaurian Artistry.

Centaurian felt right.

But I also wanted to capture progression - both in our scientific understanding of the horse and our ability to apply this knowledge.

Signing the contract that if we are to do right by ourselves and our horses, the learning never stops but that learning is irrelevant if we don't apply it.

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And so here it is - a free weekly email with small 'how to' videos, so you can go on to explore the fringes of your relationship with your horse and find out who you are.

You also get an insight into what I've been reading, watching and listening to - with no other meaning behind it than to simply fuel your eternal exploration.

You can sign up via my website ❤️

28/01/2025

"Give yourself permission to surrender"

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I sat with Cat to 'do' breathwork - but I had nothing left in me to give. I couldn't even muster some breath from my own body.

And it made me realise that even when I'm 'doing nothing', it's actually doing something under the guise of doing nothing.

I will sit quietly and focus on my breath,

But I never just sit quietly and let the thoughts rattle around my brain.

So I sat, and did nothing.

Just letting the thoughts roll around my head a little, while that drawn out, haggered and worn feeling gradually subsided.

And as that happened, she pottered over to me, noticing my complete lack of intention.

Standing with me, licking my hands, nuzzling my pockets and playing with my hair -

And suddenly everything felt just fine.

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"Give yourself permission to surrender"

Words gifted to me at the weekend during a much needed treatment for me,

And I'll be honest it was exactly what I needed to hear.

27/01/2025

Oftentimes, we put a lot of onus on the balance of the front feet whilst disregarding that the horse is a quadruped with hind feet that require attention too.

The fallacy here is that if your horse's hind hoof balance is poor, i.e. they have low heels or negative plantar angles, they're going to be more inclined to overload their forehand to reduce the loading through the hinds.

It is very, very rare that I see a horse with good hind hoof morphology.

It is incredibly common that I see horses with indicators of negative plantar angle combined with at least two (but usually a handful) of the following:

- Chronic lumbar discomfort

- Chronic sacroiliac discomfort

- Atrophied gluteal muscles

- Atrophied quadriceps muscles

- Effusion around the stifles

- Diagnosis of hock arthritis

- Diagnosis of hind suspensory ligament desmitis (+/- recommendation for fasciotomy & neurectomy)

- Reactivity to palpation over proximal suspensory branches

- Reactivity to palpation over deep digital flexor tendon as it inserts into the hoof capsule

- Difficulty lifting hind legs.

What is even more farcical is that we bodywork, we medicate, we operate, we bash over the head with movement intervention...
.. And we are still SO slow to intervene with the feet??

And yet I have found that if you intervene with the hoof balance, you:

- Support greater muscular equilibrium: I find horses literally walk symmetrical muscle mass on without the need for an exercise plan!

- Restore joint range of motion, which improves joint comfort and longevity

- Perhaps (or in my experience often) reduce the discomfort in the suspensories, support their healing and can avoid surgery(!)

- Find the elusive sensation of "push" from behind when riding your horse.

So with all this in mind... why are we still so slow to catch on and do it?

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📸 the superficial dorsal myofascial chain which connects to the solar surface of the hind hoof.

You can see how if we lower the plantar angle, we traction all along the horse's topline, collecting discomfort as we go.

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For this month's webinar, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse.

Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

NEW DATE: 28.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

22/01/2025

So this feels pretty pertinent to share after the past 48 hours on social media -

Join Integrative Equine Podiatrist, Beccy Smith Holistic Equine, and I as we talk about our experiences of being professionals in the equine industry, personal and professional growth, collaboration and... ego...

I absolutely adored this conversation ❤️✨️

Show notes:Functioning Feet: What They Are & How To Get Them Sign up here: https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/webinar-train-your-eye-functioning-feet-w...

21/01/2025

Yes, yes, yes!

Mighty fine body changes here, combined with beautiful words 🔥❤️

"What are you looking to achieve?" is something I ask myself before I post anything - because I want to empower people to think a little outside of the box but not from a place of shame.

The challenge with social media is that it is an incredibly reductive place. I can indeed give the absolute minutiae of detail on every subject that enters my mind, however I am always looking through the lens of:

"Does it grow any corn?" -

What information can I platform that makes understanding horses accessible? What little snippets can I give that might help someone to help their horse better?

Not withstanding the fact that bodies are complicated and every professional you meet will have a theory of their function that resonates the most for them.

Thank you Maeve Bandt, for your beautiful words ❤️✨️

Here's a fun little reminder that BTMM 𝒊𝒔 ‘considering the whole horse’. On our last trainer call, it was the reverberating energy through the conversation. And why all things must be considered while addressing pathologies; yet often overlooked through compartmentalizing.

I know, because I didn't know, until I knew. I know, because I see rehabilitation plans that skip over crucial aspects that would address the root cause of injury. I know, because I have personally been led down the path (by my own) of discovering the way in which he needed me to learn and show up for him in all realms.

What he led me through addressing before I was able to check the last box... which was FEET.

He had a wonderful environment with movement and friends. His nutrition was adjusted to forage based with herbal supports. (Thanks HeartSong Equine for facilitating both of those, and more). He had physical support which embodied BTMM, LNRT, healing horsemanship & functional movement.

But - without having feet to stand on, we will always be chasing pathology. And sometimes that means learning how to have hard conversations; navigating through finding 𝑛𝑜𝑡 what *we* think is right based on our beliefs of specific methodologies, but listening to the horse and finding what works best for them; and finding the right practitioners to collaborate with is equally as important and sometimes difficult territory to traverse!

I also think the way in which we speak to those on our platforms is incredibly important. To operate from a place of peace and safety is a love based frequency. To extend shame on folks for their place of education on any of these topics is a low place to inhabit. Truly, when we know better, we do better. That's where our standard should be as professionals in this industry.

We aren't meant to pretend to have all the answers - we never will anyway. The notion of over complicating things to the point of making the information feel in-accessible to the masses is a gross form of attempting to gate keep information while feeding an unhealthy ego; and frankly, it's so rampant in the equine world, and that alone does the disservice to the horses.

My point being - for those who are overwhelmed with the feeling like you don't have enough knowledge/education/skill to advocate and make changes for your horse with your current skill set; understand this, you do know your horse best, and it's okay to have just a basic understanding of concepts, principles and methods regarding our horses health care, so you can then find the team that's best suited for supporting you. Having tools to help recognize dysfunction, only provides a clearer path to function.

To receive help and guidance from many incredible practitioners, through all realms of healthcare, in a safe place where you will not be shamed for where you’re at in your journey, head to holistichorsecollective.com and join. 💖

Give your horse their wings, join BTMM 💖balancethroughmovementmethod.com

20/01/2025

You cannot escape ground reaction forces - and what I mean by this is you cannot escape the way the horse's hooves interact with the floor.

Your horse's hoof shape directly influences how they interact with the floor and equally the shape of their hooves directly influence their muscular recruitment and therefore their postural development.

As an example of this, here is a diagram of the horse's superficial retraction myofacial chain. This chain supports the retraction - i.e. the drawing back - of the horse's forelimb via connections from the solar surface of the pedal bone, through the back of the forelimb and shoulder, over the ribcage and over the top of the neck.

If there is loss of development, and therefore loss of depth, in the caudal hoof - i.e. the back third of the hoof - you're effectively creating 'fascial drag' which contributes to shortening the topline of the horse's neck and compression of their ribcage.

You can visualise how, if the heel drops, the whole fascial chain is suckered down.

Creating the appearance of a hollow horse with a short neck and perhaps overdevelopment of the underneck muscles.

Now of course you can bias your training for length and elevation through the neck, flexion through the back and expansion of the ribs; but if your horse's heels are low then you will be creating conflict.

Because you're asking that horse to inflate into restricted fascia which is being further implicated by ground reaction forces.

In doing this, you will contribute towards making movement uncomfortable - which lets be honest, poor training practices already do a good job of this(!)

You will perhaps bias towards the risk of injury or reinjury - which is slightly oxymoronic if you've chosen that movement plan as a means to rehabilitate or develop healthy posture.

Your horse will be spending more time practicing poor posture, which is more time teaching their nervous system that this is homeostasis.

And since movement and emotional health are intertwined, you may also be contributing to a negative emotional state.

Fascial chains do of course work both ways, so you can bias your training for healthy movement and it may help with caudal hoof orientation, but you cannot escape the influence of the ground and so, if you're not including your horse's hoof care within that picture, you are only giving your horse half the chance for success.

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For this month's webinar, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse.

Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

27.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

17/01/2025

Without question, the biggest game changer in my understanding of horse posture, movement and training was when I learned about the influence that hoof balance has on the whole horse.

Over the duration of my career, I have learned that healthy, appropriately balanced feet underpin not only the entire nervous system of the horse, but can be the difference between healthy and unhealthy movement AND injury, recovery from injury or re-injury. I have found that a horse with balanced feet will literally walk on symmetrical muscle mass - meaning from a physiotherapy perspective, having balanced feet supersedes any exercise I can prescribe.

I have also found that having balanced feet makes it considerably easier for a horse to find healthy posture, which then strips out a layer of complexity during training because your horse can already find neutral. This means that when we have horses, if we can get their foot balance right, we really are setting them up for success.

This month, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse. Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

27.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

13/01/2025

"What isn't visible is my state of being, my emotional and neurological state, and therefore my heart rate variability and what I am communicating to the horse via their neuroception."

All. Of. This!!

I cannot wait for this webinar ❤️

11/01/2025

I am SO excited about this webinar ❤️

🙌Damn, this is hot off the press!!!🙌 I'm absolutely thrilled to be invited to present for Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio in her webinar on 27th January, as part of her 'Train Your Eye' series. 👇

Functional feet! - we say “no foot, no horse” but what do we really mean by that?🤔

There is tremendous confusion about what trim is best, or how to prevent lameness in horses. So allow me to help you feel empowered to make the very best decisions and advocate for your horse, or the horses in your care, so they can feel SAFE and SOUND!

In this webinar, I will share with you my secret formula for successful hoof rehab and will answer the following questions:

💚 WHAT are functioning feet?
💚 WHY do we want our horses to have them?
💚 HOW the heck do we get them?!

This webinar will appeal to ANYONE involved with caring for horses, from ANY corner of the industry and with ANY prior knowledge of hoof health in horses.

See you then? https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/webinar-train-your-eye-functioning-feet-what-they-are-and-how-to-get-them 🥰

www.holisticequine.co.uk - 100% non-profit organisation supporting and promoting compassionate equestrianism for the benefit of all: https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/support-us 🙏💚🐴

09/01/2025

Unconditional permission to be inspired -

Some of my favourite results have come through receiving inspiration from around me;

Seeing, hearing and feeling.

And then granting myself the space to explore what resonates:

"That's interesting, I wonder what would happen if I..."

And I can't help but think about how magical it is to be in a world where so much positive influence can be gained from how the world dances around us.

To be able to experience the view point of others, which has been inspired by their lived experience, which has been influenced by their perceptions of other people...

A never ending, continous loop ✨️

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[Sometime around 2016]

My first perambulation into the world of bodywork that extended beyond the traditional equine physio training I had was when I chanced upon some The Masterson Method, Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork videos online.

I thought it was interesting how much the horse responded to techniques which were far lighter than the ones that I was using; the first one that I tried being the "Withers Wiggle"

I remember my mare Chelsea connecting to the session in a way that I had never seen a horse do before - it was incredible.

[Sometime in 2023]

"If you look after the spine, you'll be just fine" - Holly Barnett

I was chatting with my beautiful friend Holly Barnett about a shared passion of ours: Postural Restoration.

She talked about something she referred to as "Bone Frequency" - let me tell you that resonated, not that she showed me what that was, but the discussion alone was enough to get my creativity flowing.

[Sometime in 2024]

I happened across the book "The Horses Know" by Lynn Mann

In the book, they talked about 'Bone Singers' who repair broken bones using their voice - they find the frequency which resonates with the break, and then gradually change frequencies to knitt the bones back together.

And from that fiction book, I started playing again -

"How can I lay my hands on that horse in a way that resonates with their body"

"Can I melt my hand into this muscle"

"What can I visualise in my mind to curate this feeling"

Each iteration of inspiration unravelling as whole new perspective ✨️

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I have mentioned 3 instances where I have been inspired by the work of others and it would do an enormous injustice if I didnt say thank you:

Not just to those 3, but to everyone who has shared with me, directly and indirectly, a little or a large piece of who they are and what they do.

I have immense gratitude to anyone who shares their work - be it through friendship, informal conversation, troubleshooting amongst peers, research, education, social media and beyond.

To create a platform for others to dip their toe into information and allow space for it to be interpreted in a way which is out of the creators control is so incredibly brave.

My hope is that, through sharing a little piece of myself with the world, I can contribute my little piece of inspiration -

All for the good of the horse ❤️

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📸 Some light relief for this lovely boy, just using the technique I described above, to support his comfort & reduce the compensation associated with his irreparable stifle injury.

06/01/2025

Getting to the root of a pain problem -

As our understanding of pain related behaviour improves, there are many situations where horses might present with a "nothingy something" of an issue but there is no clear indicator of where that problem might be arising from.

The interesting (challenging) thing with this is that, if there is no overt lameness or "if I poke here it really hurts", then oftentimes there is no clear start line for your diagnostic journey.

This can be very frustrating because you can find yourself running around in circles not knowing where to start, with conflicting advice from the professionals around you - some of whom might tell you unhelpful things like "just ride through it" or "it's just bad behaviour"

And this is where I have found traditional diagnostics really need to up their game because from a welfare perspective we need to be intervening with pain before a horse is hopping lame or ditching their rider.

And this in turn will encourage people to pay attention to the smaller behaviours rather than waiting for lameness or waiting to be ditched!

What I have learned is that sometimes you have to pick a place to start and work from there.

This means you may be searching for a little while and you might be ruling out more areas through diagnostics than ruling in areas, but that in and of itself is useful information.

Here is what my career has taught me so far:

- If you think there is a problem, there probably is. Find yourself a team of professionals that will support you.

Sometimes a professional might tell you there isn't a problem because they don't have the skillset to see it or find it, another opinion can often be a good thing - though do keep in mind that too many chefs spoil the broth.

There is many a time where I will say "there is a problem - I can't tell you what, though my observation/palpation skills tell me xyz and I will support you in finding out what it is".

- Sometimes there is so much peripheral noise that you need to strip out a lot of variables and then reassess. This includes improving your horse's management to meet their ethological needs and reducing the workload to see where a problem stops being a problem. These all take time.

I have also found that horses can present as painful because their human is expecting way, way, way too much from them given their physical and emotional health. Getting comfortable doing less and going slower is a solid way of rounding off with a happier, healthier horse that you can actually do more with in the long run.

- I'm a "let's deal with the elephant in the room" kind of gal:

If your horse has poor foot balance, deal with that and then go from there. This could include radiographs to monitor changes in hoof angle and this might mean seeking advice from other hoof care providers to support you and your current hoof care provider in improving things.

Likewise, if your horse's back looks like a saggy hammock, or they have weird lumps/spinal protrusions, deal with that. You could get radiographs to tell you the orientation of the spinous processes. Then rebuild your horse's spinal angle and see where that gets you.

- The problem will continue to be a problem until you have actually resolved it! If your horse has diagnosed hoof balance issues, which you are working on resolving, but the balance is still poor, then it will still be an issue!! This means you have to adjust your expectations of your horse accordingly!

- If you are requesting relatively non-invasive diagnostics, e.g. radiographing/ultrasounding your horse's limbs or back, and you are prepared to pay actual hard earned money for this service even though it might show you absolutely nothing of any value (although to me, ruling out an area is of enormous value), please don't let a professional convince you not to UNLESS they have a reasonable counter plan for another diagnostic (NB a bone scan, to the tune of thousands of £££ is not a suitable counterplan in my opinion)

"I suggested to my vet that we xray my horse's back but they palpated it and said that his reactions were normal so there is no reason to xray"

"Okay well what did they suggest instead?"

"They didn't"

"Great, so you have a horse that presents with pain under saddle and yet we are still no further forward with determining the cause"

- Equally, diagnostics and expertise do come with a price tag, this means that in order to find out what is going on with your horse, you do need to spend money. I know this gets tricky when your horse is presenting with a nothingy something and you have a limited budget to deal with it because you really want to spend that money wisely, but turning up to your vet and saying "I have 55p and three buttons to spend, please tell me what's wrong with my horse", is really unfair on your vet and also your horse.

"I had his hocks medicated but it didn't change anything"

"Did you do any diagnostics?"

"No, we just medicated"

"So what you're saying is you did something painful, that isn't without its risks, despite having not done any due diligence, which means you've spent money you don't have on something that wasn't the problem?"

- It is not as simple as medicating and riding into the sunset.

Why did your horse get the diagnosis they got?

What have you done to improve their management/lifestyle/way of going so you can reduce the instances of this happening again? For biomechanic induced issues, you need to solve the problem by altering their biomechanics; medicating is a way of reducing the pain/inflammation to buy you a window of time to do this in.

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The relationship between pain and behaviour are very complicated. I really wish it was as simple as "nerve block here" to get results. There is so much more I could add and the nuances are vast.

There will of course be outliers to this - people who tried all of the above and are still without answers, or those who walked to hell and back to get them - and for those people I understand that this post might be very triggering, I am sorry about that. I hope you can see here that this is a good starting place for many people and I welcome your experience in the comments if you feel it has the power to help someone.

The final thing I will say is this -

Your horse does not need to perform in any way, shape or form in order to be deserving of your love, care and dedication to them. And if you feel they do, then perhaps you should consider getting a bicycle instead ❤️

03/01/2025

Bodywork restores the horse to factory settings;

But that in isolation doesn't stick.

You can bodywork your horse over and over and over again, but unless the stimulus changes, their posture will revert.

Because muscles adapt to stimulus, irrespective of whether that stimulus is appropriate or not.

And that means that we can use the tensional patterns detected with bodywork to help us to work out whether our training has been doing what we intended it to do.

Sometimes this that highlights that, though we might be aiming for a specific training goal, maybe we are missing the mark.

Which in turn helps us to navigate our own training biases.

So for me, understanding posture opens up the possibilities;

For the horse who "has always been like that" to become the horse who could look a little more "like this".

And whilst I know that posture isn't everything - it's just a handful of flowers in the bouquet - I also believe that if people paid more attention to it, they'd see little arrows to point them in the direction of making better choices for their horse.

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Interested in learning more?

The Fundamentals of Horse Posture is the course for you - available now - details below ❤️✨️