Laura Wilson Mctimoney Animal Chiropractor BA Hons PGDip MMAA

Laura Wilson Mctimoney Animal Chiropractor BA Hons PGDip MMAA Fully qualified and insured physical therapist specialising in the McTimoney Chiropractic techniques

10/06/2025
04/06/2025

After a super busy week last week Smash has had some downtime and a great session with our chiropractor, the wonderful to iron out those creases!

The good news is he’s feeling fine and we’re ready to go onto the second half of the season! Next stop Oxstalls in 10 days 🥰🙏🍾

This 👏👏
30/05/2025

This 👏👏

*** HORSE FITNESS ***

As with a lot of things in life, this should be common sense, but sadly isn’t.

As we head into summer, with shows and camps, I wanted to remind everyone that riding your horse or pony once or twice a week, does not mean he is fit enough to go to a one day event, compete in 5 classes at the local show, or do two lessons a day at a camp. It also takes time to build up fitness; galloping around a field every day in the week leading up to the event/show/camp will not mean your horse is suddenly fit. I appreciate this sounds patronising, but it’s something I see with my own eyes.

A horse doesn’t need riding every day to be fit enough to jump a couple of rounds, but he/she does need riding regularly (4-5 times a week) at a relevant intensity. Again, this doesn’t need to be for hours, but if you are going to go XC, or want to jump a couple of rounds of SJ, then your horse needs both cardiovascular fitness as well as strength and conditioning (muscle). For the lower levels, you can achieve this without access to gallops, as you can do canter work in an arena if it’s big enough. If you don’t have an arena, then hiring a big one to do some canter/fast work in once a week will be sufficient for the lower levels. I’m currently doing interval training in my arena with my horses (25x55m). Granted, the canter speed is slow, but it’s improving their cardiovascular fitness, and they are always puffing well at the end of a 4 minute canter. Ensure your arena surface isn’t too deep if you do opt to do some canter work in an arena.

Hill work is the ideal way to improve your horse’s fitness without putting a lot of pressure/stress on joints, so I used to use steep hills when getting horses fit for the higher levels; jogging steadily up a steep hill is a brilliant exercise for fitness, but ensure the horse isn’t just towing you up on their forehand. If you aren’t sure if your horse is on the forehand or not, then do some trot-walk-trot transitions up a hill, as that will make him sit back and use his back end.

To conclude, as this post wasn’t going to be an instruction on HOW to get a horse fit (!); riding a horse once or twice a week does not mean he is fit enough to go and have two lessons a day at a camp/jump in 3 classes at the local show/do any cross country. Fitness is a slow process and takes time, so if you’re wanting to do any of those activities over the summer, now is the time to start!

Feel free to share, but not to copy and paste as your own.

For those not interested in my waffle, photo is of Molly (Alfred and Mabel’s mum) en route to double clear in the 2* Long at Hartpury back in 2012!

Final tune up before this little lady heads up to Badminton Grassroots! Wishing Paige and Mae Jackson all the luck in th...
04/05/2025

Final tune up before this little lady heads up to Badminton Grassroots! Wishing Paige and Mae Jackson all the luck in the world 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

02/05/2025

Oh I do love this horse! ❤️.. He thinks he’s helping 😂

Lots of you are out competing at the moment and I love seeing/hearing all your news!  This is a must read re: giving you...
28/04/2025

Lots of you are out competing at the moment and I love seeing/hearing all your news! This is a must read re: giving your horses enough recovery time after travelling/competing 👌🏻

*** THE IMPORTANCE OF REST DAYS FOLLOWING STRENUOUS EXERCISE ***

All of my horses, with no exceptions, have the day off following travelling to either train or compete. In fact, they often get two consecutive days off after competing. When they are Eventing at a reasonable level, they get three days off after an Event.

Travelling on its own, regardless of what exercise is subsequently performed, can be stressful for horses, and is in fact hard work. If you’ve ever watched a horse being transported, you will see that they are almost constantly moving, to brace and balance. As a rough guide, it has been suggested that travelling a horse is roughly equivalent to walking the horse, energy wise; so if you’ve transported your horse 2 hours to a competition, he’s used roughly as much energy as he would have done walking for two hours, and very likely been slightly stressed at the same time, often due to excitement of the impending outing.

Horses are about 50% muscle; approximately 50% of a fit, athletic horse’s body weight is muscle. It therefore goes without saying that this will need time to recover after strenuous exercise. In humans, a recovery time of 48-72 hours is recommended for moderate to intense exercise. Despite there being little research on the equine equivalent, we presume that the recover times are similar, if not longer. Actually, in horses the time to restore muscle glycogen is much slower, and can often take up to 72 hours.

So why do horses need rest days after competing? When muscles work, a small amount of damage occurs; this is normal, and it’s how muscles build and form. The body needs sufficient protein in order to repair and re-build the muscle, and this is why good quality protein is essential for athletic horses. This repair can take days, or even longer, so we must give the horse sufficient rest time to allow not only the glycogen stores to replenish, but for any micro tears in the muscle to repair. A horse competing in an Intermediate Horse Trials is obviously going to require longer to recover than one jumping a 90cm show jumping round, but the glycogen stores need to replenish in both cases, and don’t forget the travelling aspect for both.

I often post about the importance of keeping your horses fit enough for their respective jobs, but giving a horse sufficient time to recover after travelling to train or compete is just as important.

Alfred had today off. He travelled for two hours yesterday and jumped two very small classes. He will still get two days off. A horse will lose no fitness in that time, and it will allow his muscles to recover, not to mention potentially decreasing the risk of developing glandular ulcers. If the days off are not out in sufficiently big enough paddocks, then in hand walking/grazing would be required to alleviate any stiffness.

Alfred is on a daily muscle supplement, and they all receive the same supplement (Muscle Strength from Premier Performance) the day before, of, and after, any strenuous training or competing.

Photo of a very fit Johnnie, Keysoe 3* 2021.

Feel free to directly share, but not to copy and paste my words.

13/03/2025

I managed to break my phone yesterday 😩😩

I’m in the process of uploading on to an old one however…… the last back up was 9th March. So obviously any conversation or appointment I’ve booked in since then has not gone onto my calendar and I obviously have a brain like a sieve 🙄🙄🙄

If you’ve made an appointment between then and now can you drop me a message please? WhatsApp still isn’t working 🤬so either text or FB message please 🙏🏻 ###

Nothing quite like a pack of d***y GSD’s to treat ❤️❤️❤️
14/02/2025

Nothing quite like a pack of d***y GSD’s to treat ❤️❤️❤️

Wishing all my lovely clients, old and new, a very Happy New Year! 🎉🎉🎉Thank you all for your loyalty and your recommenda...
31/12/2024

Wishing all my lovely clients, old and new, a very Happy New Year! 🎉🎉🎉

Thank you all for your loyalty and your recommendations, it really does mean the world to me. I’m so very lucky to be doing a job I love ❤️❤️❤️

(There’s a few hours left of this year to get your booking in for 2025 with the £5 discount!!! )

02/12/2024

‼️Price increase‼️

Just to let everyone know that from the 1st January 2025 I will be increasing my prices.

Horses £65
Dogs £55

✅The same multi animal discount will apply (£5 discount per animal if 3 or more at same location).

✅ If you book now for 2025 before the end of December, I will honour this years price. Of course, this also applies to those of you who have already got appointments booked in for next year.

25/10/2024

I’ve had a really busy, but very rewarding week and to make it even better….. I’ve just checked my bank and EVERYONE has paid me!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Thank you all so much, you lovely people! ❤️❤️

The best work companion ever 🖤🐾
25/10/2024

The best work companion ever 🖤🐾

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