Michelle Johnston Equine Services/Senior Coach BHS I I / SM

01/07/2025

Are we over treating our horses?

For most horses now, being seen by a massage therapist, physiotherapist or chiropractor, will be part of their regular maintenance schedule to keep them feeling and performing at their best. Owners appreciate that their horses bodies need this support, and feel the difference after their sessions. And with easy access to a range of varying practitioners and modalities, it can be very tempting to try 'all of the things'. Surely the more the better, right?

Not necessarily.

Your horses body needs time to process the tissue changes offered in each session, and to be allowed to build new patterns of movement from that. Having multiple sessions of the same or different modalities in quick succession, doesn't speed this process up. It can also be difficult to ascertain which modality is making a tangible improvement at any given time. Increasingly, I am seeing horses that may have had 3 or 4 treatments from different practitioners, all within a close timescale. There is absolutely no issue in using a variety of modalities, and I love how invested my clients are in supporting their horses wellbeing (often more than your own!) However, spacing appointments out is actually more beneficial for your horse.... and your bank balance!

There are exceptions:

• Massage + chiropractic close together can sometimes be useful.

• Competition horses may benefit from a more regular, alternating schedule between practitioners to support their workload during the competition season

• Rehab or box rest cases may require more frequent massage - but only with permission from your vet

Generally, I won’t book massage appointments closer than 4 weeks apart unless we’re working under a vet-led plan. If I see a horse with significant pain, restriction, or compensatory movement that’s not under veterinary care, I’ll refer to your vet or veterinary physio before continuing treatment.

I love collaborating with other professionals to help horses thrive—and it’s amazing how the knowledge surrounding, and appreciation for equine bodywork has come over the last few decades. Multiple therapies can be incredibly powerful—just not all at once.

29/06/2025

XC clinic at Lockskinners
Sunday 13th July
Groups or private
Heights from 40cm to 90
Group £50 includes venue hire. Full payment at booking.
Message to secure a slot

27/06/2025

It's all about feel

A horse cannot go to the hand if the hand comes to the horse.

The rider’s goal should be to maintain a soft, following contact—a feeling that is forward and slightly giving. In order for the horse to reach into the contact, there must be something for them to reach toward. If you ride on the buckle all the time (though it certainly has its place), there’s no consistent point of connection for the horse to seek.

The reins should be just short enough to allow connection when the horse is moving forward, pushing from the hindquarters, and moving through their body correctly. As the horse begins to engage from behind, the neck will naturally lengthen, and that energy will carry forward into the rider’s soft, receptive hands.

This process takes time, repetition, and feel—and it’s one of the most common and challenging concepts riders face.

Always remember: good hands come from a good seat. Without stability and balance in the saddle, true softness in the hand is impossible.

03/06/2025

While I agree with this post sometimes the handler/ Rider believes in it and they then relax giving thd mask a placebo effect and there allows the horse to work through some of thd problems. Sadly they are seen used in stables rather than addressing why horse is do stressed( feed, owner, environment, neighbours, turnout or lack of)

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬, 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞?

After watching every second video on my TikTok tonight from weekend competitions, it’s clear, the titanium head mask is everywhere. Horses sporting these stretchy, shiny hoods like they’re some kind of magic fix.

I have to ask, where’s the evidence that these masks actually help our horses?

Yes, there are some studies suggesting liquid titanium might benefit humans, improving circulation, easing muscle soreness, maybe even lifting mood. But horses aren’t humans. Their physiology is different, and there is no independent, peer-reviewed scientific research proving these masks improve horse welfare, behaviour, or performance. Not one.

That worries me. Because instead of looking deeper, checking for pain, ensuring correct saddle fit, or adjusting our riding, we’re reaching for a trendy accessory with no proven benefit.

Horses showing signs of stress or discomfort need us to investigate and address the root cause. Slapping on a titanium hood to “calm” them might hide problems that should be treated properly. That’s not welfare, that’s avoidance.

A recent study published in PeerJ (2024) dug into how horses use facial expressions to communicate, real science, not brand waffle. Turns out, their faces say a lot, stress, discomfort, social cues, even pain. They’ve got a whole language going on up there. Which makes these titanium head masks even more questionable. They cover half the horse’s face, cheeks, poll, jaw, all the bits that matter for expression. So while you’re thinking it’s calming them down, you might be missing clear signs they’re anxious, confused, or even hurting. We bang on about horse welfare, then slap on something that blocks the very way they talk to us. It doesn’t add up.

Good horsemanship means putting the horse’s needs first, understanding their behaviour, health, and comfort. It means asking hard questions and sometimes admitting we don’t have all the answers.

Sometimes your horse is tense because you’re tense. Sometimes it’s just being a horse. You don’t mask it, you work through it.

What scares me is we’re losing horsemanship to these gimmicks. We reach for gear, not knowledge. And horses pay the price

Until rigorous studies prove otherwise, I cannot in good conscience support the use of these masks. All we get are marketing claims and brand-sponsored “testimonials,” which are about as trustworthy as a dodgy saddle fitter Our focus must be on proper care and training, not gadgets without substance.

Because true equine welfare isn’t about the latest fad, it’s about respect, understanding, and real science plus because horses don’t need hoods that glow in the dark and shoot invisible rays.

They need riders who give a damn but again this is my opinion cause I’m seen it daily as a coach. 😩

Study for equine facial expressions https://peerj.com/articles/19309/

28/05/2025

Many trainers study theory more than they put it to practice.
The best trainers have tried it all and made mistake after mistake and the reward is honing their skills and techniques over the years.
Theory alone will not afford you that. You can't make mistakes on a keyboard that affect the relationship with your horse.

26/05/2025

As a rider we have to be confident to allow our horses to flourish.

19/05/2025

This is very close to my heart as never had a made horse always backing and bringing on my own. As a show jumper producing ponies and horses up to 140 before switching to eventing and producing up to advanced one days. I have always been lucky enough to see what they can become. Miss competing so much

16/05/2025

To often owners say they can't feed straw. I have always used straw rather than restricted diets

Friday focus…straw as part of the forage ration!

If you are worried about your hay or haylage oversupplying calories, particularly if you have no say over the forage fed, then replacing some of the forage ration with straw can be a really good way of reducing overall calorie intake, lowering WSC intake and extending chewing time as it takes much longer to chew; it is good for bulking out rations and slowing down the quick eaters!

Straw can make up 30-50% of the forage ration for horses and ponies and it is the best forage for donkeys; this should make up the main part of donkeys forage rations.

If you do want to add straw to your equines forage rations, it needs to be introduced VERY SLOWLY to minimise the risk of an impaction. Oat, wheat or barley straws are all ok to feed, the main priority is the hygienic quality, so it needs to be nice, clean, bright straw.

Good dental function is vital as it takes more chewing, so it would not suitable for those that have compromised dental function. As straw is a low moisture content forage, they will need to drink more, so plenty of water should be available at all times.

If you can find organic straw, then that is preferable, but it is very hard to find! If weight is a big concern, then that should be the priority to help reduce the risk of laminitis or a weight related illness. Many things are not ideal, we just have to work with what we have available. So if you have no control over the forage your horse is eating, and / or soaking is not allowed at your yard, straw as part of the forage ration can be good solution!

16/05/2025

Well worth a read. People don't often recognise stress in their horses behaviour. If ths horse isn't box walking and bashing about it is deemed as no being stressed. So often stress can be so much more subtle.

Are we missing the obvious? 🐴

One of the most common scenarios I get called out to is the horse who has had veterinary investigations, extensive rehab and dedicated care from their very conscientious owner, but things still aren’t going well and nobody can seem to figure out why.

Stress behaviour in horses is so normalised and there is so much widespread misinformation around behaviour, some of it being spread by highly-regarded professionals, that we can be missing the fact that our horses are struggling emotionally. We put it down to them just being a “hot” or “spicy” character. But we can try to rehab the physical body all we want, the horse is not going to thrive when they’re living in a state of chronic stress.

Earlier this year I met a horse, I’m going to call him Fred, with an extremely caring owner who had been eventing him at BE90, he had started to refuse to load and was changing behind in the canter. They promptly took him for a lameness work-up and found some mild changes on his back x-rays and diagnosed SI pain. He was also scoped and treated for stomach ulcers. They diligently followed the vet’s treatment and rehab plan, had their bodyworker, their farrier, their saddle fitter and their trainer on board and did everything “right”. After a couple of months the vet declared Fred sound and the body worker said they were happy with his back and he was brought back into his normal-level of work. Unfortunately his behaviour did not improve much.

Fred’s owner contacted me feeling like she had exhausted every avenue, upon observation I could see that she was very quiet and kind around him, but I could also see a horse that was living in a chronic state of anxiety and wasn’t coping well with his life at all. Fred’s day looked like spending his day in a small grass turnout paddock alone with no enrichment beyond the short grass, he then came into the stable overnight with a big hay net. He was taken out of the stable and put in cross ties to be groomed and tacked up. He would chew on the cross ties slightly and pull a few faces. During training his owner had been encouraged to ride him in a short contact and I noticed he was constantly over bent and compressed through the neck. He was very obedient but the whole picture just looked braced and uncomfortable.

We took all the tack off and just spent some time seeing how Fred responded to things, he really struggled to stand still and just be with us. If you introduced his tack or tried to groom him he would move away. His owner was shocked as she didn’t see any of these behaviours in the cross ties, Fred had learned he couldn’t really say no in there. The way Fred’s rider was being encouraged to train him was inappropriate for his body and posture, this is such a huge issue within the industry, but riding any horse with a compressed neck is not going to be good for them. All of these things together were resulting in high-load of chronic stress for him every day.

Fred’s owner moved to a yard where he could have a friend in his paddock with him and added enrichment to his paddock and his stable. She stopped putting him in the cross-ties and started to work with him loose in his stable so he was able to communicate and say no, this reduced his stress hugely around being groomed and tacked up. We used positive reinforcement to start improving his associations with these things.

In terms of riding his owner has completely changed the way she approaches things, we started with a lot of quiet groundwork and enrichment games to create more positive associations with the training space and to help down-regulate his nervous system. Once he was feeling better we were able to re-introduce riding and develop a new, more sustainable way of working together to support not only a strong body but also a happy, comfortable horse.

Fred was unable to thrive as he was living in a chronic state of stress that nobody was recognising, so many of these horses are seen as “quirky” or “just a sharp competition horse” because they’ve seemingly always been this way. If we can step out of our conditioning and really look at what a horse is communicating we can learn to support our horses beyond just trying to fix their bodies. 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

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26/04/2025

An Extract from TRT

This is so important as you can't fake it with horses.

"DON'T think about what you want to improve, about what goes wrong. Think about what goes RIGHT.

Because thoughts filter down to our horses.

They feel that they're not relaxed enough, calm enough, controlled enough.

Only making these emotions WORSE.

So it's really important that we change the way we think around our horses.

Instead of focusing what it isn't, we need to focus on what it is.

On what your horse is currently doing great, on what you're currently thankful for."

24/04/2025

HAVE FUN WITH POLES

Some useful polework exercises. These can be done ridden or inhand to help you and your horse. Each exercise targets a specific area. Use individually or combine a couple.

19/02/2025