What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 9am - 5pm

https://www.facebook.com/112320562184623/

Equine Body Work, Leicester (2025)

26/04/2025

Why you will not see me being spectacular on a young horse:

Klaus Balkenhol explains, "Although breeders have created a better horse, the market has created a demand for a stronger, healthier, more powerful horse. It's easier to sell a horse that looks like a carefully developed eight-year-old, and not like a three- or four-year-old just beginning his career. If you force it, you can get a three-year-old to physically look like a developed eight-year-old. Too many colts remain stallions which, if approved, promise breeders higher prices as three-year-olds. Now 250 to 300 young stallions are presented each year, when only 40 or 50 will be approved.
Few breeders have the sense to geld the yearling stallions and leave them on the pasture to mature naturally. Instead, yearling stallions are brought into a stall, fed too much grain, and at three, look like six- or seven-year-olds. They have muscle mass, but not enough bone structure to support it. They look mature from the outside but aren't . . . and when started to work, degeneration sets in. Competitions also create pressure to push horses too fast as competitions are now scheduled throughout the year without any breaks."
Common Mistakes In Pushing Too Fast
Tightening the noseband: "A horse resists by sticking out his tongue. Tightening the noseband too much puts pressure on the nose and on the poll. If it is necessary to tighten the noseband very tightly, then something has gone very wrong in the basic training of the horse. The horse cannot be relaxed, the first step on the training scale," warns Klaus.
Specializing too early: "Drilling every day in the indoor arena is too intense for the young horse. It's very important, especially in the first two years of training, not to specialize the young horse. Training should include a variety of activities, including trail riding, which is good for the mind as well as building strength with hill work. It should include jumping, either free or low jumps under saddle, including small natural obstacles on the trail, and cavaletti. A variety of work will allow the horse to stay mentally fresh and to enjoy his work. Only when the horse is happy can dressage become art."
Not checking tack frequently: "Saddle and tack need to be checked constantly for proper fit and adjusted as the horse's body changes with growth, and as his fitness improves with the training. If the noseband gets too low, for example, and the skin between the noseband and the bit is rubbed and becomes sore, this causes the horse discomfort and loss of relaxation. Regularly check for sharp edges and bit problems in the horse's mouth and teeth."
Working too long: "The goal of our training is to build the horse's mind and his muscles. Suppleness and relaxation require adequate muscle strength. strengthening requires both contraction and relaxation. Blood flow and oxygenation occur when the muscle relaxes. If the muscle is kept in a constant state of contraction, it loses power and strength, and actually becomes smaller. Frequent rest periods, especially for a young horse at a free walk on a long rein, are necessary. The rest periods are not for a rider's fatigue, but to allow the horse to stretch and relax his muscles. The rest breaks will give you a completely new horse. This is the systematic gymnasticizing of the horse."
Riding when the horseman is tense: "Horses are particularly sensitive to the rider's mood. A rider shouldn't ride if she is under undue stress or doesn't have the time to ride. If the rider has a bad day, give the horse a rest day or go for a relaxing trail ride; don't work in the arena. The horse mirrors the rider's mood."
Not praising the horse enough: "The horse must perform from joy, not subservience. Praising a horse frequently with voice, a gentle pat, or relaxing the reins is very important to keep the horse interested and willing. If the horse offers piaffe, for instance, because he's excited, praise him for it. You shouldn't stop the lesson at that point nor make a big deal out of it. If you don't want piaffe, quietly urge him forward into trot, but you should NEVER punish him for offering the piaffe. - Klaus Blakenhol

Credits goes to the respective owner ~
[DM for credit or remove]

20/04/2025

Do people actually school their horses anymore?

Genuinely starting to wonder. I saw a post on Facebook recently, someone jumping 60cm in a Pelham, and now looking for something stronger because the horse is “too strong to the fence.”

Let’s just pause for a second.

The horse? A dressage horse. Supposedly well-schooled, able to collect, extend, work laterally yet apparently can’t be ridden over a tiny fence without throwing more metal at the issue? That’s not a bitting problem. That’s a training problem. And if you’re needing that much hardware to get over a crosspole, it’s time to ask the hard question, Is the rider ready to be jumping at all?

If your horse is rushing, ignoring your aids, and crashing through fences at this height, a harsher bit isn’t going to solve it. It might mask the problem, temporarily, but it’s still there, simmering underneath. And it’s only going to surface again, at a worse time, with bigger consequences.

Stronger bits are not a substitute for education. The work doesn’t begin at the fence. It begins before the first pole is even set up: with flatwork, groundwork, polework, transitions, adjustability, all the building blocks that make a horse rideable, responsive, and safe. You don’t just jump in and pull when it gets fast. That’s not training, that’s damage control.

Schooling and going back to basics is and always has been, the foundation of proper showjumping. Any top-level rider worth listening to will tell you that (though, yes, a few could use the reminder themselves). You don’t get control from a bit. You get it from balance, discipline, and respect, built from the ground up, over time.

And if your horse already has a dressage foundation? Then all the more reason to expect more, not less, in terms of responsiveness and communication. That training should carry over not get thrown out the window the minute there’s a pole on the ground.

And let’s not ignore the other side of this: If a horse is acting out, there are other questions that need asking too about fitness, pain, saddle fit, ulcers, or just plain overload. But none of those are solved with more leverage either. They’re solved by listening, observing, and doing the proper legwork.

Bits are tools not solutions. If you’re maxed out already at 60cm in a Pelham and reaching for something harsher, the problem isn’t in your tack box. It’s in your training plan or lack of one.

Do the work. Train the horse. Respect the process. Or ask yourself if you’re really being fair to the animal you’re sitting on.

21/03/2025

Stop listening to people, and start listening to horses.

Starting horses in ridden work at 2-3 years old has never felt right to me, but after listening to Lockie Phillips' podcast with Becks Nairn, I am unequivocally sure that we are spending horse's bodies before they have reached maturity.

At the time of the episode of April last year, Becks had dissected over 40 horses, mainly off the track gallopers and trotters. She explained that she, a person of average body strength, can break apart a 2-3 year old's pelvis like a lego. That a horse's pelvis is in two halves until it is six years old.

Now, there are a lot of studies out there promoting early movement in horses to help the formation of their bony structures. But, this information is not matching up with what Becks is seeing in the horse's body. We have to think about who is financing these studies.

Conformation bias - you look for information that supports your beliefs, and ignores information that doesn't. You can choose to publish only the information that you find valuable to your work.

I'm not proud to admit it, but I've ridden a few youngsters. They're wiggly. Like riding a gummy worm. I was told that's normal, and it's good that they're flexible.

Now I know that what I was feeling was instability. I was driving on an unfinished bridge that had just enough foundation to handle the weight of one car, but would fold into itself once rush hour hit.

And that is exactly what a hunters bump is: the pelvis collapsing inwards making the tuber sacrals the highest part of the pelvis.

I've had conversations with people that agree that horses aren't finished maturing until at least six years old, but think the horses are "good enough" to ride. I know people who start colts that mean well and think they're going easy on the horses.

In my experience, groundwork and husbandry skills are an afterthought, something you spend a chunk of time on and "get out of the way". But groundwork never ends. There are endless things to teach your horse, endless ways to help them from the ground. But we've taught people that a horse without weight on its back is just spending your money with nothing to show for it.

It’s the start of the road to the end of a horse’s autonomy. This road is not lonely.

This is a problem, and we're seeing it in the horse's bodies.

This is why we need to be listening to the people who are taking apart these horses and witnessing the damage. It's why we need to talk to people who take in the sport horses and race horses after their bodies have fallen apart. It's why we need to urge the heads of equine sport to stop incentivizing competitions before the horse's body is ready.

If wanting to wait until a horse reaches skeletal maturity makes me a snowflake, a coddler, or wimp, then so be it. I am fine being a pariah, if it means that the horses I interact with will have their longevity and structural health prioritized.

I will continue listening to the studies, the body workers, the people who dissect, the osteopaths, and most importantly:

The horse.

21/03/2025

This past weekend, I declined a request to take a 3yo on my farm to start under saddle this summer.

The owner of the horse was kind, understanding and appreciative of my reasoning why, and I'm grateful for that. It gives me hope that the tides are changing.

But I also recognize that this person isn't the norm. In most cases, the youngster would get started one way or another, by whomever was willing to take it in the timeline the owner wanted.

I have personally owned more than my fair share of broken horses, and with decent regularity I work with horses owned by others that I suspect have some significant physical issue contributing to the reason I was called out in the first place. A focus on the foundational aspects of horsemanship tends to highlight problems a horse has, and my personal ethics dictate that I not move past, gloss over or otherwise ignore something I see as problematic. I used to do this all the time because when you train for the public, the pressure to do so is enormous.

The reality is that we KNOW that horses do not skeletally mature until the age of six, at the earliest. And yet horses "on the payroll" well before that is still common and accepted.

We KNOW study after study is showing that kissing spine, pelvic fractures, boney degeneration and arthritis is occuring earlier and more often in working horses. And yet the industry continues to push the idea that stressing young, growing joints early on is a positive, beneficial thing.

I think a lot of us still struggle with that space between what has been so acceptable for so long, and all the new understanding we have, and the wide availability of this information. I certainly do. I am grateful I don't train full time, because I'd probably be disappointing a lot of people.

But from my standpoint, seeing what I see, most people would benefit from spending more time on the ground with their young horses, getting a lot of things working a lot better, in preparation for when the horse is ready to start being ridden. There are so. many. things that happen in the saddle that can be well-prepared from the ground. There are so. many. accidents that happen while sitting on a horse that could be avoided with better preparation that doesn't require being astride. There are so. many. injuries that occur that could be avoided by taking the time to develop the animal properly before adding weight to their back.

I'm willing to die on this hill. We don't see enough strong, solid, sound twenty-something year old horses, still fit and being ridden and ridden well. It seems that there has never been a point in history for the horse where living has been so easy, and yet it also seems like living does not equal truly thriving.

20/03/2025

When girthing up a horse, it’s important not to over-tighten the girth. An over-tightened girth may pinch or bruise the muscles, especially those in the chest (pectorals), the neck (trapezius), the side of the ribcage (serratus ventralis), and the lower back (latissimus dorsi), which are shown in red on the diagram bel. Similar to how a tight belt can cause discomfort or bruising in a human, an overly tight girth can cause soreness in these areas. It may also lead to bruising of the ribs and the intercostal muscles (the muscles between the ribs), restricting movement and causing pain. Additionally, the tightness will cause the saddle to put more pressure on the horse’s back muscles, leading to further discomfort.

Think of it like wearing a belt that’s too tight around your waist: it presses into your skin and muscles, causing discomfort, restricting movement, and potentially causing bruising. Just as you wouldn’t wear a belt so tight that it hurts, it’s crucial not to over-tighten the girth to avoid these issues for the horse. Always ensure the girth is snug, but not excessively tight, to keep the horse comfortable and prevent injury.

11/12/2024

*** COLIC MYTH - IT’S ESSENTIAL TO WALK ANY HORSE SHOWING SIGNS OF COLIC ***

I’ve unfortunately seen 5 colics in the past two weeks, so I thought I’d start some colic posts again.

I think one of the main myths surrounding colic, is that you must walk them, even if they don’t want to walk. There are definitely some types of colic when movement is good/essential for the horse, but there are equally many occasions when it’s actually detrimental to keep the horse moving.

Before knowing whether or not you need to keep your horse moving, you need your vet to diagnose what is causing your horse to colic. If your horse has a classic “twisted gut” then no amount of movement will help. In fact, forcing horses to walk if they’ve got intestinal torsion will result in extreme pain. If surgery is an option, then continuing to walk a horse with intestinal torsion (twisted gut) will also wear him out, and potentially cause even more damage to the gut itself, reducing the odds of surgery being a success.

My general rule of thumb for any colicking horse is to allow them to do what they want to do whilst waiting for the vet. If they are standing quietly, then that’s perfect. If they are down in the field then I do normally advise getting them up and to somewhere easily accessible for the vet. If they are thrashing about in a stable and could hurt themselves, then getting them out and into the safety of a lunge pen or arena is a good idea, as long as you don’t risk injuring yourself. If they want to march around, then let them walk. It’s a complete myth that a horse rolling around will result in him twisting his intestine; we’d obviously be seeing hundreds of colic cases daily if this were true.

To conclude, walking a horse with colic MAY be advisable, but you need your vet to diagnose the cause of the colic first. If your horse is reluctant to walk, then definitely don’t force them to move.

02/11/2024

Did you know...

That for every 1 centimeter of extra toe length-this results in an extra 50 kilograms of force acting on the tendons?

And...

A -1 degree drop in the sole angle where the deep digital flexor tendon inserts into the coffin bone (affected by the Palmar Angle) can lead to a 4% increase in the pressure exerted by the DDFT on the navicular bone?

(Credit Dr. Renate Weller)

Additionally, long toes means that the heels migrate forward which causes concussive damage to the navicular region.

This is why knowledgeable and timely trimming is necessary to an equine's well being. People need to also get far away from the idea that an 8 week trim schedule is adequate for all horses since in a 5-6 week cycle 3-4% correct angle is lost almost every time (depending on the surfacing your horse stays on) and this results in 20% more load on the tendons.

23/09/2024

ARE YOU BREAKING THE LAW?
As some of you know I have been in hospital for almost a month now. I have used the time well to work on several projects coming out next year, including a series of books explaining the ins and outs of NORMANDY EQUINE PARAMEDICAL RIDING.
I thought I would share an extract from one of the manuals we are in the midst of producing. The text relates to body systems and how riders wishing to learn how not to harm the equine body during training, should respect the laws laid out by nature relating to these systems.
Here we are discussing the circulatory system.

"Most riders would struggle to name all of these body systems and even fewer would know how to explain their function, even in a basic way. Considering that these riders are themselves made up of these same systems, to which most of the same rules apply, it is not surprising that making those systems coordinate to work to achieve a specific goal seems to be somewhat of a mystery, and mostly done in a way that is damaging to one of more of said systems.

If for example, the horse was see-through and the rider could see the way blood backs up on one side of the very tight nose band he has just applied, while totally draining from the other side, he may think twice about his decision to crush precious blood vessels, nerves and arteries to achieve the nonsensical aim of keeping the horse´s mouth shut. He would also see the tongue swell and push back against the trachea, making it difficult for the horse to breath.

If you want to know the pain a horse is feeling when a tight nose band is applied, just apply a relatively tight bandage around your forearm. In fact if any of you reading this do routinely tie your horse´s mouth shut with a tight nose band or know someone who does... I challenge you or your acquaintance, to apply a narrow bandage to the middle of your forearm tight enough to not be able to comfortably put two fingers under it.

I then challenge you to spend the same amount of time wearing said bandage as you expect your horse to wear his nose band. In a very short space of time, you will feel your arm begin to go numb. You will then experience pins and needles and then, eventually, you will be in excruciating pain. This is simply because you are breaking one of the rules of your circulatory system. You are not allowing your blood to move freely through its veins and arteries. This puts pressure on another of your systems, the nervous system, and it will begin to send pain messages to its central communication board, the brain. These pain messages will then impel you to do what is necessary to resume abiding by the rules of your circulatory system. YOU WILL REMOVE THE BANDAGE.

Now imagine if you could NOT. Imagine if someone else controlled what you can and cannot do. Imagine that pain in your arm and not being able to do ANYTHING to stop it. That is what the horse has to suffer. Until you decide to remove the blood vessel-crushing nose band, he has to endure his nervous system literally SCREAMING at him to allow circulation back into his face. Now what happens if the nose band or head collar or other restraining implement remains? What if it is never taken off? Then the rules continue to apply and the flesh deprived of blood will simply die resulting in necrosis. Having assisted the removal of a head collar left to incrust itself into the face of a young growing foal, I can tell you that smelling death lingering around the head of an animal just beginning its life, it truly disturbing.

It is very easy for humans to do this to another. If you cannot feel the pain yourself, you cannot imagine how the one who is experiencing it feels. I actually know of some riders, riders I have seen with my own eyes, rip a horse’s mouth so hard with a massive bit in it, that the horse´s head snaps back whilst its eyes roll back into its head, and then say “ Oh that doesn´t hurt them”.
The only way to really know what the corruption of one of your body systems feels like, is to experience it yourself. Torn muscles, cramps, pulled tendons, crushed blood vessels and nerves, bruised ribs, subdermal haematomas, burns, rubs, skin irritation, muscles in spasm, colic, founder, hair line fractures, are all conditions inflicted on the horse by the human. Painful breaking of the laws of the body systems that humans are influencing or managing.

Nature has very strict laws. If you ignore them, you WILL pay the price. Unfortunately for the horse, human ignorance, callousness, carelessness or complete lack of empathy will mean that the horse has to suffer the cavalier way we treat the laws of nature. We may suffer if we are counting on the continued performance of our horse, or if we end up with a colossal vet bill we have to pay, or even if the systems we are riding go into catastrophic failure whilst we are on board, causing us secondary injury…but the horse will be the primary loser…All because WE BROKE THE LAW.

20/07/2024

Meet Peggy.

Peggy is the skeletal remains of a polo pony mare that was euthanized due to dangerous behavior. It was said that she, and I quote, "was trying to kill people".

The first image is of Peggy's thoracic spine. The spinous processes of her vertebrae directly under where the saddle would be not only have no space between them, but have rubbed so hard against each other that they wore holes in the adjacent bones. Attachment points for tendons and ligaments further down on the vertebrae are spiky and sharp and feature errant bony deposits where her body was trying to support soft tissue structures that were under tremendous abnormal strain.

The second picture is of the ventral aspect of Peggy's lumbar spine. This is the view you would have if you laid down on the ground on your back underneath skeleton Peggy and looked up towards the sky. Not only does she have areas where the vertebrae are trying to fuse to stabilize her back, she has an enormous 1.5" bony growth jutting out, right into a channel where long muscles of the back run and attach.

The reason I got to meet Peggy is because she was given to a friend of mine, and the reason she was given to them is because the horrific pathologies her skeleton exhibits are run of the mill at the institute her body was donated to. She is not unusual, she is the norm.

This mare did not become this way overnight - this took years and years of poor biomechanics to manifest to this degree, undoubtedly with signs along the way. The longer I work with horses, the more I recognize that they are extraordinarily willing to tolerate immense discomfort to do what is asked of them until they simply can't anymore. They always find a way to tell us - it then becomes of matter of whether we know how (or care) to listen.

The horse that starts out stiff every ride is not "cold-backed". Something is going on.

The horse that throws a buck after every jump is not just "quirky". Something is going on.

The horse that pins its ears while being groomed, the horse that consistently can't hold the left lead canter, the horse that swishes its tail when you put your leg on...

Something is going on. If we can't put empathy before ego, we have to ask ourselves: who are we in this for, us or the horse?

Many thanks to Saxon Alexandra of Actuality Equine LLC for sharing Peggy with me.

12/07/2024

I wrote this piece as a blog a while ago, but I feel like fewer people read them than they do posts, so here it is again...

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have heard that the 'social license' of Equestrian sports has been called into question, more so since the abomination that was the Penthalon at Tokyo Olympics.

I have been reading and debating whether or not to comment on this, but like everyone I have my own opinions, and this is something I would like to put forward to the equestrian community. When you know better you can do better.

Bitting is a HUGELY contested issue, not only between equestrians, but people who have opinions about pictures they see on the internet. Admittedly many pictures are cause for concern, there is no denying that. This is where we should be doing better.

I stand firm on my base that the horses comfort is the priority and both bitted and bitless have the power to cause unnecessary damage. It's about doing what is right for your horse, and continually working to better your own skills for their sake. A soft bit in hard hands and a hard bit in soft hands can be on equal par in their workings. There is also the matter of correct fitting affecting the action of the bit significantly.

What concerns me hugely is the amount of mass produced bits that look like they should be 50 shades extras, freely available in the community to anyone who walks into a tack store or can shop online. In my opinion there is quite frankly no reason for them to be produced in this day and age where education is available (Shout out to the fabulous bitting companies who actually put research into their designs!) While NZ is typically not as bad as countries like the USA when it comes to this issue, it is slowly becoming a pandemic of 'fix the training with a bit band aid'

There is no horse on earth that needs (for example) a twisted wire bit or a piece of chainsaw chain. If you think that, please get a lesson or consider a rocking horse (harsh truth)
Now I am not saying that every horse should go in a loose ring double jointed snaffle, that's simply not practical or sensible. I am encouraging you to be thoughtful in your bitting choices, use leverage bits correctly, with two reins or roundings and a curb strap where ever possible.

Always remember that many issues behind present in the mouth, if you are having trouble start in the hind quarter and work forward. The tongue is connected to the hind quarter through a series of muscles. A number of horses I see as a bit fitter don't actually have an issue with their bit, but are tight or sore through the body.

Like the majority of tack and artificial aids most bits (and bitless bridles!) have their place in the world when used correctly, double bridles included. In order for the horse to want to carry itself forward in a correct manner it needs to have a level of trust in it's bit, for this the bit needs to be comfortable in it's mouth.

In order for us to retain our social license to use horses in sport, there needs to be a high level of welfare maintained. This absolutely includes bitting choices.

I challenge you as an equestrian and horse lover to make this change, research your bitting choices and make changes where you need so we can continue the sport we love. Are you a saddlery that sells bits? I encourage you to take a hard look at your stock and make some choices.

31/05/2024

If anyone, anywhere tells you to pull the horses head down (or uses leverage and gadgets to do so) they have no knowledge of healthy horse biomechanics or of correct training.
The horse's nose must always lead, with the poll highest and the gullet open. The base of the ears mustn't be lower than the withers. The jaw must be mobile. If the horse cannot chew and swallow, the hindlegs cannot operate correctly. If the hindlegs cannot operate correctly, the horse will not be able to jump, or stay off the forehand, or stay sound.
"Don’t be obsessed with the head and neck, learn to feel what the hindquarters are doing." ~ Glenys Shandley

21/05/2024

Let’s repeat it for the ones in the back - or front, depends how you see it:

We can train and manage and condition our horses - but we can’t change the fact that they are horses.

Horses are prey animals. Their whole existence is wrapped around the ever on going play in nature between prey and predator.
Their whole being has evolved around the behavior and skills they need to play this game.

They played this game more than 50 million years.
The 5000 years of domestication won’t change that soon.

Your horse is supposed to spook from noise and sight.
Your horse is supposed to bolt when it feels threatened.
Your horse is supposed to buck off what’s on his back.
Your horse is supposed to search for food.
Your horse is supposed to be buddy sour.

All what we call „vices“ is simply a surviving mechanism, implanted deeply into the DNA of every horse.

Your horse lives in a human world, where he has no handbook for in his genes. He is just being a horse.

It’s your task to show him trust, patience, calmness, strength, assertiveness and fairness. But you have to be like this yourself.

You cannot expect what you are not ready to give.

It’s your responsibility to help your horse navigate.

Acts of aggression, confining him, calling him names, defining him as „naughty“, does not teach or proof any horse to behave the right way. It only shows your capability of teaching a horse.

There are so many techniques, methods, tools and trainers all defining „bad behavior“ and their solutions, all hustling and managing around a horse to bend and press it into a form. All of them, that claim to be so knowledgeable, so experienced, so wise, have forgotten, that the horse is just a horse.

Equine Body Work

26/04/2025

20/04/2025

21/03/2025

21/03/2025

20/03/2025

11/12/2024

02/11/2024

23/09/2024

20/07/2024

12/07/2024

31/05/2024

21/05/2024

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm