Holistic Horse

18/04/2025

15/08/2024

Bones of limbs and sacrum - an adult horse and stillborn foal.
It is incredible how those immature bones look! Sometimes their shape is not even close to what it will look in years and look at those growth plates!
(Note - not to scale)

28/04/2024

Understand Horses contributors, Rosa Verwijs and Justine Harrison, have consulted with The British Horse Society Horse Care & Welfare team to produce a useful new guide explaining what stress is, what causes it, how it can impact the horse, how to recognise signs of stress and what you can do to reduce it.

ℹ️ You can find the guide on the BHS website here 👉 bhs.org.uk/horse-care-and-welfare/behaviour/equine-stress

16/03/2024

Anyone for Tea? ☕🌿

Our first herbal tasting takes place in Week 3. 🌟 This year we are asking everyone to forage for their own Ground Ivy. And later in the season we provide a blind tasting sample for everyone to trial. Its all very hush hush at AB HQ while we order in the herbs and prepare. 🌿🌸

The medicinal benefits to ground Ivy are many and they are one of the first spring herbs to really take a hold and flower. 🌼

Ground Ivy is a member of the lamiacea family or mint family and is often confused with similar looking flowers like henbit and dead nettle. So this one is a also a little bit of a challenge⏰🌱

Ground ivy AKA Glechoma hederacea, is a creeping perennial herb that is known for its aromatic qualities. When crushed or bruised, ground ivy releases a pleasant minty aroma that can have a calming effect on the senses. This aromatic herb contains bioactive compounds such as flavonoids (e.g., rutin, quercetin), tannins, and essential oils (e.g., pulegone, menthone), which contribute to its medicinal properties. Ground ivy is traditionally used for its anti-inflammatory, diuretic, and expectorant properties, making it a popular choice in herbal medicine for supporting respiratory health and its going to be a fantastic herb for our plant tasting session.

If you would like to join us you can do so here.

https://www.animalbotanical.co.uk/HerbalShenanigans1 . 🍵🌿

06/08/2023

Reposting this diagram, as there’s a few posts around at the moment about lunging to encourage a horse to be supple… 🫣

From this super diagram from Gail William’s book, you can really appreciate how limited the lateral flexion ability of the thoroacolumbar and sacral portion of the spinal column is very restricted. So when we’re asking a horse to lunge, and they’re not strong enough in their core and gluteal muscles, the likelihood that they will overflex through their neck in compensation and fall in through the shoulder is high. Will constantly straining the body in circles whilst the weak muscles aren’t able to switch on make this any better? Not likely.

This is where specific groundwork patterns and exercises come into play in order to develop the correct muscles, so that when a horse executes a turn they are prepared in their body to do so in good balance without detriment to joints.

This leads me onto why lunging is classically not good for an arthritic horse. The repetitive strain on joints isn’t good, but (especially in chronic cases) compensatory muscle patterns create the development of negative postural muscles which mean that a horse isn’t able to engage the correct ones during lunging, leading to almost a double negative effect on pathological joints.

In these cases, consider a groundwork programme that includes low intensity mobilisation exercises at the guidance of your veterinary physiotherapist to develop key postural muscles for positive posture and engagement. I talk about this more in the groundwork programme I’ve produced on the website via the online shop. Link here: https://vetphysiophyle.co.uk/product/stage-1-groundwork-programme-e-book/

23/06/2023

https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/healing-the-environment-healing-the-people

💛 Rewild an outdoor therapy space on a barren plot of land to encourage reconnection, relationships and well-being through nature and nurture

07/06/2023

02/06/2023

19/05/2023

𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝘁 - 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀

The superficial muscles are located between the deep muscles and skin. They vary in size and shape, and are generally classified as movement muscles.

They are either:
𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗸𝘆 - examples include the superficial gluteal muscles, which are around 25cm thick in a 16hh horse. The triceps muscles, which are around 20cm thick. The masseter muscle that moves the jaw.

𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 - such as the abdominal oblique muscles, which span the entire abdomen and contribute to rib movement, bend and protraction of the hind limb.

The surface of these muscles can easily be felt for tension, heat and swelling. They can be influenced by complementary therapies, such as massage, active and passive stretches.

19/05/2023

We love this helpful and handy chart from AARV member clinic River Canine Rehabilitation out of Missouri where AARV member Kara Amstutz, DVM, CCRT, CVPP practices. Any way in which owners can understand the different types of tissue injuries that require different average healing times helps everyone on an animals rehabilitation journey! 🐾👏👩‍⚕️