Emma Punt McTimoney

Emma Punt McTimoney Horse and dog therapy in the Midlands. Treating animals with sore backs

Meet Rudi, he’s been through a lot recently including spinal surgery at the end of last year. Although I’ve treated him ...
21/03/2025

Meet Rudi, he’s been through a lot recently including spinal surgery at the end of last year. Although I’ve treated him many times before he’s been anxious about anyone touching him since his surgery. At first he was scooting his body away from me and really not wanting to be treated but as soon as he realised I was making him feel better he actually turned his end quarters to me for my attention. By the end a happy very relaxed and much more comfortable Rudi ❤️

19/03/2025

A new study conducted by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has shed light on the potential benefits of electroacupuncture for treating equine trigeminal nerve-mediated headshaking (TMHS). This painful and often debilitating condition causes affected horses to experience uncontrollable head shaking....

Huge congratulations to all my clients at Crufts…. Especially the absolute stunner Lolly who won her class today 🥰🎉🎉🎉
07/03/2025

Huge congratulations to all my clients at Crufts…. Especially the absolute stunner Lolly who won her class today 🥰🎉🎉🎉

When a lovely dog client brings you lemon drizzle cake but other family members are put off by the label on the Tupperwa...
06/03/2025

When a lovely dog client brings you lemon drizzle cake but other family members are put off by the label on the Tupperware 😂😂😂

Crufts means lots of dogs the last few weeks of all shapes and sizes.These gorgeous Dalmatians, a liver and white and a ...
05/03/2025

Crufts means lots of dogs the last few weeks of all shapes and sizes.
These gorgeous Dalmatians, a liver and white and a black and white 2 of the many dogs treated this week so far…. can anyone name the third colour a Dalmatian can be?

03/02/2025
23/01/2025

When you treat a horse and he jumps like this 🥰

20/12/2024

Our interim committee would like to welcome all those who are interested in planning for and responding to emergencies and disasters that affect people and animals to a meeting of a new support network, the International Community of Practice (Incidents Involving Animals). Formed at the 2024 BARTA C...

19/12/2024

“I don’t need a fancy, professionally fitted saddle, I only hack out and mostly in walk!”

I’m going to quote Dr Ian Bidstrup from a recent webinar he conducted on saddle fit from a specialist spinal vet’s perspective – and for those interested there will be a more in depth look at saddle design next year which will be fascinating.

THE SLOW DEATH

This is the terminology he uses to describe slow rides. Now slow walk is important, super important, when we’re building posture and balance for sure, I’m a big proponent. However, when we consider the pressure under saddles and its effect on the skin and blood flow then we have to think more traditionally and look at the role of the saddle in spreading that pressure.

If you sit on your horse in halt, it’s likely that the pressure under the saddle is already approaching levels that prevent blood flow. I’d have to go and look at a ton of research to try and get down to it but we know it’s not always that easy to get our hand under the front or anywhere else under the saddle, your weight and that of the saddle has to go somewhere!

What happens when we move at a pace that’s faster than walk?

Each part of the back under the saddle is at least partly unloaded at one stage of the stride pattern. In rising trot we shift our weight forward and back in the saddle, from our seatbones to the stirrup bars. In canter the whole saddle rocks a little, and the pressure under the saddle fluctuates and transfers from front to back and back again with each stride. Even sitting trot allows for some relief of pressure under the saddle in all areas within each stride.

Racehorses have pretty grim saddles with teeny areas underneath them, the reason that greater damage isn’t done is because whenever they walk any distance they’re generally going to the gallops where they will get immediate relief from the unrelenting pressure.

Walk does not offer any real alleviation of pressure. A lack of blood flow to the muscle will stop them functioning fully, and may be causing damage to the skin and to the fascia. Fascia are layers of connective tissue that wrap around muscles (you’ve seen it if you’ve prepared or eaten most meats) that are critical to the skeletal and biomechanical health of the horse and obviously the skin is pretty important too!

The long riding experts Be Professional. Look Cool. have also looked at this VERY closely in their work, the effect of saddle pressure on the horse’s back and, for riding long distances daily, back to back, for long periods of time where "mistakes" get hugely magnified. He recommends intervals for dismounting and loosening the girth, and for taking the saddle off. This should be done more than once every day, and that’s WITH doing faster work. Here’s a post of theirs on the subject https://www.facebook.com/beprofessionallookcool/posts/pfbid03369vorLPo4PeMYF49a7V6kp1HYm6qH7ixnywNMqApYvHrPzernmJBD13rCpQpuDyl

Remember, they’re not just poorly designed to carry us and a saddle, the way they function in the wild means that riding them will always compromise them immensely unless we’re super careful about how we load them with weight and how we prepare them to carry that weight.

Give your horse a break – if you’re not doing faster work then your need for a well fitting saddle is just as high, perhaps higher, as those working at supposedly higher levels. Take the fitting of your saddle deadly seriously.

Address

Nottingham
LE12

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm

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