Stephanie Pittam Equine Sports Performance & Osteopathy

16/09/2024

Had a feeling someone was watching…. 🙀🐏 Mrs Goat definitely wanted in on the action 😂

So cute - I think I need one??

16/09/2024

Loving these young horses - really excited for the future with Katie Preston Eventing 😍

06/09/2024

September is here with a bang! What a soggy old start to autumn, good job the patients are as cute as this ☔️🥰

05/09/2024

🖤 R I D I N G S C H O O L P O N I E S 🖤

This beautiful gorgeous boy was on the list for me to see at one of the lovely riding schools that I treat at.

Feathery legs, fluffy ears, quietly waiting to be tacked up. He’s a masterclass in generosity of spirit.

Unlike a privately owned, one-rider horse, they have to show up and be on their A game for every lesson, quietly teaching riders of all abilities the ropes. Some people say they are switched off or shut down, but in my experience they are just the sweetest, kindest souls (some are rather cheeky!) who bobble out trying their best and hoping for a carrot at the end of the ride 🥕

Most riders owe their passion, hobby or career to these ponies, so it’s a real privilege for me to be able to make sure they are comfortable in their job. Just as rewarding and important as treating high end competition horses 🐎🤗

30/08/2024

Phewee! It’s the end of another week and the end of August 🌞🌻🌾
Been an interesting one, realise I need to massively streamline my business as the admin is just getting silly. Currently trialling and looking promising so far. It’s an app which my clients can download to access their horses reports, and receive reminders for appointments. Hope everyone can get on board with the ‘new tech!’
Onwards and upwards!

27/08/2024

Toastie and his favourite lookalikey! 😍🐶
Completely different breeds but twinning hard!

Missed yesterday so here’s my belated nod to my little work buddy, sidekick and all round good boy Toast 🐶 Aren’t dogs just the best!?

07/08/2024

Then > Now 🧡
My lovely old boy is 28 today 🥰 20 years between these pics!

I want to see your golden oldies! Show me a photo from then and one from now - and in the spirit of ‘progression’ can you name any things that you did then that you wouldn’t do now?
Mine are the drop noseband 😱 and the hat…

It’s incredible how things change as our knowledge improves. I’m not a fan of a drop these days - but 2 decades ago they were hailed as a far better alternative to a flash. Now with improved knowledge and awareness I don’t like the position on the nasal cartilage, restriction to airflow, leverage on the TMJ and further still - not addressing mouth opening from the root.
And as for the hat - the pinnacle of fashion 🤪 nowadays I wouldn’t entertain riding with a flimsy piece of cardboard with a velvet bow on - after having a nasty head injury you realise that in fact, you are not invincible 🥴🤦🏼‍♀️

Anyway, Wednesday wisdom is that looking back and reflecting on how to do things better is very helpful! 🧡

25/07/2024

The last 2 days have been filled with conversations around the recent huge news story concerning a certain (previous) GB golden girl dressage rider….
So many sad things especially for the horse in question. But to try and counter the very bad taste here’s a lovely happy, loved and adored pony who belongs to one of my many owners who truly put the horse before the sport. So grateful for you all ❤️

27/06/2024

Is it true that if we use cold water on heat stroke pets they will go into shock?

One of the most common things we still hear is that we can only use tepid water on a pet with heat stroke, incase they get some complications like hypothermic overshoot, peripheral vasoconstriction hindering a cooling response, and cardiogenic shock...

We have heard not to use cold water in case it causes shock... this rarely happens!

But guess what? In a recent study over 26% of dogs presented with heat stroke died, with flat faced breeds making up nearly half of heat stroke cases seen in the study.

You should:

💧Get someone to call the local veterinary practice and tell them you're going to travel down with a heat stroke patient
💧Pour, hose or if possible immerse the pet in very cold water (this should obviously be done under constant supervision, ensuring the head is fully above water and immersion should not be attempted if the animal is too large, or you are unable to do so without hurting yourself)
💧NB: If using a hose pipe, make sure it has run through until cold, as they can often contain water that is extremely hot in the tubing initially
💧Do not drape in towels and leave them in situ. Keep the cold water flowing.
💧Move to a cool, shaded area
💧Prepare to transport to vets in a cold, air conditioned car

In studies they found that:

🌅International consensus from sports medicine organisations supports treating EHS with early rapid cooling by immersing the casualty in cold water.
🌅Ice-water immersion has been shown to be highly effective in exertional heat stroke, with a zero fatality rate in large case series of younger, fit patients.
🌅Hyperthermic individuals were cooled twice as fast by Cold Water Immersion as by passive recovery.
🌅No complications occurred during the treatment of three older patients with severe heat stroke were treated with cold‐water immersion.
🌅Cold water immersion (CWI) is the preferred cooling modality in EHS guidelines and the optimal method applicable to UK Service Personnel
🌅Studies suggest using either ice-water or cold-water immersion

The best intervention is PREVENTION, but if you find yourself with an animal with heat stroke, using cold water either by pouring, hosing or ideally (if safe) immersion then this may help reduce their temperature to safe levels while you transport to a veterinary practice.

Read more below:

https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/post/cool-icy-cold-or-tepid

18/06/2024

You just can’t beat an English summers evening 💛 much needed after the never ending winter we seem to be in! Happy Tuesday all xx

07/06/2024

Fly season things for sale! Basically new but just too small for Arthur’s massive head and substantial chest 😂

Full size Stretch fly mask - Lycra with big mesh eyes £15

6’6” Kentucky mesh fly rug £50
bought last year £138, worn once, basically as new with a few light marks. Detachable neck. Really lovely luxury rug, is just a fraction to snug round the chest (but he is built like a tank!) More info https://www.equiport.co.uk/products/horse/stable-and-turnout-rugs/mesh-fly-rug--beige-k241/

06/06/2024

I love my job for various reasons, one of them being the incredibly interesting people I get to meet. My last patients today were new, a pair of lovely German Shephards, whose owners name I recognised from years gone by in the dressage world. Although I was there in a canine capacity, I had to ask her… are you (insert name) who was a dressage trainer and judge?

“Yes, once upon a time” was the reply, with a hastily added “oh god did I write you an awful mean comment once??”

Luckily not!

Anyway, what a great chat we had, I feel most inspired and loved what she had to say. She’s not riding any more but you know she would be able to pick up the reins and create magic.

Here’s some wise words:

1. There is no room for yank and whack approaches with riding!

2. You can teach virtually every movement while out hacking

3. The horse needs to be able to think for itself and not be a robot

4. Tractor paths through cornfields are an excellent ‘corridor’ to teach straightness in transitions and flying changes

5. The horse must be aware of its body. Riding across different terrains, camber and inclines is far superior than polework in an arena

6. 3 x 30 min schooling sessions a week is enough, quality not quantity.

7. Do not drill lateral work, or your horse will get repetitive strain injuries and break. Straightness is your friend.

8. 5 steps of half pass is enough, if you can do 5 perfectly, you can do more in a test situation. Same for changes.

9. The irony of wearing a double bridle or spurs is that you don’t need to use them on a well trained horse

10. The horse must be able to move its back and ribcage. Sitting trot is easy on a horse with limited mobility.

11. If your horse starts broncing in a new saddle, it’s likely because he now has freedom across the back, so buckle up!

12. Any horse can be trained, evasions are man-made

I left feeling all light and happy, and like the world still has decent people in it. Love it. ❤️✨

29/05/2024

Absolutely spot on. LOVE this post! Rings so true. Especially the exhaustion that most people I know are experiencing.
Let’s take off the pressure and add in some happiness 💛

A large number of people who come to me for help with their riding motivation, lack of time or feelings of self-doubt or lack of confidence are looking for a prescription or a formula that they can apply that will fix their lack of ‘not riding’.

Some arrive with the belief that the accountability provided by our relationship will be the cure to the problem. That maybe if I tell them exactly what to do on what day, if I give them a precise schedule, or the right things to action that things will once again feel ok-- that time will open up, they will become unstuck, they will once again feel motivated.

Often, if they perceive that they ‘aren’t doing enough’, scattered in amongst our conversation are their own ‘solutions’ to the problems…

Perhaps if I got up earlier? Or when this situation at work changes? Or once the kids go back to school? Maybe I can take this out and slot this in? Try things at a different time of day?

It’s not that I don’t have things to say, and I certainly offer things (I hope) that people will find helpful.

But more and more, I am faced with a reality which is this:

Most people I work with are not professional riders. They are riding or have horses for the love of it. And in amongst this, the fact they are custodians for their horses, they are also many other things.

They are often working full time, some are caregivers, many are mothers, or mothering in ways that we don’t socially recognize. The days are full to the extent of asking for 30 minutes of their time feels the same as asking them to lasso a woolly mammoth.

And beyond that, the real truth?

Most people are exhausted. Not just a little bit tired, but chronically so. Tired to the inside of their bones.

And that tiredness is not just an individual ‘issue’; it’s part of a wider, social narrative, the same capitalist system that trains us to treat how it is we are with our horses, how we take care of ourselves, the same way it wants us to engage with everything else:

As a schedule of production.

One that leads us to harbor unreasonable and inhumane expectations of what’s possible, and then gets us to turn around and beat ourselves up when what we’re able (or unable) to do falls short.

A practice of any kind- and this is different to a routine or a schedule- is an energy that we are in relationship with. Riding is not referred to as an art for no good reason. To my mind, good riding and good horsemanship are subject to the same creative muse, the same inspiriting forces as any other creative medium we are involved with.

If we think of our riding and our horsing adventures this way, our interactions become a part of a wider ecosystem; it becomes something we are in collaboration with, not in control of in the way that we might traditionally think.

Which leads us to the question:

How are you in collaboration with your riding and with your practice of the art of horsemanship?

Do you only feel ‘successful’ if you’ve ridden or worked your horse(s) ‘x’ number of times? When you have done something that the outer world will tell you means you’ve done something that is good? Where you are given two thumbs up by someone other than yourself?

If we are going to throw our relationship with riding and our horses in the same basket as any other that relates to productivity and output, then pretty soon we are going to find our relationship with our horse producing the same pressure as work, as anything else that can be both bought and sold.

And what’s more, it’s like pouring concrete on the soul.

A horsing practice is different to a routine and different again to a schedule.

Practices are fluid and responsive. They change with the seasons; of the year, but also of life. Is it not to be expected that your horsing practice will change, adapt to children, work, the fact you have been sick, the lack of available light?

This is not an individual failing; it’s something that’s to be expected. Practices are molded and informed by the complexity and fullness of our lives; often they exist not in spite of them, but because of them.

A riding and horsing practice is not a schedule. It is not a fixed routine. It is not you grinding yourself into the ground, martyring yourself to a riding schedule that leaves both of you feeling depleted instead of nourished.

What would it look like to approach your riding and horsing with a playfulness, the spirit of creative venture?

What would it look like if you lay down your beliefs about productivity, the tight schedule you might have around when and where you show up and what exactly that needs to look like?

What if you treated your riding and horsing practice like someone you loved, treated it the same you would a treasured friend?

What would it mean to step out of riding (and beyond that, how you look after yourself) as a ‘have to’ and treated it as a creative practice?

What would things look like then?

xx Jane

19/05/2024

Very interesting post! Vital to have a saddle that fits both the horse AND the rider.

02/05/2024

🤒 OFF SICK.
Thank you everyone who has been understanding for me to postpone your appointments this week. Hoping to be back on my feet next week, but will contact everyone individually as didn’t expect to be still unable to get out of bed.
Here’s a pic of my No1 nurse Toaster in the spring sunshine ☀️

23/04/2024

Not just 🐎 round here you know! Lovely end to a busy day treating humans of all ages.

Little people really benefit from Osteopathy. In his own words ‘wow my neck feels so soft now’ 🥰☺️

(📷 courtesy of his mum posted with permission!)

19/03/2024

📍Spring Saddle Fitting Reminder!

If you’ve not got a saddle fit appointment booked, now is the time to do it. Most horses I treat are a drastically different shape now than they were at Christmas. 🐎

I was reminded of how important this is today as I had the lovely Louisa for a check for my horse. The thing I love about Louisa is that she is very particular! After watching Arthur move in his saddle firstly WITHOUT me on board, she identified a subtle shifting to the right. This corresponds well with what I find - it doesn’t slip at all but I often feel like I’m being pulled to the right. Arthur is not quite symmetrical which was exacerbated after an accident in a horsebox last year, and subsequent laminitis in the right fore only….

We have spent the winter hacking and not even set foot in an arena since November! While this has benefitted him hugely mentally and physically it has allowed him to occasionally slip into a slightly crooked way of travelling whilst meandering along the hedgerows and lanes - ever so slightly travelling with quarters left and shoulders right.

Cue Louisa tweaking the flocking, and voila! One tiny adjustment created a far more symmetrical feeling and we proceeded to spend 10 mins after she had finished floating round the arena with a smile!

We will continue utilising the feeling of straight and forward both on hacks and in the school, combined with a realisation I need to treat my own horse more frequently and also work on my own strength and flexibility! The joys of getting old 😱😂

The saddle will be readjusted to adapt to his future change in posture and shape.

So - a lovely reminder of how very important your saddle fitter is EVEN if you are someone who hasn’t ridden a huge amount over the winter. And also how the saddle only is one part of the very complex horse/rider combination - teamwork makes the dream work!

✨

14/03/2024

Fantastic ideas. Much of the UK is extremely soggy so many of my equine clients sadly aren’t able to be turned out as much.

COPING WITH CONFINEMENT
I'm hearing from many of you at livery who aren't able to turnout just now due to the state of the ground.

This confinement is challenging for horses and for owners, especially if you can't exercise your horse during the day due to work.

Here's some ideas to help your horse cope with confinement:
🐴 ideally exercise daily even if it's just a 10 minute walk in hand (remember that competition horses who are kept stabled all the time are often in hard work; it's quite unhealthy for horses to be stabled 24/7 without exercise)
🐴 adjust your riding/exercise plans to fit with what's possible even if you wouldn't normally just walk around the lanes - your horse's mind and body will thank you for putting their needs first!
🐴 consider paying someone else to exercise (ride, ride and lead, lunge, long-line or just hand walk) your horse, or share with friends if you are at the yard at different times
🐴 learn how to teach your horse some moves you can do in the stable e.g. back up, move hindquarters over, move forehand around, lift a leg, drop their head down, bridle from your knees (if safe!) (all these will engage his or her mind and will help your riding too!)
🐴 teach your not-easy-to-mount-horse to love the mounting block (with patience and rewards)
🐴 have long grooming sessions and consider learning how to massage your horse
🐴 find your horse's favourite scratching spots (even grumpy mares have them.. your challenge is to find them!)
🐴 chill out with your horse - have you ever just sat on a chair in your horse's stable without any demand on them to see what they do?
🐴 allow your horse contact with another horse daily (even separately paddocked horses will usually touch over the fence and it's good for them to have physical contact with another horse)
🐴 enrich your horse's stable as much as you can e.g. different types of forage placed/hung in different places; hang root veg/compressed grass balls/blocks; forage or high fibre pellets in a treat ball; bury pieces of carrot in clean bedding; give small (edible) tree branches for them to chew; some will play with toys (make sure they're horse-proof!)
🐴 keep your horse's diet consistent despite different availability e.g. use soaked grass pellets or chaff if they get pasture only now and again
🐴 try to get them out hand grazing daily or cut/pick them fresh green forage
🐴 consider adding soaked feed to increase the water content of the diet if they're on all hay and dried feed
🐴 you may need extra help with behaviour (leading / riding) from a qualified instructor because some horses will become more energetic/reactive/pushy/forward going when they are confined especially with minimal exercise

Longer term, it is worth considering if a livery yard that might stop turnout is right for you and your horse, or if you should find somewhere different that allows turnout, for next winter.

Feel free to share this with your friends, and post your other ideas below! 🐴🍏