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Hands on Horses - Leonie Edwards is a qualified Equine Sports Massage Therapist providing a service f
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Horse massage has a range of benefits including: enhanced muscle tone, increased range of movement, reduced inflammation, promotes healing and helps produce relaxing endorphins. It's suitable for all horses from happy hackers to eventers. A full massage lasts approximately 1 hour after an initial assessment.

24/05/2022

Horses sleep in three different positions: standing, semi-recumbent, and fully recumbent.

Each of these positions allow the horse to reach different levels of sleep.

1. Standing, which is the safest position for a prey animal, offers the lightest level of sleep.

This allows the horse to wake and run away quickly if in danger.

2. Semi-recumbent, as shown in the picture, is where the horse lays down, but with their legs underneath them.

This allows for a deeper sleep than standing, but their legs are still underneath them for a quick stand up and run away.

3. Fully recumbent is where a horse is laid flat out on their sides. This is the only position in which a horse can get to REM sleep - deep, restful sleep.

However due to the horse's body size, they can only lay fully out for 45 minutes a time or risk crushing internal organs.

In total, horses need anywhere from 30 min to 3 hours of REM sleep a day.

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04/05/2022

Love this

03/05/2022

Tuesday tip - Stretching the neck muscles

This is a great exercise to incorporate into your schooling warm up or try it when you're out hacking.

Ask your horse for lateral flexion in his neck to one side, then ride straight, then ask for lateral flexion to the other side, then straight.

Pick a number of steps for each, for example, 10 steps with left lateral flexion - 10 steps straight - 10 steps with right lateral flexion.

As you ask for the bend it’s important that your horse maintains his rhythm, balance, and impulsion. If he struggles reduce the number of steps you ask for.

Try this exercise in walk first once you’re both happy and confident you can try it in trot and even canter.

Lateral flexion in the neck is good for:

✅ Core stability and balance

✅ Coordination and proprioception

✅ Developing straightness and symmetry

✅ Forelimb movement and expression

✅ Reducing tension and restriction in the neck muscles

✅ Muscular strength, control and suppleness

✅ Neck joint flexibility

For more exercises to do while you're out hacking?
Read our blog 👇
https://www.horsesinsideout.com/post/make-your-hacking-count

21/04/2022

Spring is finally here and, sadly, as the grass begins to grow many dangerous plants do too. At this time of year, we need to be extra vigilant for poisonous plants beginning to emerge or trees coming into leaf. Amongst others, it's important to be aware of deadly nightshade, foxgloves, hemlock, ragwort and laburnum growing in or near our paddocks.

However, this list isn’t exhaustive. You can find our full guide to poisonous plants here - https://bit.ly/3OumLti

13/04/2022

Tired and achy muscles make you feel miserable let alone feeling stiff, uncomfortable and generally lacking energy. Your horse will feel the same if his muscles are sore, but he doesn’t always have the option to take it easy for a few days. He’ll have to put up with it or communicate his discomf...

23/03/2022

Watched another great webinar from World Horse Welfare on Why Gut Bugs Matter. Learnt
loads about why gut health is important for so many health reasons and even behaviour. Definitely recommend watching it on their fb page or YouTube

16/03/2022

Although laminitis is a year-round concern, with the spring grass making its way through, owners need to be vigilant they spot the first signs of this extremely painful condition. Here are the signs you should be looking out for 👇

When it comes to laminitis, prevention is most definitely better than cure. For more information on how you can prevent and treat laminitis, please visit our website now - https://bit.ly/3JdOr2v

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