Equitation Academy

23/09/2024

Meet Navarro😍

It's been a while, but now we officially bought him. We had him on trial for 3 months because he was lame on the hard circle on his right front. He also has kissing spines but in the last 3 months he didn't show any clinical signs, so we're not too worried about it.

He's a 7 year old gelding by Daily Diamond and he's not only stunning but also very sweet. Our goal is to start showing him in a friendly, biomechanically correct way.

We look forward to this exciting journey with our new companion! 💙

19/09/2024

23/06/2024

Yesterday Karin Leibbrandt and I did something very exciting…🤩 Soon we’ll tell you all about it, stay tuned!😍💙

14/12/2023

Equitation Academy is een erkend leerbedrijf en we hebben weer een stageplaats beschikbaar. Gevestigd in Kootwijkerbroek en je ontvangt een stagevergoeding!

Wil jij alles leren over biomechanisch correct trainen zonder hulpteugels, jonge paarden beleren en hoe je paarden het gedragsproblemen helpt weer plezier te ervaren in de training? Dan is dit de geschikte stageplek voor jou.

Meer informatie over het bedrijf kun je vinden op www.equitationacademy.nl

02/10/2023

Throw🔙 Monday: a couple years ago this beautiful sweet gelding was my first official rehab horse since starting my business. Nairo🥰😍

01/10/2023

❗Ik heb een nieuwtje voor jullie❗

Vanaf nu kun je een consult boeken met mij en dierenarts Karin Leibbrandt waarbij we jou advies kunnen geven bij onder andere:
1. Terugkerende of onverklaarbare kreupelheden.
2. Gedragsproblemen onder het zadel.

Wij hebben ervoor gekozen deze 2 problemen extra uit te lichten, omdat deze problemen veel voorkomen waarbij de eigenaar vaak al een heel traject heeft afgelegd van dierenartsen, klinieken, osteopaat/fysio, zadelmaker, tandarts en noem maar op. Vaak weten ze niet meer wat ze moeten doen en kunnen wij ze toch nog een laatste kans bieden, ook voor het paard.

Heel vaak wordt door een specialist heel specifiek gekeken naar 1 onderdeel, heel logisch ook, want in dat specialisme zijn ze tenslotte opgeleid, maar wordt het hele plaatje over het hoofd gezien. In dit consult nemen we het hele paard onder de loep en het management eromheen, zodat we kunnen zien waar het misgaat in de hele schakel en waar dan ook de oplossing zou kunnen liggen. En mocht het nodig zijn, kunnen we je dan nog doorsturen naar een specialist.

Ken jij iemand die deze problemen ervaart met zijn paard, tag diegene dan zeker even onder dit bericht en deel het bericht, zodat we samen zoveel mogelijk paarden kunnen helpen💚.

Over de consulten:
Datum: 7 November 2023
Plaats: Kootwijkerbroek
Prijs: 175€, wanneer je het paard ook onder het zadel wil laten beoordelen 225€
Heb je vragen of wil je je aanmelden, stuur dan een mailtje naar [email protected]

29/09/2023

🐴Lameness Part 5🐴

Every day things you do with your horse can give you valuable information.

When you walk into your horse's box, paddock or field he should look at you with a soft eye and not try to walk away. Horses are social animals, who like to interact with humans if they don't have bad experiences with us. If your horse doesn't have a bad experience and walks away, it usually means there's discomfort or pain when working with us. It can be because of an underlying injury, the training gives the horse discomfort, or maybe the saddle doesn't fit well. Horses are always willing to work, they never walk away because they don't feel like working and they're never stubborn. Your horse is trying to tell you something when he does that.

When you groom your horse and he pins his ears back, starts biting in the cross ties, grinds his teeth, tries to bite or kick you, he tries to tell you something is wrong.

𝗚𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝘀.

When you brush your horse on his back and he inverts his back, that means this part is painful, just like when you brush the sternum and he pins his ears back or tries to bite you. It can also be that he can pick up 3 legs perfectly fine, but the fourth is difficult, this means something is wrong.

When you bring your saddle and the horse starts to get anxious, the horse tries to tell you something. If he is girthy or it's hard to put the bridle on, these are all signs something is wrong.

If your horse shows any of these signs, try to find out what your horse tries to tell you💚

26/09/2023

🧐 Hypermobility in horses Part 5🧐

❌"Lunging is boring and not a real training, it just gives your horse some exercise and you just stand there in the middle"❌

When you're lunging your horse, and your horse really falls to the inside it can also give you an indication whether your horse is hypermobile. If a horse isn't (too) hypermobile, then they naturally have better balance and stability (in most cases, there are always exceptions). When they keep moving in a way where they place much more weight on the inside shoulder, it can cause problems in the future.
In the pictures you can see how much more the black horse, who is hypermobile, is out of balance instead of the buckskin one, who is not hypermobile. The buckskin is only 3 years old in this picture.

When the horse is leaning in, the horse isn't able to activate the shoulder sling correctly, therefore he drops the front part of the back, he'll bring his head up and usually a bit outwards, he'll have to make rotations somewhere in the spinal column to compensate, he'll over flex his pelvis and therefore push harder with his hindlegs instead of carrying. Over time this can cause problems like tendon and ligament issues, problems in the high(C2/C3) and/or low part of the neck(C6/C7), kissing spines, SI problems, stifle problems etcetera. In the future I'll explain more about correct training, but lunging really isn't boring and can be a valuable asset in your training. Teach your horse balance and therefore a correct body posture to keep your horse happy and healthy.💚

24/09/2023

Vanaf 21 Oktober heb ik nog 1 plekje vrij voor een trainingspaard, loop jij tegen problemen aan in de training, heeft jou paard een blessure of wil je jouw jonge paard laten opleiden? Ik kan jou helpen.

Vanaf 1 November heb ik ook nog een plek vrij en daarna kun je je aanmelden op de wachtlijst.

Heb je nog vragen? Neem dan een kijkje op mijn website of stuur mij een berichtje💚.

24/09/2023

🧐 Hypermobility in horses Part 4🧐

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻-𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲

In the first 3 pictures we see horses that're moving in a dysfunctional way, the horses are strongly build on the forehand. Unfortunately sometimes you can not train them in a way that'll make them move like nature intended😞, but we can help them to move a bit more functional. These horses will always be more prone to injury and way harder to collect in a correct way. Sometimes there's so much imbalance in the horse due to conformation, that we can't collect them at all in a correct way. No matter what we do, the horse will always have one front leg on the ground longer than the hindlegs(like the foal in the pictures).

In the fourth picture you see a well balanced horse, where the hindleg stays slightly longer on the ground than the diagonal front leg(almost impossible to see with the naked eye. In the fifth picture, which is taken in a different time in movement, but also quite well balanced. It's easy for this horse to push himself forward-upward and thereby shift some weight to his hindquarters.

You can imagine, training the horses in picture number 4 and 5, is much easier. The horses are less prone to injuries and pain, and once you see the difference in movement, you really prefer to watch well balanced horses. It looks effortless, harmonious and graceful💚.

22/09/2023

🐴Lameness Part 4🐴

Today I'll explain a bit more about topline syndrome, because I see a lot of horses with topline syndrome, but it's not always recognized.

𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴, usually due to incorrect training. If you recognize any of these signs, it's important to do something about it before your horse develops an injury.

Below again some of the signs:
- upside down neck
- poorly developed neck
- dip in front of the withers
- dip behind withers
- atrophy around the withers
- dropped ribcage between shoulder blades
- hollow back
- not a fluent backline
- too much flexion in the lumbar area
- hunters bump
- unequal tuber sacrale
- one hip higher than the other when standing square
- unable/difficult to stand square
- parked under with front and or hind legs
- hindlegs parked out
- always resting one hind leg alternately
- always resting the same hind leg

The ribcage of a horse is attached to the shoulders only through muscles, not with bones like in humans, therefore you see a lot of horses with a dropped ribcage between the shoulders blades. Which can lead to a lot of problems like kissing spines, also it compromises the horse's breathing. Because of this drop, it changes the backline of the horse to a more downward position into the forehand and causes the sternum to stick out, the horse will compromise by flexing the pelvis more. So it looks like the horse is engaging his hind but the opposite is true, because if the horse can't use his shoulder sling correctly he can't place his front legs forward but he'll lift them up upwards to compensate. So it looks nice, but don't let it fool you! I added 2 pictures of what happens with a dropped ribcage when trotting and 1 picture with a correct collected trot.

15/09/2023

🐴Lameness Part 3🐴

In the previous post I talked about the 3 types of lameness when you look at a horse when moving and I didn't describe much about the signs you can look for when your horse is standing still. Today we start with recognizing 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲.

We all want our horses to have a nicely developed back and neck, but sometimes we struggle to get there. If this is the case it can be body lameness, like we described in the previous post. So what are the signs for topline syndrome?

- upside down neck
- poorly developed neck
- dip in front of the withers
- dip behind withers
- atrophy around the withers
- dropped ribcage between shoulder blades
- hollow back
- not a fluent backline
- too much flexion in the lumbar area
- hunters bump
- unequal tuber sacrale
- one hip higher than the other when standing square
- unable/difficult to stand square
- parked under with front and or hind legs
- hindlegs parked out
- always resting one hind leg alternately
- always resting the same hind leg

In the pictures, you can see examples of horses with topline syndrome, and I added 3 pictures where you can see the difference after rehab training for a couple months. If your horse shows any of these signs it means that something is wrong, it can be from pain, incorrect training or, most often, a combination of both.

12/09/2023

🧐 Hypermobility in horses Part 3🧐

How far the horse drops in the fetlock joint is one way to see if your horse is hypermobile. Sidenote: if he's not dropping that far that just means that this part is not (very) hypermobile, but other parts can still be.

You can compare the tendons with an elastic band, if it's a strong elastic band, it doesn't stretch out really far and pops back it to place easily with a bit of force. But if you got a 'hypermobile' elastic band it's quite loose and easy to stretch out far, and doesn't go back to the original with the same force. So this gives more strain on the tendons. In the pictures you can see 3 different horses in trot and 2 in walk, if you look at the pictures you can imagine why hypermobility can cause problems in the tendons, ligaments et cetera.

And why this is extra problematic is because horses do not have muscles from the knees down in the front legs and hocks down in hind legs, so you are not able to build more muscles to make this part stronger.