Skelton Equine

13/11/2024

Warwick Schiller made his name as an expert trainer. An enigmatic little horse completely changed his outlook.

13/11/2024

The principals of The Equine Touch International are so important in helping horses in all aspects. It’s been almost 30 years since The Equine Touch was established, it was leading the way then and still to this day helps to improve the lives of equines across the world. With the fascinating research and knowledge from our founder, Vet & Anatomist of Equine Anatomy in Layers Ivana Ruddock and our late founder Jock Ruddock who instilled the ‘horse first’ approach, ET has always been a very successful technique.

LESS IS BEST is the most appropriate way to help a horse in many circumstances but especially when in recovery.

GENTLE - NOT FORCE - we do not create pain with the bodywork application. By working slowly, gently, we can make much deeper long lasting effects because the body accepts it, rather than defending itself from pressure that is perceived as danger.

WHOLE BODY ADDRESS needs to be considered and not just focusing on the symptom or site of injury.

WORKING WITH THE HORSE not on the horse! Helping to create a healing space for the horse, unwind trauma that has been stored in the body and mind and encourage relaxation.

THE EQUINE TOUCH bodywork modality has all these principles at its core, and much more, making it a wonderful way to help your horse in so many situations ❤️

12/11/2024

Have you ever seen a horse sit on the corner feed or water bucket?

This horse pictured is moving her tail to the side and using quite a large amount of pressure to relieve tension in the Semimembranosus (hamstring). This tells me that this muscle is most likely not too painful or sore, but that it is tight. However, she is doing it on her own so she is using the amount of pressure that feels right for her.

How our horses stand at rest can tell us a great deal about what is happening in their bodies such as, hoof balance and pain or tensional patterns in skeletal muscles.

Here are some other examples:

1. A horse piling up bedding in its stall against the wall and standing on it
2. A horse shifting its weight on the hind end from one hind leg or the other
3. A horse resting it’s toe
4. A horse standing base wide or base narrow
5. A horse standing canted-in or spayed (parked) out
6. A horse standing offset (not square) with its front left leg forward and hind right forward (or vice versa)
7. A horse always standing on a hill or mounting block in turn out

And much more! So start making notes on little details about your horse. 😊

12/11/2024

27/10/2024

My copy of “Applied Equine Psychlogy: The Art and Science of Helping Horses” arrived today.

I’ve only read the first two chapters but I can already say that I’ve never felt more seen, heard and validated than I do right now.

Back when I was trying to offer “equine behavior consultations” I often ended up being dismissed, ridiculed and/or literally banned from barns because:

- I did not take a behaviorism (behavior modification) approach to solving complex equine behavior cases and thus did not hold (or want) certification as an equine behaviorist.

- I always approached complex equine behavior cases from a place of empathy, reasonable expectations and unconditional positive regard for the horse(s) and what they were trying to communicate.

- I always took into consideration the possible implications of the horse’s early life experiences, history of relocations and successive ownership experiences, lost attachments to both equine and human companions, current and past environmental factors, herd dynamics, living conditions, and the whole array of human interactions with - and impacting - the horse (owner, trainer, riding instructor, handlers, grooms, feeders, volunteers, family members, etc.)

In short, I was very often dismissed, avoided and/or “let go” for believing that all of these factors are important, must be considered and might need to be intentionally addressed in order to support a horse in becoming more emotionally and behaviorally stable.

It was disheartening and endlessly frustrating. Not just for me, but often for the horse owners too (especially those who boarded their horses and often felt powerless to affect needed modifications). This is why I stopped offering equine behavior consultations and related services.

I have high hopes that this book will become a seminal resource in helping to SHIFT humanity’s approach to being in relationship with horses away from behaviorism (i.e. behavior modification) and toward a more comprehensive understanding of what it means to nurture and support the wellbeing of a healthy, balanced sentient being through appropriate environmental conditions and secure attachments (human and horse).

In the least, no longer can the kind of wholistic approach I embody and advocate be dismissed as “woo-woo”, anthropomorphic, unrealistic or illegitimate! 🙌 Modern science fully supports trans-species psychology!!

23/10/2024

Love this!

We all need to pay bills and eat
Yet so do owners need to pay bills and eat

The astronomical cost of wellness and do you always get what you pay for??

Many many years ago I was always told know your worth as this woman advised me my prices were to low yet she lived down south in a million pound house and she had a higher expectation of her skill set than what they actually were in reality yet her lifestyle meant she didn't have to work so no matter how many courses she could afford to go on her skillet stagnated as she could never get the amount of "real world" horses to develop the learned material into practice

Although I was new to the world of therapy I wasn't new to the world of business and set up exactly as I would a new business that no one had heard of, I.e go in with prices slightly lower, lots of offers, and rewards for clients that spread the word, never saying no at any opportunity and basically working as hard as I could on as many horses to develop my craft increasing my prices slowly as my skillset developed until I reached my price I am at today

I set my prices to encourage regular maintenance visits as I have always wanted bodywork to be seen as the norm, not a treat, not something needed when things go wrong but a vital part of your horses team to ensure they and you have a productive partnership, regular sessions mean we get to know your horse's normal and spot when things are beginning to go wrong and clients now recognise this

I have friends who are professionals who charge alot more than me yet they often bring in another specialised subject for instance being a vet plus whatever they do which for me is simply reflecting the more specialised skill set and also means they can do way more than any of us who's skill lies solely in bodywork

Yet and you know me I have to be honest post covid the prices of some things are literally baulking, even getting into the hundreds for a simple bodywork session like WTF, its almost become like a celebrity culture where you pay for the name and the Internet fame yet often the work becomes less important than the namedropping
Our work is the most important part of ourselves not words written on a post, our actions and results on our work on horses should be the standard we set and as the price gets higher all I see is the quality decreasing

We all put our earnings into more learning, yet do we offset that cost to the customer I have probably spent around 30,000 over the years furthering my career but it's my choice to do that I don't expect clients to pay for my thirst for knowledge

Certification is not a qualification, there is a difference I have over 40 certifications it does not mean I am specialised in that subject it simply means I have added another string to my bow, another option I can give to the horse yet I still needed a qualification to be insured, it actually scares me how someone could be sat in an office job on a Friday yet by Monday be out working on horses and certainly in the uk there is no insurance cover for a certification at least if we work on a qualification we have the baseline of knowledge to build on

Transparency is not only seeing the price clearly set out but also the education that got you to the price

We live in a world of expectations, go fund mes and thinking everyone owes us a lifestyle that we can't afford

My price is 50 not per hour its that price however long it takes (often more than 1.5 hours is to much for the horse, if your horse is swaying after a session then to much has been done at once, your horse has checked out)
I don't have flashy cars or expensive overheads you are paying for the bodywork not my lifestyle
It's the average price for where I live most range from 45-80 depending on wether someone uses their hands or has a machine on hire

Every "Internet famous" professional I have met have just been that because in real life often Google is not handy to search for the answers to the questions you ask,
I mean I could write posts about performing heart surgery but it doesn't mean I can
Everything nowadays has a price tag, a course for every question you ask our pages should be like a shop window inviting you in giving you a taster of our skillset, and while we don't have to work for free we cannot monetize our skills without showing you the customer what we can do
If we repeatedly show the same horses over and over again then are we really building our portfolio or have not gained the experience to warrant the price we are charging

Toxic wellness is a real thing in the human world and sadly its becoming a reality in the equine world
Price does not always reflect quality do your research, your horse is your world they need your due diligence ###

23/10/2024

21/10/2024

❤️
"Horses pick up on how you conduct yourself.
Just your presence and attitude make a difference.
Confidence and relaxation in your movements and bearing stand out as major positives. Negatives can be tentativeness, fear, an over bearing presence, frustration, laziness or hyper activeness and the list goes on.

We can change how a horse acts and feels so much just by the way we are."

Thought for the day:

Feel.
The whole deal.

Horses pick up on how you conduct yourself.
They might worry about things at first or be in a habit of ignoring you or testing where you and they stand in the scheme of things.
If you are making progress then it won't be long and they will look at how you are and how you feel and act accordingly.
Just your presence and attitude make a difference.
Confidence and relaxation in your movements and bearing stand out as major positives. Negatives can be tentativeness, fear, an over bearing presence, frustration, laziness or hyper activeness and the list goes on.

The point here is that how you are, not just your body language or your voice and much more is no mystery to a horse.
Being able to read this in each other and other species is as clear to horses as talking is to us.
Older relaxed, confident horses can ignore what they are reading to a degree but how we are is so important to young or unsure or fearful horses.
Does our horse want to work with us or is he just tolerating us or does he feel like he would rather be somewhere else?

When I read about training methods or learning theory or scientific ideas or behaviour modification or training scales etc I believe they mostly miss out the most important thing.
They talk about processes and body language even or how horses might be habituated or coerced.
They talk about deleting unwanted responses or re-enforcing wanted behaviour but it's much deeper than that.
Feel.
Its not just what the horse feels its how he sees you feel.
We can change how a horse acts and feels so much just by the way we are.

11/09/2024

11/09/2024

The “problem horse” 🐴

There is such a recurring theme in the clients I’m seeing that I really feel the need to talk about this more. Time and time again I am seeing horses displaying significant signs of pain, who have been to the vet to have some diagnostics and been told there is nothing wrong, the horse definitely isn’t in pain and they need to send the horse to a trainer. It is incredibly frustrating and upsetting as an owner when you really feel something isn’t right but are being told by professionals that the issue is you and you’re overthinking it or being soft.

The idea that a problem is purely behavioural is a fallacy in and of itself. Behaviour is a manifestation of how the horse is experiencing life, whether that be pain/discomfort in the body, the environment, the people, the training, the diet, trauma, past experiences etc. It is unfortunately not packed into two neat little boxes of either pain or behaviour and, even if it was, the idea that we could easily rule out pain with the limited diagnostics available is unrealistic.

When we have a horse that is displaying concerning behaviour, beyond the usual joint, back x-rays and scoping for ulcers, we need to consider hind gut issues, liver issues, hormonal issues, muscle myopathies, congenital defects, old injuries, compensatory patterns, the list goes on. Often we do find pathology, medicate it and declare the horse pain-free and ready to crack on without considering the other factors at play.

I cannot emphasise enough the role of environmental factors. Sometimes we are chasing pathology, buying expensive supplements, paying every professional under the sun to fit our horse’s tack, train them, give them bodywork and hoof care while entirely missing the fact the horse’s basic needs are not being met. If your horse is stressed in his living environment you are setting yourselves up to fail. Horses that are living in a chronic state of stress and have very little ability to down-regulate their nervous system are unable to thrive and develop healthy bodies.

So many horses have poor posture which is causing tension and soreness in their bodies, it is so normalised that it seems to be rarely recognised as an issue as horses can still perform at high levels even when their bodies are compromised, we’re used to seeing horses with poor muscle development. Winning trophies does not necessarily mean the horse is comfortable, it means the horse is compliant. A lot of training views compliance as the main measure of success without really seeing how the horse is feeling both emotionally and physically, with the training itself often contributing to more tension, stress and strain on the body.

All of these things together create the “problem horse”.

I feel really strongly that we need to start looking at things differently if we want to train ethically and also increase longevity for our horses. What if instead of just medicating the horse then sending the horse to the trainer to be “fixed”, we took a step back and really looked at the whole horse and maybe why this happened in the first place.

I genuinely think we’d have much more long term success if we took the pressure off, made sure their living environment was the best we could get it, learned to help our horses down-regulate their nervous system and train at the horse’s pace in an environment they’re comfortable in. In doing so we can really help their bodies and support them as best we can with their issues.

Watching horses find relaxation in their bodies, find peace around people and start to find joy in movement through slow, low-pressure training doesn’t make very exciting videos but it does transform horse’s (and people’s) lives.

If you take anything away from this just know that you absolutely CAN train pain, people are doing it every day and getting 100k views on their reels, so don’t disregard your horse’s voice just because he is somewhat compliant or someone told you to. Behaviour is communication, not something to be fixed. There are people out here who will help you and your horse and not dismiss your concerns. 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

11/09/2024

One hour.

We cannot fix years of dysfunction in one hour.
We cannot wave a magic wand and make deep seated pathologies dissappear in one hour.
We cannot change years of pain or memory of pain in one hour.
We cannot make everything ok in one hour.

We can let your horse know we can help it one hour.
We can see that small window of change in one hour.
We can begin a change in one hour.
We can simply let your horse feel different for one hour.
We can see a new journey for that horse in one hour but restoring a better functioning mind and body depends on how long the mind and body has been in dysfunction.

Often if like me you are a therapist that is not traditional we usually are called when every conventional method has been tried and not worked, yet often the pressure to do miracles in that short time frame can be like a weight on your shoulders.

Years of dysfunction cannot simply be erased in one session, that is a unachievable goal, yet often the horse goes better so the most important second sessions simply get delayed for often when a horse has been in dysfunction better is good but best should be the goal, and that is often only achieved by a whole horse approach, owner, professionals, working together and regularly checking in to make sure the better is good enough for the horse to continue.

Homework is good but it is not comparable to the trained eye and hands, for we approach your horse with no emotional sway we stay neutral in our approach with no other motive than to help your horse be better in itself not to be better to perform a job but to be better so it can just be happy to be a horse, because first and foremost that is the most important goal for the horse.

One hour is never enough to know where your horse will end up for that first session is simply knowing where the horse can begin.

Years of compensation should not be taken away all at once for often if you take to much away the horse will simply have nothing to hold itself together.

The 1st session we have to persuade the horse We are a nice guy, they don't know and often horses in pain are guarded to protect themselves, thar one hour is simply offering them a kind hand that they can trust yet trust is built up over the next sessions in the future, for if they can trust you there is no guard up in that second session.

So take the pressure off yourself to be the one that makes a difference for only the horse has a say in that we are simply asking the horse will you let us help you, and that takes longer than one hour.

Sharing this pic again because I simply love the changes that occurred xx