Laura Padgett Corrective Horsemanship and Bodywork

10/07/2025

Lameness vs compensation or stiffness - pain vs avoidance of new patterns?

Firstly before reading on, I am not a vet. I do not have a vet’s education and you should in no way replace veterinary investigation and support or advice with any thing i say.

But - a lot of times when people find their horse has some hitch in their get along, something has happened to their horse’s gait or normal responses to riding have changed, they fear pain and back off.

While we can never definitively say a horse is not in pain, there is a difference between pain and stiffness, uncertainty, or fear of changing a pattern.

And- even if there WAS pain and it is now treated, those patterns can still exist - leaving with us with a pain response and (assuming) no pain.

Quite often I help people and their horses through these spots, revealing a magically sound horse who was limping, balking, sucking back or unsteady in their gait just a few minutes or days ago-
It’s not magic, it’s mobility and movement patterns.

If the horse is actually lame - say a bone fracture - it will worsen with movement.

If the horse is STIFF or reserved in movement patterns, it should improve pretty soon with GOOD movement, not just moving around.

Where things get tricky is people often say the horse takes 15-20 mins to warm up and move out of it, and often these are sloppy or incorrect warm up patterns. We need to address range of motion, joint flexion, alignment, breathing, and of course most importantly help the horse feel safe in being in these.

To tie it together with a personal example: I found my knees and joints to be very sore and painful suddenly. I started a mobility training program and really disliked the first week of the work - but I was reminded if I feel stiff that is not the same as pain. I worked through it preserving correct range of motion over depth of squat or intensity and so on - two weeks later I already feel “sound” again.

Joints need to work through their correct range of motion, and when a horse hurts, they often protect themselves, often to their own detriment.

Don’t panic. Ride in rhythm - see what you get on the other end and re evaluate

06/26/2025

01/11/2025

So true

Horse sales, expectations, an epidemic in problems getting along with animals, and why I’ll never sell the horses I have

All this has been on my mind more than usual recently as I’ve helped a few students navigate the process of finding and purchasing a suitable horse for them.

I’ve been on about every side of a horse sale there is, and find every angle distasteful personally. I used to sell a few horses here and there and found the expectations of those looking to purchase unreasonable, and the horse quickly reduced to an object sold for a price- one that should come with buttons and a manual and not change no matter what the handling or environment was like.

As I helped my students find horses, I found the sale and presentation dishonest, and uncomfortable as well. These horses carry high price tags and are presented as these types of robots that fulfill the desires of a purchaser : ten minutes of video of all the things the horse will tolerate- tarps blowing, people standing on their backs, but very little into WHO this horse is and what they need.

For clarity, it’s not that I’m opposed to purchasing or selling horses. I just have very few personal experiences of it being any fun

The focus on horses in the industry often is very much on what the person needs or wants to get out of an experience with horses. Because of this, we struggle to get along with horses. Over the years, I’ve found my heart broken time and time again to hear some of the gentlest and easiest horses I loved moved along because their owners simply could not get along with them - often because they took too much, expected too much, and gave to the horse too little of what a horse actually needs.

What a horse actually needs - that is such a nebulous concept anymore. Of course it’s fine to purchase a horse that suits your needs, and we aren’t required to get along with horses who’s temperaments don’t suit us - but any horse can quickly unravel when we don’t commit to husbandry, to rising to the occasion, to being the kind of person and having the kind of life a horse needs. They didn’t ask to come into our lives - it is not their responsibility to bend to unrealistic requirements, and it isn’t even possible for them to do so most of the time.

I’ve had reports of my horses, the most gentle ones who I can’t imagine being difficult for someone to handle, becoming unruly and unmanageable for folks - won’t stand for trims, won’t lead, aggressive or spooky. These are the horses my children ride , the quietest ones I have - what does it take for a horse to unravel? A persons lack of awareness, poor support to the horse; and unreasonable expectations.

So long as we societally don’t focus on GIVING to our animals but instead taking, we will continue to have problems getting along, and horses will continue to bounce through homes, with their stressed behavior becoming increasingly described as their personality