Mountain Air Trails and Stable

02/02/2025

The challenge of timing your aids, while posting! 🤔🧐🤨
Most often we are going to be timing our leg with the horse’s inside hind. In a posting trot on the correct diagonal, that means you’ll be applying the leg AS you stand, because that is in time with the swing phase of the inside hind. 
You have a couple choices to make. You can…
1.) learn to use your inside leg while you are in the standing phase of your posting trot. This is what I do, and I think it’s easy now, but initially learning it is not so easy! But the nice thing is your seat is allowing room for the horse at the same time you are asking them to step under.
2.) change diagonals. There are some systems that teach riders to simply swap diagonals and it’s a great idea, but I’ve seen some absolute great pros get really confused about which diagonal they are on once they start using this method. It’s also not quite as ideal, because as you are asking the horse to step under, you are coming down into the sit phase. 
3.) Don’t worry about it and just time with the “wrong” leg. I mean really, if you ask the outside hind to reach across as opposed to asking the inside hind to reach under, it’s all kind of the same thing. Yes, we technically want to encourage adduction (stepping under) more than we want to encourage abduction (reaching out), but there are plenty of riders out there who don’t ever anticipate being so effective, and advanced that they are going to cause the horse to reach too big in the lateral movements to the point of throwing the horse off balance. And the truth is, in the beginning I just teach people to time their aids with the horse’s tempo, and I don’t actually care which leg they are timing with. Not everyone aspires to do a halfpass zigzag, and for most training level stuff, if you are using your aids in any kind of rhythm whatsoever, you are ahead of most of the class!

02/02/2025

01/25/2025

👍👍👍

Prerequisites for your horse before utilizing “Inside Leg to Outside Rein” connection!

(In no particular order and guys this is just a Facebook post- not a 1000 page
Riding manual. Please adjust expectations accordingly!)

1.) A hindquarter yield. If you can’t get the horse to move the b***y over, there’s absolutely no way you’re going to get inside leg to outside rein connection.
2.) Lateral poll flexion. If you cannot get the horse to bend both directions through the poll joint, consider in hand work.
3.) Responsiveness!  You can’t get your horse to move correctly if you can’t get your horse to move.
4.) A rudimentary leg yield.  This one might be confusing because you need good inside leg to outside rein connection to get a proper leg yield. But you need a rudimentary “move over” before you can get inside leg to outside rein. To get students started I will often have them bend towards the wall and leg yield down the rail nose out, tail in. As they start to get the idea, we do it a few meters away from the wall. 
5.) Two reins!!! Lol. What I mean by this is that you should be able to have a little connection in both hands traveling both directions. It’s very common for horses to completely avoid contact on one side.  You might feel like if you engage your outside rein at all, that you lose all bend to the inside, and/or that your horse completely shrinks their neck all up, affectively training you to not use that rein! 
6.) “Bend” (axial rotation) through the rib cage both directions.  Again, this becomes a chicken or egg conversation!  Many will say that inside leg to outside rein is how you get bend through the body, But if it’s a concept you are already sketchy on, and your horse is totally locked in his torso, you’re going to have to work on this ingredient by itself before you are going to be able to orchestrate multiple things happening together. That said your hind quarter yield and rudimentary leg yield will already be helping with this. But it’s important, so I’m also listing it separately.
I teach students to sit to the inside of the bend to help the horse swing through the rib cage. You should be able to step down into your inside stirrup and get the horse to swing the rib cage to the outside, which appears like bend through the torso.

01/25/2025

When you don't have time to ride because you have too many barn chores, lol. 😂🐴

01/24/2025

Lynette.... Why are you placing my saddle so far back? I may as well be on their butt!

But seriously, where should your saddle be positioned? How do you know it's right?

We come from a nation of saddles on top of shoulders. Taught to set the saddle above the wither and the panel legs over the shoulder. We warm up and saddle has "slipped back", jump off put it back on top of their ears, sorry shoulders., and still we don't realise the saddle doesn't actually belong there.

The SMS teach a saddle should be 5cm behind the scapula. The IASF teach you to place the point of the saddle behind the shoulder rotation. You will see me lift a leg and check how far the scapula rotates. Most often 2.5" (so SMS guidance) but sometimes it's just an inch, or 3inches. This determines where I place your saddle. Then the final panel contact must not be past T18. This is how I determine what length of saddle (which alters by brand and model) will sit nicely on your horses weight bearing area.

The scapula is lined with soft cartilage, your horse should be able to move the scapula freely without contacting the tree points.

Once placed correctly your girth straps should hang naturally inline with your horses girth grove, hence why we have shaped girths. But that's a whole other post!

This post was a client request... Keep letting me know what interests you and I'll do my best to deliver 😍☺️
❤️

Excellent illustration borrowed from Natural Horseman Saddles.com Natural Horseman Saddles

01/22/2025

👍💕💕💕💕

Pre empting our horses will always behave badly

I often wonder why when working with horses often people come from a place of being assertive and sometimes verging on the aggressive with their intention and often with the attitude give them an inch and they will take a yard mindset

I sat and watched a trainer once who basically stepped out like they were just about to enter the ring with rocky, and proceeded to tell us all if we don't make them do as they are told then we are going to have horses that will basically stomp on our heads at any given opportunity, when I picked my jaw up off the floor I then sat and watched as a "dance" (I fecking hate that word) ensued, now I do not know what dances this guys ever been to but If I went to dance with a guy and he proceeded to step on my toes, chase me around, reprimand me when I didn't understand what he was asking then you can be pretty damn sure date number 2 would never happen

You don't have to do moves to be aggressive in the horses eyes you just need to have an energy which puts their eyes on you, it isn't connection its worry and if we come from a place of reprimanding a behaviour that may never surface are we already setting our horses up to fail

I often think of circus animals that were chased around, made to perform tricks and how we look upon that as an abhorrent old fashioned way to treat an animal yet we still see it done with horses and often change the word to magical, is it because we only associate the circus tricks that we found distasteful demeaning to what we perceive with a wild animal

I hate to see bumping on noses, banging with elbows to get horses out of our space when all the time we never ask them if it is OK we are in theirs, I want trust not respect from my youngsters of course they are allowed in "my space", if they are reprimanded for being inquisitive then how will they learn and unless they grow fingers and a thumb they have to suffice using other sensory receptors and I have often found teeth are hardly used it's that big sniff they take using their olfactory nerve to interpret the sense of smell which is hugely important for the horse to assess a situation, we often want connection yet push the horse away when that nose comes forward to investigate exactly who we are?

I often wonder why we are like this and often it boils down to because we can, horse just want an easy life, I look at some of my old rescue horses who were the kindest souls and I often use to think why would anyone be horrible to them and the sad fact is because they just never put up a fight and for me often the harshest hands are coupled with soft emotive words to distract the owner from what is being done to the horse

We have to start looking without listening to distractions, we need to turn the sound down on the humans so the horses voice can be heard, they may not speak vocally but visually the truth is there to see

01/19/2025

Nice to see the B.H.S. are recognising the subtle signs
If you look back at my posts you will see many drawings and videos on this subject
What does this mean for the horse ??? That the information the horse has always told us will become more widely available at all levels xx

01/16/2025

Old post but it is Just for fun

Hide your horses here comes the bodyworker

Ok I admit it sometimes as a therapist we can be a bit like the voice of doom as we walk through the yard shouting LAME, oh dear and have you seen your horses pelvis 😀

As we walk on to the yard the rider schooling their horse quietly hides behind a hedge, the farrier groans as we come across all medial lateral balance, the instructor sob silently as they start watching hours of endless lameness videos on you tube with our words “can't you see it” still ringing in her ears.

The owner is all excited to see us but the smiles fades as we reel off what we find and then turn round happily and say well this is normal (my clients will resonate with this), or God forbid we find a weird thing with your horse we will be their snapping away excitedly as we say oooh I have never seen one of those before and in our heads will be happy we can outweird our friends.

And if we ever venture to a show, we almost certainly will have a melt down at any point because we will walk around muttering WTF and did you see that, and surely someone sees it before having a full-on toddler tantrum refusing to ever be involved in the horse world again and plonking ourselves in the car with a soothing alcoholic beverage

We assume everyone has had the same training as us and will gladly reel off anatomy, biomechanics, and all the latest stuff we have been to. Meanwhile my postman is thinking why does she keep talking about horses to me and what the hell is a hyoid, because we will literally discuss anything with anyone who gives us even the slightest hint they are interested.

We happily drive around with various body parts in our cars windows open trying not to retch with the smell, thinking next time I watch a serial killer documentary I must remember how to get rid of the smell, as you happily walk across a car park with bags of legs chatting away the "normal" people remark you are all wierd (true story😀)

We will insist that you do all these exercises and will give you a stern warning that if you don't, we will know (that’s usually enough to strike fear in anyone), meanwhile our own horses will down tools and call in the union if they even get a hint, we may ask them to work as usually we are to knackered to anything with them by the time, we get to them

We tell you how important your own fitness is and chastise the rider for not being a gymnast meanwhile we look like a tortoise on its back as we try to get up from the floor when working on anything smaller than a 14.2hh, we pretend we are doing lymphatic drainage on the horses legs when in reality we are pulling ourselves up

But if you can put up with us you can guarantee you will have a passionate, dedicated, therapist who will sit up late at night researching that weird thing on your horse, we will arm you with information that will help you and horse tackle anything, will listen to your fears and become part of your team

As you can see my own horse would show somes moves to show he was didn't need bodywork (miss him)

Team Horse

Breathe Through Bodywork

01/16/2025

01/15/2025

👍👍👍👍👍

Your a bodyworker and you ride your 2 Yr old horse🤔
Now i don't get in this educated day and age why anyone professional or not would be climbing on board their youngster but as a bodyworker it's just shameful and does so much harm not only to the immature body you are climbing on board but the message you are putting out there and if someone quotes me wolffs law one more time I may just scream.

Let's talk about wolffs law first how do you know you are having a positive affect on bone growth do you live with a vet who offers free xrays each week to make sure you are not having a negative affect, I mean osteoblasts and osteoclasts pretty much know their job without the interference from us, ya know the body is pretty amazing at knowing its job and how and when to do things often illness, old age or to much work will knock these out of sync.
And mostly on dissections I have never heard an anatomist ooh look how well the young horses bones developed into maturity, most are basically f**ked up by human interference.

Manners, oh boy that old chestnut I would simply suggest manners belong first on the ground if your horse is being a dick on the ground climbing on board it's back is not where I would want to be😃 and if your horse is being a dick then they often reflect ourselves back so you not your horse may be the dick

What message are you sending out you are a professional🫢 after all, we have to be seen to whiter than white as we can send a powerful message to others monkey do as monkey see

The horse is made up more than just bone stop focusing on one study, one theory, one thing to suit your agenda

Young horses belong with other youngsters developing their bodies through movement and a suitable enviroment we are obsessed with that we have to interfere to develop the body for riding yet minimise the one thing that can develope a healthy body which is movement without a human interfering. Just let them grow up a little without the pressure to be anything but a young horse

Allow your youngsters to mature mentally and physically before we begin to mess things up, because we know one thing humans will take a good thing and keep repeating until it becomes bad

Professionals have a responsibility and if you are an educated professional and still choose to ride your 2 Yr old go back to the being a dick paragraph

01/14/2025

𝔽𝕦𝕟 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥 𝔽𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕒𝕪
Did you know that D to D measurements is a totally useless way of measuring saddle width? Cos the D rings can be placed anywhere on the saddle.
Pictured are two saddles - one is XW and the other is MW. They both have the same D to D measurement.

01/13/2025

The power of the hind end is not all about the big butt muscles like all movement we often forget the role of the deepest muscles that often span the majority of the vertebral column and just because we categorize them into specific areas everything is connected.

The deeper muscles sometimes get left behind because we visually find it difficult to imagine the movement they aid while the more superficial we can see and touch yet often seperate their relationship and the story they can tell us about the health of the deeper structures by the visual clues from the superficial.

We often just categorise the longissimus into the longissimus dorsi encapsulating the longissimus Thoracis and lumborum yet forgetting their is a capitis and cervical part, yet they all are relevant and often why back issues are never just a back problem, and why if we just think of the back when addressing it we only get part of the problem and therefore only part of the solution with issues creeping back overtime

We forget the intertwining of fascial structures like the Thoracolumbar fascia, the Aponeurosis connection to the abdomen

The longissimus is one of the erector spinae group so again one of so dont think in isolation, if we move to the neck with the missing part of the lamella and the think of one of the other erector muscle the spinalis that may have to take on board the missing lamella job then what part does the Longissimus Cervicis have to play, does it to have to work harder yet we often only visually see the hypertrophy in the Brachiocephalicus and the Rhomboid but don't finish the story as to why only address it by "relaxing" the muscle without asking why the hypertrophy appeared in the first place??? Are they hypertrophied in isolation or are we simply missing the atrophy in the middle of the two structures ?? Why are we relaxing an area that has missing structures surely we should be adding strength ?

Slips, falls, ill fitting tack, poor riding, lack of fitness, can affect it aswell as pain in other areas causing poor posture.

We often negate the feel and stick our fingers in along the back to test for spasms yet simply by placing a soft feel and feeling for heat can often indicate the first signs of inflammation before the spasm appears

Horses tend to be leg movers but keeping the upper half still as they move, standing with a hindlimbs wide to dipping their back down the back when the saddle is removed still has a saddle shaped indentation long after
Hindlimb performance is lacking often tracking up incorrectly or struggling to step under, but again many of these issues can related to other dysfunctions we need to put all the pieces together to find a correlation that leads us to an answer

Could it be head, could it be the neck, could it be the back or the hind end ?? Or is the answer it is all if one is not right

So next time your horse is rearing don't go arghhh go oooh as you see the Longissimus Dorsi in action 😃😃😃🙃

Whole horse evaluation. Whole horse therapy. Whole horse health