Posture
Do you take notice of how your horse naturally stands? In an ideal world our horses should be standing comfortably square, so that the joints are neatly stacked on top of one another. However what’s more likely, is our horse will stand with a compensatory pattern or ‘bad posture’. I have drawn some horses displaying different postures when standing naturally.
As a body worker these are things I look at in great detail, I will observe if the horse has even weight in all four feet, when I try to rearrange the limbs what posture does the horse return to consistently. After a session I often find most horses will choose to stand with much better posture.
The best indication I see that shows what I’m doing works is how the horse chooses to stand. What I have noticed is over time they gradually will choose to stand square when resting, eating, or when tied up. Once the horse can achieve this on their own regularly, this can be used as a baseline when something is askew. For example, your horse now starts to stand like the horse is picture two. Perhaps this is an indication of heel pain or issues in the hind end? Picking up on a subtle change in your horse’s posture is a great indicator that it may be time to get a body worker out or even investigate yourself where an issue may have arisen. If you can pick up on it early enough then hopefully your horse can return to standing with good posture more rapidly, therefore avoiding any long term damage or injury.
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