Not everything is wrong

I’m sure my fellow equine practitioners can resonate with me this one, but something I have increasingly become aware of is this notion of only seeing whats ‘wrong’ with a horse. As practitioners, in any field in the equine industry, this is what we are trained to see, as mostly our job is to improve the ‘problem’. Whilst of course this is useful, it can also be a hindrance, especially considering the owners take on your findings and all they hear are negative things about their horse 😢

Having owned a typical broken Thoroughbred for over 14 years now and riding, feeling and even dissecting many horses, I can safely say the ‘perfect’ horse does not exist! Every horse is crooked, every horse has something ‘wrong’ and this is where the job can get exhausting and deflating. Instead of focusing on the negatives and prescribing your horse ‘cant’ do this and that, I think it’s more important to realise what the horse IS capable of, and positive ways it can manage its asymmetries or postural issues.

Yes your horse may be crooked and short stepping on the left, but it doesn’t mean you should not touch them, the same as us, if you have a compensation pattern or a postural habit, you need to work through it in a way that isn’t going to cause more