EQ Therapeutics

06/12/2026

Thank you for travelling all the way across the world to join us.

We are incredibly grateful to have students like you who value this education and training so deeply. Your commitment to learning, growth, and improving the lives of horses is truly appreciated.

Looking forward to spending another week together and sharing this part of the journey with you.

06/07/2026

I don't think the majority of people in my life, even those I see and talk to regularly, fully understand what it is that I do.

My human patients often ask me what I do when I'm not treating them. My horse clients know one side of my work, my students know another, and my friends and family probably have their own version as well.

I also suspect many of them picture me sitting in a lawn chair somewhere, watching horses graze and playing with them all day.

To be fair, I do occasionally sit in a lawn chair surrounded by horses.

The reality, however, is a little different.

Most people in the horse industry know me as an equine osteopathic practitioner.

Most people in the human therapy world know me as a Registered Massage Therapist, Kinesiologist, and Osteopathy student.

Human therapy was my first profession and remains an important part of my life. It provided the clinical foundation that eventually led me into the equine world and shaped much of how I assess, think, teach, and problem-solve today.

Over the years, my work has evolved far beyond treatment. Today I split my time between clients, teaching, curriculum development, mentorship, rehabilitation, research, dissection studies, business management, staff oversight, horse care, and developing new educational projects.

Most mornings start before 5:00 a.m. Most evenings don't end when the last client leaves.

But despite how different those responsibilities appear, they are all connected by the same purpose:

To better understand horses.
To help people learn.
To improve welfare.
To ask better questions.

So what do I do for work?

At the core of it all, I help horses by helping people understand them better.

Sometimes that means treating them.
Sometimes that means teaching the people who care for them.
Sometimes that means studying them long after they have passed.

But at the end of the day, every role I hold exists for the same reason:

To leave horses better than I found them.

06/04/2026

Some conversations take a decade to be heard.

This photograph was taken during a recent skeleton retrieval.

One of the reasons I am such a strong advocate for composting is because the bones never lie.

They do not care about our opinions, our training philosophies, or what was popular at the time. They simply tell the story that was written into them over a lifetime.

Over a decade ago, I began noticing a pattern in some of the horses I was assessing: widespread orthopaedic dysfunction, early arthritis, and significant spinal issues that never fully resolved.

I began wondering whether some of these horses were living with the long-term consequences of being started too young.

The response was rarely curiosity.

I was ignored, dismissed, belittled, and told I didn't know what I was talking about.

Fast forward to today, and growth plate injuries are increasingly recognized through dissection, composting projects, and increasingly recognized by veterinarians.

Part of me is grateful, but the other part wonders how many horses may have benefited if we had been willing to have these conversations sooner.

The reason I am sharing this now is because I find myself in a similar position when discussing ECVM.

Ten years ago, growth plate pathology was often dismissed.

Today, I see many of the same reactions surrounding ECVM.

I genuinely do not know how that conversation will evolve over the next decade.

But when a horse consistently demonstrates physical limitations, behavioural changes, pain responses, neurological signs, or an inability to perform the work being asked of them, we owe it to that horse to consider all possibilities.

Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do is gather more information and allow the findings to guide our expectations.

Our job is not to force the horse to fit the goal.

Our job is to understand the horse in front of us and adapt the goal to fit the horse.

06/02/2026

What if your horse's body already knows how to heal?

One of the foundational principles of osteopathy is autoregulation; the body's innate ability to maintain balance, adapt to stress, repair tissue, and move toward health when the right conditions are present.

In this recent conversation with on we explored what autoregulation means and why it matters so much when it comes to both equine and human health.

We discussed the many factors that can either support or interfere with autoregulation:

• Pain and injury
• Movement and biomechanics
• Hoof health and locomotion
• Circulation and fluid flow
• Nervous system function and stress physiology
• Nutrition and inflammation
• Environment and management practices
• The horse's ability to express normal species-specific behaviours

And perhaps most importantly, we explored why successful therapy is often less about "fixing" the body and more about removing the obstacles that prevent the body from doing what it was designed to do.

If you've ever wondered why some horses seem to recover effortlessly while others remain stuck in the same patterns despite repeated interventions, this episode may offer a completely different lens through which to view health, rehabilitation, and performance.

The podcast link can be found in the comments on Facebook or in my Linktree on Instagram.

If you have a listen, I'd love to hear what resonated with you most.

05/29/2026

Sometimes the weight of the world can feel incredibly heavy.

But this photo reminds me that I am still on my right path.

I do not have to change the entire world, even though part of me often feels like that is my responsibility. I simply have to keep doing the work I was put here to do.

Nothing makes me happier than teaching. So even in a world that often seems determined to ignore science, anatomy, and the quiet truths the body is constantly revealing, I will keep moving forward.

Bones hold the horse’s truth.

Sadly, many horses do not have their stories truly understood until after they have passed. But there are so many ways we can assess anatomy, physiology, movement, compensation, and pain while they are still alive. There are so many opportunities to intervene earlier, ask better questions, and prevent needless suffering.

This is why I do what I do.

If I can teach even one person how to recognize abnormal anatomy, dysfunctional movement, or compensatory physiology, perhaps one horse will be spared from being pushed through pain that was never behavioural in the first place.

📸 CST L1 Certification 2026

05/28/2026

It's true, we encounter this regularly ⬇

Here's a spicy one for you this evening - because i havent made a career limiting post in a hot minute(!)

How complicit are you in your own (or your horse's) suffering?

I appreciate we all have horses for a reason, and I appreciate their care and management is a complicated thing.

When I work with people, sometimes I have to say things they dont want to hear:

"Your horse shouldnt be ridden right now" - because theyre in pain, their posture is too compromised, they barely have enough muscle to support themselves yet alone a rider, their saddle doesnt fit.

"You shouldnt be jumping your horse" see above reasons why.

"You shouldnt be cantering right now" because it will definitely strengthen the compensatory pattern.

Compromise can be made when making the argument between streamlining the process - not riding will get quicker postural changes, but if you want to ride and ultimately the horse isnt in overt pain/discomfort, then that should be fine.

But I really dont compromise when your horse is in pain. Nor should you.

There are SO many people who are wonderful when they hear this -

"I just want my horse to be happy" - literal music to my ears

But there are many people who want their horse to be happy - stating as much - but when it comes to taking the above guidance, they push back.

It's not the answer that they want to hear.

Yet they've been chasing an issue with their horse for months or years and you've given them a solution... its just not a solution where they get to do what they've always done...

And I wonder about the graveyard of professionals behind me, who have given them appropriate advice that again was not heard because it wasnt the answer that they wanted to hear.

I understand that professionals dont always get it right. I also understand that there are many professionals that get it really really quite wrong -

I just find it to be very profound that when you point out the behavioural indicators of pain, the lameness and the biomechanical dysfunction, you can still be totally ignored -

Especially when your friend in the stable next door (with no formal training in anything equine related) says their horse does the same thing, so therefore your horse must be fine!

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For the entirety of May, you can get 50% off lifetime access for The Modern Centaurian Academy using the code MAY50 at checkout:

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/modern-centaurian-academy

📸 Olivia Rose Photography