Rose Kimberley BSc - Equine Sports Therapist

07/08/2026

The thoracic sling supports the horses entire front end. They don’t have a collar bone and so it is all linked together by a massive grid of muscles that act like a hammock. A strong thoracic sling is vital for self carriage, balance and soundness!

Your horse might be…
⭐️ Heavy on the forehand
⭐️ Poor top line muscle development
⭐️ Stiff and difficult to bend
⭐️ Braced and choppy movement

30/07/2026

Worth a read! 📚

"Won't they get fat? Isn't turnout risky?" These are common questions Sue Dyson hears again and again from worried owners and yard managers. New research from 56 international dressage and show jumping horses tells a different story - one where free forage, turnout and the chance to touch another ho...

22/07/2026

This is such an important quote to remember!

17/07/2026

We often fixate on posture during ridden or ground work but what about posture when eating? Horses spend the majority of their time eating so surely it is important in which position they are doing it in.

So many of us use haynets for a variety of reasons but maybe it’s time to start considering alternative feeding options.

Have you ever taken time to watch a horse drag hay out of a highly tied up haynet? They stand with their head and neck above wither height and with a lordotic posture which means their backs are hollow. There is evidence to show that tying them lower isn’t enough to actually positively influence them anyway.

Poor posture can leave your horse open to issues such as misalignment of the spine (aka kissing spine), soft tissue damage, poor circulation contributing to micro trauma within the muscle fibres and muscle soreness to name a few.

So, the ideal eating position is from a much lower position (the ground). But what about when they are stabled and those that drag their forage around? And what about those who need to be restricted and need to make their forage last for longer periods of time?

An interesting study comparing horses eating from three different positions…
⚪️ The ground
⚪️ Hay racks
⚪️ Elevated haynets

… found that higher eating positions consistently affected head and neck posture (Hernandez Girbati, 2025).

Food for thought!!!

10/07/2026

Just going to park this here…!

18/06/2026

Can you spot the moment of release?
This sweet girl holds a lot of tension in her shoulders, neck and poll areas. Here I am releasing around her TMJ which has a direct influence on these areas.

The temporomandibular joint is where the lower jaw attaches to the upper jaw. It is a highly mobile joint and is responsible for all the movement of the lower jaw and therefore susceptible to tension and soreness. Here I am applying light pressure to the joint to encourage a release. You can see the resistance at first followed by a lick and a chew.

05/06/2026

LEGS!!!
Injury prevention and keeping our horse legs healthy is so important. While accidents happen it is important to educate yourselves in ways to look after them. I spoke about conditioning muscles in another post but tendons and ligaments take longer to adapt.

Top tips are:
🐎 Don’t be in a rush. Build fitness gradually
🐎 Look down! What’s the footing like? Too hard, too deep and uneven can be hazardous
🐎 What does your horse’s condition look like? A horse that is too heavy puts unnecessary strain on their limbs
🐎 Sufficient warm up and cool down is essential
🐎 Ensure nutrition is balanced and sufficient for the individual horse
🐎 Although a variety of terrains are important for conditioning take note of the quality and the appropriateness of them for what you are using them for. 🐎 Adequate rest and recovery
🐎 Hooves! Check they are correctly balanced. Over a period of time if this is done incorrectly it can have a detrimental effect on legs and supporting structures
🐎 Cool legs down after strenuous exercise and if boots are worn ensure they are breathable (avoid bandages). For example: The SDFT can reach temperatures up to 45 degrees while undergoing strenuous exercise. It has been shown that the collagen fibres begin to weaken and damage starts to accumulate causing the start of degeneration if they are kept warm for extended periods of time. There are ways to do this using ice, water and cooling boots

29/05/2026

Well isn’t this heat a bit of a shock to the system…

Ways to help your horse cope
🏇Exercise your horse at either the beginning or the end of the day to avoid the hottest periods
🏇Maybe go for a shady hack rather than an intense schooling session
🏇If you do have to train keep sessions short and sweet
🏇You might not have any major competitions coming up, in that case, do you really need to ride?
🏇Cold hosing and leave the horse to drip dry
🏇Add electrolytes to their feed

12/05/2026

🥱Groundwork🥱
With a big push on ground work at the moment I thought it would be a good topic to touch on. I personally love ground work and it is a big goal of mine to get better at it. It’s so rewarding to see the horse’s face, posture and movement patterns change throughout your session plus all the releases that come with it. Bonus is, if you’re short of time, it doesn’t have to be very long and you can still achieve so much.

This video is a clip that I took of my four year-old who I am in the process of backing. I didn’t have a lot of time and I’m conscious of mixing her sessions up. At her tender age it is important for a lot of reasons to venture out of the school and to include variety. But while sitting on her the other day, I just didn’t like the way she felt underneath me. She was stuck through the neck, front feet, rib cage and subsequently couldn’t move the hind leg.

If anyone is interested in ground work and is curious about the benefits for your horse I strongly suggest that you head over to ’s instagram page and give her a follow. She also runs a Patreon page brimming with healthy knowledge on the subject as well as running a 30 day ground reset including live sessions on a Tuesday lunchtime for only £10 a month unlimited access.

06/05/2026

HARD GROUND!
Despite the small amount of rain we have had recently the ground remains very hard. Galloping increases the forces that must be absorbed through each limb to roughly three times their bodybodyweight. The muscles are also put under greater strain. The risk of injury greatly increases when the core is weak, the muscles tired which leaves the strain to be taken up by the connective tissue. There are ways to minimise this risk…
🐎 only gallop if horse and rider are fit confident and have balance and control 🐎 thorough warmup is a must as well as a thorough warm down is just as important - allow heart rate to return to normal. 🐎 environment must be safe and ensure the surface is consistent and appropriate (like above I am galloping on a safe artificial surface)
🐎 do not gallop a tired horse 🐎 do not gallop a horse too often