Crescent Moon Equine Bodywork

05/29/2026

Everyone wants a quick and easy answer. An injection, a pain pill, a supplement, when sometimes the real answer is simply time.

If your horse is struggling, whether it’s in their body or their feet, the worst thing you can do is mask the issue and push through it just because you want to ride. Problems ignored now usually become bigger, more complicated, and far more expensive later.

Step one is figuring out what’s actually going on through proper veterinary diagnostics. Why? Because once you know what you’re dealing with, you and your team of professionals can create a plan that truly supports the horse instead of just covering up symptoms.

That plan may involve rehab, changes in training, bodywork, hoof care, or management adjustments, but healing takes time. There is no shortcut around tissue adaptation and recovery.

Time costs money, but rushing recovery usually costs even more, often at the expense of the horse.

05/26/2026

This was my view the other night after finishing a session with a very special horse. Look how pretty!

05/22/2026

Friday nights are for writing up case studies and a big ass glass of wine with my #1 human as emotional support ❤️

05/08/2026

Another good thing to keep in mind when doing pole work is watching your horse’s head as they lift a leg over a pole. If the head lifts up, they are often disengaging the thoracic sling and relying more heavily on the brachiocephalicus muscle to help compensate for weakness or instability. That compensation can create tension through the poll and upper neck and may indicate that the thoracic sling is struggling to properly support the front end.

A recent study from the University of Tennessee provided strong support for something trainers, movement specialists, and bodyworkers have observed for years:

Ground poles significantly increase activation of important postural and core muscles in horses.

What the Study Found

Walking over ground poles increased activity in:

• Longissimus dorsi — a major topline and spinal support muscle
• Abdominal muscles — critical for core stability and support of the spine

Even at the walk, poles require the horse to:

• Lift the limbs higher
• Stabilize the trunk more actively
• Organize posture and balance with greater precision
• Continuously adjust limb placement and timing

At the trot, researchers also found increased activation of the abdominal muscles.

Trotting over poles requires greater dynamic stabilization, and the increased limb elevation demands more coordinated control of the trunk, pelvis, and spine.

What This Means

These findings support the long-standing use of cavaletti and ground poles as a low-impact way to:

• Strengthen the topline
• Improve abdominal engagement
• Support spinal stability
• Enhance proprioception and coordination
• Encourage improved posture and self-carriage
• Develop better movement organization through the whole body

One of the most important aspects of pole work is that it influences both sides of the postural system:

• The dorsal chain — including the longissimus muscles along the back
• The ventral chain — including the abdominal support system

This balance is essential for efficient movement, force transfer, and development of a healthy, functional topline.

But pole work is not only muscular.

It is neurological.

Each pole creates a movement problem the horse must solve in real time.

The horse has to:

• Judge distance
• Adjust stride length
• Control timing
• Stabilize the trunk
• Organize the limbs in space
• Adapt moment-to-moment to changing demands

That process requires attention, coordination, body awareness, and ongoing nervous system regulation.

In many horses, poles appear to improve focus not simply because the horse is “behaving,” but because the nervous system is becoming more engaged and organized around the task.

Pole work may also influence neurological tone — the background level of muscular and nervous system readiness that affects posture, movement quality, stiffness, and coordination.

For some horses, this can help reduce excessive bracing and improve adaptability through the body.
For others, it can help improve postural engagement and overall organization.

Why It Matters

Regular pole work can benefit many types of horses:

• Young horses developing coordination and posture
• Performance horses improving strength, agility, movement quality, and limb awareness
• Horses rebuilding core control and stability after periods of weakness or reduced work
• Older horses maintaining mobility, coordination, and movement confidence

Importantly, many of these benefits occur even at the walk, making poles accessible to horses across a wide range of ages, disciplines, and fitness levels.

Rather than simply “making horses pick up their feet,” poles appear to challenge the nervous system, postural system, sensory system, and muscular system together — encouraging the horse to organize movement with greater control, awareness, and adaptability.

https://koperequine.com/step-by-step-the-benefits-of-walk-poles-for-horses/

05/06/2026

I completely understand why bodywork isn’t a priority for a lot of horse owners. It’s an added expense in a lifestyle that is already expensive, trust me I get it.

But the more I learn, not just as a practitioner but as a horse owner, the more I see how essential it really is. When you start to understand the horse’s body, the fascial system, and the expectations we place on them, it becomes hard to ignore how much they are managing physically every single day.

I have recently started receiving bodywork on my own horse, not just for his benefit but so I can keep learning. Because the truth is, there is so much that goes into these animals. Nutrition, hoof care, management, training. It can feel overwhelming trying to piece it all together.

Bodywork helps connect the pieces, bring clarity to where an issue may be coming from, and support every other professional working on your horse.

It supports your farrier by making it easier for your horse to balance and comfortably hold a foot.
It supports your chiropractor by softening the tissues before an adjustment and helping the body maintain that change afterward.
It supports your vet by helping regulate the nervous system, which can reduce tension and anxiety during exams.
It supports your trainer by freeing up restriction so movement becomes more honest and more available.

And it supports you, as the owner, by giving you a deeper understanding of your horse and tools to help them stay comfortable between sessions.

Bodywork isn’t separate from everything else we do for our horses, it's what allows all of it to work better.

05/05/2026

I'm obsessed with fascia! This is such a cool visual and really shows how interconnected the body is! So cool!!

05/04/2026

What's the purpose of bodywork?

Your horse is always communicating with you and most of the time it's in ways that are subtle enough to brush off or label as quirks.

Things like ears pinning when you saddle or tighten the girth, not wanting to stand for the fattier or picking up their feet, hesitation over poles or when you ask them to bend, attitude in transitions, not wanting to be caught, or even just feeling different under saddle. Or those days you think "this isn't like them."

None of those things are random, and they aren't your horse trying to be difficult.

Behavior is communication, and a lot of the time we try to train through it instead of stopping to listen. We ask for more and push past it, work them harder, and hope it goes away. I still catch myself in these moments. But what if what they're showing you isn't a behavior problem at all and is actually your horse trying to tell you that something doesn't feel right in their body?

When those small signs get ignored, they don't just disappear. The horse starts to brace, they compensate, and over time they get louder in how they express it. That can look like resistance, shutting down, or sometimes something more explosive and dangerous. But it didn't come out of nowhere, it started as something small that was easy to overlook.

And this isn't a replacement for veterinary care. Getting a vet involved to understand what's actually going on and having a clear diagnosis always comes first.

Bodywork isn't about fixing a broken horse, it's about listening before they feel like they have to get louder.

05/02/2026

I just had a really interesting session on an older gelding who has been with his owner going on 20 years. You can feel how much this horse loves her. The bond they have is something really special.
His owner is dealing with some health issues right now and is not at her best, but she still shows up and takes such good care of him. Watching them, it is hard not to feel like he has taken on a bit of a sentinel role for her.

If you watch herd dynamics, you will often see a few horses laying down while one or two stay standing. Those are the watchers. The ones paying attention to everything and making sure the herd is safe. That is exactly what he felt like.

During the session, he was very alert. Watching every movement, every sound around the barn. When I asked to take him for a walk in the arena and away from his owner, he started to let his guard down a little. Not completely though. He would still check in with her often to make sure she was okay.

It felt like he did not believe he could fully let go because that was not his job in that moment.

So instead of pushing through, I met him where he was. Anytime he got worried, I moved away, gave him space, softened, and let him process. I reassured him that his owner was okay and that he was safe. And that's where I can create a a conversation with the horse.

He eventually started yawning up a storm. His guard dropped and the releases came.

Maybe it was just an anxious day. But I don't really believe in coincidences when it comes to horses. There is always a reason behind what they do.

This time I listened, I reassured, and he let go.

Meeting a horse where they are on any given day is not optional in this work. If you ignore them, they learn that you are not listening. Once that happens, everything gets harder. The brace gets stronger. The guard stays up. The releases stop coming. Sometimes this means a 15 minute session.

A horse that does not feel heard will not let go.

04/28/2026

💉PSA💉 if you’re noticing a lot more mayflies this year, it’s worth paying attention to!

I’ve been seeing a huge increase (more than usual around this time) of them in Missouri and while they seem harmless, they’re associated with Potomac Horse Fever.

For anyone unfamiliar, PHF is caused by the bacteria Neorickettsia risticii and is linked to aquatic insects most commonly mayflies and caddisflies.

Horses get infected by ingesting these insects, usually through contaminated water, hay, or feed. So if you’re finding bugs in your troughs right now, it’s something to at least be aware of.

Some common symptoms associated with PHF include diarrhea, fever, mild colic, and in some cases, laminitis. It can come on fairly quickly and isn’t something I’d personally want to gamble with.

At the very least, it might be a good time to think about vaccination (if you haven't done so already),keep an eye on water sources, and just stay a little more aware of any changes in your horse.

04/24/2026

Compensation = coping and adapting.
Take that away, and it shows up as behavior.
The moment we sit on a horse, we change their entire system. So if they feel fine on the ground but become reactive or inconsistent under saddle, it’s worth asking what’s driving that rather than pushing through it.
Food for thought and a very interesting post.

Beyond Behaviour (Part 1): The Internal Factors Driving Horse Performance

If you’ve been following along with my Collectable Advice series, you may have noticed I disappeared. Not dramatically. More in a “somewhere in Western Australia, covered in dust, horses, and catching up with good friends” kind of way.

So let me make up for it by a longer post with some important ideas.

This is something I believe is one of the most overlooked aspects of horse behaviour and performance.

Three years ago, I bought an Equestic Saddle Clip (see first comment for details). I come from a research background, so I like measuring things. It allows you to test assumptions, experiment and explore observations.🤓

The clip analyses a few aspects of motion but for this post I want to focus on its ability to examine trot symmetry. It can reveal the rhythm, landing force, and push-off between diagonal pairs.

I assumed riders would make horses more asymmetrical.

The data showed the opposite.

Horses consistently became MORE symmetrical when ridden.🤔

That sounds like improvement.

It isn’t always.😎

Around the same time, I came across Tami Elkayam, who helped shift how I see the horse’s body.❤

Horses are not designed to be straight. Asymmetry is normal. The goal is not straightness, but function, adaptability and ambidexterity.

This is where compensation comes in.

Compensation is not a flaw. It is how the horse maintains balance and avoids discomfort.

But when the cause remains, compensation becomes a pattern. Load shifts. Strain builds. Movement becomes less efficient.

What starts as a solution becomes a limitation and can eventually snowball into injury.

The clip showed me something I could not unsee and Tami helped me appreciate and respect it.

How a horse moves when it has choice, and how that changes when we take that choice away when we ride them.

This example is one case. One horse. One snapshot.

The horse did not appear lame. The concerns were behavioural, particularly contact and canter.

On the ground, the horse showed a clear difference between diagonals in the landing phase of trot. Around 19 percent, which is significant. The clip developers recommend any horse with a difference greater than 8% to seek veterinary assessment.

Under saddle, that difference almost disappeared.

The horse has produced a graph that is more symmetrical.

But the horse did not suddenly become sound.

The horse became constrained.

On the ground, the horse organised its body in a way that allowed it to cope by compensating.

Under saddle, that choice narrowed.

The rider introduced load and restriction. The horse reorganised because it had to.

The result was the horse forced to move with greater symmetry.

But not necessarily comfort or function and hence the deterioration of behaviour under saddle.

This is the blind spot.

Most people assess their horse under saddle.

But the moment you sit on a horse, you change the system.

You reduce its ability to compensate.

Movement becomes more organised, often more symmetrical.

But what we are seeing is what the horse can produce under constraint, not how it actually functions.

The bigger the difference between those two states, the more pressure is placed on the system.

And that pressure shows up as behaviour.

Spooky. Sensitive. Rushy. Reluctant. Inconsistent. Resistant. Difficult.

Not attitude.

Coping.😕

This is why it can vary day to day.

Surface, workload, fatigue, gut comfort, and environment all influence what the horse can tolerate.
The window shifts.

The behaviour follows.

Sometimes, without meaning to, we create the problem.

We guide the horse into a posture that is technically desirable, but not yet tolerable. We reduce its ability to compensate and increase the load on areas it has been protecting.

And then we call the response a behaviour problem.

I want to be clear - Good training matters. Clarity matters. Reducing external tension matters. This is a big part of helping horses.

It is what I do.

But it is not the whole picture.

If there is an internal issue, training sits on top of it.

It may help, but many times it is not enough because it may not remove the cause.

This is where we get it wrong.

We focus on what we see and overlook what the horse is experiencing.

Then we mislabel the result.

A horse that is restricted and compensating becomes “naughty” or “difficult” or "sensitive".

It is neither.

It is coping.

So when the supplement, the pole work, or the latest gadget does not fix the problem, pause.

Those tools are not necessarily the issue.

But if the root cause remains, adding more DEMAND will not solve it.

It will often make it WORSE.

Before you add something new, ask:

What is the horse already managing?

Because real change comes from understanding the WHOLE system.

Inside and out.

Because sometimes riding a horse and forcing it to move more symmetrically is magnifying their struggle.

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