NJS Rehabilitation

Absolutely hitting the nail on the head 🔨
Thank you Long Drove Holistic Horse Training 💙

Before Rehabilitation

Before you start going down the road of rehabilitation, you have to understand two things.

Where you are.

And where you are trying to go.

Because I meet so many people who have been “rehabbing” their horse for months, sometimes years, and they still haven’t made the progress they hoped for.

Most of the time, they have tried everything they were told to do.

More walking. More straight lines. More polework. More gadgets. More strengthening. More time.

And still, their horse is not where they hoped they would be.

That is a very lonely place to be, because all most owners want is for their horse to be okay. They are not asking for miracles. They are not necessarily asking for grand performance or dramatic transformation. Sometimes they just want to see one small sign that things are getting better. One moment where the horse looks more comfortable. One day where they feel like they are finally moving forwards instead of going round in the same exhausting loop.

But the problem is that rehabilitation cannot just be a set of generic instructions.

It has to belong to the horse in front of you.

The first thing I want to understand is the story. What has actually happened? What has the vet found? What has been diagnosed? What has been treated? What information do we already have, and how was that information gathered? That matters.

But I also want to go further back than that, because often the diagnosis is not the whole story. I want to know what the horse was doing before things started to go wrong. How they were moving. What work they were doing. What patterns were already there. What changed. What was missed. What the body may have been quietly compensating for long before the obvious problem appeared.

Because a diagnosis tells us something important. But it does not always tell us how that particular horse got there. It does not always tell us how that particular horse is organising their body now.

That is where the real work begins.

Once I have the history, I want to look at the horse without judgement and without forcing them into a pre-written plan. I want to see what is actually in front of me.

How are they muscled? How are they standing? Where are they loading? How do they feel about moving? Do they move freely, or do they protect themselves? Where is the range of motion? Where is the restriction? What is working? What is struggling? What has the horse learned to do in order to cope?

Because every horse finds a way to manage. Some brace. Some avoid. Some lean. Some rush. Some shut down. Some become crooked. Some lose confidence in their own body.

And if we do not understand that, we are not really rehabilitating the horse. We are just adding exercises on top of the same compensation pattern.

That is why the starting point matters so much. Before I think about what exercise a horse “should” be doing, I want to know what needs to change first.

Where is the biggest problem in this horse right now?

What is the one thing that, if we improve it, will give the body a better chance to reorganise?

Very often, that starting point is balance and weight distribution. If the horse is constantly loading unevenly, falling through one shoulder, holding tension through the neck, dropping through the thoracic region, or protecting one part of the body, then asking for more work will not necessarily make them stronger. It may simply make the compensation stronger.

And that is where so many rehabilitation plans fall apart. Not because the owner is not trying. Not because the horse is hopeless. But because the plan does not quite fit the horse.

Rehabilitation is not just about doing more. It is about doing the right thing, at the right time, for the body that is actually in front of you.

Sometimes the horse who looks like they are failing is not failing at all.

They are just still waiting for someone to understand the pattern they are stuck in.

They are waiting for someone to stop asking them to strengthen dysfunction and instead help them find a way back to balance, comfort, confidence, and function.

That is where rehabilitation has to begin.

Not with a generic plan.

Not with a gadget.

Not with more pressure to make progress.

But with understanding.

Because once you truly understand where the horse is, you can begin to find the way forward.

ROCKY.
This lovely little chap came into NJS Rehabilitation for 2 & 1/2 weeks after incurring a puncture wound close to the tip of his frog, 😳 3 days before his Owner was due to go on holiday, causing a stressful situation to be a little more stressful! 😬He had been for an MRI scan at Oakhill Vets & fortunately the pe*******on had missed any vital structures.
Rocky had 2 weeks box rest, with Bute & antibiotics, poulticing & hand grazing. After 2 weeks Oakhill came to reassess & happy with his progress gave the all clear for re shoeing & turn out. 🙌
Rocky went home on Monday, ready to start ridden work again 👌
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Do you recognise this stance?
Heels propped up on bankings. This could be an indication that your horse is trying to alleviate discomfort somewhere. The most likely regions are lumbosacral, sacro-iliac joints (lower back /pelvis), hamstrings or suspensory ligaments.
If your horse is adopting this stance & you would like to discuss possible other signs that may indicate an issue / poor performance, please drop me a message. 🙂
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Love this from Yogi!

Did you know? Horses don’t follow the laws of physics!?

Apparently, there’s an idea floating around that once you say the word biotensegrity, biomechanics and physics quietly leave the room. It keeps popping up as comments on my posts discussing biomechanics.

The universe obeys physics. Galaxies do. Stars do. Fluids, bones, tendons, bridges, trees and tectonic plates all do.
But horses? No, horses are apparently exempt. Because… biotensegrity.

Let’s clear this up.

Biotensegrity does not replace physics.
It does not invalidate biomechanics.
It does not allow a horse to ignore force, moment, leverage, or gravity.

Biotensegrity is how living structures cope with physics, not how they escape it.

Physics describes what forces exist.
Biomechanics applies those laws to biological structures. Joints, tendons, bones, motion.
Biotensegrity describes how living tissues distribute, store, redirect, and tolerate those forces over time using tension, elasticity, and redundancy.

That’s the hierarchy. Not three competing belief systems.

A tensegral structure still obeys Newton’s laws. It still has centres of rotation. It still experiences moments. It still fails when loads exceed capacity. Just often later, and more creatively, than rigid structures.

Yes, horses are non-linear systems.
Yes, forces are distributed.
Yes, tissues store and release energy.
Yes, compensation exists.

None of that means moments stop existing. None of it means equilibrium stops mattering. None of it means geometry, leverage, or load paths become irrelevant.

In fact, biotensegrity only works because biomechanics is obeyed. It is a buffering strategy. A way of surviving imperfect alignment, uneven terrain, fatigue, growth, and injury within the rules of physics.

And here’s the key point that keeps getting missed

Compensation is not a design goal.
It’s a survival mechanism.

A biotensegral system can tolerate imbalance, for a time. But persistent imbalance still loads the weakest link. Tendons still strain. Ligaments still fail. Structures still collapse when limits are exceeded. Otherwise horses wouldn’t get injured!!!

So when we talk about biomechanics, equilibrium, moments, and balance, we’re not denying biotensegrity. We’re describing the force environment that biotensegrity is responding to.

Horses are not magical beings that transcend nature.
They are extraordinarily well-adapted biological systems operating within it.

And understanding the physics doesn’t reduce that complexity, it explains why it exists.

I have just spent time in Glasgow observing equjne dissection with this lady. It was an amazing, learning experience & reinforced just how incredible these animals are. Thank you to the owners of the horses, Equi-ed & Becks Nairn.

COPPER
Weeks 1-3 of walk work, a combination of in -hand & long lining.