Therapeutic Exercise for Equines

If you use a search engine to look for ideas for exercising your horse to improve balance, core strength, posture, range of movement and flexibility plenty will be listed. A word of caution, please do not attempt to do these without advice from your vet if your non ridden equine has underlying conditions as you could be doing more harm than good. Your vet can offer advice as to suitable exercises for your equine’s condition. Your vet may suggest working with a registered equine physiotherapist practitioner or a complimentary therapist.

A physiotherapist can assess your equine’s range of movement, give treatment and provide you with the right exercises and ongoing support alongside your vet. There are many complementary therapies you can consider for your equine that have many benefits and can increase your equines physical and emotional wellbeing. The best possible care is often found by working with professionals from different modalities. With the approach of keeping all in the loop so your professionals are a cohesive team. Your vet will also have a good idea of who’s practicing in your area and should be able to make recommendations. If they cannot signpost you could ask around in your local horse community. Any recommendations please check out a therapist’s credentials before they work with you and your equine.

If your equine has a clear bill of health you must consider fitness levels and have a good sound knowledge of how equines biomechanically move. So a wise investment is to learn as much as possible about equine biomechanics and fitness levels appropriate to exercise. A good starting point would be to visit the Horses Inside Out website. Here you will find resources that will give you the insight into equine anatomy, how horses move, training and equine management.

Horsemanship sessions from a practitioner who is non ridden equine friendly is also a wise investment in ensuring the exercises are appropriate and done ethically. Plenty of the therapeutic exercises can be done using Positive Reinforcement.

We strongly urge you work under professional guidance.        

Some Useful Links. Listed in no particular order: 

We certainly haven’t listed everything. We would be delighted to add to this resource bank. Please Get in Touch if you have information we can add.

Complementary therapies and the law – Horse and Hound. 

If you are looking for activities that are gentle and low impact please check out the following sectuons in our library.