18/12/2025
This morning I had a question posted in my Equine Functional Posture Course and I thought it would be good to post here as it is an important question
“My horse has been cleared by the vet to be ridden… but when is the right time to actually start riding?”
This is such an important question!!
Being cleared by the Vet means tissues have healed enough to tolerate load.
But healing and readiness are not the same thing.
Before we climb back into the saddle, it’s worth asking a deeper question:
👉 Is my horse’s body prepared and able to carry me well - physically, posturally, and emotionally?
True readiness is about function, not just timeframes.
I look for signs like:
• Can they maintain balanced posture at rest?
- Limb alignment and positions
- Head and neck position - braced or relaxed?
• Do they have mobility and strength through the thoracic sling to enable lift at the base of the wither and maintain balance and weight off the forehand
• Is the core able to support the spine, or does movement collapse under load?
- Is there mobility of the spine in a belly lift?
- When they trot is the back well supported or is it dropping downwards with a disconnect to the pelvis
• Are they moving with ease, confidence, and symmetry or guarding and compensating?
• How do they respond to light requests - calmly and softly, or with tension and resistance?
🐴Riding too early doesn’t always look dramatic.
Often it shows up quietly:
– Loss of balance
– Subtle resistance
– Changes in behaviour
– Tension, stiffness, or reluctance
– Patterns that become “training problems” later on
💡 The ideal time to start riding is when your horse can carry themselves before they carry you.
This is where groundwork, posture work, controlled loading, and progressive reintroduction to movement become acts of welfare, not delays.
Because of the horse…
we owe them the time to rebuild balance, strength and confidence in their body not just return to work.
If you’re unsure, listen to what the body is telling you.
Posture and behaviour are always communicating - we just need to learn how to hear them.
💜🐴
