EH Equine Acupuncture

23/12/2025

Backing up is a low-impact exercise with no moment of suspension. It can be done in-hand and ridden. You horse should move his limbs in diagonal pairs.

Executed correctly with relaxation, impulsion and with the head lowered, the movement increases the throacic vertebral rotation, encourages core recruitment of the abdominals , thoracic sling and hip flexors. It also contributes to back mobility, the ability to collect and good posture.

This exercise requires your horse to carry more weight on his hindquarters, and maintain increased hindlimb, lumbosacral and back joint flexion throughout the stride cycle.

For maximum benefit ask your horse to back up in-hand daily. Start with 1 or 2 steps and progress to 20 steps. The aim is good quality, long, marching steps.

06/08/2025

𝗟𝗘𝗚-𝗬𝗜𝗘𝗟𝗗 is a great suppling exercise for all horses that can be easily incorporated into your schooling sessions.

The horse moves forwards and sideways on two tracks. The legs crossing the midline in adduction and away in abduction - whilst maintaining lateral flexion through the neck and body away from the direction of travel.

This movement mobilises your horse's ribs, back and hips, activates the deep vertebral muscles and is a useful contributory factor in developing longitudinal and lateral flexibility.

Leg-yield is a powerful tool to have in your training tool-kit!

How do you incorporate this exercise into your training sessions? Let us know in the comments below.

31/07/2025

The Benefits of Riding uphill

🔹 Walking and trotting uphill strengthens the back, hamstring and gluteal muscles that will then give more pushing power in your flatwork and jumping.

🔹 Trotting uphill opens the shoulders and is great preparation for medium and extended trot as well as improving straightness and symmetrical development of muscles.

🔹 Cantering uphill also has benefits. The thrust from both hindlegs created when you canter uphill develops jump and elastic recoil.

🔸To avoid placing to much strain on your horse’s body increase the frequency and steepness of the incline gradually. 🔸

29/07/2025

🦴 Bone is living tissue with nerves and blood vessels that contain porteins and minerals, such as calcium and phosphorus.

🦴 Bone is the second hardest substance in your horse's body after tooth enamel. 🦷

🦴 A bone consists of a hard outer cortex, encasing a spongy cavity.

🦴 The surface of the bone is covered by the periosteum - a tough protective membrane, which provides the attachment of ligaments and tendons.

Fancy discovering more about the equine body and how it functions? Make sure you like and follow us for more....

09/07/2025

Improve your horse's suppleness, bend and hindlimb adduction with Turn About the Forehand

Turn about the forehand is a four-beat lateral turning exercise that you do in walk. As the forelimbs turn on a small circle, the hindlimbs adduct and abduct to step around in a 180-degree arc on a larger circle until your horse is facing the opposite direction.

Give this exercise a go - three circles each way everyday.

Let us know how you get on in the comments.

05/07/2025

03/07/2025

Canter is the only gait where the abdominal muscles on both the left and right sides contract at the same time within the stride cycle.

This makes it great for toning the abdominal muscles. It's a bit like us doing sit-ups!

If your horse has long, weak abdominal muscles one of the simplest ways to tone them is to do more canter work 🐎

For more great tips and advice to help improve your horse's well-being and way of going make sure you like and follow our page.

01/07/2025

The gastrocnemius the name that you need to put your teeth back in to say 😃

I wanted to not draw a picture including the lower part of the horses limb because often to put yourself in the horses mind we need to visualise where a part of the anatomical structure is to visualise how it would feel to have something wrong in that area

Now if I said how many of you have suffered with heel or calf pain you will recognise that we are talking about the gastrocnemius and the tendon that runs down hugging your heel (achilles) because to have an understanding we first have to have recognition.

Again I am not just doing insertion, origin etc because there are many posts about structure but I always want you to think connection and whole horse.🫡

This muscle can often lose out to the bigger hind end muscles because as always bigger is better yet the tendons of the Biceps femoris, Semitendinosus, Soleus and the Gastrocnemius all have a connection that lead down to cover the Calcaneus (the bone you can feel at the back of your horses hock) known as the Calcaneous tendon or Achilles.

Remember see dysfunction in one muscle it always means a group are involved and how many horses have bulging hamstrings and a non existent gluteal, the gastrocnemius is a muscle of propulsion and how many horses shuffle, drag their toes, or just cant get that stride length in the hind end and if there is no propulsion there is no energy being fed to move and while most think bucking or rearing or rushing is the most common reason for pain on of the top reasons is lack of propulsion and the most common and probably one of the top three problematic areas in the horse is the hocks.

We all have had calf pain and linked in heel pain a lack of a proper range of motion through the hips, stifle or hocks will often compromise the function of muscles, tendons and joints, ligaments formed to support bone connection and strenthen joints can become lax creating instability, fascial connections into the lumbar will create pain or restriction that is often viewed as a primary and treated as such when often what we see is the result not the cause

We often only look at muscle tears to document issues in an area yet muscle strain is always a result of dysfunction wether it is overworked or underworked its not doing the job it was designed to do, and if we think of the job of a tendon yet the hock may not be utilising its full function then what is the ripple affect further up and down as the gastrocnemius has a connection with the Superficial flexor muscle and tendon.

If you tried the hock hold video I put out you can understand why your horse liked it so much for shortening an area can offer relief, turn on the forehand is another great exercise to get the whole area working.

So next time you think of hocks think of all the connections and the power they hold, do we still want to be working them before they are fully developed???

Hope the picture helps you recognise and maybe sympathise with the horse that maybe just isn't right behind ☺️

Ps I did do a post yesterday but was messing with the picture and deleted the post and didnt have the energy to rewrite it 😃😃😃

18/04/2025

02/04/2025

Riding exercises that involve a change in bend such as serpentines are beneficial to you and your horse.

Changing the bend requires balance, flexibility and accuracy. It also can help release any build-up of tension within the muscles on the inside of the bend. A smooth change of bend can only be achieved if your horse is straight for one or two steps.

Serpentines are good for developing
✔️ Fluency
✔️ Rhythm
✔️ Outline
✔️ Accuracy
✔️ A smooth, even bend

When ridden correctly serpentines can contribute to symmetrical muscle development and straightness.

Like and follow for more tips and exercises for you and your horse.

25/03/2025