Equine-Naturaltherapy

04/23/2026

I was taught the lunging triangle.

Horse on the circle as the base, the lunge line one side, the whip the other, and me standing still at the top. That was what correct looked like. I went through the exams, learned it, repeated it, and for years that’s exactly how I lunged horses, because that was my education and I had no reason to question it.

And if you’ve been taught the same, this isn’t a criticism. It’s simply where many of us started.

But the moment I began to strip things back, to take off the side reins, work in just a cavesson, and actually observe what the horse was doing rather than what I’d been told it should look like, that’s when it started to unravel. The picture didn’t match the theory anymore. Horses weren’t holding the circle, they were falling in, falling out, speeding up, slowing down, drifting towards me or away from me, and no matter how still I stood in the middle, it didn’t improve.

That was the turning point, because it forced me to look at what was actually happening rather than what I thought should be happening.

The whole triangle idea relies on the horse being able to organise its body around you without you truly helping it to do so. It assumes the horse can hold balance, alignment, and coordination on a circle simply because we’ve placed it there, and that by staying still and sending energy from the hind end, everything will somehow come together. In reality, that’s not what happens at all.

A horse on a circle is dealing with balance, asymmetry, coordination, and gravity all at the same time. Most horses are already crooked before you even begin. They don’t carry weight evenly, they don’t step evenly, and they don’t naturally bend in a way that supports correct movement. So when you stand still and drive the hind leg forward into a body that isn’t organised in front, you’re not improving anything, you’re just adding energy into a system that can’t manage it.

The horse then has to solve that problem somehow, and the way it solves it is through compensation. It might speed up, fall further in, drift out, brace through the neck, or become reactive. That’s not bad behaviour, it’s the horse trying to find a way to cope with something it physically can’t do in the way it’s being asked.

This is also the point where side reins tend to get added, because the horse doesn’t look steady, doesn’t look consistent, and doesn’t look round enough. So instead of questioning the process, we add more restriction to try and control the outcome. We fix the head and neck into a position, hoping that the rest of the body will follow.

But all that does is cover up what the horse can’t actually do.

The neck is one of the horse’s primary tools for balance, and when you restrict it, you take away its ability to organise the rest of the body. The horse can no longer lift, lengthen, or adjust where it needs to in order to stay balanced on that circle, so it finds another way. Usually that means more tension, more use of the underside, further dysfunction and more compensation somewhere else. At that point, you’re not developing correct movement, you’re training a more contained version of dysfunction.

And all of this stems from the same starting point, which is standing still and expecting the horse to shape itself around you.

Standing still is not guidance, and a fixed triangle is not communication. If anything, it removes your ability to influence what actually matters. The front end, the shoulders, and the alignment of the neck are what organise balance, yet the triangle system encourages people to focus on pushing from behind instead. When the front end isn’t aligned, the hind leg has nowhere functional to go, so driving it forward simply magnifies the imbalance.

When you step away from that way of thinking, lunging starts to look very different. Instead of controlling from a fixed point, you begin to move with the horse, adjusting your position to support it. You step towards the shoulders when they need guidance, you step away when the horse needs space, and you start to influence the front end first so that the hind leg has somewhere correct to connect into.

That’s where the real change happens, not through forcing a shape, but through helping the horse find one it can actually maintain.

Lunging itself isn’t the problem, and it can be one of the most useful tools we have when it’s done well. It can improve balance, coordination, posture, and communication, but only if we stop expecting the horse to organise itself while we stand still in the middle and start taking responsibility for guiding the movement in a way the horse can understand.

Because horses don’t struggle with circles for no reason.

They struggle when they’re not being helped.

04/13/2026

You cannot force posture onto a horse when the hoof is telling the body to stand differently!?

One of the biggest misunderstandings in modern equine therapy is the belief that posture can simply be “corrected” by manually placing the horse into a new shape. I see it all the time, body work and veterinary treatment being done to a horse while I look at its feet and just sigh.

Stretch it.
Massage it.
Mobilise it.
Strengthen it.
Train it into position.
Jab it with steroids.

And whilst all of those things may have value, there is a fundamental truth people keep missing.

You cannot sustainably change posture if the horse’s proprioceptive system is still demanding the original compensation.

Why?

Because posture is not something the horse consciously chooses.

Posture is the visible output of the nervous system’s constant attempt to organise the body in response to incoming information.

That information comes from everywhere, but one of the richest and most mechanically important sensory inputs in the entire horse is the hoof.

The hoof is not just a block of horn at the bottom of the limb. It is packed with mechanoreceptors, proprioceptive structures, vascular structures, and deformable tissues that continuously feed information into the nervous system regarding load, pressure, deformation, balance, and orientation. 

Every time the hoof meets the floor, it tells the horse’s nervous system something about where the body is in space.

It tells the horse whether the limb feels stable.
It tells the horse whether the load is symmetrical.
It tells the horse whether one side feels overloaded.
It tells the horse whether the system feels comfortable under compression. And this information can be distorted by imbalance.

And the nervous system uses that information to organise posture accordingly.

This means posture is not simply muscular habit. It is an adaptive response to sensory input.

Let me put that another way.

If the hoof is repeatedly telling the nervous system that a certain position reduces discomfort, improves balance, or better distributes force, the body will organise around that signal. In a webinar with Dr Gellman we discussed the horses understanding of upright..

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/proandpos

The horse will stand in the way the nervous system believes is safest.

So if you manually straighten the horse, stretch the horse, or try to train the horse into a new posture without changing the proprioceptive and mechanical signals that caused the compensation in the first place, what happens?

The horse simply returns to the original posture.

Because from the nervous system’s perspective, nothing meaningful changed.

You altered the output temporarily.
You did not alter the input.

This is precisely why so many practitioners see temporary changes after treatment, only for the horse to revert days later.

Because unless the underlying sensory and mechanical drivers are addressed, the nervous system will keep returning to the same solution.

My upcoming book discusses this as a closed loop.

Hoof mechanics alter proprioceptive input.
That proprioceptive input alters muscle tone and fascial loading.
That altered tone changes posture.
That posture changes limb orientation and movement.
That movement then changes loading back into the hoof. 

It is a self-reinforcing system.

Once established, it will continue feeding itself until the dominant driver is changed.

This is why I have repeatedly said hoof balance and posture cannot be viewed in isolation.

If the hoof is imbalanced enough to create altered loading, altered proprioceptive feedback, or altered comfort under load, then the body will compensate around that.

And until that signal is reduced, you are asking the horse to ignore its own nervous system.

That is not rehabilitation.
That is fighting biology.

Imagine trying to stand perfectly upright whilst one foot is on a slope and one foot is on flat ground.

Could you force yourself straight for a moment? Yes.

Would your body naturally stay there? No.

Why?

Because your nervous system would constantly reorganise your body to accommodate the information coming from the feet.

The horse is no different.

This is why I often say, you cannot expect to change the architecture upstairs whilst the foundations downstairs are still crooked.

Now to be clear, this does not mean every postural issue is hoof derived.

Far from it.

The relationship is bi directional.

Higher limb pain, saddle fit, rider asymmetry, visceral tension, autonomic stress, trauma, and pathology can all alter posture first, which then changes loading into the hoof. The hoof may then adapt secondarily. In the same vane, farriers can struggle with the same perpetuations when higher postural drivers are not addressed!

But the principle remains the same.

Once the hoof becomes part of the compensatory loop, it becomes one of the drivers maintaining that loop.

And if you ignore that, you will struggle to create lasting change.

This is why multidisciplinary work matters.

The farrier cannot always fix posture alone. Or hoof balance for that matter!
The physio cannot always fix posture alone.
The vet cannot always fix pain alone.

Because the horse is an integrated system.

But equally, anyone trying to change posture whilst ignoring hoof proprioception is working with one hand tied behind their back.

Because no matter how good your treatment is, the horse will always listen to the signals coming from the ground.

The hoof is the horse’s interface with reality.

And reality always wins.

Something discussed in depth in both my webinars with Celeste-Leilani Lazaris

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/bundles/yogi-sharp-and-celeste-lazaris-webinar-bundle

04/08/2026

The warm-up is the foundation of sound movement.

A thoughtful warm-up:

• Increases circulation
• Hydrates fascia
• Improves joint lubrication
• Creates suppleness
• Prepares the horse mentally for work
• Gives the nervous system time to organize coordination and balance

A quality warm-up protects tissue health, prepares the horse both physically and mentally, improves performance, and reduces the risk of compensatory tension—enough to make it a successful ride on its own.

A proper cool down is just as important.

It allows the body to gradually return to baseline, supports circulation and recovery, and helps the nervous system settle—so the work you’ve done can integrate rather than be held as tension.

https://www.facebook.com/share/17EVbUvQng/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://koperequine.com/the-benefits-of-a-warm-up-that-includes-massage/

04/04/2026

The dressage test movement "allowing the horse to stretch on a long rein" requires your horse to lower his head forward and down while maintaining an elastic contact with your hands and stretching over his entire topline.

Your horse's nose should be slightly in front of the vertical (not curling up behind the vertical), and his mouth should be at least level with his shoulder.

You can allow your horse to lower his head further, but the rest of the qualities of the movement must be maintained for the movement to be correct; It's no good having your horse's nose in the sand if he's just dragging himself along the forehand.

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Illustrations created and copyrighted by HowToDressage

04/02/2026

03/29/2026

01/18/2026

Estrogen, Fascia, and Why Mares Feel “Different” at Different Times

Fluctuations in estrogen across the mare’s estrous cycle significantly influence the mechanical and neurological behavior of fascia. These changes directly affect how a mare responds to bodywork, training load, coordination, recovery, tendons, and hooves.
Medications such as Regu-Mate (altrenogest) also modify these effects—not by adding estrogen, but by suppressing estrogen variability and maintaining a progesterone-dominant state.

While equine-specific research is still emerging, the underlying mechanisms are well established in connective-tissue biology, endocrinology, and neuromechanics, and they translate reliably to horses.

This article is written for:

Mare owners noticing cyclical changes in soundness or performance
Trainers working with inconsistent or seasonally “difficult” mares
Bodyworkers and related professionals
Farriers seeing unexplained seasonal foot sensitivity
Veterinarians managing chronic, low-grade soft-tissue issues

If you’ve ever said, “She feels different today and I can’t explain why,” this is for you.
Fascia Is a Hormone-Responsive Tissue
Fascia is living, adaptive, sensory tissue—not passive packing material.

Estrogen receptors are present in:
Fibroblasts

Fascial ground substance
Ligaments and joint capsules
Tendons and myotendinous junctions
As estrogen rises and falls, the material properties of fascia change in predictable ways.

How Estrogen Changes Fascial and Connective-Tissue Behavior

Collagen Organization and Tissue Stiffness - read the rest of this fascinating article here - https://koperequine.com/estrogen-fascia-and-why-mares-feel-different-at-different-times/