Niki Taylor Equine Bodywork

12/09/2025

Cool is one of my favourite clients, he is such a joy to work on. One of the many things I love about him is that he’s lived a life where he is allowed a voice and he has a lot of faith in humans. Which makes him very easy to read and he’s very receptive to light touch bodywork. Sadly Cool had an accident a few weeks ago where he pulled back. As he’d already received some massage and movement based bodywork in that area I’d wanted to work more on his hind end to not over do it in his poll area. But Cool kept asking me if he could put his chin on my shoulder and give him energy/light touch work on his poll. We compromised and he put his chin on the door while I focused on his poll. What you can’t see is he was leaning back to give himself a good stretch. I do offer this move to horses but I would never have offered it to him so close to his pull back. But for him to do it to himself while I worked on his poll, well that just made me love this horse even more. Clever AND handsome, what a dreamboat 🥰

29/07/2025

I just spent the weekend at Sally Brett - Horsemanship instructors poles and obstacles clinic here at Brandy House Farm. It was such a great experience for young Mo to build his confidence. I did the clinic on the ground but most of the other participants were riding.
This wasn’t a ‘see how many poles a horse can go over’ kind of clinic. Sally plans out some lovely patterns which get broken down into smaller patterns. I found the poles really helpful for precision in leading, leading from different positions and for seeing where myself and Mojo were at and where our holes were.
And the obstacle field was immense. I didn’t get a photo of it all but it was a thing of beauty. It’s not about getting over or through as many obstacles as possible. It’s about discovering the different strategies to help your horse overcome their fears. And to show your horse you are a reliable and safe handler/rider. I found it helped me get to know Mojo that bit more. We are still a relatively new partnership so I’m always discovering more of who he is. He is often easily distracted by other horses in his environment so this was perfect for helping him to ignore them and focus on us and the task.
I highly recommend this clinic for any level or age of horse. Sally is so experienced and knowledgeable and creates a supportive and nurturing environment. We also had a lot of fun!

15/07/2025

Rocket Dog's top tip for today: Live like someone left the gate open 🤣

14/07/2025

I feel like the luckiest person alive to have free-range ponies on my drive to work. Anyone else have a commute that’s this magical?

11/07/2025

Horses come into our lives for a reason. If you’ve ever had a special horse in your life, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Share with me in the comments below how your horse came into your life and changed it.

25/05/2025

COMPOUND HORSE FEEDS ARE NOTHING LIKE HUMAN ULTRAPROCESSED FOOD!

Yesterday I said I'd tell you more about this:

We can't compare processed human food to processed horse feed - they are worlds apart.

Ultra-processed human food tends to be far too high in fat and/or sugar to be healthy if eaten in significant quantities and is often scant in vitamin and mineral content.

Such foods are often very tasty (hyperpalatable), so are easy to overeat. Furthermore, they are usually calorie dense, so will contribute to obesity if overeaten.

Processed compound horse feeds are completely different. (Compound feed is a description of any horse feed that contains more than two ingredients). They contain the specific vitamins and minerals that horses need because they cannot get them out of their forage.

Plus, these processed compound feeds contain correct amounts of protein and calories (energy) if selected correctly for an individual horse.

A processed compound horse feed is more like a finished meal you've prepared in your kitchen, which contains a balanced amount of essential nutrients from all the food groups, and uses some processed ingredients e.g. quorn, mince, flour, cheese, pasta, breadcrumbs.

Processed compound feeds often contain fibrous products of the human food industry because they are healthier for many horses compared to whole cereal grains and seeds.

So we need to be careful when assuming human food characteristics on horse feed because they are, in many ways, worlds apart.

Feel free to share to help clear misleading nutribaloney!
🐴🍏

24/05/2025

Small ponies aren’t taken seriously 🐴

There is a somewhat unpleasant attitude towards smaller ponies within the industry that is often dressed up as humour. Ponies referred to as “devils” or “sh*tlands”. People seem to find small ponies displaying extreme stress behaviours hilarious and somehow just a quirky personality trait instead of an animal in distress.

I think a lot of small ponies are treated horribly. I wonder if it is because they feel easier to dominate and intimidate so we don’t feel the same sense of fear or respect around their behaviours. A tiny shetland kicking or rearing at you just doesn’t feel particularly dangerous so we feel more comfortable trashing through their boundaries and forcing them to comply.

They are still equines who have the same needs as any larger horse and should be treated with the same respect.

Life is hard when you’re a small pony, think about how defensive you would feel as a prey animal when everyone handling you towers over you. They are often lead with their heads pulled upwards in uncomfortable postures or when we handle their legs we may pull them too high to make it more comfortable for us. They are often given to children and expected to put up with being kicked and yanked about, then labelled “sassy” or “stubborn” if they don’t put it up with it quietly enough. Many are used just as companions to larger horses and their own needs fall by the wayside, often being left on unsuitable forage and grazing which damages their health.

I have several clients with smaller ponies, from miniature Shetlands to Exmoors and riding ponies, and all of them feel they have not been taken seriously when they have gone to the vet or other professionals with concerns. There is an underlying feeling of “why would you bother spending all of this money and time on “just" a small pony”. Although I guess this speaks to the wider industry problem of horses being seen as things to “use” rather than as sentient beings we care for unconditionally.

Earlier this year I met a lovely Shetland pony who had been purchased for my client’s young son. He was “fine” to ride but she really wanted her son to be able to handle and groom him. The previous owners had said he was always grumpy and an adult needed to handle and put his tack on because he would “take advantage” of children. The pony I met was very shut down and uncomfortable. He nipped and pulled faces half-heartedly still trying to communicate a discomfort he knew would be ignored. We addressed his management so he had appropriate forage 24/7, he had bodywork and was treated for stomach ulcers. We then worked on building positive associations with people using fun enrichment activities and clicker training. I also worked with the client on how to handle him with his posture in mind to make sure we weren’t pulling his head upwards all of the time and making him sore. Her son can now lead, groom and tack up his pony and is really enjoying him while learning to have respect and empathy for horses.

I have met some very frightened, traumatised small ponies who have been labelled “nasty little sh*ts” by professionals when they have tried to defend themselves after all of their warnings had been ignored. If we started treating them with respect and considered how they’re experiencing the world, they wouldn’t feel the need to be so defensive. They have all the same body parts that can be sore as larger horses do.

Have you got a small pony and felt you haven’t been taken seriously when looking for help? 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

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20/05/2025

This is SO good!

A few years ago, I had a conversation with Warwick Schiller about relaxation- what it is, how we recognise it, and how it shows up in both our horses and ourselves.

At the time, I had just bought Nadia, my big warmblood mare, and let’s just say the dream of us riding off into the sunset was quickly replaced with something much more humble: taking off all the gear and going right back to the beginning.

Her anxiety told me riding towards sunsets were off the table for now.

🧘‍♀️ The only thing I was doing? Helping her relax.

Not long after, a bodyworker came to see Nadia and was shocked at how much her shape had changed over a relatively small window.

"What have you been doing with her?" she asked.

And my honest answer was:

“I’ve just been playing with how to help her relax.”

At the time, my understanding of the nervous system was fairly surface-level. I knew that when we’re anxious, scared, or depressed, we carry ourselves differently—that was obvious, even intuitive. We all know what it looks like to see (or feel) posture reflect mood.

But what I thought I was observing in Nadia—muscles softening, tension releasing—was actually something much deeper.

🫁 What we often miss: The organs’ role in posture

In all the conversations we have around body and behaviour, what rarely gets mentioned is the role of organ placement and internal pressure systems in shaping posture.

Just like every other part of us, our organs- and our horse’s organs- aren’t static. They’re constantly moving, shifting, responding. And their position is directly influenced by the state of the nervous system.

Each of the major survival responses- fight, flight, freeze, and collapse- has a specific motor reflex pattern. The body rearranges itself to serve that response.

For example:

🔹 In fight, it prioritizes force.
🔹 In flight, it prioritizes acceleration.

When the nervous system chooses one of these, the body- organs included- shifts to match.

Think of the size and mass of structures like the lungs, diaphragm, and liver. Where they sit in the body dramatically affects outward form.

To illustrate this, what I've come to understand is:

🫁 In a parasympathetic state, the lungs sit higher in the neck tube, helping stabilize the deep front line and neck.

🫁 In a fight-or-flight state, the lungs drop lower, often creating that rounded “hunchback” posture we associate with stress.

🎗️Support from the inside out

In the parasympathetic system, the body functions differently. Each internal “chamber” is pressurized. The fascia is responsive and alive. The organs are not just in place—they’re vibrant, spinning, and vital.

And this creates a body that is supported from the inside out.

Posture becomes full without force.

Muscles soften, not because they’re “letting go,” but because they no longer need to brace.

The skin has vitality. The body, ease.

🐎 That’s what I was seeing in Nadia.

Not just muscles releasing.

Her entire system was reorganising—physically, mentally, emotionally.

And here’s the most important part:

This wasn’t something I did to her.

It was something her nervous system chose- a different operating system, a different postural template. One that created change from the inside out.

One that affects things from the top down and inside out: physically, mentally and emotionally.

It's changed my understandings about posture, and what we are truly observing when we see physical and structural changes in our horses.

As ever, I'd love to hear your thoughts,

xx Jane

28/04/2025

The wonderful upgraded teaching room at Brandy House Farm