CoRE Horsemanship

26/07/2026

Yes, yes and yes 🙌

22/07/2026

This is cool. A whither rock viewed from underneath!

20/07/2026

THE DROP — TRAINING, THE PILLARS OF BALANCE, THORACIC LIFT & SADDLE FITTING

Here's a thought for you…

What happens to your saddle in the microsecond your horse loses their balance?

Because they will lose it.

Balance isn't a place a horse arrives at and stays.

It's a constant conversation.

Find it.
Lose it.
Reorganise.
Find it again.

Our Director, Jemma, talks a lot about the pillars of balance — and once you start to understand it, you begin to look at saddle fitting very differently.

If a horse becomes out of balance, guess where they can tense to help keep themselves up?

Through the thoracic area.

Even if it's just for a microsecond.

A tiny brace.

A tiny drop.

And suddenly the shape underneath the saddle has changed.

A space has appeared.

And guess what can drop into that space?

Your saddle.

⬇️

THE DROP.

Now, once?

Probably just a moment.

But what if it happens again?

And again.

And again.

The horse loses balance.

The thoracic area braces.

The saddle drops.

The horse feels the saddle drop.

So the horse braces against the feeling of the saddle dropping.

Read that again.

Because this is where we can start to see micro-bracing patterns developing.

And here's the question we should be asking…

Is the horse bracing because they're out of balance?

Or are they now bracing because they've learnt what happens to the saddle when they become out of balance?

🤔

This is where saddle fitting and training collide.

At LM, we don't believe you can simply fit a saddle to the horse standing beautifully on the yard and assume the job is done.

The horse underneath that saddle is going to move.

Lift.

Widen.

Lose balance.

Find balance.

Develop.

Change.

A horse working over the back can naturally lift and widen in movement.

So we have to think about the horse we're trying to help them become, while still supporting the horse physically standing in front of us today.

And this is where shims are bloody amazing.

Yes. We said it.

Because correctly used shims aren't there to “pad out a bad saddle”.

They can be scaffolding.

They can help us support saddle balance while the horse is learning to find their own physical balance.

They can help reduce the opportunity for the saddle to repeatedly drop into those microseconds of brace.

And that matters.

Because a horse learning to balance physically shouldn't also have to worry about what the saddle is going to do when they get it wrong.

We don't want the conversation to become…

“I lost my balance.
The saddle dropped.
That felt uncomfortable.
I'd better brace next time.”

We want…

“I lost my balance.
I reorganised.
I found it again.”

No drama.

No worry.

No need to protect themselves.

Just the physical process of learning.

Maybe saddle fitting isn't just about whether a saddle “fits”.

Maybe we need to start asking a bigger question…

Does the saddle allow the horse to safely explore balance?

Because those tiny microseconds matter.

The drop matters.

Training matters.

Thoracic lift matters.

Saddle balance matters.

And it's all connected.

🌐 lmsaddles.com

08/07/2026

I have space for one pony to join us on retirement livery (private yard at home). Ideally suited to a pony with metabolic issues who needs limited grazing/more careful management to join our two retired/semi-retired ponies.

In the summer we have grass track system setup - the track is set up on our rested fields so that the ponies are grazing grass that is closer to standing hay with little nutritional value rather than on short stressed grass full of sugar, and we move the track so that this is always the case. The track is centred around a large hardstanding area where they have access to water and a couple of hay stations. Hay is also distributed around the track.
They have free access to the yard and stables when this part of the track is in use, but have plenty of natural shade too.

In the winter they are managed on a combination of hardstanding, track and the middle paddocks depending on their needs/ground/weather, but they maintain 24/7 turnout as a herd with plenty of space to move.

All daily care and feeding, booking and attending appointments and field management/poo picking included. Hay and feed charged separately.

04/07/2026

Unfortunately I am currently without a phone so apologies to anyone trying to get in touch via whatsapp or text 🤦‍♀️.
I am however able to check messages via this page every couple of days.

Anyone who has an appointment booked in the next two weeks is in my paper diary so I shall see you there! Anyone wanting to book, please message me on here and bear with!

12/04/2026

14/02/2026

Will you be my Valentine? 💘

©️Emily Cole Illustrations

22/01/2026

Razzle would like to report a crime…..🫣