Leanne's Equine Therapy

05/09/2025

😳 Wow!! So lucky he didn’t panic!

Bodywork is definitely required after an incident like this!

04/09/2025

🐴 Straight Lines vs Circles: What’s Better for Your Horse?

✅ Hacking out in straight lines
• Encourages symmetrical loading on all four legs.
• Promotes even bone, joint, and muscle development.
• Supports healthy spine movement without twisting.
• Great for long-term joint, back, and SI health.

🔄 Circles (lunging, schooling, walkers)
• Always load the inside and outside legs differently.
• Outer legs take more force, inner legs stay on the ground longer.
• Spine bends unevenly, creating more pressure through the back.
• Over time, this imbalance may contribute to joint strain, SI tension, or even increase risk for issues like kissing spine.

⚖️ Balance is Key
Circles and walkers can be useful tools — but too much repetitive circle work (especially small circles or fast gaits) can increase uneven stress on your horse’s body.

👉 Mix it up:
• Plenty of hacking/straight-line work
• Vary circle size and direction
• Keep sessions short and balanced

Your horse’s body thrives on variety and movement in straight lines. 🌿

02/09/2025

🐴 Why is walking so beneficial for your horse?

Especially as a warm-up…

✨ Joints need movement to stay healthy.
Unlike muscles, the cartilage in your horse’s joints doesn’t have its own blood supply. Instead, it relies on movement to get nutrients.

When your horse walks, each step gently compresses and releases the joints. This action pushes nourishing synovial fluid in and out of the cartilage — keeping it smooth, hydrated, and protected.

✨ The spine works the same way.
Between each vertebra is a disc that cushions movement. These discs don’t get nutrients from blood either — they rely on gentle spinal motion to “soak up” what they need and release waste. Walking is the perfect, low-impact way to keep them healthy.

✨ Where craniosacral comes in:
The spine is also home to the dural tube — the fluid-filled system that connects your horse’s cranium (head) all the way down to the sacrum (pelvis).
Gentle movement during walking helps this fluid system flow, keeping the nervous system balanced and the whole body in rhythm.

✨ Why it matters:
• Protects joints & cartilage
• Keeps the spine flexible and nourished
• Prepares muscles and fascia for harder work
• Supports the craniosacral rhythm for relaxation and balance

💆‍♀️ Adding craniosacral therapy gives your horse an even bigger boost: releasing tension, improving joint alignment, and helping the body self-repair — so your horse can stay sound, supple, and happy.

30/08/2025

Food for thought

Fear, Fear & Fear - Most of today's young riders ride in fear. I watch them and I see them braced throughout their entire bodies. Most have learned to ride in the Hunter Jumper discipline where unbalanced poses cause them to feel insecure on a horse. Unsuspecting parents think that is the way riding is supposed to be. It's not.

Injury and death from falls have become a possibility even in equitation classes. Today's biggest discipline, Hunter Jumpers, is not sustainable if this continues down its current path.

To counter this fear, there is a new business called the LandSafe Rider Fall Safety System. They travel the country giving clinics with a mechanical horse (that moves nothing like a horse) and loads of floor pads to teach young riders to fall off their horses safely.

Why aren't riding instructors teaching students how not to fall off? Why aren't parents demanding safer riding methods? Maybe because they don't know it is possible to stay on a horse by riding defensively.

The bottom left graph shows post views of my recent defensive riding post that so far has over 790,000 views. Link below. Who is viewing it? It's mostly, 41.9%, the 18 to 24 year old demographic that is only 2.6% of my page's Follower base according to the FB analytics graph on the right. With thousands of engagements and hundreds of shares, this means young riders have been sharing this defensive riding post with other young riders. Nothing close to this has ever happened on my page.

The level of fear in today's young riders is tragic. It need not be this way. I am 78 and I am now training two young horses, both 5 years old. One is an off the track Thoroughbred and the other is a 17.1 H Irish Draft/TB cross that knows as much as a 2 year old. Both are great horses. Am I fearful when I ride them? No, because I was trained as a boy by a US Cavalryman in defensive riding.

Working with me on these prospects is a 20 something rider, Laura, who learned defensive riding from me when she was a young kid. She is not afraid. She has been a Whipper in for a hunt with a very good pack. All young riders could ride like Laura if they had the training.

Parents and riders, you don't have to accept fear. You don't need Landsafe if you don't fall off. Defensive riding that includes the time tested British Horse Society emergency dismount is safer. We must stop accepting fear as part of riding. We must demand safer, more secure riding methods. Artificial poses, releases and all the rest are not authentic horsemanship.

I will end with a ray of hope. There is a new organization, the United Dressage & Jumping Club. www.udjc.org that is offering an alternative show series. I have not been to one of their shows, but their information is sensible. I think they might be a better alternative to the HJ shows we have now. They haven't had a show near me yet, but when they do, I'll be there. I am hopeful.

Defensive riding post -

www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid035vSUVLD3kaJnZ1VRE7XfufrRUyB5ZiZucM2ufvAwYkYFVgCg737GpFu3hND4bprFl

28/08/2025

The ponies relaxed and releasing tension in their heads, after having the dentist on Tuesday. ❤️

🐴 Why Craniosacral Therapy After Dental Work?

Even after the best equine dentistry, your horse’s head, jaw, and poll can hold tension or restriction. Think of it like when you’ve been to the dentist yourself — your jaw might feel a bit tight, sore, or “out of place.” Horses can feel the same way.

✨ Here’s why Craniosacral helps:
• Releases Jaw + Poll Tension: Dentistry can sometimes leave the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and surrounding tissues a little stressed. CST helps those areas soften and rebalance.
• Supports the Cranial Rhythm: Your horse’s skull bones and sacrum move in a natural rhythm. Dental work can disturb this, and CST restores the flow.
• Improves Whole-Body Comfort: Because the jaw, poll, neck, back, sacrum and pelvis are all connected through the dura mater, dental changes can ripple through the body. CST makes sure your horse isn’t compensating elsewhere.
• Aids Nervous System Reset: Horses can hold stress from the dental procedure. Craniosacral therapy calms the nervous system, leaving your horse relaxed and balanced.

🚩 Signs your horse may benefit after dental work:
• Headshaking or head tossing
• Difficulty flexing at the poll
• Resistance to the bit or contact
• Uneven chewing or tongue habits
• General body tightness, especially through the neck and back

✨ Bottom line: Dental work + Craniosacral = a balanced, comfortable horse from head to tail. 🐴💞

20/08/2025

🚩 Does your Horse have Sacroiliac (SI) joint pain? Could the issue actually be coming from the HEAD? 🐴🧠

Many owners ask:
“Could my horse have a headache? He’s been diagnosed with back or SI pain…… but could it be connected?”

The truth is — the body works as one big system, and pain in the hind end can absolutely link back to restrictions in the head, and vice versa.

⸻

⤵️ The Craniosacral System:

Your horse’s skull (cranium) and sacrum (in the pelvis) are connected in a natural rhythm called the craniosacral rhythm (or cranial wave).

🔹 This is a gentle, involuntary movement that flows through the whole body — from head to tail, even the organs.
🔹 The skull and sacrum move in a coordinated “flex and extend” rhythm.
🔹 When this motion is disrupted, tension builds up, and the horse compensates — sometimes far away from where the original restriction began.

⸻

📖 The Dura Mater — the Body’s Inner “Tension Band”

The dura mater is a strong connective tissue sheath that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It isn’t just a protective covering — it’s part of this living, moving system, and it’s firmly anchored at key points in the body:
• Sacrum (S2) ➝ Strong attachment that links the pelvis directly to the spine and cranial system.
• Tailbone (Coccyx) ➝ Provides stability and tension balance all the way to the end of the spine.
• Foramen Magnum (base of skull) ➝ Where the dura firmly grips, connecting brain to spinal cord — this is why restrictions here can feel like “headaches.”
• C2 vertebra (Axis) ➝ A lighter connection that can influence poll comfort and movement.
• Along the spine ➝ At every vertebra, the dura blends with the bone covering (periosteum).
• Inside the skull ➝ The dura attaches to the inner surfaces of the cranial bones, including the temporal, frontal, occipital, and sphenoid — so restrictions in the head affect the whole system.

⸻

So… could it be more than just “SI pain”?

When the craniosacral system is out of balance, sore sacroiliac joints, or the lumbar sacral junction, could be more of a symptom than the actual cause.

⚠️ Signs your horse’s SI or back pain could be part of a craniosacral imbalance:
• Headshyness or poll sensitivity that never resolves
• Back pain that returns despite local treatment
• Uneven topline or hindquarter muscle development
• Pelvic restrictions that won’t fully release
• Ridden issues — especially during transitions, or when asked to step under with the hind end

⸻

✨ Bottom line: The head and hind end are connected by one continuous system. When one end is stuck, the other feels it. Craniosacral work helps restore that natural rhythm, easing both head and hind end tension so your horse can move — and feel — better.

18/08/2025

Beautiful Buddy enjoying some Red Light, and Craniosacral therapy a couple weeks ago!

12/08/2025

Great weekend in Hawkes Bay treating horses at the beginning of the month!