Neigh Neigh Nosh

Enjoying the beautiful winter sun and some spontaneous somatic work with Dancer ☀️🐴💛

Dancer is a horse that’s experienced a lot of trauma before she came to me.

She’s one of my special projects, and I absolutely love her.

She suffered a significant injury to her left psoas muscle, along with head trauma, which has left her disconnecting from her hindquarters.

This gentle awareness work helps her brain reconnect with her body, improving stability, coordination and confidence.

When we first started this journey, her only option was to fall forwards onto her face.

She simply couldn’t find any stability.

Seeing how far she’s come is incredibly rewarding 🙌

Rehabilitation isn’t always about making horses stronger and perform better.

Sometimes it’s about helping the brain rediscover parts of the body it no longer knows how to use.

Healing happens through patience, consistency and creating an environment where the horse feels safe enough to learn again.

I’m so proud of this beautiful girl and the progress she’s made. Every small step is a big win 💛✨

We really do have the most beautiful cityscape sunsets from up here 🌅💛

It makes me a little sad knowing that next year this view will disappear as the area is developed 🏠 (wallabies where will you go😭)

Why can’t there be a park on top of the hill instead? 🌳

This giant property has become so much more than just a place to keep horses. It offers so much to the community.

I have a few teenage girls who come and help me, and we have so much fun together.

They learn how to:🐴 Feed and groom horses🌿 Handle and lead them with kindness🪵 Build and repair fencing🧹 Rug horses and do the daily jobs💪 Lunge and work horses from the ground❤️ Respect and understand animals

We play games, have parties, do liberty work, and in summer we even go swimming.

It’s social
It’s active
It’s fun.

And best of all... there’s no screens.

Just fresh air, horses, laughter and learning.

Watching young people grow in confidence whilst being out in nature 

It’s sad that these types of outlets are becoming less and less as urbanisation takes over 😢

Name this saddle please

I discovered these awesome saddles a few years ago and absolutely fell in love 😍🐴

They give you such a close-contact feel with your horse, which I absolutely love.

And the horses seem to love them too.

What I like most is how much freedom they allow:

🌿 They let the horse breathe more freely
🌿 They help support topline development
🌿 They don’t restrict the shoulders
🌿 They allow much more natural movement through the body

That freedom makes such a difference.

When the horse can breathe, move and lift properly, everything changes — posture, balance, core strength and even the nervous system.

It’s no surprise these saddles are becoming more and more popular and building such a strong following.

I can definitely see why 💛✨

Makes my day when I get messages like this 🙌
Great improvement

Hello Vanessa I hope you’re ok ,omg what have you done to my horse 🐴 he looks shiny and when we hacked out to start with it was a bit sticky but my goodness he walked out lovely and forward only looking slightly at things it’s got to be the good stuff his on thanks so much for your advice and support will keep you posted x

Bandage Guts 🤣💛
I think I might need to rename him at this point…

Today he floated like a champ, ate hay there and back, behaved like an absolute pro and the jockey said he felt good, fit and very keen to run 🙌🐎

Ears pricked, focused and feeling GOOD.

And when we got home?

Apparently he still had a full tank of energy because he carried on with Ocean in the paddock 😂🐴💨

Seeing this version of Hugh is pretty amazing when you know where he started.

So what do I focus on when bringing horses back to health?

🌿 Gut health is top priority
The gut influences everything — immunity, inflammation, behaviour, recovery and the nervous system.

🌿 Find the function in the dysfunction
Every horse has compensations. Every body tells a story. The job is to understand why.

🌿 Breathwork and putting air back into their body bag
This is huge, core strength, topline everything

TBs (and horses in general) are naturally stressy animals. Teaching them to regulate their nervous system and breathe into their ribcage instead of bracing through their neck can change everything.

Better breathing = better posture
Better posture = better movement
Better movement = better healing ✨

🍃 Slow work (exercises) - builds stamina, keeps cortisol low the right slow work builds topline

This is the stuff that rebuilds horses from the inside out 💛

Do you have a on the track TB or a OTTB?

Kissing spine can be so debilitating for some horses 🐴💔

Ocean has been showing signs that there may be pain through his back, and it’s something that has been bothering him.

So I’ve booked him in to investigate and rule out kissing spine.

I always think it’s important to listen when the body keeps giving you clues.

Sometimes what looks like behaviour, tension or resistance can actually be pain.

The body always tells a story — we just have to be willing to listen.

Fingers crossed we get some answers for him 🤞💛

And sorry about the wind in this video 🌬️😅
Definitely need to set up the microphone better next time!