Shetland Equine Therapy

Interesting read 🤓 🐴

PSD: Why the Suspensory Ligament Is Rarely the Whole Story

Part 2

Following on from the discussion about PSD neurectomy, it’s important to understand why proximal suspensory desmitis—particularly in the hindlimb is so complex and so prone to recurrence.

The suspensory ligament does not work in isolation.

In the hindlimb it sits:
• In a tight fascial compartment
• Between the splint bones
• Under significant compressive and tensile forces
• Closely associated with nerves and periosteum

This makes it especially vulnerable when biomechanics are sub-optimal.

Common contributors to hindlimb PSD include:
• Poor pelvic stability
• Sacroiliac dysfunction
• Lumbar or thoracolumbar restriction
• Asymmetrical loading behind
• Long-term compensatory movement patterns
• Inappropriate or unbalanced farriery

When a horse cannot use its hindquarters correctly, the suspensory ligament often becomes the structure that absorbs the excess strain.

That’s why we so often see:
• Chronic cases
• Bilateral PSD
• Horses that look sound but don’t feel right
• Recurrence months or years later

Where neurectomy fits in

A neurectomy can reduce pain from the ligament itself, but it does not change:
• How the horse moves
• How forces travel through the limb
• How the pelvis, spine and hindlimbs interact

If those patterns remain unchanged, the load simply gets redistributed elsewhere.

The bigger picture

Successful long-term outcomes with PSD rely on:
• Understanding why the suspensory overloaded in the first place
• Addressing the whole horse, not just the scan result
• Rebuilding strength, coordination and symmetry
• Managing expectations around workload and longevity

PSD is rarely a single-structure injury.
It is usually a biomechanical consequence.

Soundness without pain is one thing.
Soundness with understanding is what keeps horses comfortable for the long term.

Part 3 tomorrow

Meadowbrook Equine Therapy

I used to love watching the dressage at Olympia. I loved watching dressage anywhere to be honest…

But it isn’t what it was. The saddest thing is, I can’t even bear to watch it any more. So many lame horses, yes, I know they’re all vetted, but they are definitely showing lameness in the arena. Ears back, pain filled eyes, open mouths, swishing tails…. Unbalanced diagonal pairs, lateral canters…. Where is the rhythm and partnerships of years ago… why is it becoming so robotic and manufactured?

I am sure many will say I’m an armchair critique. I have never ridden at that level so cannot possibly understand what I am meant to be seeing. Guess what, I’ve never committed murder, but I know it’s wrong if I see it 🫣

I kept patching these broken bodies back together, but I won’t do it anymore - I won’t work with clients who do not put their horses first. I will not give them validation to ride these poor horses, often backed and worked far too young, hauled in with draw reins, compressed into frames their skeletons and soft tissue cannot sustain. But it’s ok, everyone on social media tells them how amazing their horse looks, what a wonderful job they’re doing. It doesn’t matter if they beat them or break them, as long as they say sorry, we can all move on and cheer for the next one on their production line 😡

Let get back to harmony and partnership rather than force, fear and pain. It is NOT acceptable for a horse to only get to the top with the help of steroids, neurectomies and interventions, we must stop normalising and accepting it.

horsewelfare hardtruths

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📸 Using photos is invaluable for helping riders understand that what they feel isn’t always what’s actually happening.

This rider felt the photo on the left was neutral – it’s how she sits in the saddle, it’s where her pelvis naturally goes. After some pelvic tilting, I asked her to actually put weight into her seat bones. The stool is perfect for this – a flat, hard surface gives instant feedback.

When she saw the photo her first thought was: “But I thought that was a posterior tilt.”

👉 Relative to where she started, yes.
👉 But when we asked her to actually sit in posterior tilt while keeping shoulder–hip alignment, she couldn’t. The only way she could get there was by curving her whole spine into a “C.”

This is common. Riders who live in anterior tilt often think neutral feels like posterior – and can’t reach and isolated posterior tilt because of stiffness, weakness, or lack of control. Yet that ability to move through the range is what we need in riding.

One comment I often get is: “But we don’t want to hold ourselves in one position when riding.”
💯 Correct – we don’t. But if you can’t even find neutral and maintain it at rest, how do you expect to stabilise and move with the horse while giving independent aids?

And here’s the controversial bit…
👉 We’ve normalised anterior tilt so much it looks “correct” to so many riders.
👉 Some even promote 3-point contact – loading the p***c arch as well as the seat bones. But no evidence supports this as a healthy or effective weight-bearing strategy. The seat bones evolved for sitting – the p***c arch didn’t.

Yes, saddle fit matters (seat size, femur length, balance). But a saddle is not the answer. It can’t give you neutral – it can only nudge you one way or another.

The responsibility is on the rider. Neutral isn’t about holding still – it’s your starting point. From there you need pelvic, hip, and spinal mobility and control so you can follow the horse and give truly independent aids.

👉 The saddle can support you. But it won’t do the job for you.
👉 Riders have to take responsibility for their posture, mobility, and awareness if they want true balance.

🔗www.pegasusphysio.co.uk

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Wide load coming through! ⚠️

I am super pleased with this progress, whilst they are not the perfect before and after picture set up ( because i didnt think there would be one so significant ) i think the difference really shows.

Finn was quite narrow infront and sometimes could actually look abit pidgeon toed but since all the rehab over the past year that " pinched " look has gone.

This is just the result of good hoof care, thoracic sling strenghtening, pole straddling and lateral work in slow walk - in some eyes its the " boring " stuff but it’s often the simple things that are the most important.

Posture is very important. Reading into and discovering pain signals is important too

But I’m finding the current climate is so unsure, so tentative, backing off for every potential signal of discomfort either physical or emotional, that horses are actually worse off for it.

If you never put the horse straight, they will BECOME painful. If you back off EVERY time the horse has a question, often interpreted as resistance, the horse WILL break down.

Why? Because without some guidance, some straightening, some questions and answers, horses and people will never get anywhere.

Imagine going to a fitness coach. Imagine he backs off every single time you’re remotely uncomfortable, a little sore, a little unsure, not perfectly comfortable. Imagine you need this for PT to recover from an injury.

Not only will you never get fit, you’ll actually become more anxious and more lame. Why? Because you have no guidance through and forward. Your coach will be feeding into, and building anxiety and weakness.

This is what I see in the world at large now- a well meaning attempt to create comfort in horses is actually building more lameness, more body pain, more anxiety.

Of course we need to address and solve sources of pain and discomfort.

Get good fitting tack, learn to sit WELL, and learn to ride straight. I’m not saying don’t listen to the horse - but don’t become so tentative you’re no help.

A lot of people are capitalizing on people’s good intentions to create confusion, dependence, and mystique. This stuff isn’t new - it’s been around for ages. We’ve known how to straighten horses and keep them sound for a long, long time, but suddenly it’s like the Tower of Babel out there and nobody knows what to do.

Calm; forward, and straight. Soundness is actually quite simple. Get your seat right, your tack right, and then ride them forward and put them straight.

—obviously there are some horses with lameness or congenital issues that this will not apply to. But a qualified vet or other professional will be the best help, not every Facebook post or forum you can find

- If your torso is collapsing to the right, your hips slipped to the left
- If your right leg keeps creeping up, or you lose just the right stirrup, your hips have slipped left
- If you find it easier to ride to the left, than to the right, your hips likely slip to the left.
- if you find yourself clinging to the right rein, while practically forgetting that you have a left one, good chances are that your hips slept left
- If your left hand is higher than your right hand, it’s possible that your hip slipped to the left
- If cantering counter clockwise, feels okay, but cantering clockwise feels awful, I’m gonna say your hips slipped left.
- if you can leg yield your horse to the right (off your left leg) pretty well,  but cannot lead guild to the left to save your life, your hips are probably chronically slipping to the left.

So many times, when a rider or is collapsing to the right, their coach tells them to fix it by stepping into the left stirrup. 🤦‍♀️ Like, I’ve heard of very famous coaches, giving this instruction.
And the thing is, it does look a little better, because at least when they step into the left stirrup, it gets them to straighten up their entire body -the problem is they are still off-center.
 I think the coach then typically gives students other exercises that bring them back over to the right (like twisting the shoulders to point a little to the left would help), but what I can tell you is these students then talk to me about their ride and they have absolutely no idea how to reproduce whatever straightness they may have accomplished during that clinic. 

The number one, needs solved now, issue in the rider in this sketch is that the hips fell left. I don’t care that the rib cage is collapsing to the right, or that the right leg is creeping way up. All of that will be fixed once the Rider brings their pelvis back to center.

This person is also riding with the left hip forward and the right hip back, but that will also likely resolve once you get this person to scooch over to the right.

 I would tell this student to put their left butt cheek in the middle of the saddle, high centering it, and drop the right butt cheek down into the hole that creates.

Another great exercise (on a trotting horse) is to drop the left stirrup, go clockwise, and posting trot utilizing just the right stirrup. This will feel horrible at first- to the point that I often have to let students try the exercise the opposite direction with the opposite stirrup so they realize how easy it is on their “strong” side. 

If you really struggle to keep from slipping left, it can also help to turn your chest to point a little bit to the left (while traveling right). This can be very effective at putting your weight into your right leg. You can stand up, assume a position similar to riding, and then twist your torso, one way, and then the other. Not all, but definitely most people find that when they twist to the left, it shifts weight into the right foot and vice versa.

Btw- I do virtual video review lessons! Very little tech knowledge needed. $65/lesson.


❓ ARE YOU CONDUCTING THIS STRETCH CORRECTLY?

A stretch is not just simply moving a part of the body from A to B and back to A. It is the careful repositioning of a body part from neutral (A) gently to correctly mobilised (B), held for 10-15 seconds before a controlled return back to neutral (A).

A stretch that is commonly struggled with in relation to this progress is a lateral cervical mobilisation stretch. In the left photo you can see the stretch being incorrectly carried out, with the tilting of the head and neck to get the treat without stretching the muscles of the top of the neck and poll region.

In the right photo, the ears remain perpendicular to the ground and you can see a clear stretch of the muscles around the body of the handler. You can imagine here that each vertebral joint has an even extension around the handler, rather than some joints being mobilised and others locking.

If you are using stretches for your horse, ensure your physiotherapist has seen you conduct them to make sure the desired result is being achieved. ✨