Pegasus Physiotherapy

04/08/2026

🗣️The people who shout the loudest in the comments are rarely the ones who can clearly explain what’s actually incorrect.

They’ll confidently tell you you’re wrong, but when you ask why, or ask them to explain it using anatomy, biomechanics or physics, the conversation often stops.

Disagreeing is easy.

Explaining your reasoning is much harder.

Science isn’t about who has the strongest opinion or who comments the most. It’s about whether your explanation stands up to scrutiny, fits with the evidence, and makes sense.

That’s why I always encourage discussion. If I’ve got something wrong, show me. Explain it. Share the evidence.

But if all you can do is repeat the same instruction because that’s how you’ve always been taught, it’s worth asking yourself a difficult question:

Do you actually understand it…

Or are you simply repeating what someone else told you?

04/08/2026

🏇Being upright is not the same as being balanced when on a horse. Balance is about centre of mass over base of support. But if you are not balanced you can use legs to press (grip) against the horse to keep you upright.

03/08/2026

🙌 One of the reasons I’m so passionate about understanding rider biomechanics is because it’s incredibly easy to convince ourselves we know why something worked.

A rider changes after a coaching cue, they ride better, and our brains naturally fill in the rest of the story. We don’t just think, “That helped.” We often think, “That’s what the problem was.”

But those aren’t the same thing.

A successful coaching cue tells us that something changed. It doesn’t necessarily tell us what changed, why it changed or whether the explanation we’ve attached to it is actually correct.

That’s where I think we need to be careful.

We’re all influenced by our previous experiences. If we’ve seen the same thing a few times before, we naturally start looking for it again. If we believe a particular movement causes a particular problem, we’ll often notice examples that support that belief without giving the same attention to other equally plausible explanations.

That’s simply how human brains work.

There’s another complication too.

The cue we give isn’t always the cue the rider receives.

Every rider interprets instructions differently depending on their body awareness, previous experiences, confidence, physical limitations and movement strategy. Two riders can be given exactly the same instruction, both improve, and yet the mechanism behind that improvement may be completely different.

I also think this explains why so many coaching cues create short-term improvements but don’t always produce lasting change.

If the rider’s physical capacity hasn’t changed, whether that’s their mobility, strength, balance or motor control, they’ll often return to the movement strategy their body has relied on for years as soon as they stop consciously thinking about the cue.

That’s why I start by asking, “Why has this rider’s body adopted this movement strategy?”

For me, that’s the difference between changing what a rider looks like for a few minutes and creating meaningful, long-term change.

Because understanding how the body functions is very different from assuming why it moved.

03/08/2026

1️⃣ One reason riders toes often point out in the saddle is that they rotate the lower leg from the knee and ankle when trying to apply a leg aid. Instead of the inside of the lower leg making contact with the horse, the heel turns in towards the horse’s side and the toes swing out.

In this video, we’re working on creating the movement higher up by improving internal rotation of the thigh at the hip. That allows the leg to sit in better alignment against the saddle, so the rider can apply an aid with the inside of the lower leg rather than twisting the knee and ankle to achieve the same result.

It isn’t about forcing the toes to point forwards. It’s about improving how the leg is organised, so the foot naturally ends up in a more functional position and the rider can give clearer, more efficient aids.

If you’ve ever been told to “keep your toes pointing forwards” but struggled to do it, there is often a reason why. Understanding the biomechanics behind your position is the first step to making lasting changes. That’s exactly what we look at in Rider Physio assessments and throughout the Riding Ready online courses.

02/08/2026

Everyone is loving the new Insight Dura gloves!

🔗www.symmfit.co.uk

You’re not alone!

It’s a really common things riders tell me they struggle with, especially when trying to process everything else that’s happening at the same time.

But the Insight Gloves don’t just help you recognise your left and right.

They help you see what your hands are actually doing.

Are your thumbs staying on top?
Is one wrist collapsing?
Is one hand pronating more than the other?
Are you gripping differently with each hand?

So many riders have no idea they’re doing these things until they can actually see them.

Once you can see it, you can start to understand it.

Once you understand it, you can start to change it.

That’s why every colour, line and marker on the Insight Gloves has a purpose- not to hold your hands in a position, but to give you the feedback needed to improve your own hand control.

02/08/2026

Who’s going to Blenheim?!

Can’t believe we are now in August and we are at there next month!

02/08/2026

🐎Every rider influences their horse, whether they realise it or not.

The way we balance, transfer weight, absorb movement and use our bodies all affect the information the horse receives. Sometimes those influences are obvious, but often they’re surprisingly subtle.

That’s why I enjoy sharing rider assessments as they help riders see things which aren’t often looked at. They show how things like a lifted big toe, reduced hip mobility, a stiff ankle or limited trunk control can have an effect throughout the body and, ultimately, on the horse.

Recognising those influences isn’t about saying someone shouldn’t ride. It’s about understanding them so we can make informed decisions, work around physical limitations where needed, and keep improving for the benefit of both horse and rider.

The goal isn’t to create a “perfect” rider. It’s to better understand how the human body works, because the better we understand ourselves, the clearer our communication becomes and the easier it is for our horses to do their job.

02/08/2026

📆Some spaces still available for the weekend clinic Hurstwood Farm Equestrian Centre 🙌

02/08/2026

Well done Evie! Looking forward to hearing how you and Troy get on 🙌

Today, our youth riders have been travelling from all over the region and heading to Vale View for the 2026 Youth Home Nations🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 We're going to introduce all four teams this evening and this time we've gone for Welsh rugby club team names so first up we have, Team Cardiff:

❤ Evie Bayman riding Bendyth Point
❤ Poppy Anderson riding Cooper II
❤ Carys Dillon riding Bastiano