Dynamic Equine Therapy

11/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 12

TRANSITIONS ARE STRENGTH TRAINING. 🐴

We often think of transitions as a way to improve responsiveness or get the horse listening.

But the transition itself is doing some of the work.

Every time a horse changes gait, it has to reorganise its body.

Going from walk to trot, the horse has to adjust its balance, shift how it carries its weight and coordinate its limbs differently.

Going from trot to walk, it has to control and absorb that change rather than simply slow down.

And moving between gaits means the muscles are continually adjusting to a different demand.

That means a transition isn’t simply the bit between walk and trot, or trot and canter.

It is an exercise in changing, controlling and reorganising movement.

And the quality of that change matters.

A horse that rushes into the trot, falls onto the forehand, braces through the body or loses rhythm is doing something very different from a horse that changes gait while remaining organised.

So rather than counting how many transitions we can fit into a session, it is more important to pay attention to HOW the horse makes the change.

A good transition doesn’t need to look spectacular.

It just needs to ask the horse to change without losing the organisation of its body.

Because the transition isn’t a break between exercises.

THE TRANSITION IS THE EXERCISE

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen.

10/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 11

WHERE DOES COMPENSATION COME FROM?

There isn’t always one answer.

Pain is one of the biggest reasons a horse changes how it uses its body. When something hurts, the horse will naturally try to protect it by changing how it loads and moves.

But compensation doesn’t only come from pain.

Weakness, restriction, previous injury, conformation, saddle fit, rider influence and the environment can all change the way a horse organises its movement. Sometimes there is more than one factor involved.

And the horse isn’t moving in isolation.

It is moving as part of a system that includes the horse, rider, saddle and environment.

Change one part of that system and another part may adapt.

We see this particularly clearly with pain and lameness. A problem in one limb can create compensatory changes elsewhere in the body, sometimes producing movement asymmetries that can look like a problem in the compensating limb.

So when we see compensation, the starting point isn’t always obvious.

It may not even be one thing.

The adaptation is the clue.

It tells us that something has changed in the way the horse is managing the job.

Understanding that change means looking at the whole picture, rather than assuming the first thing we notice is where it all began.

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen

09/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 10

GOOD SIDE. BAD SIDE. DON’T TAKE SIDES.

Most riders have a rein that feels better than the other.

One direction feels more natural, one lead comes more readily, and one rein seems easier to ride. We get used to it and start thinking of it as simply the way our horse is.

But “good side” is a description, not an explanation.

To have some difference between left and right is completely normal. Horses aren’t perfectly symmetrical, and neither are we.

What matters is the difference we consistently feel and see.

A horse may have found one way of organising its body that is easier than the other. Sometimes that is simply natural asymmetry. Sometimes it develops from weakness, restriction, discomfort or compensation.

Either way, the difference is telling us something.

And this is where I think we can be guilty of taking sides.

We work harder on the bad rein. We try to make the stiff side more supple. We repeat the difficult lead. We try to improve the thing that feels harder.

But it’s worth being curious about why the two reins feel different in the first place.

Because the goal isn’t simply to have a better bad rein.

It’s to understand why the horse hasn’t found both directions equally easy.

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen

08/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 09

Horses are masters of adaptation. 🐴

A horse is very good at finding a way to keep functioning.

It adapts.

When one part of the body isn’t able to do its normal job effectively, other muscles and structures can step in and help. They take on some of the work that would normally be shared differently.

This is compensation.

It is a coping strategy that allows the horse to maintain function when something isn’t working as it should.

And this is where compensation can become difficult to recognise.

The horse can continue to function, but the way it is functioning gradually changes.

A muscle has a particular role within a much larger system. When it is repeatedly asked to do more than its normal share, it can fatigue, become overactive or develop differently.

At the same time, the muscle or structure that isn’t contributing properly may become weaker or less able to do the job it was designed for.

So the horse keeps moving. The job still gets done.

But the division of muscular workload within the body has changed.

The horse has created function within dysfunction.

That adaptation can become so familiar that it starts to look normal.

And that’s why compensation can be a mask.

What we see on the outside may be the horse’s way of coping, rather than the original problem.

Understanding compensation means looking beyond the function the horse is managing to produce and asking:

What has the body had to change to make that function possible?

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen

07/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 08

THE GROUND PUSHES BACK. 🐴

Every time your horse takes a step, there is an exchange of force happening between the hoof and the ground.

The horse applies force to the ground, and the ground responds with an equal and opposite force back through the hoof and limb. That reaction is one of the forces the horse has to manage with every stride.

It starts at the hoof.

As the foot takes weight, the structures within the hoof and lower limb change shape and position to accommodate the increasing load. The hoof capsule, frog, digital cushion, tendons and supporting structures all contribute to how that force is absorbed and distributed.

As the limb continues to load, the fetlock lowers and the elastic structures of the lower limb store and release energy. The hoof then moves through breakover, changing its relationship with the ground as the limb prepares to leave the surface and begin the next part of the stride.

And the sequence changes with the gait.

At the walk, the four limbs take turns supporting the horse, creating a continuous transfer of weight through the body.

At the trot, diagonal pairs of limbs work together, changing the timing and magnitude of loading.

At the canter, the sequence changes again. It is an asymmetric gait, with different limbs taking different roles and a moment of suspension between strides.

So the hoof isn’t simply landing and leaving the ground.

It is continually receiving, managing and returning force while the rest of the horse adapts around it.

This is where hoof balance becomes part of the bigger movement picture.

The angle and shape of the hoof influence where and how forces are applied through the foot and lower limb. Change that relationship, and you can change the way the limb loads, how it moves through breakover and how those forces are transferred further up the body.

But the relationship works both ways.

The way a horse stands, moves and loads its limbs also influences what we see at the hoof.

The hoof is therefore not simply the bottom of the movement system.

It is where the horse meets the ground, and where the forces created by movement come back into the horse.

Every stride is an exchange.

And the whole horse has to manage it.

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen.

06/09/2026

04/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 07

THE NECK DOES MORE THAN CARRY THE HEAD. 🐴

The neck is a remarkably active part of the horse’s movement system.

It helps position the head, influences balance, and coordinates with the trunk as the horse moves.

Its muscles are doing far more than simply holding the head up.

The cervical muscles help control the position and movement of the neck and head, while also interacting with the muscles of the shoulder and thoracic region.

That relationship matters.

A change in neck position changes the way the horse distributes weight and organises its body. At the same time, what is happening through the back, shoulder and hindquarters influences how the neck can move and stabilise.

It works both ways.

And the neck is not only about movement.

It is involved in how the horse sees its environment, maintains balance, expresses itself and responds to the rider’s aids.

For the rider, this can make the neck surprisingly informative.

A horse that feels soft and mobile through the neck can give you a very different feeling from one that feels fixed, braced or reluctant to bend.

Sometimes the difference is obvious.

Sometimes it is simply that the contact feels different, the balance changes, or one rein feels unlike the other.

And that is where the idea of a connected horse becomes useful.

The neck cannot be separated from the rest of the movement system.

It interacts with the hindquarters, back and core, shoulder, limbs and hooves throughout every stride.

A neck that can move, stabilise and adapt gives the rest of the body more options.

Because good movement isn’t about holding one part in the right place.

It is about the whole horse being able to coordinate.

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen.

03/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 06

POWER IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. 🐴

We often think of the hindquarters as the horse’s engine.

And for good reason. The hindlimbs are capable of producing substantial force and are a major source of propulsion.

But producing power is only the beginning.

That power has to be loaded, organised and transferred through the body to become useful movement.

Think about a horse moving freely.

The hindlimb meets the ground and accepts load.

The joints flex and extend.

The muscles generate force.

That force is then transferred through the limb and trunk as the horse moves its centre of mass.

All of this happens through a remarkably coordinated sequence.

When the system is working well, you don’t see a series of separate movements.

You see one horse moving.

The hindquarters create force, but they also have to control and direct it.

And the rest of the body has to be able to receive and respond to that force.

The back and core help stabilise the trunk.

The forelimbs manage the forces arriving at the front of the body.

The neck contributes to balance and orientation.

And the hooves are where the whole system meets the ground.

This is why thinking about the hindquarters as simply an “engine” doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

An engine produces power.
The horse has to organise that power into movement.

And that is where the whole-body system becomes so fascinating.

Efficient movement isn’t just about how much force a horse can produce.
It is about how well the whole body can organise and use it.

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen.

02/09/2026

BETWEEN THE STRIDES | 05

A STRONG BACK ISN’T A RIGID BACK. 🐴

When we think about a horse’s back, it’s easy to picture it as a bridge between the front and hindquarters.

But the back isn’t simply there to connect the two.

It has to move, adapt and stabilise at the same time.

The thoracolumbar spine is capable of flexion and extension, lateral bending and rotation, and these movements are part of normal locomotion.

So a functional back isn’t a motionless one.

It is constantly making small adjustments as the horse changes gait, speed, direction and limb loading.

This is where the back and core become particularly interesting.

The muscles surrounding the spine and abdomen help control and stabilise the trunk, providing a foundation from which the limbs can move and forces can be transferred through the body.

But stability doesn’t mean stiffness.

Too little control and the trunk may struggle to stabilise movement.
Too much restriction and the horse loses the ability to adapt.

And you can often see the difference in the movement.

The back may lose some of its natural swing.

The horse may become less able to bend through the body.

A turn that once looked effortless may become harder to organise.

Or the limbs may begin to move differently as the horse finds another way to manage the task.

This is why looking at the back in isolation can be misleading.

A change in the way the hindquarters generate force, the shoulder moves, or the neck balances the body can all alter what we see through the middle.

And the reverse is true too.

A back that cannot comfortably stabilise and move can change how the rest of the horse organises itself.

The back is not a rigid bridge between two ends of the horse.

It is an active part of the movement system, constantly balancing stability with mobility.

And perhaps that is the more useful way to think about strength:

Not the ability to hold still.
The ability to stay controlled while moving.

A strong back isn’t a rigid back.
It’s a back that can stabilise without losing movement.

Between the Strides
Little things worth noticing.

Dynamic Equine Therapy
Understand • Activate • Strengthen.