Kirsty Rawden Veterinary Physiotherapy

02/02/2025

How cool is this 😍 I just think that anatomy is so fascinating!
Obviously the numbers are different in the horse, but all very similar in structure.
Something that is often massively under considered is the role nerves play in everything, function, pain, feeling but not easily detectable by any means of diagnostics. You can see how they get compressed so easily!

https://www.facebook.com/100064739524791/posts/1025361266298515/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Here’s what the nerves branching from your spinal cord look like! 🤯
Our bodies contain 31 pairs of spinal nerves: 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, 5 sacral, and 1 coccygeal. These nerves are essential for transmitting motor, sensory, and autonomic signals between the spinal cord and the rest of the body.
They enable voluntary movements, sensory responses, and regulate vital functions like breathing and digestion. Truly, the human body is an incredible product of evolution! 🤓
📷: Revista Medicina y Salud Pública.

29/01/2025

Your horse doesn’t owe you anything.

Let that sink in.

A great horseman once told me: "Riding a horse is an honor that the horse grants us."

Think about that for a second. They don’t owe us a ride, a jump, a perfect transition, or even their cooperation. They didn’t ask to be ridden. They didn’t agree to trot in circles or load into trailers or work through our training plans.

EVERY single thing we do with horses is our idea.

They have no say in their own lives...

• They don’t choose where they live.
• They don’t choose who they share their paddock with.
• They don’t decide when they eat, what they eat, or if they can graze.
• They don’t control how much time they spend in a stable.
•They don’t get to say, "Not today, I’m not feeling up to this."

And still, despite all of that, they try for us.

That’s why we MUST listen when they tell us no! When they resist, when they hesitate, when they don’t comply—it’s not disobedience. It’s communication. It’s our job to stop and ask, Why?

When you really think about it, it’s incredible that horses tolerate humans at all.

They try so hard to understand what we’re asking, even when our signals are confusing, even when our emotions cloud our cues, even when we don’t always listen to them in return. And still, they trust us. They trust us not to hurt them, not to push them too far, not to forget that they are living, breathing, feeling beings—not machines.

That trust is a privilege.

So the next time you feel frustration bubbling up because your horse won’t pick up the canter, won’t load into the trailer, won’t move away from the gate—pause. Take a breath.

Your horse isn’t here to serve you. They are not an object. They are a partner.

Ask yourself: Why am I asking them to do this?
And then: How can I make this better

And the fact that they choose to partner with us at all—despite having every reason not to—is something we should NEVER take for granted.

🩷 We don’t always deserve horses. But every day, we have a chance to be the kind of people they deserve.🩷

Appreciate them. Listen to them. Be better for them.

26/01/2025

💜An ode to Maggie💜
They say horses come in to your life for a reason, and my gosh was this horse sent to teach me.
She taught me the true meaning of consent, well before I was aware of this.
She taught me what a firm no looked like.
She taught me compromise.
She taught me how to listen.
She taught me how to wait.
She taught me patience.
She taught me timing.
She taught me trust.
She taught me respect.
She taught me breath work.
She taught me how to think outside the box.
She taught me to trust my instinct and feel.
She taught me about resilience.
She taught me about ingrained trauma.
She taught me how to communicate.
She taught me about herbs.
She taught me about alternative therapies.
She taught me about feet and track systems.
She taught me about sinus'
She taught me to laugh.
She taught me even on your bad days you can have a wicked sense of humour.
She taught me whatever you have been through in life you can still be an absolute queen of sass to the very end.
I am truly thankful I had the privilege of working with her, she has taught me so much that has shaped the person I am today.
I am also forever grateful that she brought her fabulous mum, Helen, with her in to my life. She is a treasured friend and I am so grateful she trusted me to work with Maggie over the years. I hope if I ever come back as a horse, Helen is my carer. The love, devotion and loyalty she had for Maggie was absolutely unfathomable.
We have laughed, cried, loved and learned.
Until we meet again Mags, COC, My biggest teacher... Thank you 💜💜💜

25/01/2025

Another visit from LM saddles today to check our progress and to give me another lesson. I was blessed to have both Jemma and Alana come today, how magical when 3 like minded souls come together!
I'm pleased to report that Elmo has developed around 1cm of topline in 10 weeks... To say i haven't been able to ride for about 4 of those weeks is pretty mind blowing!! 🤯
My lesson also blew my mind, such simple tools to add to my tool box but so highly effective! I'm so excited to see what changes we can make before her next visit 😍
What an absolute gift to the horse world 💜
LM Saddles Ltd Horse-friendly Saddles, Holistic & Remedial Saddle-fitting
🌈

20/01/2025

If i have ever raised concern over the angles of your horses feet, It's not because I like farrier bashing, in fact quite the opposite. I draw attention because the angle of your horses feet play a HUGE role in what I do higher up in the body. If the feet are long, flat and underrun I cannot physically improve your horses posture because of the connection to the rest of the body. I cannot rectify this for you, it is a conversation you need to have with your hoof care professional.
Yasmin explains it beautifully in this article.
We should all be working together for the good of the horse, lets make it common practice to have open and honest conversations with our horse care professionals and also lets reciprocate the conversation back to our clients🙌🏼

You cannot escape ground reaction forces - and what I mean by this is you cannot escape the way the horse's hooves interact with the floor.

Your horse's hoof shape directly influences how they interact with the floor and equally the shape of their hooves directly influence their muscular recruitment and therefore their postural development.

As an example of this, here is a diagram of the horse's superficial retraction myofacial chain. This chain supports the retraction - i.e. the drawing back - of the horse's forelimb via connections from the solar surface of the pedal bone, through the back of the forelimb and shoulder, over the ribcage and over the top of the neck.

If there is loss of development, and therefore loss of depth, in the caudal hoof - i.e. the back third of the hoof - you're effectively creating 'fascial drag' which contributes to shortening the topline of the horse's neck and compression of their ribcage.

You can visualise how, if the heel drops, the whole fascial chain is suckered down.

Creating the appearance of a hollow horse with a short neck and perhaps overdevelopment of the underneck muscles.

Now of course you can bias your training for length and elevation through the neck, flexion through the back and expansion of the ribs; but if your horse's heels are low then you will be creating conflict.

Because you're asking that horse to inflate into restricted fascia which is being further implicated by ground reaction forces.

In doing this, you will contribute towards making movement uncomfortable - which lets be honest, poor training practices already do a good job of this(!)

You will perhaps bias towards the risk of injury or reinjury - which is slightly oxymoronic if you've chosen that movement plan as a means to rehabilitate or develop healthy posture.

Your horse will be spending more time practicing poor posture, which is more time teaching their nervous system that this is homeostasis.

And since movement and emotional health are intertwined, you may also be contributing to a negative emotional state.

Fascial chains do of course work both ways, so you can bias your training for healthy movement and it may help with caudal hoof orientation, but you cannot escape the influence of the ground and so, if you're not including your horse's hoof care within that picture, you are only giving your horse half the chance for success.

-

For this month's webinar, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse.

Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

27.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

19/01/2025

Drop me a message if you'd like an appointment 😊

17/01/2025

This 🙌🏼

Without question, the biggest game changer in my understanding of horse posture, movement and training was when I learned about the influence that hoof balance has on the whole horse.

Over the duration of my career, I have learned that healthy, appropriately balanced feet underpin not only the entire nervous system of the horse, but can be the difference between healthy and unhealthy movement AND injury, recovery from injury or re-injury. I have found that a horse with balanced feet will literally walk on symmetrical muscle mass - meaning from a physiotherapy perspective, having balanced feet supersedes any exercise I can prescribe.

I have also found that having balanced feet makes it considerably easier for a horse to find healthy posture, which then strips out a layer of complexity during training because your horse can already find neutral. This means that when we have horses, if we can get their foot balance right, we really are setting them up for success.

This month, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse. Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!

27.01.2025 19:00 GMT

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

11/01/2025

Amen sister, we're never going to change the world throwing shade and negativity around 🙌🏼
Inspire and lead by example with love and compassion 💜

Staying away from negativity! 🙏

I always find it fascinating how negativity always seems to get the biggest views or reactions. Even with the "right" intentions there is always potentially an underlying motive and I'm not here for that at all, if anything, will walk in the other direction.

I recently listened to an audio about how negativity feeds negativity and positivity feeds positivity, pretty obvious right?..
Take social media for example, any negativity gets more attention, reactions and growth, driving it it further but here's the thing, it only drives separation and segregation.... imagine energetically what that is doing to us as a human race....
In order to stop the reach, is to not take it on, hold accountability for your own heart and lead by example, that way we change society......
We are all human and I'm as guilty as anyone else at times, but I'm always actively trying to be better each and every day, not only for myself, my own horses, but every horse and person I work with. I do believe in raising awareness but in a more empowering way. Being a good example is more powerful in my opinion....

Now, although I like to keep out of the loop of the negativity in the equestrian industry from my own personal choice of spreading love, kindness and positive vibes and education, I have never used the big X button on my feeds more than I have recently, if the energy is questionable, im out!.... I am fully aware of what is going on in the industry, I have been in it for long enough, I just choose to be a light of hope instead and, stand firmly in my beliefs that in love, kindness and compassion, things can change for the good of the horse.

What I do adore and wholeheartedly admire is the people I am inspired by... The people who I can feel their heart, integrity and intentions in every post. Who's wisdoms provokes me to take a deeper look at myself, my growth, my own intentions, integrity, and how I show up for my own horses.
... maybe that's a great place for us all to start!

💜&✌️

10/01/2025

This week has been tough, thank you for being flexible and understanding! but what a lovely way to spend the morning treating my own horse at liberty in the winter sunshine 💜
We were just in there to have a wander round, with the plan of treating him once I took him inside, not something I get to do much. But Elmo knows what he wants.
The sun was glorious and he kept manoeuvring himself around me to where he wanted my hands so we stayed out and soaked up some rays and some much needed vitamin D 🥰
I love treating horses at liberty, its not always possible but it definitely has you working on a pure consent basis 🥰 when they're done, they walk off, but often return once they've had a little walk, think and a chew over what you have done 💜

08/01/2025

Last of my January availability, lets not let this snow stop us 😆

02/01/2025

Gorgeous first day back working 😍🌞

23/12/2024

🎄I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas from KRVP!🎄 Thank you to those who have bought gifts and cards and sent well wishes this festive season, I am very blessed to have such love and support for what I do, but the fact i get to do what i do and you trust me with your babies is enough of gift for me 🥰❤️💜

12/12/2024

Wow! How exciting, I've just reached 5K followers tonight! 🥳

I never intended on having many followers, this page was always just intended for my clients but hey, one viral post and here we are! The universe obviously wanted to give me a platform to shout from!

I know I have followers across the globe which I'm very humbled by, and if i can change the life of just one horse by spreading useful nuggets of information, I'm already winning!

I'm just your working class girl with a dream of improving the world for horses. I try do this by educating owners, listening to the needs of each individual horse and opening peoples eyes to different ways of looking at things.

I go down the rabbit holes in this crazy world, so you don't have to!

And as Warwick Schiller often quotes... 'When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change' and my word, has the way I look at things changed in just a few short years!

I'm so excited for more learning, more sharing, more helping horses and owners and more meeting amazing like minded people 💜 here's to the next 5000 😍

Now where is all the free stuff people get sent for having followers?! 🤣

P.s...If you don't already follow me on Instagram, please head over there and follow me... I only have 40 followers on there 🤣 i was a little late to the party!! KRvetphysio on there 👍🏼

12/12/2024

What are the three Rs of business etiquette?

I’m seeing behaviour from equine professionals on social media which doesnt mirror what is considered ‘business etiquette’.

Why is this potentially harmful to horses and people?

“The three Rs of business etiquette are Respect, Restraint, and Responsibility.

💚Respect: Treat others with courtesy and consideration.
💚Restraint: Control your emotions and actions. Keeping calm and professional even in stressful situations.
💚Responsibility: Be accountable for your actions and obligations. Meeting deadlines and admitting mistakes.”

This is one perspective. (Source: https://www.proofhub.com/articles/business-etiquette)

I might also add: kindness, collaboration and compassion and apply this to communication in general, for the greater good and evolution of humanity.

Behaviour from equine professionals which doesnt reflect this doesn’t help horses or people because it favours separateness, competition, stagnation of evolution and takes focus, energy and resources away from working together to evolve our mutual understanding of horses.

I believe individuals and organisations evolve, improve and prosper as a result of business to business collaboration, involving sharing ideas and mutual respect. Customer benefit. Stakeholders benefit. Horses benefit.

But this requires personal growth on behalf of the individuals, leaders and members.

And this requires open mindedness, patience, self enquiry and love of self before all else.

If you see or experience unkind behaviour, what should we ‘do’.

My advice is first, ‘do’ nothing in terms or reaction.

First, pause, seek your own inner alignment and truth, to facilitate a healthy response from the present moment, and not from your wounded past self, and be kind. Kind to yourself, kind to the other, and kindness to the situation.

Then act from this place of alignment, with grace, compassion and kindness.

I feel it is my personal duty to call out bad behaviour with kindness, if it negatively impacts (or has the potentially to impact) myself or another (if they are not able to). If I do not, I see myself as part of the problem.

If you own or run a business, work for another within a business, or you are a horse owner, there is much to learn from articles such as this. And not only will your business and branding benefit but ultimately your clients, their horses and everyone you meet or reach will.

For kindness and love spreads and infects others, no matter when or where they exist in this world… and beyond 🌏

Picture: professional collaberation, networking and CPD day at our HQ in 2023 with fellow compassionate professional equestrians from left to right) Mandy McConechy from PainLess Equestrian Therapy, George Mackenzie - Healer I Dowser, Sandra Davies, Neill Saunders, Fiona Varian, Kirsty Rawden Veterinary Physiotherapy, Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio and myself, Beccy Smith.

Www.holisticequine.co.uk - promoting and supporting compassionate equestrianism for the benefit of all 💚🙏🐴