Change of Tack Podcast

03/01/2025

Bodywork restores the horse to factory settings;

But that in isolation doesn't stick.

You can bodywork your horse over and over and over again, but unless the stimulus changes, their posture will revert.

Because muscles adapt to stimulus, irrespective of whether that stimulus is appropriate or not.

And that means that we can use the tensional patterns detected with bodywork to help us to work out whether our training has been doing what we intended it to do.

Sometimes this that highlights that, though we might be aiming for a specific training goal, maybe we are missing the mark.

Which in turn helps us to navigate our own training biases.

So for me, understanding posture opens up the possibilities;

For the horse who "has always been like that" to become the horse who could look a little more "like this".

And whilst I know that posture isn't everything - it's just a handful of flowers in the bouquet - I also believe that if people paid more attention to it, they'd see little arrows to point them in the direction of making better choices for their horse.

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Interested in learning more?

The Fundamentals of Horse Posture is the course for you - available now - details below ❤️✨️

03/01/2025

Episode 12 is now available. And I am so excited to bring you the wonderful Kate Blackmore from Equischolars.
Equischolars is a unique, modular based training system for children and young adults. Designed to be accessible, fun and educational, Equischolars enables any Equine establishment (no matter the size) to bring equine behaviour, ethology and welfare to the forefront of their business.

If you provide education with horses, this is definitely one for you! The new membership structure makes Equischolars an affordable and highly profitable business investment, while enabling you to promote equine Welfare for generations to come.

Help me get the word out about this incredible opportunity by sharing the podcast and speaking to others about Equischolars!! I dream of a world where every riding school and pony club are bringing this information to their students!

The link is in the comments!

26/12/2024

I simply can't stop recommending this course!!

IMO every person who owns or works with horses should be able to recognise the subtle signs of pain in horses. Why?...

- If you're a horse owner it can help you pick up subtle signs of discomfort before your horse develops a significant lameness, reducing the risk of compensatory injuries and escalating to dangerous behaviours.

- If you're an Equine professional it should be number 1 on your CPD list, especially if you work with ridden horses (saddle fitting, instructor, trainer, judge, steward, groom...) you need to be able to recognise the signs that a horse is in pain and refer your client to their vet, before significant issues develop.

- Many of these pain signs can be applied to no ridden horses for lunge or ground work assessments too, or simply when observing a horse moving in the field.

If you love horses, please learn Sue Dysons Ridden Horse, Pain Ethogram. The Equitopia course is very accessible and really helps to hone your eye, I can't recommend it enough.

Learn to recognize 24 vital behaviors that indicate pain in ridden horses. Science-based training from a leading veterinary expert. Limited-time offer.

21/12/2024

Episode 11 is now available.
This time I spoke with Vikki Fear Equine Podiatrist about all things hoof care.
Vikki is an Equine Podiatrist providing hoof care and hoof boot fittings in the UK. In additions, she also lectures on the level 5 diploma at Equine Podiatry Training Ltd .
Vikki has a holistic approach to her work with Equine welfare at the forefront, offering advise on management to help her clients meet their horses mental and physical needs as well as promoting correct and healthy hoof development and long term soundness.

To listen just search Change of Tack on any podcast provider, or visit my website (link in the comments below)

12/12/2024

Melissa Deal from Compassionate Horse Click.
To listen search Change of Tack from your podcast platform, or visit www.animal-balance.co.uk

11/12/2024

Episode 10 is finally out.
This is a great one for anyone who is interested in learning more about the benefits of positive reinforcement training and Melissa has kindly sent me some free rescources for anyone who is starting out and needs a little support.
Listen along to find out more. :)

Interested in a more kind and effective way to train your horse? Positive reinforcement and clicker trainers agree, this is a powerful method that helps clarify their communication with their horses.

06/12/2024

Busy editing episode 10, it hopefully will be out very soon.
Does anyone have a message they'd like me to share in the intro? Just drop me a PM and I'll read it out :)

03/12/2024

Great news. A new podcast from The NAC - Applied Animal Science discussing all things equine welfare. :)
Definitely excited to add this to my list

02/12/2024

This morning I received an email to say the podcast is 7th in the UK category Hobbies, on Apple Podcasts! This is such exciting news! And it looks like we are reaching international listeners too!

Thank you everyone for listening, reviewing and sharing, it really makes such a difference :)

01/12/2024

Episode 7. I spoke with Alex Le Grand and Aliyah Woodland from The NAC - Applied Animal Science, all about this course and the other exciting opportunities they have coming up.

Ever thought about becoming a certified horse trainer but not sure where to start? Take a look at the Diploma In Equine Training & Coaching - the ABTC Recognised course and pathway to registration as an ABTC Training Instructor for Equines.

01/12/2024

In Epsiode 2. I spoke with Caroline Hegarty from Equitopia.
Their courses are fascinating and full of evidence based information.

Horse Welfare from the Perspective of Research and Evidence

Our December Specials will be ultra focused on promoting the evidence and research based information on why we need to work together to change the foundation of the current horse culture.

Dismantling the convenient myths that allow us to be dismissive of the nature of horses from a physical, mental and emotional perspective, must be the way forward for anyone claiming to be a horse person.

Horses are not inanimate objects, tools to be used and abused for human accolades, yet, sadly, this has become the prevailing culture.

It is time to engage in better conversations, encourage discussions and advocate for change, both from a personal and general perspective.

Get the information you need to help change the landscape and make it one where horse welfare is better understood and made a priority as part of being a good rider and advocate.

Internationally acclaimed lameness vet, researcher and educator is, no doubt, one of the leading contributors to guiding the industry in this direction.

Her research extracting the data for the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram is leading the way in helping Vets, owners and equine professionals to look holistically at what horses are telling us via their behavior and physical manifestations.

This groundbreaking course, based on this ethogram, is available to all equestrians, professionals and organizations to form a basis of education that should be basic knowledge for anyone involved in horses.

Now at a steep discount, this can be a permanent part of anyone's library to manage their own development program or to have better conversations around advancing the concept of horse welfare - from the horse's perspective.

Sign up today and be part of a better future for horses worldwide:

https://www.equitopiacenter.com/recognizing-and-preventing-lameness/

30/11/2024

Thanks for following the podcast page.
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29/11/2024

I'm hoping that setting up this new page will help people see the podcast episodes more easily when I release them.
The facebook algorithms mean that most of my posts are going unseen at the moment.

The more you interact with my posts, the more they will be shown to others. So if you simply click like, leave a comment or even share the posts, it will really help the podcast to reach other listeners.... and of course, I will be very grateful.

If you want to leave a message for listeners I'll be reading them at the start of each episode, so please PM me with your words of wisdom on all things equine welfare!

Keep sending me your recommendations for future guests and any topics you would like us to cover.

For anyone who hasn't already tuned in, this weeks episode, features Yasmin Stuart Equine Physiotherapist.

Massive thank you to everyone who has been supporting the podcast and keeping me motivated, it can be a thankless task editing each episode, so it means a lot to know that people are enjoying it.

You can listen by searching 'Change of Tack' on most platforms, or visit my website:

Animal-Balance provides McTimoney animal therapy and saddle fitting services throughout hampshire, surrey, sussex, oxfordshire, wiltshire and berkshire.

29/11/2024

This week I am celebrating The amazing Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio .
Yasmin travels throughout the UK, providing holistic treatments for horses and training for owners. She specialises in trauma informed training and provides online learning through her website www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com

I can especially recommend her courses:
Fundamentals of horse posture
and Fundamentals of Exercise Programming, which guide owners through the complexities of posture and biomechanics, enabling them to critically assess and analyise their own horses development.

Yasmin was incredibly generous with her time, kindly sharing her story to make this a really fascinating podcast episode.

Just search 'Change of Tack' to listen on your favourite podcast platform.
Or click the link below to listen from my website:
Www.animal-balance.co.uk

Animal-Balance provides McTimoney animal therapy and saddle fitting services throughout hampshire, surrey, sussex, oxfordshire, wiltshire and berkshire.

29/11/2024

Welcome to the official home of the Change of Tack Podcast.
You can find the podcast on most platforms, or follow this link to listen via my website:

Welcome to Change of Tack, The equestrian podcast that shines a light on the positive changes we are seeing in the industry, by showcasing the many ways horse owners and professionals can use ethical and evidence based methods to improve horse welfare. Closing the door on abusive management and trai...