Helen Rackstraw Equine Touch Practitioner

12/11/2025

Great advice, to help ease the pressure on you and your horse over the winter months 👍

For anyone who needs to hear this — there is a lot of change going on at the moment seasonally, don’t feel the need to put the pressure on you and your horse to succeed/ride/“be normal”.

If your horse feels a bit too fresh to ride, just do groundwork. Or go home and try another day.

If it’s raining and you’re not feeling in the right headspace to ride, consider a shorter ride or trying another day when you feel you can be the person your horse needs.

If you’ve been in the school lots and you want to hack so your horse is having variety in their work, great. But if they’re unsettled and will spend most of the hack in negative posture, will it be worth it?

If you’re doing polework and your horse is continually spooking at the scary corner, give time to the corner and its problems… give space and patience and return to the poles after.

I’ve swapped from raised poles in a straight line to more complex flat poles like in the diagram for Meji, giving his brain something to focus on (alongside his core bands).

We have had a very dry Summer, followed by a mild and wet Autumn-Winter transition… a lot of the unsettled, different or slightly “off” behaviour from our horses at the moment can be due to metabolising these changes. It is often that type of “sharp” behaviour that cannot be relieved with exercise, so lunging 100 circles or riding for hours will not likely solve your problem (not that it should do!)

Don’t feel the pressure to get on and ride, this phase will pass & be kind to you and your horse 🤍

EDITED TO ADD: I have had lots of messages about polework designs, I have two polework inspiration manuals on my website that you can download!  https://www.vetphysiophyle.co.uk/shop/p/polework-inspiration-manual-vol-2

29/10/2025

❤️❤️❤️

16/10/2025

Listening is everything 🧡

14/10/2025

13/10/2025

Some big releases from Ivy this afternoon, I'm sure she will sleep well tonight 😴 🩷

04/10/2025

Food for thought. Times change, a lot was simpler way back before matchy matchy. I do like to look smart and coordinate colours (not necessarily matchy brands, just what I throw together!) Life was more simple back then, but theres room for conversion, as the horses probably wore shared tack years ago that perhaps didn't fit well and I can't remember ever hearing a horse having any form of bodywork as regular maintenance, only if a horse had an issue and the vet suggested a physio (or back man!). So many people now are thinking more about preventative bodywork as we continue to learn. Education is key and as long as the horses welfare is at the centre of our world, then that's all that matters in our horse world evolution ❤️😊

Not a Lemieux product in sight.

The early 2000s horse world was a very different planet. Ponies stood in yards on plain headcollars and knotted lead ropes, riders turned up in whatever jeans or tracksuit bottoms were clean, matching sets were unheard of unless you count mud stains. There were no “saddle pad drops,” no Instagram ready photoshoots, and zero pressure to coordinate your horse like a boutique catalogue. It was simpler, scruffier, and somehow far more fun.

Those days were filled with hacking for hours, jumping ditches, bareback races across fields, and coming home looking like a creature of mud and hair. Designer gear? Optional. Fun? Mandatory. And somehow, that’s exactly what mattered.

Looking back now, I think we’ve lost a bit of that. Somewhere between the saddle pad drops and the endless new “musthaves,” the horse world got a little distracted.

Don’t get me wrong, nice kit has its place, but the real magic is in those scruffy, unbranded, unforgettable days.

Sometimes, a picture like this reminds us, it was never about what we wore, or what the saddle pad looked like. It was about who stood beside us, muddy, scrappy, and utterly unbothered.

The farmer’s daughter aka myself and my cousin plus the queen of the farm, Storm, the Connie aged 4.

20/09/2025

Happy weekend everyone ❤️

16/09/2025

Just this!....

07/09/2025

Lovely afternoon of chill out vibes and catching up with Seren and her owner Kelly ❤️

06/09/2025

Annie enjoyed her 2nd Equine Touch Session this week. She's had some arthritic changes in her stifles & hocks in the past which have both been medicated, she also has seasonal allergies which results in head shaking, which her owner manages well. As a result Equine Touch helped her release a lot of built up tension she has been carrying for some time, she spent a lot of time processing as you can see in this picture. She is definitely another Equine Touch Addict 🩷

03/09/2025

What a fabulous story, this might give others hope if they have got a 'wonky' horse of their own! Time, patience, good training and good body work (Equine Touch!) Can really make the difference ❤️