Your Horse In Connected Balance

02/18/2026

SPRING! It's what we have been waiting for all winter!

As the days grow longer and we start thinking about getting our horses back into work after a quieter winter, it’s important to remember: fitness, flexibility, and comfort don’t come back overnight. A thoughtful, gradual approach makes all the difference in preventing injury and helping your horse feel their best.

Here are a few simple ways horse owners can support their horses during the transition back to work:

🐴 Start Slow & Build Gradually
Just like human athletes, horses need time to rebuild strength and stamina. Begin with light work—walking, stretching, and short sessions—before increasing intensity or duration.

🐴 Check the Body Before the Work Begins
Look for stiffness, uneven movement, sensitivity to grooming, or changes in posture. These can be signs your horse needs support before workload increases.

🐴 Encourage Gentle Stretching
Carrot stretches, long and low work, and relaxed movement help restore flexibility through the topline, neck, and back.

🐴 Support Hooves, Saddle Fit & Balance
Winter changes (less movement, hoof growth, weight fluctuation) can affect comfort. Ensure hooves are balanced and tack still fits properly before asking for more effort.

🐴 Warm Up Longer, Cool Down Thoughtfully
Cold muscles and tight fascia need extra time. A slow, intentional warm-up helps prevent strain, while a proper cool-down supports recovery.

🐴 Consider Bodywork for a Smooth Transition
Equine bodywork can help release winter stiffness, improve circulation, restore range of motion, and prepare the body for work—making the return to riding more comfortable and effective for your horse.

Bringing a horse back into work is not about rushing fitness—it’s about rebuilding balance, strength, and comfort step by step. A horse that feels good in their body will move better, perform better, and stay sound longer.

02/06/2026

Blanketing Horses: Comfort or Compromise?
How Massage Can Help Offset the Effects

Blankets are a staple in modern horse care. They keep horses warm, clean, dry, and often make life easier for us as owners. But when blankets are worn for long periods of time—especially multiple layers, heavy weights, or ill-fitting —they can quietly influence a horse’s body in ways we don’t always notice right away.

What prolonged blanketing can do to the body:
While blanketing isn’t inherently bad, extended wear can contribute to:
🔹 Restricted movement of the shoulders and scapula
Most blankets sit directly over the shoulder blades. Repeated friction and downward pressure can limit normal scapular glide, especially in horses that are worked regularly.
🔹 Muscle tension along the topline
Constant pressure over the withers, trapezius, longissimus dorsi, and thoracic sling muscles can reduce elasticity and encourage chronic tightness.
🔹 Altered circulation and lymphatic flow
Blankets compress soft tissue. Over time, this can reduce normal blood flow and lymphatic drainage, contributing to puffiness, muscle fatigue, or delayed recovery.
🔹 Sensory dulling or hypersensitivity
Some horses become desensitized under the blanket, while others develop guarded, reactive responses when touched—often mistaken for “attitude.”
🔹 Compensatory patterns
When the topline or shoulders are restricted, horses may compensate elsewhere—commonly in the neck, lumbar spine, or even the stifles and hocks.

Signs your horse may be affected
• Reluctance to stretch forward or down
• Shortened stride in front
• Uneven muscling at the shoulders
• Sensitivity when grooming under the blanket area
• Difficulty lifting the back or engaging properly under saddle

How massage therapy helps
Massage can play a powerful role in offsetting the physical effects of long-term blanketing:
✔ Restores tissue mobility
Targeted soft tissue work helps restore normal glide between fascia and muscle layers that have been compressed or restricted.
✔ Improves circulation and lymphatic drainage
Massage increases blood flow, helping deliver oxygen and nutrients while clearing metabolic waste trapped under constant pressure.
✔ Reduces compensatory tension
By addressing primary restriction points (withers, shoulders, thoracic spine), massage helps prevent secondary strain elsewhere in the body.
✔ Reawakens proprioception
Hands-on bodywork brings awareness back to areas that have become “quiet” or guarded, improving overall coordination and movement.
✔ Supports better saddle fit and performance
A freer shoulder and softer topline allow the horse to move more naturally and comfortably under saddle.

Practical takeaways for owners
• Remove blankets daily and check for heat, swelling, or rub points
• Make sure blankets fit correctly and allow shoulder freedom
• Avoid unnecessary layering
• Incorporate regular bodywork—especially during colder months
• Watch how your horse moves after the blanket comes off
Blankets serve a purpose—but like any tool, they should support the horse, not limit them. Massage therapy helps restore balance, mobility, and comfort so your horse can move the way they were designed to move, blanket or not.
Your horse carries a lot under that blanket. Massage helps them let it go.
Reach out if you’d like to get your horse on the schedule or talk about what they might need right now.

Debra Parker, ESMT
Certified Veterinary Thermographer, AAT
760-8846-4724

The Connected Balance Equine Massage and Energy Work. Debra Parker, E.S.M.T. located in Carlsbad, CA (northern San Diego County).

12/21/2025

❄️ Cold Weather Care: How Equine Bodywork Supports Your Horse ❄️

As temperatures drop, horses—just like us—can experience stiffness, tension, and reduced circulation. Cold weather causes muscles and fascia to tighten, joints to feel less mobile, and old compensatory patterns to show up more clearly.

✨ This is where equine bodywork makes a real difference.

Benefits of equine bodywork in cold weather include:
🐎 Improved circulation to muscles and soft tissues
🐎 Reduced stiffness and soreness from cold-induced tension
🐎 Support for joint mobility and comfort
🐎 Nervous system regulation (helping horses relax and stay balanced)
🐎 Early detection of subtle restrictions before they become bigger issues

Horses often compensate quietly in winter—moving less, bracing more, and holding stress in areas like the neck, shoulders, back, and face. Gentle, skilled bodywork helps restore ease, comfort, and freedom of movement, supporting both physical and emotional wellbeing.

💙 Cold weather doesn’t mean your horse has to feel tight or uncomfortable. Proactive bodywork keeps them moving, breathing, and feeling their best all season long.

📍 Learn more or schedule a session:
www.yourhorseinconnectedbalance.com

Because winter wellness matters just as much as summer performance.

The Connected Balance Equine Massage and Energy Work. Debra Parker, E.S.M.T. located in Carlsbad, CA (northern San Diego County).

12/19/2025

Best educational and up to date report I have seen on this topic!
Reiterated "bio security matters ALL the time"!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1A15jRiAN1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

🔍 𝐄𝐇𝐕-𝟏: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐞

My last post clearly caused a kerfuffle when I posted the forms of EHV-1 that were reportABLE rather than the number of cases that have currently been reportED. So here I am to make amends! 😆

I want to start by sharing some foundational information about this virus and how outbreaks can begin.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐖𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐞

What many people don’t realize is that most horses are exposed to EHV-1, or its close relative EHV-4, very early in life. Research suggests that 80–90% of horses are infected by the time they are two years old (Allen et al., 2002). Mare and foal populations play an important role in this cycle. Pregnancy and parturition can trigger reactivation of the virus in broodmares, leading to transmission to their foals (Paillot et al., 2008). This creates a quiet, ongoing epidemiological cycle that helps explain why exposure is so widespread across the horse population.

The result is a large number of horses that appear completely healthy but are latently infected and carrying EHV-1 throughout many equine populations.

Latency means the horse’s immune system doesn’t eliminate the virus after infection, it contains it. The virus isn’t gone, it just enters a dormant or “sleeping” state, hiding in specific cells such as nerve or immune cells. Under certain stressors such as transport, illness, pregnancy, foaling, or management changes, the virus can reactivate, begin replicating again, and be shed. Importantly, this shedding can occur with little or no outward sign of illness.

This is one of the most important, and least understood, drivers of EHV-1 transmission. These horses can act like a Trojan horse, quietly spreading virus without anyone realizing it. And the hardest part? We still don’t know exactly what triggers reactivation and why it occurs in some horses and not others.

𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤?

The map shows the current (as of 12-17-25) reported counts of different forms of EHV-1 associated with the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) World Finals and Elite Barrel Race event in Waco, TX. I have also included EHM cases reported in other states that have not been tied to this outbreak, which highlights that this virus is endemic - meaning it is consistently present within the horse population, even outside of recognized outbreaks.

The cases in Pennsylvania and Maryland were reported in November, and a case reported in Minnesota in December involved a different viral strain. Canada was not included, as there are no active neurologic cases reported there at this time.

For the WPRA-associated outbreak, current reports include:
• 47 EHM cases
• 9 EHV-1 cases without neurologic signs
• 4 EHV-1 cases without clinical signs

It’s important to remember that not all states require reporting of non-neurologic EHV-1 cases, which means these numbers likely do not capture the full scope of viral circulation. Reported cases represent only what has been detected and disclosed.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

This is exactly why biosecurity matters all the time, not just during outbreaks, and not just for horses that look sick.

Cheers,
Dr. DeBoer

Allen GP. Respiratory Infections by Equine Herpesvirus Types 1 and 4, 2002. Int. Vet. Inf. Serv. 2002.

Paillot R, Case R, Ross J, Newton R, Nugent J. Equine herpes virus-1: virus, immunity and vaccines. Open Vet. Sci. J. 2008;2(1):268-91.

11/24/2025

Bio Security - Part Deux
Hey again, sorry to bother you with what looks like a very active commentary on Social Media! Sheesh!
Just using common sense and what makes you personally comfortable with your unique situation and horses.
My intent was to let you know what I was doing in my own business practices so you know and are comfortable and/or can re-arrange apts if you are not comfortable. It was by no means intention of my telling you what you should do.

I was corrected in my statement about requirement for Veterinarians in this state to report this EHV-1/EHM disease. It is NOT on the required list (which may make known cases here and elsewhere a bit of a challenge).
See the list of diseases in the link below that are required to be reported in NC (I am from CA so sorry! CA is stricter in reporting “monitored” diseases including EHV-1):
NC Veterinary Reportable Diseases: https://www.ncagr.gov/divisions/veterinary/reportable-diseases

Also when I said “stay home”, I did not say “don’t go to shows”! Again, use your good judgement here – many of our smaller local shows are not likely to have out of state participants but it is ALWAYS good to practice bio security out there as there is more than one disease exposure all the time! We can’t “bubble wrap” and live in constant fear. Just do you and enjoy 😊 😊

Peace out!

Debra

Veterinary - Reportable Diseases If any of the following reportable diseases or any foreign animal disease is suspected in animals, pertinent information should be immediately reported by telephone to NCDA&CS, Animal Health Programs at (919) 707-3250.The following diseases and any suspected Psittaco...

11/22/2025

Hi Everyone, as we go into the holidays, I’m hoping you and yours are safe and looking forward to celebrations.

As we know there are a lot of discussions (and rumors) about EHM going around (originating in TX). See the recent post from Carolina Horse Park (and we know that the Harness racing is in swing as well). They have determined it safe to continue events

Not to be taken lightly and biosecurity is at heightened awareness at this time which is a good thing.



I want you to know that I ALWAYS take bio security seriously at ALL times.

What do I do?

1)Limit my exposure between barns – if I can (and I’m usually lucky to be able to) go home and change clothes in between barns

2)WASH HANDS (and use Purell in my car) between horses (SOP always)

3)If there is a horse with known fever, sickness, etc. I do not work on that horse and reschedule that barn when clear (SOP always)

4)Once the active infection is clear and owner/vet clears me, I still use booties in that stall for another month as extra precaution

5)If I use equipment on a horse, I use alcohol wipes afterwards (SOP always)

What can you do?

1)Stay Home – not worth a risk of exposing your horses at shows

2)If you are accepting new horses, quarantine them for 2 weeks (this should be SOP – always, not just now!)

3)Report and get your vet out for any horse exhibiting illness (Vets can test and are required to report)

4)Limit your barn to only essential people (yes, I’m willing to let go of business for the sake of the health of your horses)

5)Provide a foot bath/booties/coveralls for those that have to be in your barn

6)Keep up to date (see link below) and keep in contact with your local vets (they have quicker knowledge than that link!)



I don’t think it is “panic time” but a good time to re evaluate our processes/procedures to protect our loved ones.

For updates/status:
https://equinediseasecc.org/news/article/Equine-Herpesvirus-Myeloencephalopathy-(EHM)-Outbreak

Any questions or concerns, reach out any time.

The Equine Disease Communication Center is monitoring an outbreak of EHM that originated at the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) World Finals and Elite Barrel Race event Nov 5-9. To date, officially confirmed cases have been reported in the following states:

11/22/2025

11/22/2025

Amazing knowledge at Denali Equine today. As a bodyworker I see and feel the asymmetries but until you see how a horse worked through a broken pelvis as a steeple chaser you can't appreciate how much these guys adapt and hide pain. Thank you to the owners who donated and the horses on rainbow bridge finally running pain free. Your generosity has led to more knowledge on how others can be helped. 🙏

11/13/2025

11/09/2025

https://koperequine.com/the-energy-connection-between-horse-and-human-science-and-sensation/
Explains "energy" work (and why so many times I have a hard time letting go and walking away from the horse after a session. It's like a rude disruption. Maybe it is breaking that electromagnetic connection. I will have to investigate a softer way of letting go.

The“energy” you feel from a horse when you’re working closely or riding isn’t just poetic language — it’s a very real combination of biological, psychological, and sensory phenomena. Here’s a break…

10/24/2025

Impinging DSPs (aka: “Kissing Spines”)

Citation: Clayton HM, Stubbs NC, Enthesophytosis and Impingement of the Dorsal Spinous Processes in the Equine Thoracolumbar Spine, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science (2016), doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2016.07.015



Why posture and riding methods can make a difference

Many horse owners are concerned and ask me if I think their horse has “kissing spines” when their horses exhibit sensitivity to their spine (either on palpation or when placing tack).

This research tells us: 1)many “kissing spines” exist and may be asymptomatic (can show up on xrays although the horse doesn’t exhibit and may never exhibit a problem), and 2)many times xray images are inconclusive (where the horse DOES have “kissing spines” and it is missed on imaging).



Key points of this research article (aka “readers digest” version):

Impinging DSPs (dorsal spinous process) is the most common osseous spinal pathology of horses. It occurs when the interspinous space is too narrow or the horse’s posture is excessively lordotic (“sway back”). If the horse is worked in a more rounded posture, it may help to avoid clinical progression in horses with asymptomatic impingement. A radiographic study showed greater separation of the DSPs with the lowered head and neck and closer approximation with the head and neck raised.

Horses with clinically significant impinging DSPs usually exhibit non-specific signs, such as altered hindlimb gait, resistance to work, toe dragging, poor jumping performance, and rigid posture of the thoracolumbar spine. Although they do not usually have an adverse reaction to palpation of the DSP affected horses may be painful when ridden and may show persistent bucking, rearing, refusing to jump and other forms of resistance which may be sufficiently serious to result in their loss of use as riding horses.

In conclusion, the results of this study confirm that osseous lesions of the DSPs occur frequently in horses with more severe lesions being found in the cranial thoracic, mid to caudal thoracic and mid-lumbar regions. The presence of severe osseous DSP lesions in the cranial thoracic and lumbar regions presents a challenge for diagnostic imaging, so lesions in these areas may be under-diagnosed. Anatomy and mechanics suggest that the signs are likely to be exacerbated by ridden exercise.

How can bodywork help?

Clearly, current conformation and age of the horse, proper riding and tack are important considerations. Reducing posture lordosis is key to relieving the touching of the DSPs but with an older horse where osseous changes likely have already occurred, doing belly lifts and pelvic rounding during a monthly session isn’t enough and only presents a temporary relief. Improving your horse’s core strength and stability is key and takes repetition over time. Conscious riding style, tack and consistent postural fitness are musts!

Look for me issuing homework for my clients to improve their horses’ core and spinal strength and stability!