The Balanced Equine, LLC

04/25/2026

“If your horse doesn’t like their feet being picked up… or they do silly behavioural things with the farrier… Please ask yourself if it’s because they find it difficult to balance, and therefore don’t feel safe!

A lot of people these days are looking for pain when there’s a behavioural problem, which is fantastic and right. But if your Vet doesn’t find anything, don’t just assume ‘it must be behavioural then’ and try to TRAIN them better.

Consider balance & muscle/posture control. Ask a Physiotherapist to assess and teach you exercises to help your horse.”

Lightbulb moment!
This is how important balance & co-ordination are to the horse.

In my own head, from learning Human Physiotherapy first, the Cerebellum is a small part behind & below the main part of Brain (cerebrum). It co-ordinates gait, balance, and posture control.

So to see in real life, that the horse’s cerebellum is almost as big as the rest of the brain itself, was a massive eye-opener!

We know that horses don’t have a large frontal cortex, the complex thought part, like humans. But, naively, I kinda thought the whole brain was just smaller. I never expected the ratios of parts to be so clearly different.

So is it any wonder then, that horses react when they feel unbalanced? They react when their co-ordination is messed with?

The size of the cerebellum means it is VITAL for horses to maintain balance, gait & posture co-ordination.

If you put your horse off balance when riding, because your own body is wonky or weak, they have to react. Biomechanically, they HAVE to stabilise the system. But it could be a behavioural reaction too.

If you mess with their gait & posture control because you have no idea about timing of aids, or suddenly pull them around, or block their spinal movement with your rigid seat… they will probably react. You’ll be met with resistance. They might even rear or buck you off.

It’s not just about pain. A rider that puts their horse off balance doesn’t necessarily hurt them, but it does impact these vital things that horses need to feel safe.

If your horse doesn’t like their feet being picked up… or they do silly behavioural things with the farrier… Please ask yourself if it’s because they find it difficult to balance, and therefore don’t feel safe!

A lot of people these days are looking for pain when there’s a behavioural problem, which is fantastic and right. But if your Vet doesn’t find anything, don’t just assume ‘it must be behavioural then’ and try to TRAIN them better.

Consider balance & muscle/posture control. Ask a Physiotherapist to assess and teach you exercises to help your horse.

Sort your body as a rider, to improve your own balance & symmetry, to avoid throwing your horse off balance.

Save this post to remind yourself again.

04/24/2026

I was taught the lunging triangle.

Horse on the circle as the base, the lunge line one side, the whip the other, and me standing still at the top. That was what correct looked like. I went through the exams, learned it, repeated it, and for years that’s exactly how I lunged horses, because that was my education and I had no reason to question it.

And if you’ve been taught the same, this isn’t a criticism. It’s simply where many of us started.

But the moment I began to strip things back, to take off the side reins, work in just a cavesson, and actually observe what the horse was doing rather than what I’d been told it should look like, that’s when it started to unravel. The picture didn’t match the theory anymore. Horses weren’t holding the circle, they were falling in, falling out, speeding up, slowing down, drifting towards me or away from me, and no matter how still I stood in the middle, it didn’t improve.

That was the turning point, because it forced me to look at what was actually happening rather than what I thought should be happening.

The whole triangle idea relies on the horse being able to organise its body around you without you truly helping it to do so. It assumes the horse can hold balance, alignment, and coordination on a circle simply because we’ve placed it there, and that by staying still and sending energy from the hind end, everything will somehow come together. In reality, that’s not what happens at all.

A horse on a circle is dealing with balance, asymmetry, coordination, and gravity all at the same time. Most horses are already crooked before you even begin. They don’t carry weight evenly, they don’t step evenly, and they don’t naturally bend in a way that supports correct movement. So when you stand still and drive the hind leg forward into a body that isn’t organised in front, you’re not improving anything, you’re just adding energy into a system that can’t manage it.

The horse then has to solve that problem somehow, and the way it solves it is through compensation. It might speed up, fall further in, drift out, brace through the neck, or become reactive. That’s not bad behaviour, it’s the horse trying to find a way to cope with something it physically can’t do in the way it’s being asked.

This is also the point where side reins tend to get added, because the horse doesn’t look steady, doesn’t look consistent, and doesn’t look round enough. So instead of questioning the process, we add more restriction to try and control the outcome. We fix the head and neck into a position, hoping that the rest of the body will follow.

But all that does is cover up what the horse can’t actually do.

The neck is one of the horse’s primary tools for balance, and when you restrict it, you take away its ability to organise the rest of the body. The horse can no longer lift, lengthen, or adjust where it needs to in order to stay balanced on that circle, so it finds another way. Usually that means more tension, more use of the underside, further dysfunction and more compensation somewhere else. At that point, you’re not developing correct movement, you’re training a more contained version of dysfunction.

And all of this stems from the same starting point, which is standing still and expecting the horse to shape itself around you.

Standing still is not guidance, and a fixed triangle is not communication. If anything, it removes your ability to influence what actually matters. The front end, the shoulders, and the alignment of the neck are what organise balance, yet the triangle system encourages people to focus on pushing from behind instead. When the front end isn’t aligned, the hind leg has nowhere functional to go, so driving it forward simply magnifies the imbalance.

When you step away from that way of thinking, lunging starts to look very different. Instead of controlling from a fixed point, you begin to move with the horse, adjusting your position to support it. You step towards the shoulders when they need guidance, you step away when the horse needs space, and you start to influence the front end first so that the hind leg has somewhere correct to connect into.

That’s where the real change happens, not through forcing a shape, but through helping the horse find one it can actually maintain.

Lunging itself isn’t the problem, and it can be one of the most useful tools we have when it’s done well. It can improve balance, coordination, posture, and communication, but only if we stop expecting the horse to organise itself while we stand still in the middle and start taking responsibility for guiding the movement in a way the horse can understand.

Because horses don’t struggle with circles for no reason.

They struggle when they’re not being helped.

04/12/2026

Horse Trailers:

Do we prefer slant or straight load? What are pros and cons that you’ve experienced?

04/07/2026

🌟 The most important ingredient for us in spring! 🌟

Sea90 garlic infused salt helps with flies and limits ticks.

👉 Personal Testimony:

Before using this salt, I was pulling 1-2 ticks off each of my mares per day. Since starting it April-October each year, I haven’t found a single tick on either of them!

1 tablespoon a day with fresh, clean water always available is all it takes.

This year is projected to be a really terrible tick season…. Protect your horses. 🐎

🫵 Remember: what works for one horse may not work for another horse. This happens to work for mine and their feeding ratio has been approved by my vet. Always consult your vet before adding new supplements and ask questions/do research if you are unsure!

04/06/2026

We hope everyone had a great Easter!
🐣 🌷

04/02/2026

Happy April! 🌱

But before we get excited about warmer weather… we need to talk about what this season actually does to our horses. (Hello, mud season! 👎)

Spring = constant moisture, unstable footing, and the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive.

That means:
• Increased risk of scratches
• Thrush creeping in
• More strain on tendons and joints
• Skin that never fully gets a chance to recover

If your horse seems to always have issues this time of year, you’re not alone!

This month, I’m breaking down the effects of spring on our horses—and how to manage it all better.

03/27/2026

OTTBs aren’t “too much”… they’re just misunderstood.

They’re not difficult — they’re different.

Different backgrounds.
Different conditioning.
Different expectations placed on them from day one.

What looks like “too sensitive” is often awareness.
What looks like “too forward” is often confusion.
What looks like “too much” is often just a horse that hasn’t been given the right system yet.

When you slow down, build trust, and support them properly… they’ll meet you there every time.

OTTB owners — what’s something your horse does that people misunderstand? 👇

03/24/2026

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉

Lauren Ramirez, Lisa Robinson, Amy Christy, Moriah Sanborn, Alexandria Plourde

03/23/2026

Something new I’m trying this year… fly predators 👀

I’ve never used them before, but with only two horses on the property now, I’d love to cut back on constantly buying and spraying fly spray.

If you’ve used fly predators:
• Did you notice a real difference?
• How long did it take to work?
• Worth it… or not really?
• Anything you wish you did differently?

I’d love to hear your honest experiences! 🐴