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The Honest Equine, Newcastle upon Tyne (2026)

02/09/2026

Where does PREHAB end… and REHAB begin? 👀

We use both words a lot in the equine world.

But I think there’s a pretty important grey area between them that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Prehab is proactive. It’s about developing physical capacity, strength, coordination and resilience before there’s an injury to rehabilitate.

Rehab is different. It exists because something has happened: injury, pain, pathology, loss of function - and ideally has a clinical reason, an assessment and an appropriate plan behind it.

But then we get to the bit in the middle…

A horse develops an asymmetry.
They start moving differently.
Their topline changes.
One hindleg doesn’t seem to be contributing quite like the other.
Something that used to be easy suddenly isn’t.

Do we strengthen it?
Do we treat it?
Do we change the training?
Or do we investigate WHY it changed first?

And this is where I think the distinction really matters.

Because not every weakness needs rehabilitating.
Not every asymmetry needs correcting.
And equally, not every problem can be strengthened away.

Sometimes exercise is exactly what that horse needs.

Sometimes exercise is simply loading a body that is already compensating for something we haven’t identified yet.

Knowing the difference is a huge part of genuinely evidence-informed, horse-centred care.

And it’s one of the topics we’re getting into during a very exciting conversation coming this September. 🎙️

One hour. One conversation. No fluff.

I’m still not telling you who it’s with just yet… 👀

But I will say this: if you’re interested in prehab, rehabilitation, evidence-informed care and developing horses without constantly looking for something to “fix”, I think you’re going to enjoy this one.

The Honest Equine × ???
Coming 15th September 2026.

01/09/2026

Things owners apologise for at their horse’s treatment that genuinely DON’T bother me… 😂🐴

“Sorry, they’re absolutely filthy.”
I work with horses. I promise, grease is not going to offend me. 😂
Although if I lose my hand somewhere underneath it, we may have a problem.

“Sorry, they won’t stand still.”
They don’t have to stand like a statue. Moving, repositioning, looking around and responding to what I’m doing can actually give me useful information.

“Sorry, they’re being grumpy with you.”
Please don’t apologise for your horse communicating.
Ears, tail, posture, movement and reactions are all information to me. I’d much rather see their genuine response than have it corrected away.

“Sorry, I haven’t done the exercises.”
Just tell me! 😂
Life happens. Knowing what has actually been done helps me assess what we’re seeing now and decide what we do next.

“Sorry, I don’t know what you mean - can you explain it again?”
YES. Ask me.
You are absolutely not expected to know anatomy or biomechanics. Half of my job is helping you understand what I’m finding.

“Sorry, I feel like I’m telling you loads of irrelevant stuff.”
Keep talking. 👀
That random comment about struggling with one canter lead, suddenly refusing to stand for the farrier or feeling different downhill might actually be very relevant.

“Sorry, I don’t know if I’m imagining it…”
Tell me anyway.
You know your horse’s normal better than I do. A subtle change you’ve noticed can be incredibly useful when I’m building the wider picture.

“Sorry, they’re old/unfit/have no topline at the moment.”
I’m not there to judge what your horse looks like.
Age, workload, fitness, time off, previous injury and management are context, and context helps me understand the body in front of me.

And my personal favourite…

“Sorry, my horse is a bit weird.”

Excellent.

They’re a horse, and I love weird.

You don’t need to present me with the perfectly behaved, immaculately groomed, beautifully muscled version of them.

Give me your horse as they actually are.
Tell me what you’ve actually noticed.
And ask me absolutely anything you don’t understand.

That’s far more useful to me. 🤎

31/08/2026

And that’s a wrap for the week! 🤎

Finishing off with the beautiful Lexi, who at 19 years young is looking absolutely fantastic.

Lexi does have arthritic changes through her hocks, but she’s a great example of how much thoughtful, sympathetic management can matter as horses get older.

Her owner is really considerate about her workload, what they ask of her and keeping her comfortable - adapting things to the horse in front of them rather than simply focusing on age.

She certainly doesn’t look ready for her bus pass just yet 😂

That’s my last treatment done before I take a little week off! 🔔

I’ll still be around and answering messages as normal until Thursday, then I’ll officially be ‘out of office’ between Thursday - Sunday.

Anything sent during that time will be picked up when I’m back on Monday.

Time to give these hands a few days off too! 😂🐴

30/08/2026

🧠 🐎 YOUR HORSE HAS A TENDON OR LIGAMENT INJURY… WHAT ACTUALLY AFFECTS THE PROGNOSIS?

A tendon or ligament injury can be one of the diagnoses horse owners dread hearing…

But “soft tissue injury” isn’t a prognosis.

Two horses can injure the same structure and have very different outcomes.

Why?

Prognosis depends on considerably more than simply which tendon or ligament is injured.

Things that matter include:

→ The structure involved:
An injury to the superficial digital flexor tendon isn’t biologically or mechanically identical to an injury involving the suspensory ligament, deep digital flexor tendon or an accessory ligament.

→ Where the lesion is:
Location matters. Different regions of the same structure experience different forces and can have different implications for rehabilitation and return to work.

→ The extent of the damage:
Cross-sectional area affected, fibre disruption, lesion length and severity all contribute to the clinical picture.

→ What the horse needs to return to:
Returning comfortably to hacking isn’t the same rehabilitation target as returning to racing, eventing or high-level jumping.

And then we get to something owners sometimes underestimate:

Healing ≠ returning to normal tissue.

Tendons are designed to tolerate ENORMOUS loads while storing and releasing elastic energy (sometimes as much as 1000 - 2000kg, around 2x its own body weight!)

Following injury, the repair stages involve inflammation, proliferation and then a long remodelling phase.

The resulting tissue doesn’t simply regenerate overnight into an identical copy of the original tendon.

Collagen fibres have to reorganise and adapt to mechanical loading.

That process really takes months, not weeks.

Which is why another common misconception needs addressing:

REST ISN’T THE SAME AS REHABILITATION.

Reducing load is often necessary during the appropriate stage of an injury.

But eventually - healing tissue needs appropriately dosed mechanical stimulus.

Too much load too soon can exceed the tissue’s capacity, but too little load for too long doesn’t adequately prepare that tissue for the forces it’ll experience when the horse returns to work, and in the long term can be just as detrimental, or put the horse back to stage 1.

That’s where progressive rehabilitation becomes so important.

Protect → introduce appropriate load → reassess → progressively increase capacity.

Not:

Rest → wait → suddenly return to work.

This is also why I’d be cautious with claims that massage, supplements or any single therapy alone can somehow “repair” an injured tendon.

Nutrition matters. Veterinary treatment may matter. Rehabilitation absolutely matters. Adjunctive therapies have roles in particular cases.

BUT - and it’s a big but - there isn’t one magic ingredient.

The goal isn’t simply to make the horse look sound.

It’s to gradually rebuild the capacity of the injured structure, and the rest of the horse, to tolerate the demands we’re eventually going to place upon it.

• Muscle strength
• Coordination
• Joint range of motion
• Trunk stability
• Movement quality
• Cardiovascular fitness
• Progressive exposure to the specific demands of their job

They all become part of the return-to-performance picture.

Even then, a previous tendon injury can carry an increased risk of reinjury - that’s why prognosis should always be individual.

• The scan matters
• The horse matters
• The discipline matters
• The rehabilitation matters

And most importantly:

TIME OFF and REHABILITATION are not interchangeable.

A tendon can be given time.

Rehabilitation is what progressively prepares it - and the horse attached to it - for what comes next.

Any suspected tendon or ligament injury requires veterinary assessment. Rehabilitation should be guided by diagnosis, imaging where appropriate and veterinary recommendations.

29/08/2026

HONEST CONVERSATIONS | EPISODE 3

“He’s just being difficult.” But have we ruled out pain?

“He’s lazy.”

“She doesn’t like schooling.”

“He’s nappy.”

“She always bucks into canter.”

“He just doesn’t like going forward.”

We hear these descriptions of our horses all the time.

Sometimes, they may genuinely describe a training, behavioural or communication issue.

But sometimes we’re describing the symptom without understanding the cause.

A horse can’t tell us that loading one hindlimb feels uncomfortable. They can’t explain that their back hurts when they’re asked to engage more, that a transition feels difficult, or that something which was previously comfortable no longer is.

Instead, we see changes in behaviour, movement, posture, expression and performance.

And there is research behind this.

The work surrounding the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) identified 24 behaviours occurring significantly more frequently in horses with musculoskeletal pain. A score of eight or more of these behaviours has been strongly associated with the presence of musculoskeletal pain, although importantly, the RHpE is not a diagnostic tool in isolation.

Perhaps one of the most sobering pieces of research looked at 506 sports horses considered by their owners to be sound.

47% were found to be lame or showed other pain-related gait abnormalities.

That isn’t a criticism of owners, at all.

If anything, it demonstrates just how difficult subtle musculoskeletal discomfort can be to recognise, even for people who know their horses.

Pain doesn’t always look like a horse hopping lame.

Sometimes it can look like reluctance to go forward.

Difficulty with one canter lead.

Repeated tail swishing.

Head tossing.

Resistance during transitions.

A change in willingness to jump.

Difficulty bending one way.

Bucking.

Or simply…

“He just isn’t quite himself.”

But there’s an equally important part of this conversation:

Not every unwanted behaviour means pain.

Fear exists.

Confusion exists.

Training problems exist.

Learned behaviour exists.

Environmental and management factors exist.

Rider influence exists.

And individual temperament certainly exists.

Jumping from “he’s naughty” to “he must be in pain” isn’t necessarily better reasoning.

Instead, we need to become more curious about change, patterns and context.

Has something changed?

Does it happen consistently during a particular movement?

Is it worse on one rein?

Does it appear under saddle but not from the ground?

Has performance gradually deteriorated?

Are there accompanying changes in movement, posture or muscle development?

That’s where assessment becomes important.

From an MSK perspective, I’m interested in the whole picture: history, static presentation, palpation responses, movement, asymmetry, muscular development, compensation patterns and how all of those findings relate to what the owner is seeing.

And where something falls outside my scope - particularly where pain, pathology or lameness is suspected - that’s where veterinary investigation belongs.

Because the goal isn’t to diagnose every behaviour - but it is to recognise when something deserves investigating.

So perhaps the next time a horse starts saying “no”, rather than immediately asking:

“How do I stop this behaviour?”

we could first ask:

“Why might this horse be finding this difficult?”

Sometimes the answer will be pain.

Sometimes it won’t.

Sometimes there will be several contributing factors.

But our horses deserve the question to be asked.

Listen before you label.

Because behaviour isn’t a diagnosis - but it is information.

Sometimes, it’s the first information we’re given that something has changed.

Open discussion. Better education. Better outcomes for horses.

28/08/2026

✨ MEMBERSHIPS: THE HONEST EQUINE CONTINUITY MEMBERSHIPS ARE NOW LIVE ✨

After a lot of planning behind the scenes, I’m so excited to finally share the full details of my new monthly membership options.

These have been created for owners who want their horse’s musculoskeletal care to feel more proactive, more consistent and easier to budget for throughout the year.

Rather than paying for each follow-up as it comes around, the cost is spread across manageable monthly payments, with additional member benefits included too.

-

• MAINTAIN — £16/month
6-month minimum term
Approx. 12-weekly follow-up treatment

Best suited to horses who are generally doing well and benefit from regular MSK monitoring and maintenance.

• SUPPORT — £25/month
6-month minimum term
Approx. 8-weekly follow-up treatment

For horses in regular work, those who benefit from closer monitoring, or owners wanting a little more support between appointments.

• PERFORM — £50/month
3-month minimum term
Approx. 4-weekly follow-up treatment

Designed for competition horses, horses in heavier work, return-to-work cases or those requiring more regular ongoing input.

-

All active members receive:

• Travel included within a 40-mile radius
• PBM during scheduled sessions where appropriate
• Thermographic imaging where appropriate
• Priority booking
• 10% off eligible Payhip resources
• Occasional complimentary member-only resources

Higher tiers also include additional video, telephone and message support between appointments where appropriate.

-

This isn’t about offering cheaper treatments. It’s about creating affordable continuity for you and your horse.

• Being able to follow changes over time.
• Reassess rather than guess.
• Plan ahead.
• Keep costs predictable.
• And give owners more structured support between visits.

New clients will still need to complete an Initial Functional Assessment before joining, and memberships are selected according to the individual horse rather than simply choosing a tier online.

-

Membership places will initially be limited so I can make sure every member receives the level of support these plans are designed to provide.

If you’d like to join, or want to talk through which option would be most appropriate for your horse, send me a message or comment below with MEMBERSHIP and I’ll send everything across.

-

Full membership information, a detailed breakdown of each tier, eligibility and full Terms & Conditions are available on my website.

🔗: https://thehonestequine.square.site/memberships

27/08/2026

A conversation I think we need to have… 👀

You know me, and I love conversations.

Something exciting is coming in September, and I can finally start sharing a little more about what we’ll actually be talking about.

This isn’t going to be another conversation about finding everything that’s “wrong” with a horse.

Quite the opposite.

We’re going to be getting into what evidence-informed care actually looks like in the real world and where the line sits between being proactive about our horses’ bodies and constantly feeling like we need to fix them.

We’ll be talking about things like:

→ Prehab vs rehab, and why they aren’t interchangeable
→ What preventative MSK care can realistically achieve
→ When strengthening and conditioning are appropriate… and when we actually need to investigate first
→ Why an exercise programme isn’t automatically a rehabilitation programme
→ How owners can become better at recognising meaningful physical change
→ And whether, in trying to do the absolute best for our horses, we’ve accidentally created a culture where every asymmetry, tight muscle or imperfect movement becomes a problem to solve

Because evidence-informed care isn’t about throwing more treatments, exercises or interventions at a horse.

Sometimes it’s about knowing when to intervene, when to investigate, when to build capacity, and when to leave well alone.

I’ve been invited to have a full hour-long conversation about all of this with someone whose work I’ve followed for some time, and I’m so looking forward to it.

No rigid script.
No fluff.
Just a proper conversation about horses, evidence, physical development and where prevention ends and clinical rehabilitation begins.

And I’m still keeping who it’s with under wraps for just a little longer… 👀

Coming September 2026.

Any guesses yet? 👇

26/08/2026

Happy National Dog Day to the other half of The Honest Equine management team 🐾

Meet Peggy: Chief Napping Officer, Head of Staff Morale and apparently completely unaffected by workplace productivity targets.

Her responsibilities include:
• sleeping on the job
• supervising from underneath a blanket
• demanding appropriate remuneration in snacks
• providing emotional support to management
• contributing absolutely nothing to the treatment schedule

An integral member of the team, obviously.

Happy National Dog Day, Peggy 🤎

The Honest Equine’s least productive employee and somehow the one with the best work-life balance.

😂

26/08/2026

🐴 LAST-MINUTE APPOINTMENT AVAILABILITY 🐴

I’ve had two afternoon appointments become available next week:

📍 Monday 31st August — PM
📍 Tuesday 1st September — PM

I do work late evenings, so slots are open up until 8pm.

These are suitable for:

• Functional assessment & hands-on treatment
• Follow-up appointments
• Horses where you’ve noticed a change in movement, comfort or way of going
• Routine maintenance where an appointment is due

Each session is tailored to the individual horse, with assessment guiding what we do rather than simply treating areas of tension.

If you’ve been meaning to get your horse booked in, this is a good chance to grab one of my remaining slots before my next availability (mid-September).
📩 DM me to book or use my online booking link

First come, first served.

Link: https://squareup.com/appointments/book/L4CXKNSVTYJJF

Fran | The Honest Equine
Equine MSK & Rehabilitation Practitioner
Assessment-led • Evidence-informed • Horse-centred

26/08/2026

🖐️ PALPATING THE HINDQUARTERS - AVAILABLE NOW!

An Owner’s Observation Guide | £1.99

Your hands can tell you that something has changed, they can’t necessarily tell you why.

This is something I really want to encourage more owners to understand.

Palpation can be incredibly useful for getting to know your horse’s ‘normal’. You might notice an area feels firmer, one side looks less developed, your horse reacts differently to touch, or something simply doesn’t feel the same as it usually does.

But the finding itself isn’t a diagnosis.

So rather than teaching you how to find things that are “wrong”, Palpating the Hindquarters is designed to help you become a better observer of your own horse.

Inside we cover:

✓ Key hindquarter anatomy & landmarks
✓ Muscle tone and what you may actually be feeling
✓ Hypertonicity vs hypotonicity
✓ Guarding & sensitivity
✓ Atrophy vs hypertrophy
✓ Fasciculations
✓ How to recognise and describe asymmetry
✓ Why isolated palpation findings need context
✓ Observe → Describe → Investigate
✓ When to monitor, when to discuss & when to call your vet

I want to move owners away from statements like:

❌ “His SI is out.”

and towards useful observations like:

✓ “His right hindquarter looks less developed.”
✓ “He consistently moves away when I palpate this area.”
✓ “I’ve noticed a change in the way that hindlimb is moving too.”

That gives your vet, therapist or other professional far more useful information to work with.

And this is only the beginning…

Palpating the Hindquarters will form part of my new PALPATING THE HORSE series, coming soon.

We’ll work our way around the horse, breaking down different anatomical regions and helping owners understand what they can observe, what they might feel and - importantly - what those findings can and cannot tell us.

No DIY diagnosing.
No declaring bones being “out”.
No turning every reaction into pathology.

Just better observation, better terminology and better conversations about our horses.

OBSERVE → DESCRIBE → INVESTIGATE

📖 6-page instant digital PDF
💻 £1.99
⭐ FREE for The Honest Equine Collective subscribers

Get Palpating the Hindquarters on Payhip⁠!

Link: https://payhip.com/b/rbMNs

The Honest Equine

02/09/2026

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