To cultivate a good understanding of posture, it’s essential to acquire baseline knowledge of the associated anatomical structures, their form and their function. This enables us to train our eye to dysfunction by visualising the placement of the anatomy of the horse.

To maintain musculoskeletal health, horses should have access to the entirety of the range of motion (ROM) available within each joint.

In this chapter, expect to learn what joint range of motion is and how it is influenced by musculoskeletal and neuromuscular factors.

From my professional experience, posture is often confused for conformation. Conformation should be used to determine a horse’s suitability for a job, but many horses are overlooked for their sub-optimal, yet rectifiable posture. Developing a firm understanding of posture means that we can identify potential risk factors for pathology - we can plan to support their welfare based upon their behavioural and postural needs.

Understanding what neutral means and how it pertains to horse health is essential for any postural assessment. The exact morphology of neutral is different for each horse, however, being cognisant of it serves as an excellent indicator for the potential development of pathology as directed from deviations from ‘the norm’.

In this chapter, expect to learn how to identify what neutral posture looks like as a starting point before we move on to look at postural abnormalities.

We have now discussed the importance of neutral and what neutral means to horse health. It is now an essential for us to recognise postures outside of confinements of neutral to be able to identify if a horse needs further management support.

In this chapter, expect to learn how to identify what non-neutral looks like via surface anatomy and visualisation of the musculoskeletal system.

Recognising sub-optimal posture is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to postural restoration. Before a plan can be devised to remedy or support posture, it’s essential to understand what factors influence it. In many cases it isn’t one simple variable, but rather a culmination of factors which come together to support an outcome.

In this chapter, expect to learn variables which influence posture to then be able to identify which variables may be affecting or influencing your horse.

Throughout this course we have discussed the musculoskeletal system and how it pertains to posture, we have talked about joint range of motion, the difference between conformation and posture, common postural presentations and finally the factors which influence posture - but now we need to talk about how this relates to you and your horse.