https://www.empowervetphysio.com/blog daily 0.75 2025-09-04 https://www.empowervetphysio.com/blog/blog-post-title-two-s6r8f-Gbgpx monthly 0.5 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/685bc6581cce420c48f3c5b9/1ec2c237-0e15-4e25-94a3-0d517def41ef/IMG_5042.jpg Blog - Spotlight on the Equiband - The Equiband is a tool developed by the company Equicore Concepts that is designed to improve a horse’s way of going by stimulating their core and hindlimb muscles. It is a set of two resistance bands that wrap around the horse’s belly and their hindquarters, clipping on to the saddle pad. Unlike resistance bands in humans that primarily work through pulling to create tension, the main way they are used with horses is through touch. The continuous sensory input through having the band against the skin contributes to sustained muscle contraction, causing an improved posture to be maintained. This will have immediate benefits on the way the horse moves, as the muscle contraction will allow for the horse to hold themselves up and push from behind, but may also have longer term impacts if used consistently through strengthening the muscles. A lot of this, however, is still fairly theoretical, as the gadget is on the newer side and therefore has limited research behind it. So let’s discuss how much is known about it and whether that’s enough to argue its benefit! https://www.empowervetphysio.com/blog/blog-post-title-four-tpyjl monthly 0.5 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/685bc6581cce420c48f3c5b9/8c01099c-1110-435b-8e47-d8a7bfe650ee/Image+3.jpg Blog - Baited stretches: should I use a lick or a carrot? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/685bc6581cce420c48f3c5b9/dd4349ed-0a4e-4c61-b34f-493b34c7ca44/IMG_5465.jpg Blog - Baited stretches: should I use a lick or a carrot? - Surprisingly, yes it does! This is because (with most horses!) they are so food orientated that they will be snatching at the carrot to try and get a bite, and then return their head to neutral when chewing before turning to snatch at the carrot again. Whereas if you use a lick the head and neck position remains a lot more consistent during the stretch, allowing the stretch to be held for longer (remember it needs about seven seconds for the stretch reflex to even kick in!). The snatching action seen when reaching for the carrot is known as ballistic stretching, which can actually cause injury as the muscle is being forced to constantly lengthen and shorten before it is ready to, causing tightness to creep in. Whereas the consistent stretch seen with a lick is known as dynamic stretching, and is much more controlled. It also allows you to easily intensify the stretch gradually by bringing the lick further towards the horses hindquarters, or to lessen the stretch if your horse is struggling. https://www.empowervetphysio.com/blog/blog-post-title-three-468dr monthly 0.5 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/685bc6581cce420c48f3c5b9/fcab09a6-fb07-4111-bb2a-eac64956ec1e/Image+27-08-2025+at+18.51.jpg Blog - Supporting arthritic pets - Arthritis is one of the most common musculoskeletal issues that often becomes more prevalent with age. Like with humans, it occurs when the cartilage within a joint wears away over time, exposing the bone beneath it. Occasionally, this process may occur more suddenly though a traumatic injury. The exposed bone has multiple sensitive nerve endings, which when rubbed against each other when the joint moves will cause pain (see the last blog post on how pain works). You can see this in the image shown, where the bones are touching on the right hand side of the joint. This is going to cause severe friction and irritate the nerve endings in the exposed bones, causing chronic pain. Once the cartilage has been worn away, it doesn’t come back and therefore this is a condition that will only worsen (unless managed properly) and has no cure. https://www.empowervetphysio.com/blog/blog-post-title-one-ytgmp monthly 0.5 2025-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/685bc6581cce420c48f3c5b9/347f93e1-fd7d-4e91-8c17-e9875f0a55c6/Image+26-08-2025+at+16.54.jpg Blog - Making sense of pain - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/685bc6581cce420c48f3c5b9/d851365a-205f-4dd0-a355-0585480c83ae/Image+26-08-2025+at+17.03.jpg Blog - Making sense of pain - This is a question we all wish was more easily answered, because sometimes our animals will only show the subtlest of signs. It’s a bit of an art to decipher all of the minuscule signals that animals show, but to make things easier pain ethograms have been developed. These are essentially a long checklist of behaviours that animals (species specific) may show when in pain. Typically, eight of these behaviours should be met in order to class an animal as ‘being in pain’. An example of an equine ethogram to classify pain whilst ridden is seen on the right. Seeing our pets day in and day out means that we can sometimes miss things or not be able to see the progression of issues. Therefore, it’s highly recommended to take frequent comparison videos or to have an outside pair of eyes cast a look at them to identify behaviours that might otherwise go amiss. 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