So some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been around much for the last few months. Unfortunately, at the start of September, I had an accident, fractured a vertebrae, and ended up having emergency surgery. What actually happened is a whole other blog post, and I will write it someday, since it very much relates to my work as a Clinical Equine Behaviourist and trainer. But today, I want to let you all know that I’m back to work, quite literally stronger than ever, courtesy of the titanium inserted by my brilliant surgeon. Who, I must add, was fantastically reassuring. It turns out he has horses himself, and practically his first words to me were to let me know when he reckoned I’d be fit to start mucking out and when I could get back in the saddle.

This week has been a bit of a baptism of fire. Although I was off work for 12 weeks, I did do a small amount of work during that period, including the horse health days for the BHS and some online sessions. However, most of it was spent recovering, doing my physio, building my fitness, and resting.

I started back to work on Sunday with a full day of teaching for the vet students at Liverpool Uni. This fantastic opportunity to help veterinary students learn about horse behaviour for vets, recognising body language and signs of stress, pain face, ways of reducing stress in the veterinary practice, cooperative care and case studies comes courtesy of Sarah Heath of BRVP and her fantastic team, along with the generous sponsorship that they organise. I have been doing this for around a decade now, and I absolutely love these days, I feel it makes such a difference. As a Behaviourist I really value the importance of good relationships with veterinary surgeons, working as part of the vet led team leads to vastly improved outcomes for horses and owners, when everyone works together and the communication is good.

This was followed by a rest and recovery day, well, mostly! The evening involved a training session for a course I’m currently studying for on rider biomechanics, which brilliantly compliments everything I’ve learned over the years through both the Alexander Technique and my attempts to understand my own rather wonky body (I’m hypermobile and have had back pain on and off since I was a child). Of course at the moment it is particularly useful for me as I rehabilitate from my spinal injury. The next day brought a few more firsts. Straight into an online planning meeting with one of the big equine charities that I work with, followed by my first real world client visit, to a regular client who I do a combination of ground work and ridden coaching with. The sun shone, and it was just lovely to be back out and coaching again.

That evening, feeling inspired after my coaching session, I got back in the saddle after my 12 week break. It was so lovely to be on board, I got on my daughter’s new loan horse who is really sweet and took very very good care of me. It is going to take a while to get those muscles activated again though!

Then yesterday I headed to CAFRE, Enniskillen, to attend a conference on ‘The movement of the Horse’. This brought together a range of practitioners in the fields of Equine Assisted Therapy and Learning. This is an area I have long held an interest in, having taken the EAGALA level 1 certificate back in 2003. However I’m always looking at it from my perspective as a Clinical Equine Behaviourist and Trainer. Plenty of food for thought and I met some very interesting people and caught up with a number of old friends! Nice also to be at CAFRE and experience the fantastic facilties as a customer rather than as a presenter!!

December is booking up fast, but I’m always available for a quick chat for anyone who is concerned about their horse’s behaviour or training, or is interested in coaching that is informed both in terms of horse and human psychology and biomechanics. Just give me a call on 07773 157428 or email spencehorsesense@gmail.com

I’ve lots of interesting workshops and courses planned for 2024, so watch this space!

It’s good to be back!

Helen xo