April 16th 2010

I am now in South Africa. The flight was great and I managed to film everything we needed to cover and arrive at Heathrow in plenty of time. As I left the London venue where we were shooting the next clip for Over the Rainbow, I thought I was hanging up the mike for a few weeks but Eugenie, who runs the TTouch programmes in SA has other plans! She has arranged for the South African TV series, Carte Blanche, to film me working with horses and dogs so I have a very hectic schedule now, which is fine by me. I started the clinic by showing the participants how to assess a horse’s head for muscle imbalance and changes to the TMJ - Temporomandibular joint. Some of the horses are crooked through the poll and the TMJ is more open on one side, which will link to how the horse is able to flex under saddle.

Understanding the link between posture and performance is vital as it gives you a greater understanding of why a horse will struggle more on one rein than the other. If the horse is jammed through the head and neck he will also find it hard to engage the hindquarters and an uneven neck will usually be accompanied by a dropped pelvis. Carte Blanche filmed the body work demonstration I gave in the afternoon and I worked with a lovely bright chestnut TB gelding who came off the track five months ago. His back is very roached through the lumbar area and his tail is clamped into the tail groove. He also sits back on his hocks giving him a very steep angle through the hindquarters. After a few minutes of tail work the roach almost disappeared and we will continue to work with him through the week. I also worked with an Irish Sports Horse mare who is very difficult for her owner. Although she was very calm when I worked with her, the look in her eye, the shape of her muzzle and the inappropriate muscle development in her neck tells me a very different story. We shall see!

We also looked at horses on the move and have some great horses to work with so I am one happy bunny. I feel very at home in South Africa and my first day has flown by. I had a peaceful evening in the company of my friends Rick and Lindy and can’t wait to get back to the yard tomorrow.

This entry was posted on 28. April 2010 at 16:04 and is filed under Sarah Fisher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.