Dr. Rachel Heart Bellini, DVM, the holistic minded equine veterinarian behind Heart Equine, recently shared on Facebook that she is attending a clinic in Texas with Manolo Mendez. Mendez is widely known for his dedication to a soft training method that prepares horses physically and psychologically for each stage of work, typically in dressage.
The clinic consists of seven horses and riders all from an array of ages, breeds, and backgrounds. The goal for each rider is to improve their horse’s movement and self-carriage.
While the clinic is a week long, Dr. Heart shared a thought from her observances on Days 1 & 2: “Can horses be trained for soundness?”
When speaking about why she is attending the clinic, Heart says, “30 years of working with sport horses has made it evidently clear that that the development, training, riding and tack are the main offenders in the soundness problems experienced by our horses. Without knowledge of proper training and development and an education about tack how are veterinarians supposed to know which issues they can help and which ones need other support? It just simply isn’t enough to know WHAT, you need to know WHY !!!!”
While the overarching goal is to learn about biomechanics of the horse, Dr. Heart included a list of her many takeaways, just from only a couple days of auditing.
To read the full list of takeaways and follow along with Dr. Heart’s experience at the clinic, visit her Facebook page.
You may also visit her website here.
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