Functional Horse Training Approach
Functional Horse Training brings together equine movement science, whole-horse understanding and practical experience to explore how horses move, adapt and function within their environment.
Through education, observation and functional assessment, I explore the factors that influence a horse’s movement and capacity, and how these relate to management and training.
By connecting scientific knowledge with practical experience, Functional Horse Training offers a broader perspective on the horse, helping to inform how we understand, assess and work with them.
Explore the different elements of Functional Horse Training below to learn more about the approach, the knowledge behind it and its application in practice.
Learn about the horse inside out
A defining part of my work is whole-horse dissection. As part of the Equine Studies Dissection Team, I participate in numerous four day whole-body dissections each year, exploring the horse layer by layer and unravelling its life story through the body.
This experience has shaped how I understand the individual horse. Dissection reveals the significant variation between horses, the continuity and relationships of the body and the complexity that simplified anatomical models can miss. Examining different breeds, feral horses and other equids also provides insight into how anatomy and movement are influenced by evolution, environment and lifestyle.
Anatomy does not provide all the answers, but it gives me a deeper perspective on the physical realities within which movement, management and training take place.
My passion is to continually impact the most up-to-date research and findings through my lifelong educational journey through my online courses, live clinics, online and in-person dissection sessions.
The science behind the horse movement
Movement is not simply something the horse does. It is an expression of how the horse functions as a whole.
Equine movement science brings together disciplines including anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, physics, neurology, fluid dynamics and evolutionary biology to explore how horses generate, integrate, manage, reorganise and adapt to forces while navigating their environment. No single discipline tells the whole story — movement emerges through the interaction of the whole body, nervous systems and the environment.
Science helps us look beyond opinion and describe movement more precisely, but horses are not machines, and every horse is an individual. Science informs judgement; it does not replace it.
I use scientific theories and models as tools to organise our thinking, ask better questions and interpret what we observe.
Ultimately, movement science helps us read movement as information, giving us greater insight into health, capacity, adaptation, fatigue and the strategies each horse uses to move.
Defining functional movement
The equestrian world often speaks about “correct” movement, posture or biomechanics. But correct according to what standard? A veterinary definition of soundness, a competition rulebook, a training tradition or a textbook? Standards can be useful, but function asks a different question: functional for what?
Functional movement is movement that is appropriate for its purpose and context. It is not one ideal posture or movement pattern that every horse should reproduce. Horses need the capacity to generate and manage forces, maintain balance, move with appropriate effort and adapt when the task or environment changes.
Before the horse is an athlete, it is a horse. For the domesticated horse, this means considering:
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biological function - the ability to live and remain healthy as a horse
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athletic function - such as carrying a rider, jumping or working within a particular discipline.
Functional Unit Model of Locomotion
I use the Functional Unit Model of Locomotion as a framework for making the complexity of movement easier to explore. It considers locomotion through four interconnected functions: propulsion, integration, balance control, and orientation and regulation. These functions work together throughout the whole body rather than operating as separate systems.
The model is a roadmap, not the horse itself. Ultimately, functional movement is about having the right capacities available for the individual horse, task and context, then being able to adapt as those demands change.
Assessing the individual horse
My ambitions are to translate the knowledge of the movement science into practical skills that help people assess individual horses. My passion is to help horse owners and professionals become better advocates for the horse by learning what to observe, what questions to ask and how to communicate useful information when seeking veterinary, therapeutic or other professional input.
The functional assessment
Functional assessment looks beyond what a horse can do to consider how they move, organise their body and respond to different demands.
Through a framework of functional tests and observation across different contexts, I help people develop their assessment skills and recognise factors that influence a horse’s function. This approach complements veterinary assessment rather than replacing it, offering a different perspective and helping to inform the questions asked and the information gathered.
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Observe
Assess mechanical, neurological, energetic and fluid systems and how they interact to influence function.
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Understand adaptation
Explore how the horse compensates, responds to dysfunction and maintains function.
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Consider experience and context
Evaluate how the horse experiences its demands, the energy required to manage them and how function changes across different conditions.
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Guide practical decisions
Use these findings to evaluate functional capacity and inform recommendations for veterinary follow-up, management and training.
Applying it to how we train
Functional Training is the practical framework that follows from this understanding of functional movement. It is not a new method, style of groundwork or school of dressage, but a way of observing the horse, assessing functional capacity and making training decisions appropriate to the individual. The goals of your chosen discipline or the activities you want to undertake with your horse remain at the forefront of those decisions.
The individual horse
Which tools, exercises and movement challenges are appropriate for this horse, at this time, and for the task being asked?
The environment
Management comes before training. Movement opportunities, feeding, social conditions, terrain, recovery and stress all influence the capacities available to the horse. Where the horse spends most of its time is often where it makes the largest influence and where we can create the greatest benefit for the horse.
The entire movement, not just the exercise
A shoulder-in is still a shoulder-in, but performing the exercise does not automatically make the movement functional or beneficial to that horse. I look at how the whole body is organising the task, what strategy the horse is using and whether the exercise is developing the intended capacity or whether it is creating and highlighting compensatory patterns of movement.
Sometimes an exercise develops a capacity. At other times, developing the capacity allows the exercise to emerge. Direction, trajectory, tempo, transitions, terrain and environmental challenges can all be adapted to encourage different movement solutions.
The role of us, the trainers
The trainer does not manufacture the movement. The trainer creates the conditions in which functional movement is more likely to emerge.
The aim is not to create a horse that has memorised a collection of exercises, but one with a broad movement repertoire that can adapt to different tasks with appropriate effort, coordination and willingness.
You can explore the Functional Training framework further through my online courses and live clinics, with a focus on how to apply it to your horse, different horses, disciplines, and training goals.
