Does your horse have trouble responding to the bit? Does he hold his head awkwardly at times, or seem to have problems chewing? Does he show unexplained behaviour under saddle or have problems with certain gaits or leads? Or does he toss his head a lot, especially when pressure is applied with his bit or perhaps a hackamore?

In January 2003, Penny Woodworth, who lives on Vancouver Island, BC, was taking a jumping lesson. “Smallish jumps, nothing exciting. My long-time error is looking down, which I did that day. My horse stopped, and I tumbled off. Not a bad fall at all, except that I landed with one butt-cheek on the ground pole. I got up and carried on, but I was crooked and stayed that way. After a week or so, still riding crooked and feeling shooting pains down my right leg, I went for physiotherapy. I had dislocated my sacroiliac (SI) joint. Regular physio treatments and exercises finally got it to stay in place and I continued riding.

Anatomy and Function of the Equine Hyoid Apparatus - The hyoid bone and its relationship with the fascia, and the temporomandibular (TMJ) joint between the temporal and mandible bone, are areas of fascination for me. In osteopathy, we are taught to see every part of the body as connected – and not only every part of the body, but everything from the structural, to the fluidic, to the energetic and beyond.

As Captain Canada announces a partial step-down from international competition, his love for the horse and the sport remains stronger than ever, and he looks forward to sharing his knowledge and passion with the next generation.

The sacrifice of the ten million men who lost their lives during the conflict, which endured from 1914 to 1918, is well known. Less well known is the price paid by the estimated eight million horses that perished in the Great War, a fact lamented by Private James Robert Johnston, a horse transport driver who served with the 14th Canadian Machine Gun Company, in his memoir, Riding into War: “Very little has been said about the horses and mules that were used and what they suffered is beyond all description.”