Horses are particularly good at hiding pain, making it difficult to know if they are in discomfort. Pain can decrease activity levels and performance and can cause behaviour changes. Some of these behaviour changes include bucking, rearing and napping. It can also cause your horse to be behind the leg, refuse to work into the contact and shake their heads. Some things that you might also notice is that they fail to take the correct canter lead and may seem stiff and uncomfortable. Horses can show pain in different ways, so it is important to know what is normal for your horse. Tacking up can be an important process and if your horse becomes ‘grumpy’ whilst having his tack on this could show that he is uncomfortable. The fact that we work so closely with them and ride them means that we can often tell when they are not feeling 100% and this might be due to some muscle pain from everyday activities, hard work, a fall or trauma or increased exercise. Veterinary physiotherapy can be used for many things such as post-surgery, post-injury, sports massage, pre-season ‘MOT’, weight loss or fitness advice to prepare them for competition.