The Movement Deficit

Standing Still Is One of the Most Unnatural Things We Ask a Horse to Do

If the Hunger Clock is the first great adjustment of domestic life, the second is even more profound.

Movement.

In the wild, a horse is almost never truly still.

Horses walk as they live.

They graze as they move.

They travel for water.

They shift constantly with the herd.

Even at rest, there is circulation, awareness, readiness.

Movement is not “exercise.”

Movement is biology.

The horse’s entire system is designed around steady, low intensity motion across the day.

The feet depend on it.

The joints depend on it.

The gut depends on it.

The lymphatic system depends on it.

The mind depends on it.

Domestic life interrupts that design.

We stable horses.

We confine them.

We fence them into small spaces.

We ask them to wait.

And then we are surprised when problems appear.

A horse that stands still for long hours is not simply resting.

It is enduring something unnatural.

The Movement Deficit builds quietly, then shows itself in familiar ways.

Stiffness.

Stocking up.

Digestive slowdown.

Colic risk.

Ulcers.

Anxiety.

Explosive behaviour when turned out.

Stable vices.

A mind that becomes either overreactive or shut down.

Many horses are not “fresh.”

They are under moved.

A horse is not meant to live like a piece of furniture that is taken out for riding once a day.

That model may suit human schedules, but it does not suit equine biology.

The domestic horse adapts again, but every adaptation has a cost.

The solution is not complicated, but it requires honesty.

More turnout.

More walking.

More freedom to roam.

More opportunities for slow, continuous movement.

Even a large paddock is not the same as a life in motion, but it is closer.

And every step matters.

Because movement is not a luxury for the horse.

It is medicine.

The domestic horse is always adjusting to the world we have created.

And one of the greatest gifts we can give back is the simplest one.

The ability to move.