Rehabilitation training a horse in-hand

"Physical Training that is Physical Therapy"

Trainer, Paige LaBella specializes in the therapeutic use of dressage for rehabilitation, to prevent lameness, and to improve athletic performance of horses for riders of all ages, disciplines, and levels through Grand Prix.

Training Philosophy

The underpinning of Paige's dressage training program is simple: The feeling of strength, balance, and confidence is the basis from which trust, partnership, and cooperation emerges from the horse. Settle for nothing less. Prove to the horse that what you are asking will not cause discomfort or damage, accept the horse’s personality, and you win the horse’s heart.

Soundness in horses results from healthy biomechanics in both horse and rider. Afterall, when we sit on a horse we have created a coupling of two dynamic living bodies. Paige's aim is to educate both horse and rider in the art of achieving optimum coordination through dressage movements. With primary focus on the dynamics of the horse's back, she teachs the rider to feel and address the imbalances that will, or already did, lead to lameness or under-performance.  

Problems Solved:

  • behavior problems
  • horse and/or rider confidence
  • muscular imbalance
  • troubleshooting grand prix dressage movements
  • injury rehabilitation
  • recurrent lameness
  • mystery lameness
  • declining performance
  • jumping problems
  • navicular syndrom
  • kissing spines
  • neurological in some cases
  • other lameness problems

William was chronically lame from a young age, was retired and changed hands many times. By changing the way he uses his body, he became sound even with the pathology he accumulated over the years, and progressed in his athletic training without recurrence of his lameness.  

See William's story on the Rehablog page