Attuned Assessment online
“Have we really ruled out pain?”
“Is there a health reason for my horse’s behaviour?”
“How does my horse learn?”
“How is my horse’s lifestyle serving them?”
Often people say “if only they could talk”, but they are communicating with us all the time, we just have to listen and be able to figure out what they are telling us
Attuned Assessment online workshop Sept-Oct 2025
• Are you concerned your horse might have underlying pain?
• Is your horse showing behaviours you feel uncomfortable “training through” and instead want to get to the root causes of them?
• Does your horse have an ongoing health condition that you think their lifestyle might be contributing to?
• Do you want to improve your communication and understanding with your horse?
My Attuned Assessment approach goes deeper than a conventional veterinary physical examination. It consists of observations of your horse’s posture and movement, body and hoof shape, and behaviours and facial expressions. These observations are done at a distance, hands-on, and using food and scent enrichment stations.
Attuned Assessment is both an assessment and therapeutic tool that will direct, inform, and compliment both diagnostic investigations and treatments, and will deepen your understanding of your horse and enrich your entire relationship.
Next workshop dates: September - October 2025
Workshop materials available 1st September 2025
• First Zoom call: Wednesday 17th September at 6pm BST (UK time)
• Second Zoom call: Wednesday 1st October at 6pm BST (UK time)
• Third Zoom call: Wednesday 15th October at 6pm BST (UK time)
What is Attuned Assessment?
Attuned Assessment is my method of going deeper than a conventional veterinary physical examination with an animal. It consists of distance observations, paying attention to behavioural indicators, and assessing their body with your hands. Slowed down observations with the animal in as free a setting as is possible to begin with are highly valuable. Using various stations they can interact with give more information. And finally cultivating two-way communication in order to give the animal a voice can tell us where their needs might not be being met, where they hurt, and how they feel.
This way of collecting information about the physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing of animals has them as an active participant in the process. As a result of this and the logical and sensitive way in which you go about it, the process can often reveal more than a conventional clinical examination does. This is not meant to teach you how to perform a clinical examination or to diagnose, and it is vital that qualified professionals carry out this part of the process of investigating our animals' ill health as well. But as an owner, this will equip you to help out the attending professionals, to better evaluate the efficacy of treatment or management, and enhance your relationship with your companion.
What can the online workshop help you with?
• Gaining a deeper understanding of your animal companion and their unique needs - how do they best learn and communicate, how is their lifestyle serving them, how do our interactions affect their health and wellbeing?
• Assessing for subtle signs of pain or discomfort - do they have pain, are we managing it successfully, can it be resolved?
• Evaluating progress in ongoing health conditions - is your horse improving or not, do we need to change strategy?
• Deepening and celebrating your relationship with your horse!
How and what do we assess and how does this help us understand our horses better?
We use a combination of distance observations using various food, scent, or play stations at liberty as well as hands-on observations and setting up two-way communication. Through these we assess:
Static and dynamic posture, range of motion, musculoskeletal development, and hoof morphology - these can tell us about our horse’s underlying neurophysiology and patterns of movement and weight-bearing, which direct us to sources of pain and dysfunction
Feelings around being touched - this directs us to pain, fear, fear of pain, and our overall relationship with our horse
Feelings around food - this tells us whether there is something we need to change about our horse’s lifestyle, and helps us set up and carry out positive reinforcement training without feelings of food frustration or conflict
How your individual horse communicates and learns - enabling us to better formulate our training approaches
Attuned Assessment involves distance observations using various food, scent, or play stations as well as hands-on observations and setting up two-way communication
Postural and expression observations - non-vertical cannon bones, triangulated eye, dip in front of withers, and deep groove in thigh muscles are all indicators of how the body is dysfunctioning, with pain present
Postural and expression observations - tight muzzle, triangulated eye, turned-out right hind foot and slanting left front limb - show tightness in shoulders and groin, and slight worry about moving like this
This is for you if:
• You want to understand and address the deep roots of your horse’s health and wellbeing
• You prioritise your relationship and how your horse feels
• You want expert coaching in assessing and rehabbing your own horse, and in determining what you need from equestrian professionals you call out to help you in person.
• You want to be able to ask a vet questions about the specific process that might be needed for your horse
Meet your coach
Hi, I’m Lily, I have been a vet since 2016, initially in general mixed practice, and over the last few years I have changed my approach. As well as my patients, my own horses, particularly Sunny and Beau (pictured here) have taken me on quite a journey and have guided me through developing this new approach.
My passion is helping people and animals to live their best life together by nurturing their all-round wellbeing and unique partnership. I am fascinated by all aspects of wellbeing from how the body functions in health and disease to how we all learn, think and feel, and how all of this is intertwined. I want to help people on their journeys of discovering how to keep horses’ bodies and minds healthy, comfortable, active and engaged and to explore the integral role of both the horse’s and our emotions in all of this.
My approach combines my veterinary background with knowledge of species-appropriate lifestyle, pain physiology, posture and locomotion, hoof care, and remedial exercise, as well as learning theory, trauma-informed horsemanship, and cooperative care training. I offer alternative views on the investigation and treatment of health conditions that help horses and humans to better communicate and heal.
I look forward to meeting you and your horse!
What’s included?
• Webinars and videos explaining and demonstrating the concepts and practical application of this approach
• THREE live Zoom calls and access to the recordings of these
• PDF guides to help you in assessing your own horse
• A 30 minute one-to-one Zoom call with me about what you have discovered with your horse, what it all means, and where to go from here
• Long-term access to private community discussion group on Facebook for posting videos, discussing observations and sharing ideas
• On completion, join the ongoing subscription option to receive more in-depth ongoing support
• Discount code for 10% off the Spring Wellness Reset one-to-one call bundle!
What previous workshop participants have to say…
Lisa Luongo, dressage trainer, riding instructor and equine bodyworker of Lisa Luongo Equine
… “I know it sounds corny to say that it’s life changing but it really has changed everything for the people I work with” …
… “You and your horse are individuals, this course helps you… in the way that works for both of you” …
… “This helps you develop your method with your horse, and that’s why it works”…
Indra with Bob, Belle, and Eric
I heard Lily on a podcast as was intrigued and inspired by her approach. My horse Belle was the main catalyst for doing the workshop. She’s got some “known issues” which she’s been treated and rehabbed for. But I felt I hadn’t got to the bottom of things completely, needed to see the whole horse & needed some guidance in my observation and interpretation.
The workshop helped me in many ways. It gave me a useful “half halt” in terms of not jumping to conclusions too soon, it gave me tools to try different observations of my horse in a more creative way and then to start to tie the elements together.
I have a wider set of tools to use to see how all my horses are expressing themselves in their body: from their teeth & how they eat through to their hooves. I think I have a softer yet wider focus that’s better at seeing my horse rather than, for example, the specifics areas of Belle’s known kissing spine and stifle issues. And I still have a lot more to explore as a result of the workshop.
[If you’re thinking about signing up to the Attuned Assessment online workshop] Go for it. Lily is right, our horses can tell us much more than our eyes are often trained to see. We all know the strengths and weaknesses of traditional diagnostics. For me this approach is an invaluable addition to my toolkit and can help us help our vets as well as our horses.
Sign up here:
Gain a deeper understanding of your horse and their unique needs by assessing for subtle signs of pain or discomfort, how they feel about food, movement, and interactions, how they best learn, and what they need. Evaluate progress in ongoing health conditions and deepen and celebrate your relationship with your horse.