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Equine Osteopathy
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Equine assessment & treatment
The equine patient has a survival instinct to mask lameness and pain. Being a quadruped enables this disguise to go unnoticed for sometimes many months, if not longer. Your horse may exhibit behavioural changes before or at the same time as a reduction in performance.
Manual treatment often works on ‘compensations’ the body makes to stay sound. When these compensations finally fail, lameness and pathology become diagnosed by the veterinarian.
The equine osteopath aims to support the functioning body for as long as possible against the stresses placed on it by exercise, poor conformation and intermittent trauma such as falls, slips and getting cast for example.
Treatment is a holistic, drug-free approach to improving suppleness, minimise wear and tear in all joints and reduce general aches and pains from developing into more permanent disabilities.
Benefits include:
- Pain relief
- Increase range of movement
- Improve straightness of movement
- Improve head carriage and body balance
- Reduce muscle and joint stiffness
- Aid hindlimb engagement
- Overcome training and behavioural problems
- Increased performance
- Quicker recovery time post injury
- Reduce risk of injury
- Non-invasive, tailored treatments
Laser therapy benefits include:
- Reduction of callus formation in splints
- Optimal wound healing
- Calming pain relief
- Healing of soft tissue injuries
- Safe, non-invasive, painless, side-effect free
- Omega Laser Treatment read more
What to expect:
- The initial consultation will take approximately 1 hour and will include a detailed case history of your horse's current problem. With the context of your horse's age, use and previous medical history taken into account, the examination will take place to see where the cause of the problem may stem from.
- The examination may take the form of a simple trot-up, or we may need to see your horse on the lunge or ridden, depending on the case.
- It is often helpful to see the rider and horse together, to see where any asymmetry or resistance may be coming from, which may be affecting training.
- Every horse and every rider are different and therefore each treatment will be adapted to fit the individual. It is important that the owner/rider understands why and how the horse may be struggling in their work and so we endeavour to give full explanations as to how to reduce the problem and prevent its return. This advice may come in the form of referrals to other professionals such as vets, saddle fitters or farriers. It may also be through exercises to help strengthen the horse and rider.
Conditions treated and rehabilitation advice for:
- Diagnosed medical conditions including arthritis and lameness
- Behavoural changes; bucking, bolting, rearing, refusing to jump
- Injuries resulting from falls, training, or other activities
- Reduced level of performance
- Problems with gait or reduced stride
- Reluctance to trot or canter on certain reins
- Back disorder lameness
- Swishing the tail, holding the tail to one side
- Difficulty maintaining impulsion
- Cold-backed
- Head tossing and general problems with head carriage
- Sacroiliac joint conditions
- Difficulties with collection work or counter-canter
- Lack of concentration
- Hypersensitivity to grooming
- Inability to stand still
- Objection to being saddled/girthed
- Adaptation to unbalanced rider
- Tendon injury, or ligament overstrain
- Weight loss due to chronic pain
- Pelvis imbalance – 'dropped pelvis'.
As a rider, you may feel restricted or crooked in the way you ride. Treatment is available for horse and rider combinations to reduce these asymmetries and aid training. Read more...
