Body work for your horse

How many of us think about the horse's body and how hard it has to work dealing with everyday occurrences? Carrying us around, galloping around the field, slipping and sliding, sharp turns and sliding stops, playing with his buddies, the list goes on.

When your horse is sound, it's hard to imagine that his body may be working extra hard on the inside or compensating for an aching muscle or a strain that has occurred. It may really be affecting the horse but as we all know, horses are prey animals, and can effectively cover up any aches and pains, so they don't appear weak to a potential predator.

It's been said many times, horses are athletes and should be treated as such. So what does this mean? Well, thinking about human athletes, they really have to look after themselves to stay at the top of their game and remain fit and healthy. They have a specific diet, they maintain a good body weight, they exercise regularly and practise their sport and they have body work to help maintain their most important bit of equipment - THEIR BODY!

So if our horses are athletes, then all of the components of the human athletes lifestyle are relevant to our horse.

Body work in particular, unfortunately, seems to be a neglected part of these components. Your horse MUST be comfortable to enable him to work well and be supple, responsive and able to carry out our requests. He may seem fine when you ride him, look at him or turn him out, but he could be hiding things from you that only a qualified practitioner can find out about. Or you may have gotten so used to seeing him go 'that' way that it didn't occur to you that he may have a problem.

Personally, we use different practitioners for different things and at different times. We usually have a McTimoney Chiropractor out a few times a year. This sorts out any big imbalances, releasing muscles to allow the body to bring it's self back into alignment.

Secondly, our horses are treated regularly with Shiatsu. Dudley will usually have a treatment every four to six weeks, (as do I), but other horses I deal with who are having problems or are making big changes, have them as frequent as every 2 weeks.

'Simply put, it is a ‘hands on’ technique with the same theoretical background as acupuncture. However, instead of needles I use my fingers and thumbs to apply pressure into specific points. In conjunction with massage, stretching and joint manipulation - this is why Shiatsu is often referred to as Japanese Physiotherapy.' By Louise Ledwith Shiatsu practitioner.

These things make a massive difference to Dudley's well being and way of going. It also means that I have people who know my horses body on a deeper level than I do, so if I think we are having problems, I can call them out and hey presto, they give me an exact answer as to what has changed and I can deal with it much better than if I was guessing.

There are so many different treatments available for horses these days that you are sure to find one which your horse enjoys and benefits from the most. As previously stated, there are Chiropractors, Shiatsu Practitioners, Equine Sports Massage Therapists, Light Therapy, Osteopath, Cranio-sacral, and that's just the ones I can think of right now!

It's our duty to keep our horses as comfortable as possible and able to do the work required, I highly recommend including body work as part of your stable management routine.

Dudley and I wouldn't be without it!

Happy Riding

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