Category: My Work

Chiropractic for Horses

Horse chiropractic is a manual maneuvering of the vertebrae, to maintain alignment and ensure nervous system control and muscle coordination. Physical adjustments for the pelvis, hind legs and shoulders can greatly benefit.

Chiropractic offers an entirely new therapy for horses. Gait problems and lameness that may have been previously untreatable or undiagnosed may respond to adjustments.

When movement between two vertebrae is restricted, the horse does not have total flexibility of the spine. Stiffness and resistance to movement results in lowered performance. As by shifting weight or moving a limb differently.
Misalignment can happen throughout the body and can cause many symptomatic problems within the horse.
Chiropractic care offers tremendous potential in the correction of back-related lameness. It also has potential for the prevention of lameness. Gait problems may be corrected in the early stages, before tissue damage occurs.

Traumatic and stressful situations present themselves to horses everyday, in the very nature of competitive activities, such as racing, dressage or eventing.

Chiropractic and muscle therapy helps to improve muscle tone and better performance for a more athletic horse. Furthermore equine therapy ensures your horses good health and happy relaxed attitude. Treatments done on a regular basis should be part of your horses overall maintenance.

I believe that every breed of horse and every discipline benefit from Equine Therapy.

Chiropractic goes hand in hand with massage and acupressure.

Acupressure

Acupressure is a specific type of massage that relieves tightness in muscle groups by applying pressure to the 26 stress points on each side of the horses body.

These stress points are where ligaments and tendons come together in a muscle group.
The stress points and muscle groups usually tend to become tight and shut down. Due to nerve irritation, stress, fatigue or injury.
When this happens the muscle group does not get the oxygen it should and then it is very susceptible to minor or major rips and tears.

Acupressure goes hand in hand with massage and chiropractic. 

Massage
Therapeutic use of massage to increase blood circulation, relieve tension and enhances the range of motion in the performance of horses.

Massage therapy is done with acupressure and massaging the muscle in each muscle group.

Lots of horses can be ridden for many years without any muscle or skeletal problems.
Muscle disorders can be traced to a particular incident. It may be a result of fatigue, overstretching, where they may tear. Also cooling down to quick can be a cause especially after overheating.
Incorrect posture, badly fitting shoes and saddle, a fever or disease, a structural or systematic imbalance or even poor nourishment are causes of muscle complaints.

High performance horses mainly suffer more than others as they are often required to give maximum physical effort in the performance, which will stress their muscles considerably.
Because a muscle contracts in response to such a stress, there can be uneven force on the joints. This is thought to be a contributory factor to many of the back complaints experienced by these horses.

The massage therapist uses hands and body to manipulate soft tissue for the prevention and treatment of muscle injuries and to release stress points by acupressure. This is done after the initial chiropractic adjustment is completed. This maintains free motion and encourages optimum performance.

Massage techniques safely affect the body by regulating muscular, circulatory and nervous systems. Treatments may alleviate chronic injuries as well as help prevent new injuries. Stretching techniques are also incorporated with massage, to naturally relax and tune up the body muscles where most needed. Both give you a valuable feedback into your horses musculoskeletal condition.

  

Benefits of massage for your horses

• Increases horses flexibility and suppleness while decreasing the chance of muscle injury
• Reduce muscle stiffness by taking the lactic acid out of the muscle
• Increases muscle tone and range of motion with stretching
• Relaxes spasm or knots
• Increases the healing process by bringing blood to the area
• Helps to allow area of inflammation to heal by alleviating pain
• Can help in lengthening connective tissue and breaks down the formation of the scar tissue
• Minimizes muscle damage when the horse has been injured

Massage therapy for horses increases circulation, which reduces swelling, transports toxins to points of elimination, contributes to increase range of motion, and ultimately produces an overall state of relaxation for the horse.

Naturopathy and Homeopathy
Naturopathy focuses on health.

Naturopathy is inner balance and good health maintained through nature.
Natural supplements, exercise, pure water, fresh air, sunshine, rest and moderation.

When the body does go out of balance, then Naturopathy employs the use of nature’s remedies such as herbs, essential oils, minerals, etc., in addition to the laws of health, to support the body so it can bring itself back into balance. Naturopathy has been around since the beginning of time.

The use of natures’ remedies support the healing process. Naturopaths determine the root cause of the body’s disease from the symptoms, suggesting a course of action to get the body of their horse back into balance. I believe as an Equine Therapist and Naturopath that you must get to the root of the reason of imbalance/ disease so the body can heal.

If you don’t know what causes an imbalance in the body that has brought on the disease, how can you assist the body to balance and be healthy?
I look at the symptoms as indicators of the root of the disease and believe in the true holistic approach to health. The animal as a whole, mind, body, and spirit, as well as his living environment is taken into consideration when evaluating the horses health.
Using herbs, exercise and water are three of the most important ways of healing. Relieving stress through massages and aromatherapy.
The purpose and goal is to help bring the body back to a natural balance.

 

Homeopathic Remedies
Homeopathy is an alternative method of treatment, that is based on the principle that like cures like.

Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor and the founder of Homeopathy, was the first person to purposely utilize this method of treating disease.

Hahnemann disagreed with the accepted reason why the medicine Quinine helped in treatment of cases of Malaria. He began to take Quinine on a regular basis. After a short time he produced the symptoms of Malaria in his own healthy body. The symptoms would disappear when he stopped the medicine, only to appear again if he repeated the dose.
He concluded that quinine was good to treat Malaria not because of its bitter quality, but because in crude form, it could produce symptoms of the disease.
Hahnemann then began to treat patients according to this principle, using smaller and smaller doses of the medicines. He found they would not only respond, but would have few of the side effects that were so common to the medications used by more conventional practitioners. He theorized that the Homeopathic remedies, in their minute doses, carefully selected to match all to the patients symptoms, gave the body the information it needed to heal itself. Although no one has been able to prove or disprove this theory, Homeopathy is accepted in most parts of the world today as a very scientific method of treating disease.

Homeopathy will not mask symptoms and no side effects will occur. Furthermore it stimulates and strengthens the horses immune system. Which can be beneficial for every kind and breed.
Homeopathic remedies are given internally in extremely small doses. Hahnemann discovered that by putting the remedy through a series of dilutions, and agitations he was able to make it more potent in action each time.
Most horses take the medicine very willingly. The remedies are absorbed by the mucous membranes and does not need to be swallowed.
The final solution is absorbed by small sugar globules which are taken orally.

Homeopathy is used and known world wide. I have seen many great results treating diseases, illnesses and injuries, in humans and animals.

 
Naturopathy & Homeopathic Remedies are for general well- being, health & balance and better performance.