Tel: 0781 777 6313
Tel: 0781 777 6313
All you need to know!
How physiotherapy can help your horse.
There are a number of reasons why a horse might require physiotherapy. These include treating a specific condition, rehabilitation following injury or illness, to offer support against problems later in life, or to improve and maintain performance.
We offer a wide range of equine physiotherapy techniques to correct skeletal alignment and support the horse's body structures including superficial and deep muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints.
Correct physiotherapy techniques are able to help your horse by reducing inflammation and pain, retaining full range of joint movement, restoring and enhancing strength, retaining full functionality, and avoiding re-injury, maintaining health and improving performance.
What to expect from us
All horses that are seen by our physiotherapist are thoroughly assessed...
- Permission to treat the animal is obtained from the animal's vet prior to the treatment date (this is law for all practitioners). Patient history is obtained.
- A full history and any concerns are discussed with the owner
- The horse is given a full physical examination
- The horse is assessed whilst moving
- The findings are discussed with the owner
- A full treatment is provided and if needed electrotherapy is included within the price of the treatment
- Aftercare advice and exercises are left for the owner, advice on exercise regimes is provided when needed.
What, When and Why?
What we can help with...
There are a variety of reasons why you would use physiotherapy for your horse.
Behavioural Changes & Retraining
Often horses show signs of pain or discomfort through unexpected behaviour. This behaviour can be in the form of bucking, rearing, kicking, spinning and head tossing. This may be the only way the horse has to communicate that there is pain in their body. Equine Physiotherapy can often be used to identify and treat the source of the pain and allow the horse to continue working without discomfort.
Many horses are now required to change their discipline and often this means using a completely different set of muscles. Providing equine physiotherapy during this transition period will support the muscles and limit the chance of pain or injury.
We provide advice on exercise regimes to help improve the horse's core body strength, enabling the correct muscle groups to work together so your horse can perform at its optimum level.
Injuries & Rehabilitation
Horses that suffer from injury very often have to undergo a period of box rest. Due to the lack of movement the body's structures soften and the horse can compensate through other parts of the body. Providing equine physiotherapy for a horse on box rest will not only reduce the compensatory issues, it will also limit the amount of muscle wastage and promote an accelerated healing response within the body and limit further injuries.
The same can be said for ligament and tendon injuries. Equine tendon and ligament injuries can be treated with a range of electrotherapy to ensure an efficient and effective recovery. Please see our Electrotherapy section for further details.
Riding & Competition Horses
Physiotherapy is an important tool in the routine of any riding horse. This is not only for maintaining body health and the correct locomotion of the horse's body, but also for identifying any underlying concerns that could later become a reason for a loss of performance.
Physiotherapy is a vital part of any competition horse's routine. They can very easily become sore through their body due to the competing on different surfaces, different ground, continuous travelling, temporary stabling, and intensive work.
Loss of performance is also a very good indicator that the horse is suffering from muscular problems or soreness. This can be resolved easily with equine physiotherapy, more often than not in one session.
We advise thinking of providing your horse physiotherapy on a regular basis, just as you would provide services from the farrier or equine dentist.
Equine Rehabilitation
Bespoke Post Surgery & Post Injury Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is a term often used for horses that require retraining, but actually rehabilitation is a combination of physical therapy coupled with the correct exercises to restore and enhance the horse's ability and performance.
It can be a daunting experience not only getting through a long process of box rest and treatment with your horse , but knowing how and when to introduce the correct exercise. WE are HERE to HELP you every step of the way.
We offer bespoke rehabilitation programmes for a wide variety of injury or post surgery conditions.
Examples of our rehabilitation programmes...
Tendon/ Ligament Injuries
- Box rest treatments and techniques for owner
- Electrotherapy treatment
- Availability of hiring equipment to speed up healing process
- Bespoke rehabilitation program
- Treatments to assist with reintroducing work
Kissing Spines/ Sacroiliac Conditions
- Inflammation treatment
- Reducing scaring
- Box rest treatment and techniques for owner
- Bespoke rehabilitation program
- Treatments to assist reintroducing work.
Working closely with you and your horse we offer knowledge, experience and support in a step by step process, ensuring full strength and function is restored.
Please contact us for further details.
