gex.vetphysio

Home
United Kingdom
Crawley
gex.vetphysio

ANIMAL MASSAGE THERAPIST
Working towards an MSc in Veterinary Physiotherapy🎓
📍Covering Sussex, Surrey & parts of Kent

26/02/2026

POLL RELEASE💆🏼‍♀️ Seeing how the horses relax into this after working through their poll is lovely, especially as so many horse carry a lot of tension within this area!

09/02/2026

𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋

Equine back pain is one of the most common causes undermining poor performance, therefore utilising exercises to keep your horses back feeling supple is crucial especially in between treatment sessions.

Caudal tail pulls are one of my favourite exercises as they are simple to do and have proven to help reduce back pain! The traction applied to the tail induces relaxation of back and glute muscles as well as associated fascial connections due to the horse counteracting the pull by leaning forwards onto the forelimbs.

Research:
📊They increase mechanical nociceptive thresholds (MNTs) in the thoracic region of the back in 83% of horses, 50% increase in the lumbar and 52.4% increase in the pelvis. (Long et al., 2020). MNTs are the minimum amount of pressure required to induce a pain-avoidance response. Therefore in this case, MNTs increased after caudal tail pulls meaning there is lower back sensitivity/pain.

📊Effective for relieving back, sacroiliac and lumbosacral discomfort (Haussler, 2018).

📊 Shown to increase the activity of the gracilis muscle which has a pivotal role in hindlimb stability (Elósegui et al., 2024).

Application:
Hold your horses tail firmly with at least 1 hand on the dock whilst being cautious of standing directly behind a horse. Lean your bodweight back slowly, hold for approximately 30 seconds before gently releasing. You can repeat this 2-3 times after you’ve ridden your horse when soft tissue structures are warm to obtain the desired effect.

I have recently set up a Facebook group ‘GEX Veterinary Physiotherapy-resourceful information’ as a place to share research relevant to the veterinary physiotherapy field weekly which is accessible and easy to understand for horse owners, students & paraprofessionals. If you’re interested in learning more about findings from research head over and join the group now! GEX Veterinary Physiotherapy- resourceful information

07/02/2026

If your animal has received treatment from myself, I would really appreciate a review left on either my page ‘gex.vetphysio’ or my Google profile ⭐️ Your support doesn’t go unnoticed therefore in return I am offering £5.00 off your next treatment!

21/01/2026

A full circle moment 🐴 A few weeks back my old equine college reached out and asked whether I could provide a demonstration for their students. Last Thursday I headed back to the college where I studied 4 years ago before going off to university to study veterinary physiotherapy and completed the demo! The students got an insight into massage therapy, they were able to ask lots of questions along the way including the route I chose to get into veterinary physiotherapy and finished up by the students having a go at some of the basic massage techniques themselves🙌

01/01/2026

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚🐶

Here’s a few recommendations to help keep your dog feeling their best over winter:

❄️Ensure your dog remains warm, shivering due to coldness can cause muscles to become hypertonic (tight).

❄️Use heat therapy (e.g. microwave heat pack) for older dogs or orthopaedic dogs to help warm joints before going out walking to reduce stiffness.

❄️Avoid slippy surfaces out walking (and in the house!) this can cause extra strain to be applied to joints & muscles.

❄️Where possible break your dogs walks up into smaller but more regular increments. This prevents stiffness as movement is crucial for joint health (more movement= more synovial fluid production=healthier & happier joints)

25/12/2025

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all🎄I hope you have a fantastic day and that you and your 4 legged friends have all been spoilt 🐴🐶

16/12/2025

SEMESTER A OF 4TH YEAR✅Half way through!

A canine practical, equine practical and an electrotherapy exam later… and they are all passed! I’m absolutely over the moon as it’s been a busy and stressful few weeks with exam prep, dissertation data collection and assignment work, so a break has been well earnt!

This now means that I am home for Christmas and therefore a lot more treatment sessions are available, if you wish to book in please message me🎄

10/12/2025

Data collection for my dissertation now complete✅

A busy day measuring muscle activity of the biceps femoris and superficial gluteal muscles in 6 horses walking without poles, over ground poles as well as raised poles.

Next stop… data analysis📈

I’m looking forwards to sharing my findings with you!

05/11/2025

More love from clients🫶🏼

Bookings available for November!

23/10/2025

I was lucky enough to do Milo’s hydrotherapy session on my most recent clinical rotation🐾

Hydrotherapy can play a crucial role in both preventative and rehabilitative care for dogs and horses! It’s a great low impact exercise to help strengthen the musculoskeletal system, improve cardiovascular fitness and help retrain the dogs/horses gait without putting extra strain through joints!

I’ve been loving the clinical rotations so far and look forwards to meeting and treating a lot more furry friends along the way!

*I am not a qualified hydro therapist

15/10/2025

Why is veterinary consent necessary and at the best interest of your animal?

Vets are the primary care givers for your animals and therefore it is important that physiotherapists liaise with them to ensure your animals welfare comes first.

Under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 any animals with a diagnosed/undiagnosed condition such as an injury, lameness or are post-surgery will require consent from the vet that the animal is fit and well to undergo treatment from a physiotherpaist. This gives vets the opportunity to relay important information such as the diagnosed conditions, areas of concern, medication etc which may impact how treatment is provided or causes physiotherapy to have contradictory effects. Therefore, without this consent from a vet who has physically seen your animal treatment cannot commence.

However, under the veterinary surgeons exemption order 2015 physiotherapists are allowed to provide treatment for maintenance cases without prior permission. It is important to note that this is for animals which do not have undiagnosed/diagnosed conditions and just requiring physiotherapy to help them feel their best (maintenance)!

A form will be provided to clients when vet consent is required or alternatively I can contact the vets myself if permission is given by the owner.

14/09/2025

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐂𝐘𝐂𝐋𝐄🔄

Compensation is the body’s natural response to pain/injury. When pain occurs in a certain area animals will shift their weight or alter their movement in order to reduce the pain they’re experiencing. In the long term, this increases risk of secondary injuries or chronic pain occurring and therefore it’s important to break the cycle and rectify the primary issue first.

So how can massage therapy help in this cycle?

Whilst it’s important that vets identify and choose the best form of treatment for the primary issue, massage therapy can help reduce the secondary issues arising and aid in the healing of the primary issue. This could be through improving pliability of muscles which are under extra strain from compensation or helping to maintain/re-strengthen certain structures that have become weakened overtime and more importantly to reduce pain. This ultimately can encourage animals to start using the previously injured/painful area which boosts the healing process through movement allowing the animal to get back on track!

Address

Crawley

Website

https://gracieexler16.wixsite.com/gexmassagetherapy

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when gex.vetphysio posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to gex.vetphysio:

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Crawley?