04/11/2025
Your horses physiotherapy appointment is only as effective as how your horse lives in between treatments.
If your horse has reoccurring poll tension, feeding from haynets, having a disharmonious contact, riding a horse overbent etc in between treatments will still mean your horse has tension in their poll when it comes around to their next appointment.
If your physiotherapist provides stretches to do and you don’t do them, the problem will continue to bubble.
If your horse is uncomfortable, and your physiotherapist recommends that they see a vet to investigate further, don’t continue to ride your horse.
If you only ride straight lines, rarely hack, and your horse is constantly sharp and spooky so they’re lunged more often than not in a training aid, your horse is going to have reoccurring rib, neck and back pain.
If your horse is stabled for most of the day, or equally spends most of the day in fetlock deep mud, they’re going to be braced and they’re not always going to feel the full benefits of a treatment as treatments will focus on alleviating the “brace” and not on improving performance.
If you’re riding in a saddle that doesn’t fit, hooves that are unbalanced, or an arena with too deep a footing… changes need to happen so that your horse is able to thrive and develop and not just survive in between treatments.
The quality of a veterinary physiotherapy treatment is arguably just as important as the life your horse leads in between treatments.
As horse riders and guardians, we should be seeing the body under the skin; the nerves, the fascia, the muscles and really envisioning caring for this in everything we do 🤍
