Virtual one-to-one Rehabilitation Support
Have you just got that dreaded diagnosis that means your horse needs six months or a year off work? Or worse still, have you just brought your horse back into work after a year of rest and rehab and they have broken down again? You are heartbroken, I know. It’s every horse owner’s worst nightmare.
Firstly, I am sorry. I have been there. It’s so disappointing and upsetting. It feels like all your hard work and plans (not to mention money) have gone down the drain. But there is still hope. Plenty of it. Horses do get better, and they do return to work. But not all rehabilitation plans are created equal and if there is one piece of advice I could give you, it would be to spend the rehabilitation period strengthening your horse and optimising his movement patterns, rather than just focussing on healing the injured part. Very often the current problem is just a symptom of the underlying cause.
For the best chance of full recovery and to reduce the chance of re-injury, your horse needs to go through a programme of specific, targeted exercise which is designed for their individual needs. At best, a basic programme will return your horse to their pre-injury state. However, if they got injured in that state before, then they can get injured in that state again. You need to make a change.
The honest truth is a rehab therapist can only do so much in rehabbing your horse. The hard work comes down to you. Your horse needs daily, controlled exercise and I don’t just mean the standard walking for 5 minutes, trotting for 5 minutes etc, I mean specific neuromuscular retraining and strength training. We need to switch on muscles and movement patterns that have long been lost in the build up to that terrible day when your horse went lame or stopped performing. The reality is, that lameness or injury to the spine rarely occurs overnight. It has usually been coming for months or even years. And during that time, your horse’s body to brain connection has been rewiring itself to allow movement in a particular way to avoid pain. Now we need to reawaken the correct pathways and rewire the brain to body connection. This is why you need a specialist to help you.
If you do not have one of our certified equine rehabilitation therapists in your area or are too far away from us for face to face visits, I can offer you virtual one-to-one rehabilitation.
I only have limited places for the online one-to-one package as I want to make sure I give each client enough attention and support – it’s a partnership. The partnership is a minimum of 3 months so although places are limited they regularly become available. Included in the package is:
- A specific targeted exercise plan, designed for your horse and their individual needs based on the assessment and reassessments throughout. This plan will evolve over the 12 weeks depending on your horse's progress.
- An initial assessment of your horse which includes contact with your vet as well as consideration of the report and history to date. For this assessment you will be required to take some pictures and videos of your horse so you will need someone to help you.
- Basic massage training so that you can help your horse to modulate his pain before exercise and maximise the outcome of your sessions.
- Instruction on how to carry out the exercises and tasks which includes video and feedback on your techniques to ensure that the exercises are being executed correctly and that they are right for your horse.
- A bi-weekly review. This review will include an assessment of your horse and his progress. Based on the assessment, the next two weeks of the exercise programme can be set.
- Me on hand for support. We will have a personal WhatsApp group so I can support you whenever you need it.
Whatever the situation with your horse I will hold your hand through the rehabilitation process. I know how completely heart wrenching it is when you realise your horse is in pain and can’t be ridden. I have been there myself on numerous occasions. I know how difficult and frustrating it is, to just watch and hope that your horse will return to work. Through my years and years of experience and through working with 100’s of horses I have developed a method, that I have taught to therapists all over the world, that works. There is so much more you can do for your horse than just watch and hope.
Rather than just focus on that tendon, ligament, spinal segment or joint that has broken down, you can change the whole movement pattern of the horse so that you bring everything back into line and prevent this cascade of injury after injury that so often occurs. We will of course, work with the injured tissue but let’s also spend the downtime to find the cause of the injury and correct it, so that we really give your horse the best chance of recovery that will last.
Please contact Katie to see if she can help you and your horse.