The beautiful, smooth movements of a horse are achieved by alternately tightening and relaxing muscles. When a horse has to work hard, learn new movements, or falls down, this balance can be disturbed. A tight, stiff muscle does not work as well as a healthy one, and is often weaker than normal. When this lasts for a long time, it also affects the movement that is possible in the joints. This has an effect on how a horse moves and how good it feels.

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Using techniques that work on the muscles, fascia and joints, a physiotherapist focuses on restoring the horses’ normal function, reducing its pain and optimising its performance. These techniques are reinforced by teaching adapted exercises to the riders so that weak spots can be strengthened.

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Equine physiotherapy is aimed at optimising animals’ quality of life, by improving their function and movement. To achieve this, physiotherapists draw from a wide knowledgebase of anatomy, biomechanics, physiology and psychology. Using evidence-based techniques, the therapist assesses the animal, painting a clear picture of treatable parameters in the form of a problem list. 
I believe in a multidisciplinary approach, working together with veterinarians, farriers, saddle and bit fitters, trainers, grooms and owners to obtain the best results for our animals.

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Through clinical reasoning a short and long-term treatment plan is designed, tailored to the patient. The following techniques can be used to achieve these goals:

 

• Manual therapy

• Soft tissue techniques

• Stretching

• Electrotherapy

• Exercise therapy

• Taping

 

If you are interested in a more detailed description of our assessment and treatment techniques, you can find that in this blogpost!

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