Curious to hear what sorts of body work professionals everyone uses for their horses. Do they offer more than one type of body work or service? Also how did you find out about them?
I ask as I am recently finished my Equine Sports Therapy Certificate. This covers a broad spectrum of body work, and I’m looking into what direction I would like to go with it, and how to build my business more.
TIA
I have a vet that does acupuncture, chiropractic and is also an excellent equine dentist. I myself perform massage, Tteamwork, Reiki and Masterson method on my own horse.
My horses get regular Chiro and massage, once in a while acupuncture for something specific.
I used PEMF on a past horse and it really helped her, but I have seen some adverse reactions where it really aggravated things, so would be careful about which horses get it now.
My regular practitioners are a DVM Chiro/Acupuncturist (usually once a month) and a “bodyworker” (usually every 3-4 months) who does a mix of kinesiology/massage/stretching - it’s hard to explain but he’s highly effective.
I’ve done PEMF periodically but I haven’t seen a huge result with it on my personal horse - he likes it but there’s no discernible difference in how he works after a treatment. It did help reduce swelling when he banged his knee and the tendon sheath got inflamed a couple years ago.
What kind of adverse reactions did you see from PEMF? It is all the rage around me and, while I’ve never had it done for my horses, I have only heard good things. I am somewhat skeptical though, so I’d be interested to hear what you experienced.
For OP, my main horse gets chiro/acupuncture from the vet when I can afford it, 2-3x per year. My other horse will also probably get the same once he comes back into work next spring.
For my coming 18 Lusitano, I use a DVM who is accupuncture trained and combines that with some chiropractic work. It has helped him quite a bit.
My horse’s massage therapist and chiro are great friends, and love working together, so I’m very lucky. I book them both at the same time so they tag-team a treatment. They’ll check him over, look at where he’s sore, discuss where they want the muscles loosened up so the chiro is more easily done. The massage therapist will go over the areas the chiro wants to focus on most, the chiro then makes the adjustments, then the massage therapist goes back over the horse in full. If she feels anything else while she’s working, or was able to loosen something up even more? The chiro hops back in to make final adjustments. I’ve found this system is the best for my horse at getting a thorough, long-lasting chiro treatment. Combining the two treatments gets me so much farther than just doing one at a time. Also, the things they’re noticing about my horse when taken together have taught me a LOT about how I’m riding and the way it impacts my horse.
A friend got her horse done with mine and it ended up so back-sore it needed mesotherapy and acupuncture. (It had not previously been back-sore.) Our vet said he had seen results like that before.
The other, it aggravated an injury that really should have been assessed by a vet first, so that one was maybe on the owner.
PEMF and chiro/acupuncture. He really likes the PEMF, especially after a big show or (as recently done) a month long stay at the trainers while I traveled. (He worked really hard! LOL). I call the Chiro when I think he needs it… In the past I have had horses massaged, but once a horse was really sore afterwards so I am careful who I call. Currently using someone who is well trained and also a master saddle fitter so she has a depth of knowledge of the hrose’s body in motion…
I have a wholistic vet who comes by every 4-6 weeks. He does chiro, acupuncture, stretching, and chinese herbs. He’s got a great eye, and will flex a horse or do a quick lameness exam if he’s worried there is something more going on. He works well with my regular vet.
I’ve used a PEMF practitioner, but didn’t find that it did much. Horse clearly enjoyed it though.
I also have a hollistic vet/chiro who does acupuncture and has her Masters in the study of Eastern medicine.
One of my horses is a train wreck of health issues – RE-fractured sacrum and dislocated vertebra just for starters. She is here monthly. I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but she has saved this horses life and given him back quality of life.
He easily beat me to the outer door for turnout the other day — something he hasn’t done since last March and his 24 yr old Walking Horse self did a beautiful slow canter in the pasture to show me that he can:). I will keep eating PB&J sandwiches--------
I use red light therapy and a massage pad on this horse, when instructed by this hollistic vet.
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