I bought Schneiders’ red light pads in large and extra large. For me, those two sizes work well. I may buy a second extra large pad so I can do more of him at the same time. He will actually snort a release in the red pads. He never did that w the bemer🤷🏼♀️.
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I’m a teacher, so my budget has been met with my recent acquisition of a Posture Prep grooming tool. The horse LOVES it, and it’s encouraging me to groom him deeply more regularly when I’m unable to ride. This morning I was Posture Prepping him (lol) while he was eating out of his hay bag in his stall (his stall opens to an acre pasture that he shares with his girlfriend mare). He was too into his hay to give me much in the way of releases or anything, but when I finished and took his fly mask off, he decided to walk out of his stall to go check and see if the little woman needed any help eating her hay. He looked drunk when he walked off, like staggering, LOL. He stopped and looked back at me like “What’d you do to me?” and then gathered his dignity and walked off normally.
Seems good.
There’s an equine massage therapist who has started coming to the barn and a few of the boarders’ horses get done regularly. I’m going to spring for a session for my guy this summer.
He’s had chiro and acupuncture in the past and was not a fan, but he seems like he’d enjoy something a little less invasive.
He’s a glorified trail/pleasure horse who just happens to have the benefit of an owner with an education in dressage and hunters…so he wears the fancy clothes and doesn’t get that much asked of him. I’d say he’s partially retired…though retired from what, I can’t say. He’s been to maybe a half-dozen shows in his 17 years on this planet, and those were all over a decade ago. He went three years without getting ridden at all, and now he gets ridden whenever the weather is perfect and he and I feel like it. Thankfully, he’s a good egg and is always the same horse no matter what. But he’s not getting expensive therapeutic gadgets to live his leisurely life.
If I was training and competing, I’d be all about this stuff though. Anything to make the critter feel better!
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I’ll second the FES device. The barn just started using one and has seen awesome changes in just a couple sessions with horses that all have with different issues.
I have a small Magnawave machine and a cold laser. I’d only get a larger Magnawave or Pulse to be able to hook up multiple coils at once. You don’t really need all the power the big machines can produce for horses.
If money and infrastructure were not a concern, I’d get a water treadmill. I’ve been doing regular sessions with one horse this spring, and it’s helped him so much. He also likes this thing called a combi floor - it’s a vibration plate that also emits PEMF. https://equinetherapyint.com/product/combi-floor/
I have a cold laser. Use it on myself and the horse who has a ligament injury. No idea if it does anything for the horse but it definitely helps me, so I keep using it on both of us.
We have a barn Theraplate. When my horse first injured himself I used it every day. However, after getting PRP and shockwave, his leg blew up a week after the procedure. Since this was not something that usually happens, as per my vet, I’m thinking the Theraplate had something to do with it, so maybe it is doing something useful under normal circumstances. No idea.
If money wasn’t an impediment, I would get all sorts of things. And, enough money so that I wouldn’t have to work, so I could have the time to use all these tools.
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Another thing in the cheaper realm that I want to get in to is gausha. I’ve never seen one that didn’t love a deep miofascial release. I’ve seen and felt a big difference when a chiropractor does this after a session. I do realize that you can bruise them with it so I need to education myself a bit more before I delve into what to buy and how to use.
I too have used a Posture Prep though going over the whole ass horse the way you’re supposed to is time prohibitive. So I mostly use it as a curry and if a horse looks like it wants an area dealt with, then I go across the grain in that area for a bit to see if they’ll release. I’ve been using it on the legs of a middle aged hunter and it has helped clear up some stubborn scratches scabs and has overall tightened up his legs. I didn’t even know that his legs weren’t tight before, but they look fantastic now. So that’s petty cool for a $12 curry comb.
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My late DVM husband did not like the Theraplate. He felt it was hard on joints, especially if there was an injury.
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