The role you play

As owners we look to professionals to resolve all our issues. Sometimes we only need to use one but other times we need to use multiple to find out what is going on.

Sometimes we need a village and its only by eliminating things one by one do we get to the root of a problem.

I hate to say this but us professionals are only a small part of the equation that makes your horse recover. We do our work, maybe a professional will prescribe some herbs /medicine/cream/food change and we then advise you what we recommend you can do with your horse whether that is – feed them this twice a day, give them the medication 3 times a day, soak the hay, stretch before riding, do these exercises, do not ride etc but if you do not follow it through then the chances of your horse continuing to have an issue or inflame that issue is high.

You are probably thinking why?

You and your horse know each other, you have a bond or some sort of connection so you know your horses little quirks that we may think might be an issue.

You are around the horse more than we are and can observe them.

We only see your horse for a small portion of a time you see them all day and everyday.

What we give you and your horse is our knowledge, training, studing and research.

I love to educate my clients and I can give them information some things to do after the session and I hope they come away more knowledgeable, have a better understanding of what I am doing and love the fact they are participating in the health of their horse.

I can tell when clients have not done any of the exercises or try what I have suggested because the same issue is happening or some I don’t hear from again and you know it’s your priority to do that. Those who have followed provide fantastic feedback, what has worked what didn’t, the change, the falling back into issues and on that I then provide feedback on if I can continue or whether someone else can help.

I will give you a couple of examples – (1 is not mine but I was there and goes to show that it happens to all practioners):

Example 1.

A very nervy horse who shook a lot when being tied up, was very unsettled but had come from a line of horses know to be great and sort after horses. A practioner went to look at this horse and on examination of a few methods asked the owner “has this horse had a knock or injury to its head?” The owner replied: “No nothing here but maybe previously? “ So the exam went on and the practioner said “No something very recent. “ Again the owner went “No”. So about 30 minutes later just talking the owner was saying he had not been ridden much because he is nervy, even when she went to get a brush whilst he was tied up in the arena, he flipped and landed hard on the arena.” The practioner and I just looked at each other.

Example 2.

A horse had a stifle issue which after the second treatment we confirmed. The owner decided to get the vet out as the excerises that I had given were given mild releief but the issue persited. The vet diagnoised stifle lock and treated the stifle lock accordingly. However all the excercises I had provided prior to strengthen the stifle was used in the recovery and now they are doing fantastic. I went only 3 times and gave the excerises and I can tell this owner listened and put into practise what I had said.

POWER IS KNOWLEDGE