Veterinary physiotherapy has long been recognised as a valuable tool for the treatment of injury and performance enhancement in horses. However, it has been found that physiotherapy is not just for the injured or the elite and that every horse can benefit from physiotherapy in some way. Horse’s were not created to carry a rider and therefore an element of adaptation needs to take place to allow this. This inevitably puts more strain through the joints of a horse as well as more demand on the supporting muscles and soft tissue and therefore it is our responsibility as owners to ensure our horse's are comfortable in their work, after all they let us do a lot with them!

The skills of a veterinary physiotherapist in clinical palpation and gait analysis provide valuable input in to your horses health programme, allowing subtle changes to be detected which may otherwise go unnoticed by an owner.

Horses, in the same way as us, compensate for pain felt by adopting a stance and way of going which is less painful. Horse’s are extremely good at this as in the wild they are prey animals and any sign of weakness would make that animal very vulnerable. This does however mean that some conditions can go unnoticed for some time, resulting in compensations and changes in the muscle and soft tissues.  If untreated these compensations may become permanent and performance limiting.

I was told throughout my training that ‘the soft tissues never lie’, this is very true and often enables issues to be detected before visual signs become apparent.

It is advisable to schedule a physiotherapy session every 6 months for your pleasure horse and more for competition horses to ensure musculoskeletal changes and adaptation can be identified early before any permanent adaptations can occur and to ensure they are working at their optimum capabilities as well as prolonging their ridden career. Regular treatments may also be used in competition to keep the horse in peak performance. Treatment for injuries may require more frequent physiotherapy sessions until compensations and issues resolve and may require regular maintenance checks after.