NJS Rehabilitation

BLONDY.

A 16.2hh 6 year old Irish Sport Horse.
I met Blondy & his lovely owners (mother, A & son D) in April, when I was asked if I could assess & treat him.
Blondy had been suffering from intermittent lameness & at this time “didn’t seem quite right in his L fore again”. Blondy had a pattern of coming back into work after a lameness, being sound & working for a short period of time but would then struggle again & another period of lameness & no work would ensue. The injury wasn’t necessarily always the same injury, sometimes hind limb, sometimes forelimb. Within this time Blondy had become quite resistant to working, particularly in the arena & even when he was in work, D described it as “not an enjoyable ride for either party”.
Blondy’s medical history revealed
- bilateral hock arthritis - treated with steroid injections & Arthramid
- Sacroiliac joint - steroid injection
- bilateral forelimb coffin joints - steroid injections.
He had regular body work & had been frequently long lined during his rehab periods.

Using my osteopathic approach I assessed Blondy & found him to be “out of balance” longitudinally (head to tail) as well as laterally (left to right) asymmetrical, his spinal column being concave to the R with increased loading to the L shoulder/forelimb. There was no “connection” through the back, resulting in little to no propulsion from the hind quarters.
In my opinion, these imbalances were the reason that Blondy had recurrent bouts of lameness, certain joints were consistently over loading & “fatiguing”. Previous treatment would address each joint issue but not the compensatory / skeletal imbalances.

We discussed Blondy having a rehab stay at NJS but his owners thought, due to Blondy’s very sensitive & slightly quirky nature, that he would be better in his own environment.

I treated Blondy with osteopathic manual therapy & INDIBA & used ground work exercises to reprogram his movement patterns. I explained what I was seeing/feeling & wanting to achieve in these sessions to D & showed him how to continue the work in between my visits. D has soaked up the information like a sponge & has worked incredibly hard, doing a fantastic job of rehabilitating Blondy.

Blondy will require ongoing management but D now has the tools to do this & although he still has regular visits from me too, the time between these visits are extending.

So you can imagine just how pleased I was for D, when I received the message & this photo (below) from his Mum saying….

“Blondy was a star at camp. Thank you for all the support at getting him fighting fit and strong. Things definitely started turning around with your fresh eyes xx”

This is the best reward for me & why I love my job!
So proud of D & Blondy 🧡

If you’re struggling with your horse’s performance or rehab & would like to know if I may be able to help, please send me a DM. 😊

Good to see what can be achieved with a tailored In - hand walk program over a 3 week period.

With this horse returning home there is rehabilitation livery space available. Give me a call/message if you would like to book or discuss any aspect of your horse’s rehab.

Absolutely hitting the nail on the head 🔨
Thank you Long Drove Holistic Horse Training 💙

Before Rehabilitation

Before you start going down the road of rehabilitation, you have to understand two things.

Where you are.

And where you are trying to go.

Because I meet so many people who have been “rehabbing” their horse for months, sometimes years, and they still haven’t made the progress they hoped for.

Most of the time, they have tried everything they were told to do.

More walking. More straight lines. More polework. More gadgets. More strengthening. More time.

And still, their horse is not where they hoped they would be.

That is a very lonely place to be, because all most owners want is for their horse to be okay. They are not asking for miracles. They are not necessarily asking for grand performance or dramatic transformation. Sometimes they just want to see one small sign that things are getting better. One moment where the horse looks more comfortable. One day where they feel like they are finally moving forwards instead of going round in the same exhausting loop.

But the problem is that rehabilitation cannot just be a set of generic instructions.

It has to belong to the horse in front of you.

The first thing I want to understand is the story. What has actually happened? What has the vet found? What has been diagnosed? What has been treated? What information do we already have, and how was that information gathered? That matters.

But I also want to go further back than that, because often the diagnosis is not the whole story. I want to know what the horse was doing before things started to go wrong. How they were moving. What work they were doing. What patterns were already there. What changed. What was missed. What the body may have been quietly compensating for long before the obvious problem appeared.

Because a diagnosis tells us something important. But it does not always tell us how that particular horse got there. It does not always tell us how that particular horse is organising their body now.

That is where the real work begins.

Once I have the history, I want to look at the horse without judgement and without forcing them into a pre-written plan. I want to see what is actually in front of me.

How are they muscled? How are they standing? Where are they loading? How do they feel about moving? Do they move freely, or do they protect themselves? Where is the range of motion? Where is the restriction? What is working? What is struggling? What has the horse learned to do in order to cope?

Because every horse finds a way to manage. Some brace. Some avoid. Some lean. Some rush. Some shut down. Some become crooked. Some lose confidence in their own body.

And if we do not understand that, we are not really rehabilitating the horse. We are just adding exercises on top of the same compensation pattern.

That is why the starting point matters so much. Before I think about what exercise a horse “should” be doing, I want to know what needs to change first.

Where is the biggest problem in this horse right now?

What is the one thing that, if we improve it, will give the body a better chance to reorganise?

Very often, that starting point is balance and weight distribution. If the horse is constantly loading unevenly, falling through one shoulder, holding tension through the neck, dropping through the thoracic region, or protecting one part of the body, then asking for more work will not necessarily make them stronger. It may simply make the compensation stronger.

And that is where so many rehabilitation plans fall apart. Not because the owner is not trying. Not because the horse is hopeless. But because the plan does not quite fit the horse.

Rehabilitation is not just about doing more. It is about doing the right thing, at the right time, for the body that is actually in front of you.

Sometimes the horse who looks like they are failing is not failing at all.

They are just still waiting for someone to understand the pattern they are stuck in.

They are waiting for someone to stop asking them to strengthen dysfunction and instead help them find a way back to balance, comfort, confidence, and function.

That is where rehabilitation has to begin.

Not with a generic plan.

Not with a gadget.

Not with more pressure to make progress.

But with understanding.

Because once you truly understand where the horse is, you can begin to find the way forward.

ROCKY.
This lovely little chap came into NJS Rehabilitation for 2 & 1/2 weeks after incurring a puncture wound close to the tip of his frog, 😳 3 days before his Owner was due to go on holiday, causing a stressful situation to be a little more stressful! 😬He had been for an MRI scan at Oakhill Vets & fortunately the pe*******on had missed any vital structures.
Rocky had 2 weeks box rest, with Bute & antibiotics, poulticing & hand grazing. After 2 weeks Oakhill came to reassess & happy with his progress gave the all clear for re shoeing & turn out. 🙌
Rocky went home on Monday, ready to start ridden work again 👌
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Do you recognise this stance?
Heels propped up on bankings. This could be an indication that your horse is trying to alleviate discomfort somewhere. The most likely regions are lumbosacral, sacro-iliac joints (lower back /pelvis), hamstrings or suspensory ligaments.
If your horse is adopting this stance & you would like to discuss possible other signs that may indicate an issue / poor performance, please drop me a message. 🙂
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