Amy’s Holistic Equine Therapies

24/12/2024

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas thank you for all your support and letting me treat your special four legged kids I truly feel honoured every time I get given the chance to work on your horses/ponies 💗 Thank you 🙏

23/11/2024

I’ve been a bit quiet lately I’ve been flat out but here is a post to get you thinking!
Horses are grazing animals and graze a large majority of the time below knee height but horses in the wild also graze different heights they would graze on trees, bark, leaves and shrubs of different heights. Feeding your horse at different heights can be beneficial to your horses posture and helps avoid the body getting “stuck” in one position. Observe your horse and the way it stands while eating can you see tension or strain? Do they look comfortable? What’s symmetry like? Keep asking yourself questions 💗
Of course you would take any medical or physical conditions into account when feeding at levels eg. a horse that suffers from choke, rehabbing conditions like kissing spine, prevent hollowing out etc.

20/10/2024

This gorgeous girl is responding well to bowen and posture feeding. Her initial treatment she was shifting weight on her front end and reluctant to stand square we released some tight fascia and started to feed at different heights to suit her. By day 4 she was more happy to stand square and more balanced and her owner reports feeling different under saddle in a good way! Her owner has been very mindful of the way she stands and holds herself and correcting her position when working with her. Still some way to go but great to see changes already 💗

31/08/2024

I’m truly heartbroken to hear of the loss of one of my gorgeous clients horse “Shahreym” a beautiful chestnut Arabian pony that I’ve had the privilege of treating regularly over the past 12mths. He was a dear old man at 32yrs of age he was treated like a king and such a joy to be around I’m truly heartbroken to hear of this sad loss 😢 My heart goes out to his family. RIP Shahreym 💔

23/08/2024

Junior having his regular bowen treatment enjoying some tension releases

04/08/2024

I have some appointments available next week 🙂 PM if you would like to book in 🙂
Ahhhhh those bowen feels 💗

18/07/2024

Chilli afternoon treating the one and only Fox who’s looking rather colourful with her tape! Just a nice bowen treatment and some taping for Fox today due to her being a little sensitive. Horses are constantly giving feedback it’s so important to listen and let the horse guide you with a treatment 💗

15/06/2024

After studying level 1 of Functional posture course with Dr Raquel Butler from Integrated Veterinary Theraapeutics you might ask why is posture so important 🤷🏻‍♀️ Well good posture helps overall performance, helps reduce injury, helps with coordination and balance and also benefits your horse mentally. Observing your horses posture and the way they use their body is all feedback and helps put pieces of the puzzle together.
The photo below is Jimmy who i had a play around with his posture with what I learnt. What i did was for first 7 days i did 3-5 particular stretches/exercises watching how he used his body to do the stretches/exercises then slowing them down to do them correctly. These stretches/exercises would take me 10mins daily sometimes even less often feeling like I had done nothing much at all. The next 7 days I did a new set of 3-5 stretches/exercises then next 7 days I combined them choosing only 3-5 daily. I combined this with postural feeding. The photo below shows what we achieved in really such little time and with what felt like not doing much at all. Remember movement does need to be huge and exaggerated small correct movements achieve much more 😉

06/06/2024

Taping is very handy with non infected injuries by increasing circulation

02/05/2024

Proprioception taping being used for a horse to encourage awareness to his right hind to help get canter lead

08/04/2024

We never stop learning and that is definitely the case when it comes to horses. I am constantly looking to gain new knowledge and reinforce existing knowledge all so I can help horses to the best of my ability. I am currently doing a course through Integrated Veterinary Therapeutics with Dr Raquel Butler studying Equine Function Posture: Strength to Stability. This has highlighted a lot about how we observe our horses. Take a look get to know your horses patterns, postures and preferences we can learn so much through observation. Be your horses best detective 🕵️‍♀️

22/03/2024

Circulation taping with many benefits including assisting hoof growth, lymphatic draining and fluid transportation

01/03/2024

One of the exercises I often suggest is hand walking raised poles. This exercise is great mentally and physically. It gets the horse thinking about foot placement, engages the core, helps even strides, great for joint mobility are just some of the benefits

19/02/2024

Bowen therapy 🫶

11/02/2024

This beautiful boy has been doing a fair bit of work recently including some jumping. He was very restricted in the hind end you can see with his hind end posture pre treatment then immediately post his bowen treatment. Bowen is very effective and powerful with body changes starting during a session and often continues 3-4 days post a treatment.

03/02/2024

Little Ruby had some fascia restriction in her neck and shoulder we started with a bowen treatment using precise points over the areas and finished with a fan taping to assist the release making it last a little longer

28/01/2024

Some tension releases shown when applying kinesiology tape 💗

13/01/2024

Great little read on fascia gives some insight on why bowen is so powerful

A happy nervous system has to have healthy facsia, and healthy facsia has to have a happy nervous system.

Fascia and the nervous system are so intimately connected, we can’t treat one without the other. We have so much to learn about both still.

The enemy of a happy nervous system is restricted fascia. Fascial restrictions can keep the “dial” on the sympathetic system turned up more than it needs to be.

The sympathetic nervous system is the “fight or flight” part. When that dial is up too high it can keep your horse from being able to relax.

Example: a horse with ulcers will have a vagus nerve that is firing intense alert signals to their brain.

You’re asking them to relax and carry their head below the level of the clouds and it’s a constant battle.

It doesn’t help that horses are naturally prey animals. They are wired to be ready to run from a lion in the woods.

Their brain is getting signals from ulcers that signal an awful lot like “lion in the woods!” while you’re telling them, “relax”…?

If left untreated, those patterns get stored in the fascia and if we don’t manually change that we deal with the trapped-in, tense, faulty patterns.

Both physical and emotional trauma is stored in the fascia.

Since fascia stores 10 times more nerve endings than any other tissue, the fascia will lock in the trauma in the nervous system as well.

Physical limitations are actually the nervous system protecting the body.

🤚🏻 One very powerful treatment for regulating the nervous system..touch.

🤚🏻Regulates fear and stress
🤚🏻Elicits safety signals in the nervous system
🤚🏻Decreases stress response
🤚🏻Decreases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate
🤚🏻Increases oxytocin release

Start touching your horse with your hands, not just grooming tools.

After you groom them, run your hands over them regularly.

If you have time, spend 10 minutes rubbing all over them like you would massage a babies back.

Turn down the volume on the sympathetic dial and help their nervous system relax.

📸: Mary DuMond