Northwest Veterinary Physiotherapy

03/01/2025

Excited to be working with this great partnership again in 2025

Leonie Saffy on her highlights of 2024, plans for next season and how horses have helped her through some of the toughest moments in her life.

31/12/2024

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and successful New Year as we take that leap of faith into 2025. Looking forward to supporting all of my clients and their four legged friends this year and feeling thankful to have been able to share your journeys ( with all their ups and downs) during 2024. Kick on and chase your dreams!

24/12/2024

Wishing a very Merry Christmas to all my clients and friends (and all of your four legged friends).

23/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:

7. Have a base line to begin your winter plan from. Older horses often require more maintenance throughout the winter to help maintain mobility and joint and muscle function. A physio check up now can provide a base line to assess how your oldie is coping over the winter, provide a detailed exercise plan if required and plan more frequent check ups over the winter months.

22/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:

6. Stable based exercises such as carrot stretches are great for all horses to help to maintain muscle mass and mobility. They should be planned in line with your individual horse’s needs, health, soundness and capabilities and performed at least 3 times weekly.

21/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:

5. Plan how you are going to exercise your older horse. How many days can you ride and what other things can you do if you can’t ride or the horse is no longer in ridden work? Older horses benefit from frequent short spells of exercise so the ideal is planning to do something every day even if this is 10 minutes in hand work, walking out in hand or under saddle. Have a plan at the start of the week.

20/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:

4. Consider where you clip. If working regularly take off the coat to enable easy cooling after work. If in little work the horse may be better with its winter coat even if a little extra grooming is required.

19/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:

3. Feed according to individual requirements for the amount of work being done, to manage health issues such as cushings or joint issues, and to maintain gut motility – feed plenty of forage or find a way to trickle feed during the day so that horses are not spending long periods of time without hay/forage.

18/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:

2. Keep older horses warm but without over rugging in heavy rugs that make movement more difficult. Several lighter layers are better and change or reposition the rugs morning and evening to prevent pressure points. It may also help to use light stable wraps or bandages to keep legs warm.

17/10/2024

Helping your old horse through winter:
1. If at all possible have some daily turnout, even if in a sand pen or school, and try to divide this to have a couple of sessions daily if a longer period of paddock turnout is not available. This helps to break up the time being spent standing in the stable and helps to get joints and circulation moving.

16/10/2024

It’s coming to the time of year that when horse ownership suddenly becomes hard work and the cold damp conditions take their toll on horses and owners, but particularly the older horses (and owners!). Now is a good time to plan your winter routine before the clocks go back in a couple of weeks and routines change. Watch out for daily pointers over the next week to put a plan in place.

24/08/2024

Massive congratulations to Leonie Saffy and Tia (Forrests Blackdiamond) on their win at the National Para dressage championships this week

17/08/2024

Definitely a dressage bias over the last week preparing everyone for the last area festivals, senior home internationals and national para championships. Wishing everyone the best of luck

26/07/2024

Rocking into the weekend - h wave to aid recovery from sacroiliac injury and improve gluteal muscle tone.

23/07/2024

This week we are mainly prepping for and getting excited about the BE youth championships, the Royal International horse show and the Royal Welsh. Good luck to everyone.

01/07/2024

*Important Notice*

Unfortunately, having not done so some time, I will be increasing treatment charges by £5 on 1st August.

This is to reflect increasing running costs including travel charges, insurance costs, CPD and equipment maintenance.

Thank you for your understanding.

04/06/2024

Demand for appointments is currently very high and barring cancellations June is now fully booked. If you are due an appointment in July/August please message to book in

17/04/2024

All those relaxed feels from todays eventers sleeping their way through their sessions (and dreaming of hopefully getting a run some time soon if it ever stops raining!!). And my new report writing assistant.