Norfolk Equine Sports Massage

18/08/2023

Winner of the sponsored class today at Annabelles Equestrian LTD. Well done Lilly & Eric

15/02/2022

24/09/2021

20/05/2021

So wertvoll:
Wenn der Reiter innen schwerer sitzt, sein Gewicht also absichtlich nach innen verlagert, oder auch unabsichtlich lehnt oder kippt, wird es dem Pferd unmöglich sich zu biegen.
Um das Gleichgewicht zu halten bringt es dann Kopf und Hals nach aussen.
Wird ihm das durch einen inneren Zügel verwehrt muss es noch mehr Spannung im Körper aufbauen, um sich zu halten => Losgelassenheit und Balance sind massiv gestört.

Nur ein Reiter der mittig über dem Pferd bleibt, dessen Füße die Waage halten, kann ein Pferd in eine echte Biegung reiten. Nur dann kann das Pferd in der Schulter und im Becken balanciert bleiben.
Und natürlich ist es auch essentiell das die Biegung und das Tempo in der sie gefragt ist, den Möglichkeiten des Pferdes angemessen ist.
Stell dir vor du trägst eine solche Waage auf deinen Schultern, wenn es dir schwerfällt eine Idee für die Schultern des Pferdes zu haben, wenn du in eine Wendung reitest.
Zeichnung: https://www.sandyrabinowitz.com/paintings
Bildrechte: Practical Horseman Magazine

18/09/2020

Chasing vet consents on Monday
Please contact me if you’re still waiting and not on this list
Hannah
Jo
Collette

12/09/2020

Naked pony in September!! Buddy was loving the sun on his back. He loves his regular massage from Maddy at Norfolk Equine Sports Massage. He completely zoned out at one point. She’s been treating him for a year now and the improvement is amazing.

Just goes to show that horses benefit from regular massages as much as we do.

05/09/2020

If you know where this business card is, drop us a message for a special discount 🎉🐴

02/09/2020

Loving this 🐴💘😍

01/09/2020

Spent today working alongside my Brand Ambassador

01/09/2020

31/08/2020

Love happy winners 🎉💕🐴

31/08/2020

Well done to everyone who competed today and to those who won a voucher 🐴🎉

31/08/2020

Good morning at Blackwater with my brand ambassador Kelly Tilly with Millie. Having a wonderful time for Millies first XC

31/08/2020

Some of the prizes available tomorrow from our generous sponsor. Feedmark, Blue chip & Norfolk equine sports massage & rehabilitation 🥰

29/08/2020

Buddy is rocking his rug from Norfolk Equine Sports Massage. He’s lovely and toasty under there. 😍

29/08/2020

Getting ready for Bergh Apton Show on Monday 🎉

29/08/2020

NESM is very proud to be sponsoring 3 classes at the Bergh Apton Horse & Dog show on Monday 31st August 🐴🐶

28/08/2020

🐴🎉🐴 NEW BRAND AMBASSADOR ALERT 🐴🎉🐴
I’d like to welcome Kelly Tilly to the NESM team. She will be working along side myself and Pip.
Kelly has worked and competed in many disciplines including racing, showjumping, evening, hunting, hunter trial and backing/breaking.
Kelly is super friendly so don’t be afraid to approach her at shows etc (you can’t miss her in her NESM kit) for a chat and more information on what NESM can offer you.
We can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Thank you Pip for your continued support and let’s give Kelly a warm welcome to the team. 🎉💘🐴
Behind The Bridle - Kellys Equestrian Services

28/08/2020

🎉🎉Brand Ambassador Announcement Pending......🎉🎉

26/08/2020

2 competition winners still haven’t claimed their prize. Please contact us to arrange or we will re-raffle 🎉🐴

21/08/2020

1st place with 75% off is Claire CM
2nd place with 60% off is Hannah Lewis
3rd place with 50% off is Colette Ogle

17/08/2020

🎉🎉 EXCITING NEWS IS FINALLY HERE 🎉🎉

In search of a brand ambassador for NESM
🐴 Are you able to help promote a business through equestrian sales or competition?
🐴 Confident in explaining to people about equine sports massage and rehab?
🐴 Able to bring new clientele to NESM?

🎉 This ambassador will receive 30% off all massages for their own horses and their client horses (sales livery & schooling livery)

🎉 A numnah, rug and body warmer with the NESM logo embroidered

🦄 To apply comment a photo and a small bio explaining what/how you do in the equine industry 🦄

16/08/2020

LOYALTY CARDS ARE NOW LIVE 🎉🐴
4 massages and get the 5th one free
Must be booked in a block or used within 12 months

14/08/2020

I love happy customers, I have been working on Buddy (one of my sponsored horses) for nearly a year now and his improvement has been incredible. A big well done to Pip for continuously working on improving his balance and muscle growth.
A yearly update will be up soon so you can see his progress 🐴🎉

03/08/2020

*** EXCITING OPPORTUNITY ***
Big news coming tonight........ like and follow this page to see the news

14/07/2020

WHY IS MY HORSE SORE?

This is a question I get asked a lot, especially when there seems to be no particular or outstanding reason why. As a therapist I always look at a horse holistically and not just the affected area to try to uncover the issue or issues that could be causing the soreness.

I have found in most cases of muscle soreness unless it is a trauma, injury or paddock slip, bad saddle fit etc that has happened, that it is usually a combination of a few things that causes muscle soreness and not just one individual thing.

Like an onion with layers, one thing will build on another and it can sometimes be a process to strip everything back and get to the core again.

Every single horse will have the first issue I have listed below, then add another 2 or 3 of the other problems mentioned to the scenario or maybe even more and you start to get the picture that something in the body is going to get sore or uncomfortable eventually.

Some of these issues may only be very small or subtle or not much of problem if isolated on their own but start to add a few of these little things together and we start to create bigger problems unfortunately. We need to take all these into consideration when we are trying to determine why your horse is muscle sore with no glaringly obvious cause.

Every athlete will have some level of soreness but it is how we manage it and look at every other aspect mentioned below to make sure our horses are as comfortable, healthy and sound as possible to give them a long and happy riding life.

Have a read to see how many of the things could be affecting your horse if he is often sore or use this as a guide to help you if your horse becomes sore in the future.

1. Natural Asymmetry - every horse has this issue, full stop, no horse is balanced evenly over all 4 legs. Some are obviously more so than others but here is our very first base layer of things starting to happen in the body from day one creating tension and compensations. This will eventually start to show up at some stage in their life if not addressed with correct inhand and gymnastic/ridden training to supple and train the left and right sides of the body as evenly as possible.

2. Feet - unbalanced feet cause so many issues and strain through the body, please find yourself a good and knowledgeable farrier who is happy to discuss with you what is going on with your horses feet and give you a plan of how to get them back on track if things aren’t correct. Also find one who is happy to work with other equine professionals that care for your horse so everyone is on the same page and heading in the right direction for your horse.

I can’t stress enough how much your horses hooves affect it’s entire body and please get them done regularly!

Go out and really have a good look at your horses feet and find yourself a picture of a correctly aligned foot and compare, best thing you can do for yourself and your horse is to educate yourself on this subject.

3. Tack - ensure that every piece of gear or equipment you place on your horse fits it well, ill fitting saddles, bits, bridles, girths can do untold damage and stop your horses from performing correctly. Don’t use gadgets that hold and compress your horses head and neck in and make it hollow through the back and make the hind legs trail out behind. Get your saddles checked and fitted throughout the year and don’t assume one saddle fits all your horses, sadly they normally don’t.

4. Rider Skills and Imbalance - not every rider has the same skill set or level of knowledge which is totally fine, but please understand if you don’t have basic dressage training and are not schooling your horse to change these imbalances that you are riding a crooked and uneven horse and will not be showing it how to balance itself better so you will be increasing the chances of muscle soreness and possible strain or injury due to every horse having Issue number 1.

If you wish to help your horse become more balanced find a good dressage coach that is all about the horses wellbeing and has a methodical, step by step, building block approach to help you train your horse correctly.

We are also not symmetrical and have our own body issues and may lack core strength so our weight upon our horses back affects our horses way of going also, so try to be as fit as you can be and get yourself looked at every now and then too.

5. Diet - what a horse is or isn’t fed can affect their muscles, temperament and health. There are too many issues to discuss here, but things like grass affected horses, weight issues being over or under weight, lack of certain minerals or vitamins, can all affect our horses wellbeing and performance very much. Ensure your horse has a balanced diet with a good vitamin and mineral supplement, salt and good roughage available 24/7. Even foals need good nutrition from the day they are born, provide them a quality vitamin and mineral mix as they grow up to ensure healthy development and strong bones.

6. Conformation - some horses have various conformational issues that will affect their way of going and this will in turn affect their muscles, such a being croup high so the forehand is loaded even more than it should be putting extra strain through the front end muscles or a turned in hoof that puts strain on that side of the leg and shoulder more than the other.

7. Posture - some horses that are not ridden in a way that engages their core muscles can be slumped or hanging down between their scapula/shoulders and then will not use their back correctly. If your horses goes around with its head up in the air or flexed off this will become its normal way of going and bad posture creates sores muscles and loss of top line. Even if you are not inclined to do dressage training there are many exercises you can do from the ground to help improve posture and muscle soreness such a carrot stretches, tummy lifts and leg stretches to improve things for your horse.

8. Age - older horses can stiffen up more than younger horses and may need more time to warm up when ridden or may need to start on a joint supplement or injection to help them feel better and loosen them up. A stiff horse will restrict and contract it muscles creating soreness and become shorter striding or more shuffling in its movement.

9. Fitness Level - we can sometimes ask too much of our horses which contributes to causing sore muscles. If they have been out of work for a while we need to slowly build up muscle strength and cardio fitness again over a number of weeks. We can sometimes ride for a bit longer than we planned or teach new exercises or movements that use different muscle groups or over do the same thing. Young horses are also very weak and get muscle sore easily, riding on a softer surface than usual or on hilly terrain if they not used to it can all cause muscle soreness too.

10. Living Environment - conditions that horses live in can severely affect their muscles and general wellbeing. Your horse may be living on very uneven ground, or be on a steep slope or in muddy, slippery paddocks that will all have an bearing on his body and how it functions. Also if they are in a herd what is the pecking order, is he being bullied or a bully, again this can cause stress, tension and soreness. Are they a fence walker or running around a lot, these things can and do have an impact.

It is not always possible to move your horse or change things especially if you are agisted but do have empathy for how your horse is in his living quarters as that is where they spend the majority of their time and try to make it as stress free and comfortable as possible for them.

11. Regular bodywork - if you haven’t had your horse treated by a professional bodyworker of any modality then it is truly worthwhile to start as they can identify issues and help to release muscle soreness and give you advice and a program to follow between visits to assist with keeping your horse maintained. Find a good qualified bodyworker who is willing to work alongside your vet, farrier and other bodyworkers you may use to have your horses best interest as their top priority.

Look for someone who will tell you what they are doing as they treat your horse and explain what they are looking for or finding so you understand what is going on with your horse, don’t accept someone that turns up and just says “yep he’s out” and then only spend five minutes or so there and don’t even assess your horse properly, explain what was wrong or what they did, they are not doing either of you any favours.

12. Underlying issues - if you still have ongoing muscle soreness issues and have looked at each of the above mentioned topics and feel that they are not the main cause and that there could be more going on then please don’t hesitate to call your vet for an examination of your horse.

Things like ulcers, sacroiliac issues, arthritis, pssm and overdue teeth also cause muscle soreness in horses and no amount of bodywork, correct riding or training will be enough to ease the discomfort until it is addressed.

I hope this helps you to understand the many factors involved that could be causing muscle soreness and that it takes a team of committed professionals and owners to all work together to get your horse back to optimum performance and comfort. 🥰🐴👍

06/07/2020

OVERWEIGHT HORSE OR PONY? – THE 12 WEEK PLAN

Obesity is a big risk factor for laminitis and it also increases the risk of arthritis and soft tissue injuries. It is very common – 70% of leisure horses are overweight, although when questioned, 50% of their owners didn’t think they were. Many of the remainder did not have a plan to deal with it. Here is a weight loss programme you can try. It’s a tough one – but it works.

1. ACCEPT that your horse is going to be hungry and there will be periods in the day when it has little or nothing to eat. You are not being uncaring. By not dealing with its weight problem, you are ‘killing it with kindness’. That fat will not go anywhere unless the horse is hungry. Worried about ulcers? - a group of Shetland ponies kept on a strict experimental diet did not develop ulcers while they were being dieted.

2. TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. Laminitis is a killer. One in four horses euthanised for veterinary reasons every year is killed because of laminitis. You read that correctly. One in four. And usually, it is after a protracted very painful period of time while attempts are made to save it.

3. WEIGH IT You need to know it starting bodyweight. Using a weight tape, take a weight measurement

4. UNDERSTAND APPETITE. Horses get fat in the summer not just because there is more grass about. Their appetite increases as days lengthen. In summer they eat almost twice as much food as they do in winter, even when there is more than enough food available. It’s a survival thing. It means that, for dieting, a short period at grass during the day just doesn’t work because they simply binge eat. A hungry pony will eat in 3 hours what it would have eaten in 12 hours if unrestricted.

5. MAKE A CHOICE- restricted grass or no grass? In dieting, control is everything. It is difficult to regulate intake precisely while a horse is grazing. A 12-week no-grass, hay-only, diet is by far the most effective. They can still go out on to a bare patch, a school or a bark pen

6. FIND THE RIGHT HAY You want the coarsest stemmiest stuff you can find. The more it looks like straw the better. Old hay does not work. It is still nutritious, just dustier. Do not use haylage. Even high fibre haylage can provoke an insulin surge in a fat pony. Insulin surges cause laminitis.

7. CALCULATE HOW MUCH HAY TO FEED- The dieting horse needs 1.5% of his body weight per day, divided into two small-hole or double haynets. Each net should be soaked for 12 hours. The longer you soak, the more sugar comes out. Don’t worry about bacterial proliferation in the soaking water - there is no current evidence these spoilage bacteria are harmful. Steaming doesn’t reduce the calorie content and is no use for dieting.

8. FEED A BALANCER- Soaking leaches out other nutrients including vitamins and minerals. Also dieting horses still need plenty of good quality protein. There are several balancers available for dieting horses.

9. TAKE A BELLY MEASUREMENT One week after starting the diet, measure the distance around the widest part of the belly and take it thereafter once a week. This should gradually reduce as the horse mobilises its internal fat. An obese horse has a large quantity of fat around its internal organs.

10. FEED STRAW Straw for dieting horses is the same as rice cakes for dieting people – minimal calories but with the satisfaction of eating something. Both barley and oat straw but not wheat straw are acceptable (not soaked). Gradually introduce it. Feed it in a hay net, or if bedded on straw let it eat that. It’s safe. Honest.

11. GET RIDING. Light hacking uses no more calories than you walking to the ‘fridge. At least 15 minutes trotting per day is necessary, interspersed with as much fast work as you can do. When you go hacking, do not come back until both you and the horse are sweating. Get a friend to ride your horse on days you can’t. Or pay someone to ride it. Feed a scoop of high fibre chaff before riding to protect against gastric ulcers due to acid splashing.

12. RUGS ARE BANNED Contrary to popular belief, horses are both waterproof and very cold resistant. If it is a cold day and you are cold, your horse probably isn’t. Horses increase their metabolic rate to keep themselves warm. To do that they burn fat. Make them. Unless fully clipped, no rugs should be worn indoors. Outdoors, only fly rugs and (in winter) only unlined turn-out rugs are allowed.

13. BUDDY UP if you can with someone else in the yard also with a fat pony. Studies in people have shown that dieting is more consistently applied if it is a shared target. Do the diet plan together and encourage each other.
14. BE BRAVE In spite of what other people in the yard might think, you are not being cruel to your horse. You are doing what is best for it. Keep going.

15. DON’T LOSE HEART The most weight you can expect the horse to lose is one per cent per week. As internal fat is burned first, the horse may still appear externally fat after 12 weeks, and the weight tape may give the same result, although the horse has genuinely lost weight. But what will change will be that belly girth measurement you took. It should decrease by up to 50% if the diet is working. If it does not you need veterinary advice on your diet plan. If it does, it’s working! Keep going until you can easily feel those ribs.

GOOD LUCK! IT'S NOT EASY- FOR THE HORSE AND FOR YOU

Please SHARE if you have friends who might find this useful.

PENBODE EQUINE VETS, HOLSWORTHY & TAVISTOCK, DEVON