Equine Joint Release and Realignment Applications – from an Osteopathic Perspective
I recently attended a 2 day CPD at Rose Holistic Therapies led by Equine Osteopath Louise Mauferon Vernet. Louise trained as an Equine Osteopath in France, but has been based in the UK for over 14 years. I have studied with Louise before, I attended a whole horse dissection that she ran a few years ago, and more recently I attended a CPD she held on Visceral and Cranial techniques, which was also hosted by Jo Rose.
I have always liked the Osteopathy approach, it fits well with my ethos of treating the whole horse from a holistic perspective. And I also find Louise so engaging as a tutor, she is very enthusiastic about her subject and super knowledgeable.
We began the day looking at the Osteopathic approach, how it was founded and why, and how this approach would be the basis for what we would learn on these 2 days.
I thought I would share with you some of the points that resonated with me..
When we look at the horse’s body, we have to work with what we have got, but think, ‘how can we optimise what we have’? The body creates compensations for a restriction to allow the body as a unit to still function. So instead of having a picture of what a body should be, see the body in front of you and what you have.
Adaptation or compensation? You need to identify this so you know what you have to work with and what you can achieve.
Compensations are different from adaptations and need to be approached differently. Adaptations are damage to the structure past the point of no return, such as eye removal, fractures and so on, whereas compensations are dysfunctions who have kept the ability to come back to their original state, so we are able to work to improve them.
Dysfunction in the body can travel through a fluidic link (blood, lymph), a mechanical link, a neurological link, or a combination of, and dysfunctions can be primary or secondary.
If you search for and treat the primary dysfunction, the secondary should disappear.
Primary areas of dysfunction tend to respond more quickly to treatment, whereas secondary take longer to change or will not make changes.
Primary dysfunctions could be emotional, physical, a trauma, or a combination of.
Primary dysfunctions are likely to feel cold, numb, dehydrated (older)
Secondary dysfunctions are likely to feel hot, inflamed, painful (more recent)
Test – treat – retest (if you have read some of my other blogs you will see this is a common theme) as working on one area will release other areas.
If the horse struggles with you working on an area, or seems unhappy with you working on an area, you are probably working on a secondary dysfunction. Try working on another area which the horse is happy with, which could be the primary area, then go back and test the other area, it may have released. Where the pain is located is not usually where the restriction is!
Once we had talked about the philosophy we went on to the practical techniques. (It is assumed we all have a good knowledge of anatomy as this course is for qualified therapists only)
In these 2 days we were to be learning Joint Testing for assessment of how the body is functioning, followed by Alignment Techniques to help restore the body’s homeostasis.
Time to get hands on with the horses!
I have already been fortunate enough to attend a course on Joint Mobilisations & Musculoskeletal Testing with Gillian Higgins at Horses Inside Out, which you can read about in my previous blog. Along with the experience I already have with palpating and joint testing horses, this part of the course was more revision for me, however I never think you can go over the basics too much, and although I am already very familiar with the range of movement in each of the joints of the horse it is still interesting to see how another therapist tests this as you can pick up some new ideas along the way.
One of the techniques I really liked was when Louise was showing us the limbs, and how on a horse that is unable to lift the limbs for some reason we can use the feel of the movement we have in the soft tissue surrounding the joint when the limb is on the ground as an indication of the mobility that joint has. I will definitely be exploring this further.
She also encourages us to think about quality of movement and quantity of movement for the individual horse, comparing one side to the other, and even breed to breed as not all horses will be expected to have the same quality or quantity of movement in a particular joint as every other horse. Some range of movement for example is more naturally achievable to some breeds compared with others and we also need to consider the age of the horse and any pathologies or adaptations the horse may have.
After joint testing we moved onto the Alignment Techniques.
These included:
· Mobilisations
· Vibrational techniques
· Positional releases
· Bone work
· Acupressure
· Myofascial release
· Oscillations
· Decompression
All of these techniques are things I already use in practice, however what I loved about this course was how Louise gave us another way to think about what we have assessed, where we need to work and which techniques are best to use in specific areas. Whilst she is also very open to just trying things out and seeing what works. Test – treat – retest!
That is me working on this horse :)
I am really excited to add what I learnt over these two days into my daily practice and also look forward to training again with Louise in the near future.
I would highly recommend this course to any Equine Therapists looking to expand their knowledge and skills.
Thanks for visiting my blog 😊
Jess