Kinesiology Taping for Equine Therapists with Jo Rose
Just a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to secure a place on an Equine Therapist CPD course with Jo Rose from Rose Therapy learning about Kinesiology Taping for horses.
I was really excited about this course. It was a 1 day CPD at Jo’s facility in Oxon, that I have visited before to take part in her Equine Positional Release course which you can read more about in my previous blog.
The morning began in Jo’s purpose built class room, where we all met to begin the day.
There was a full group of participants on the course including mainly Veterinary Physiotherapy practitioners, a couple of Equine Massage practitioners like me and also an Equine Podiatrist.
Jo made us all feel very welcome and we were all presented with a ring bound booklet of her presentation slides and a roll of Kinesiology tape to take home with us.
The day began with a history of Kinesiology Taping in general and in horses, what Kinesiology tape is, and what ‘problems’ it can help with.
We also got the opportunity to feel the tape, cut it and stretch it, and to stick it to our own skin, our clothing and to others, to really give us an idea of what it feels like and how it works.
Of course we also learnt about contraindications to taping, which is vital to know with any therapy.
The final part of the theory session was to look at taping configurations and what works best for various different issues with a horse, these included:
Tendon / Suspensory issues
SI joint pain / fixation
Pelvic rebalancing
Decompression of tissue
Space openers
Oedema / Swelling
Minor wounds / bruises
Joint dysfunction
Fascia restriciton
Spinal misalignment / tension
Proprioception
Postural education
Scars
Acupressure points
There are so many applications the tape can help with, I could not wait until the practical part of the day to see for myself how this could work!
In the afternoon we travelled to a nearby yard where we were able to work in groups of 2/3 therapists together on a number of horses.
I was working with a Veterinary Physiotherapist and a Podiatrist which was really cool as we were all looking at the same horse with slightly different eyes.
The first horse we looked at was a mare. We walked her up to assess her locomotion and also were able to palpate her body.
It was clear she has issues in her SIJ region. So as a team we decided to tape this area with a decompression star.
Bearing in mind we did no other manual therapy, after applying the tape we walked her up again, and the improvement in her movement was unbelievable. Not only this, her demeanor began to change. She had been very swishy tailed and ‘grumpy’ walking up and down. But with the tape applied she seemed so much happier and more comfortable. I was shocked at the results. The tape has clearly given her such relief.
The second horse we worked with was a young show jumper. He came out of the stable with such a high head carriage, ewe neck and extended back posture.
We taped his upper neck (Rhomboideus and Cervical Trapezius region) with an aim to activate and stimulate these muscles, and when we walked him out again his head was lower with the base of the neck lifted up and back. Again I was blown away with the changes in his demeanor and posture with this simple tape application.
Any of you that have read my previous blogs or are my current clients will know about my obsession with good posture and movement in your horses.
I am so excited to use Kinesiology taping as part of my Equine Massage Therapy treatments to help your horses be the best versions of themselves they can be!
And if you are a fellow Equine Therapist looking to expand your arsenal of tools, I can highly recommend booking onto some training with Jo Rose - Rose Equine Therapy
Jess