Bowen therapy - I cannot stress enough about how good this is! Im not sure if you guys have it in the states (I would expect you would), but it works like magic.

Its frees up a horses muscles, allowing better movement, gets rid of aches and pains and can even realign bones to a certain degree, by decreasing tightness and relaxing ligaments. It can even fix certain confirmation faults on occassion (such as feet turning in) with the aid of a farrier.

Some horses hate it at first, but after a few sessions they learn to enjoy it as the muscles become more relaxed - the same as humans :)

Well fortunately they had a regular therapist at the first stable I bought Lorenzo back to after he was started under saddle, so I just kept working with her when I moved to another agistment centre.

I think with this sort of treatment, it is best to go by word of mouth as there are people out there who like to think they know what they're doing but they really dont (and like to take advantage of riders who are trying to do the right thing for their animals.)

Send some feelers out at your stables, or local riding clubs and see what comes up :) Alternatively, you can just google search it...but make sure you ask for references!

Very welcome :)

That doesn't sound very simple!

Myotherapy is not a simple thing, for sure.

This image if of a horse that I am holding up while working on him.  All of his rear weight is resting on me.

-- Edited by spirithorse on Sunday 7th of November 2010 12:55:10 PM

I recommend chiro, bowen, massage, acupuncture. These continue to and have helped my horses in the past. I have learned trigger point therapy myself and I am now called upon to do this professionally.

I would be worried about a chiropractor, do they x-ray the horse first?

Chiropractors do not need a vet to approve or even know of their work in Canada. In the UK, vet approval is needed. Vets in Canada have tried to get this approval put into law but having worked for vets in the past, this is just another cash grab for them. Many vets know nothing about chiro/acupuncture/bowen/massage so getting them to approve something they nothing about would be strange. Conversely some vets are also trained and certified in chiro themselves. Human chiropractors can order x-rays of their patients problem areas. Equine chiro cannot do this as the problem areas are ususally high up in the body and the University of Guelph is the only place with an x-ray machine powerful enough to visualize the spine/pelvis.
The chiropractor I use for my horse is mainly a human chiropractor with his own practice. He can tell just by seeing my horse walked down the barn aisle where the problem area(s) are!

I haven't been on here in a long while, so am looking at some really old posts regarding alternative therapy . . .

I totally agree with what QUEENRIDER said regarding the vets trying to get veterinary approval before these people can work on animals. And I agree that in a lot of cases it is totally a cash grad. In the few cases where it is not a cash grab I think these veterinarians have been turned off of alternative type things because they see animals being treated by people with very little, or no training and have had to deal with the after effects - this is definitely what is happening with one veterinarian in my area. He is horrified by what some people are doing and how risky it is. And, of course these people ruin it for those that are well trained, certified and actually helping horses.
I feel that most alternative type things can be very beneficial to our animals as well as to ourselves and we should be allowd to make that decision for our animals the same as we can go for a massage or to the chiropractor without the approval of our doctor. Why should our horses be any different???

There are some veterinarians trained to do chiro, through a very short course, most in Canada are about a month. Some of the non-veterinarian people that are doing some kind of equine therapy or chiro have way more training than this but then there are those that have no training, very little training or no certification - I think this is where it gets tricky and I think this is where these people contribute to the problem of veterinarians not wanting these people working on animals and really ruin it for those that are properly trained and certified. But, then again there are veterinarians out there that are doing chiro with NO TRAINING and no certification and because they are vets people think it is okay.

I think that whoever you use, they need to be trained and certified with a course of at least a year - especially for chiro. Some of these short courses of a weekend or a few weeks are not enough in my opinion. This includes the veterinarians, they also should have proper training - a month is not enough and no training, veterinarian or not, is not even ethical, but it is happening at a few clinics - again, here is another cash grab.

Bowan Therapy, which a couple of other people mentioned, also intrigues me. I have tried it myself but not on my horses, but I think there is a lot of potential in that area.

We had a pretty severe stifle injury last summer, did the usual veterinary thing with xrays, ultrasound etc. but they didn't have much to offer us in the way of actually helping the injury heal properly other than NSAIDs.
So we proceeded to treat it ourselves, with the help of a person trained in myotherapy and chinese medicine and are really pleased with the results. He is sound today. Sometimes western medicine has little to offer and an alternative method is your only and best choice.