Equine Athlete Therapies

Happy New Year's everyone 🎇🥳🌈🎉🌺💞💐

Hope you all had a great night and are enjoying the first day of 2022!!! 😁

Hope you are all enjoying your ponies and the beautiful summer weather 🌈☀️🐴🦄

Sharing the love with my mare 💖🥰 Rosie 🥰🥰😍🐴

I have always said horse's are here to heal us. They are wiser than we think 💓🥰🐴

Estudios recientes realizados por el “Institute of Heart-Math” proporcionan una pista para explicar la" curación "bidireccional que ocurre cuando estamos cerca de los caballos. Según los investigadores, el corazón tiene un campo electromagnético más grande que el cerebro: un magnetómetro puede medir el campo de energía del corazón que irradia desde 2.4 metros hasta 3 metros alrededor del cuerpo humano. Si bien esto es ciertamente significativo, quizás sea más impresionante que el campo electromagnético proyectado por el corazón de un caballo sea cinco veces más grande que el de un ser humano (imagina una esfera en forma de campo electromagnético alrededor del caballo) y este pueda influir directamente en nuestro propio ritmo cardíaco.

También es probable que los caballos tengan lo que la ciencia ha identificado como un ritmo cardíaco "coherente" (patrón de frecuencia cardíaca) que explica por qué podemos "sentirnos mejor" cuando estamos cerca de ellos. Los estudios han encontrado que un patrón cardíaco coherente o HRV (siglas en inglés) es una medida sólida de bienestar y consistente con estados emocionales de calma y alegría, es decir, exhibimos tales patrones cuando sentimos emociones positivas.

Un patrón cardíaco coherente es indicativo de un sistema que puede recuperarse y adaptarse a situaciones estresantes de manera muy eficiente. Muchas veces, solo necesitamos estar en presencia de caballos para sentir una sensación de bienestar y paz. De hecho, la investigación muestra que las personas experimentan muchos beneficios fisiológicos al interactuar con los caballos, incluida la disminución de la presión arterial y la frecuencia cardíaca, mayores niveles de beta-endorfinas (neurotransmisores que actúan como supresores del dolor), disminución de los niveles de estrés, disminución de los sentimientos de ira, hostilidad, tensión y ansiedad, mejor funcionamiento social; y mayores sentimientos de empoderamiento, confianza, paciencia y autoeficacia ".

Autor pintura: Svatava Hueberová

🥰🐕🐴🤗🌈

Grateful for these moments - happy Monday 💕

‼️IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!!‼️

Due to the current lock down in Canberra all Equine and human massage services will be cancelled until we are given the all clear by the government that we can resume normal activities and services.

Any clients that are booked in over the next 7 days will be contacted to rebook. Please be patient with hearing from me as there are a lot of you that I am having to reschedule. Any client that has had there appointment bookings over the next 7 days will be given priority on rebooking. I am also currently in the process of contacting you all individually as well.

Stay safe everyone and see you on the other side of this lock down.

So true 😍🌈💓

Truth. Happy Monday! 💕

This post brings me to tears. The truth is each and every horse I work with claims a spot in my heart. 🥰💓

A couple weeks ago my first client horse crossed the rainbow bridge and I cried like a baby. I had only seen him once, but he already felt like mine and my heart was broken for the loss of him and his people’s loss of him.

Last weekend I went to tape a mare in her stall and her hind legs were stocked up to 50% her normal size. I taped her and stayed to hand walk and graze her outside for about an hour.

A mare that I’ve worked with for almost a year continues to have a mysterious lameness that a team of professionals, multiple vets and farriers haven’t been able to solve yet. I saw her work last night with hopes she found a resolution and she’s just not there yet. That mare kept me up most of the night last night.

Every horse I’ve worked with claims a piece of real estate in my heart. They do that to so many.

I see it when my farrier reaches out on a Sunday afternoon because he can’t quit thinking about solutions for my horse.

I see it when my vet takes 8 x-rays and only charges me for 2 because the consistent degree of lameness he’s presented with isn’t consistent with the clear imaging and he wants to give me answers and help my horse feel better.

I see it when my friends at Superior Therapy mourn the loss of 2 horses in a very short amount of time because those horses claimed a piece of real estate in their hearts too.

We love these animals.
They keep us all up at night.
They break our hearts.
We’re on your team and we want to see you win - so bad. ❤️💙

Let's all get behind Little Oak Sanctuary to raise the much needed funds to continue their fantastic work at looking after all the animals in the care. 😊

WE'RE SO CLOSE! CAN YOU HELP US GET THERE?! PLEASE SHARE

Last week we put the call out for your urgent help - and we can't believe the response - we've raised 80% of our goal with donations from just 393 amazing people - an incredible level of support; we are so humbled.

But now, donations have dropped off so much that we are not sure we will reach our goal (even after such a strong start). We are pleading right now for your support to get us there.

The strong show of support enabled us to save another animal's life, a young steer named Gavin. Gavin was to be sold for slaughter but will now be safe for life with us, thanks to the kindness of someone who knew him and those 393 donors. We can't wait for you to meet him when he arrives.

With winter arriving and many of our residents being frail and elderly, we are in the most challenging time of year for our sanctuary. We are already seeing an increased need for emergency vet call outs and age-related interventions. If we don't reach our target, we will have to turn more animals away. It is just reality, and we need to let you know.

We have 17,000 supporters across our social media platforms, and we ask that if you support our work and can afford to, please donate.

If you can, please donate $25, no more.

We only need 400 people to donate $25 each, and we will reach our fundraising goal.

After becoming aware of the suffering of farmed animals, we changed our lives to help them, care for them and advocate for them. Our lives revolve around running the sanctuary. We wouldn't have it any other way, but we can't do it without you.

We don't receive any government funding; we rely entirely on the kindness of our community. So right now, I'm asking you for your help to get us to our goal of $50,000.

$25 buys a bag of feed for the 100 birds in our care; $25 helps a lot.

Please share this post far and wide. We're counting on you for your help. Please help us. http://ow.ly/PuMS50F57DJ

Photo: Bing, whose mother, pregnant with him, was saved from slaughter

Even on a cold winters night in the middle of a thunderstorm, I still brave the cold to ride my beautiful girl 🥰🐴🌈🥰 only way to warm up my heart and soul ❤️💖💓💗💖💞,🐴🏇

Yesterday afternoon, Rosie and I spent some quality one on one quality time together. We had a great ride out in the jumps paddock, she got a pampered bath and a extra pick of fresh green grass as the sun was setting. The perfect end, to a perfect day 🥰🐴🌈

It is so nice being able to ride my own horse again ☺️ sometimes, it is the simple things in life that mean the most. 🏇🌈

Very blessed to have found Rosie 😌😍 she truly is a beautiful soul.

I couldn't have written this article better myself 🥰🐴

Andrew McLean tells us:
“The horse must travel in-hand and under saddle free of any constant rein or leg pressure, otherwise he will switch off to them. At first, the concept of self-carriage seems simple enough. It means that the horse self-maintains his own rhythm, tempo, stride length, straightness, outline and rein and leg contact and engagement. It therefore implies that he mustn’t occasionally or constantly quicken, slow, drift raise or lower his head, lengthen or shorten his neck, lean or drop the bit, squirm away from the rider’s leg contact or fall onto the forehand. For the horse to truly carry himself, it is nor just about his outline as most riders imagine. And neither is it about the rider constantly maintaining the horse in all the qualities required – it’s about the horse being trained to maintain them himself.” Read more: https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2014/12/principles-of-horsemanship-part-7-self-carriage/

Even on those cold rainy winter nights, I am still loving massaging horse's. It warms up my soul. 🐴🌈🥰

These are some photos of the beautiful Griffin taken by the lovely Michelle from there last appointment 😊 thank you for the photos 🥰🐴.

Hehe, even big kitties need a massage! 😊😂😸🦁

British Alex Larenty lives on an animal reserve in South Africa and spends his days giving massages to lions. One day, he discovered that every time he applied cream to a lion to cure an infection in his legs, the lion shudder and seemed to smile. Since then, he massages every lion in the park daily. Thanks to the cuddles, he created such a bond that just by seeing him come, lions lay down, start stretching their legs and smile. With love and respect, all relationships are possible!

Pegasus is a great organisation. Let's get behind them so they can continue their amazing work ☺️🐴🌈

Not long now as we approach the end of our Pony up for Pegasus campaign with Ned and Josh from Hit104.7.

Join us between 6-9am tomorrow morning where the boys will be broadcasting live from Pegasus, on horse back. That's right, Ned and Josh wont be able to get off until we reach our new target of $30,000.

So come on Canberra, get on board to cheer them on while raising funds to help support the services we deliver to people living with a disability.

https://pegasusfuturesfund.gofundraise.com.au/

These are great examples of how shoeing your horse correctly can assist with improving their gait.

Happy Mother's day to all you amazing Mum's out there.🥰😍

Happy mother's day to my mum, Anna who is amazing and so beautiful inside and out. She goes over and beyond to be there for me. I love you xo

To my animals, they know her as Lela (which is Spanish for Grandma). Happy Lela day from Isabel, Rosie and of course from Jasper, cause I know he would want to see you if he was still around today.

This is a great explanation of what we are aiming for when we get out horses to come into a frame.

Raise your hand if you think or have ever thought the contact is just the horse’s head being in a “pretty frame”.

It’s okay, so did I.

When I was young no one ever taught me about the contact.

I was always seeing everyone else with their horses head in a “pretty frame” with no idea why it was important that my instructor was making me ride on long reins instead of pulling my horses head down like everyone else.

And while I am so glad that I was taught the way I was taught instead of to force my horses head down, I still really wish that someone had helped me to really understand the contact earlier.

Because contact is about so much more than where the horses head is at.

It’s about creating energy in the hindlegs, bringing it over a soft back and into the bit.
 
It’s about containing that energy so we can create cadence, suspension and softness.

Once I learned this so many parts of riding clicked for me. 

I’ve been able to:
✅ stop horses from rearing, spooking, bolting and bucking
✅ improve the quality of the work from my horses drastically 
✅ have all the horses in my stable happy, confident and confident in their training

That’s why when I started coaching it was so important to me to come up with a way to help all of my students to understand the contact so that they don’t have to struggle like I did.

I can hear you asking yourself: HOW do I tap into this?!?

I have limited training spaces available for lessons at Sutton Farm Equestrian Centre where I am dedicated to helping you learn how to communicate correctly, clearly and effectively with your horse so that you can hit your riding goals.

I only have a few spaces left this month so jump in quickly by sending me a DM or commenting “lets do it” and I’ll be in touch.

This is very well said. Horse's express how they are through 100% of their body language. It is up to us as their owners and trainers to learn to identify what they are saying. Naughty behaviour maybe your horse's way of telling you something needs to be checked out by an equine professional.

“He’s just naughty and needs to learn to stand still”

In nearly 22 years of being a vet and working with horses, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard this. I have recently been working with a couple of cases where handling issues including whilst being tacked up were a big concern. In both cases it had been suggested by someone that clicker training might be the answer.

In both cases I found significant back pain.

“The display of many behaviours during tacking‐up or mounting is likely to reflect lameness or tack‐associated discomfort. Owners must be better educated to recognise these behaviours.”
From Dyson and colleagues 2021

When faced with undesired behaviours the most important thing is to RECOGNISE the underlying motivation for the behaviour.
It’s great that positive reinforcement (reward) training is receiving more attention in the equine world BUT addressing the underlying cause of a behaviour is way more important to both the welfare of the animal as well as helping to actually address the undesired behaviour.

In 2020 Dyson and colleagues published work highlighting the high frequency of abnormal behaviours when horses were tacked up.

“There was an equal frequency of abnormal behaviours during bridling and saddling in 52% of horses; 34% of horses showed more abnormal behaviours during saddling than bridling; 15% of horses showed more abnormal behaviours during bridling than saddling. Repeatedly chomping on the bit occurred most frequently during bridling (67%).
Ears back (57–65%) and an intense stare (54–62%) were similar in all phases.
Fidgeting was more common during saddle placement (32%) and girthing (21%), than bridling (9%).
Tail swishing was more frequent during saddle placement (20%) and girthing (34%), than bridling (10%).
Turning the head to the girth was only seen during saddle placement and girthing (11 and 40%, respectively), in addition to attempting to bite (5 and 15%, respectively) and rubbing the nose (8 and 21%, respectively).”

Conclusion
Abnormal behaviour during tacking‐up and mounting was common.

Now Sue Dyson’s teams new study (just published) has highlighted how many of the horses/ ponies showing these abnormal behaviours during tacking up were associated with current pain / lameness.

“Riding School horses comprised only 12% of the sample population, but had higher rates of abnormal behaviours during both tacking‐up and mounting compared with General Purpose horses. The rate of abnormal behaviour during tacking‐up for horses with moderate or severe lameness was 1.4 times higher than for nonlame horses. Horses with lameness in‐hand or ridden had 1.5 times higher rates of abnormal behaviour during mounting than nonlame horses. Tight tree points and epaxial muscle pain were associated with higher behaviour scores during tacking‐up. Higher static saddle‐fit scores were associated with higher behaviour scores during mounting.”

Owners AND professionals need more education on equine (and canine and feline and rabbit ... well, all animals they handle clearly) body language and behaviour.

And we have to acknowledge that pain and disease are FREQUENTLY present in undesired behaviours meaning that training alone is not enough to help the animal, even if that training may benefit the humans.
Animals can learn to suppress behaviours through training - both through punishment based and reward based training.

In a recent study Professor Daniel Mills highlighted how as many as 80% of the dog behaviour cases seen by vet behaviourists have pain as a contributing factor.

We simply must not keep turning a blind eye to what motivates behaviour. We must stop thinking that training is our first approach.
We must first investigate/ understand motivation.

Dyson, S., Bondi, A., Routh, J. and Pollard, D., 2021. An investigation into the relationship between equine behaviour when tacked‐up and mounted and epaxial muscle hypertonicity or pain, girth region hypersensitivity, saddle‐fit, rider position and balance, and lameness. Equine Veterinary Education.

Dyson, S., Bondi, A., Routh, J., Pollard, D., Preston, T., McConnell, C. and Kydd, J.H., 2020. An investigation of behaviour during tacking‐up and mounting in ridden sports and leisure horses. Equine Veterinary Education.

Mills, D.S., Demontigny-Bédard, I., Gruen, M., Klinck, M.P., McPeake, K.J., Barcelos, A.M., Hewison, L., Van Haevermaet, H., Denenberg, S., Hauser, H. and Koch, C., 2020. Pain and problem behavior in cats and dogs. Animals, 10(2), p.318.

Equine Athlete Therapies (also known as Tranquillity Wellness and Massage) is now intruding human massage therapy for horse riders!!! 🤗🥳

Give both yourself and your horse the advantage by optimising both of your ranges of motion and reducing any aches and pains, so that you can both ride and move with a spring in your step. 🌈🐴🏇

There are a range of massage options to suit individual preferences. Check out my people massage menu on my page or contact me for a copy.

Human massage - Either come to my home clinic in Canberra or I can come to you in the comfort of your own home (set up and travel fee will apply).

Mobile human massage services available (Discounted travel and set up fee for horse + human (owner) massage booked on the same day and property.

Discounted travel and set up fee for group human massages.
Available for seated human massages at clinics, comps, and/or pony club events. Contact me for more information.

And yes, I do massage humans that do not own or have horses as well.

Regularly in Murrumbateman and Jeir park.

Travel locations: Canberra and surroundings (Hall, Murrumbateman, Yass, Bungendore, Bywong, Queanbeyan)

For prices or more information, contact Lauren 0413 413 563 [email protected]

😂 so true 🌈🐴

Snoopy always knew!

This memory will always stay with me. Happy Sunday everyone 🥰

Sometimes we all just need a rest and a cuddle with our favourite person/horse. Sunday lazy day cuddles. 😍💖🐎

This is my horse Jasper who was fast asleep on my lap at the time this photo was taken back in summer 2014. Jasper had insisted on lying on me and fell asleep as I gently stroked his face. He was like this for nearly 2 hours.

This is one of my favourite photos of us both. 🥰🥰🥰

Happy Sunday everyone.

Equine Athlete Therapies updated their information in their About section.

Equine massage appointment session

The equine massage appointment session includes:
• Assessment of horse - May include some or all the following: palpation, body checks, range of motion checks, static and/or dynamic checks.
• History of horse (first time client or new horse) - Discipline (past and current), health issues, horse past (if known), past or current injuries (current injures please talk to Lauren before booking an appointment).
• Discussion of things you may have noticed regarding your horse (each session) - Could include sudden changes in behaviour, changes in how they perform, not bending correctly, not picking up the correct canter lead, suddenly lazy when usually active. Not happy when brushed or tacked up. This discussion may take place before I start massaging and/or continued during massage if necessary.
• Owner’s updates of horse – Things you have noticed since your previous session.
• Equine massage - The massage is personalised to your horse’s individual needs and requirements on the day. I am qualified in a range of equine massage techniques which include sports massage, trigger point therapy, deep tissue and tissue mobilisation, as well as photonic (red light) therapy.
• After treatment plan and suggestions - May include exercise or stretches depending on individual horse requirements, as well as a treatment plan. I may also recommend another equine professional such as a vet, saddle fitter, equine dentist, or farrier.

Allow 60-90 minutes for each horse.

Prices: $110

Travel locations: Canberra and surroundings (Hall, Murrumbateman, Yass, Bungendore, Bywong, Queanbeyan)

Additional travel fee may apply to those outside of Canberra.

Please be aware that each is horse is different, and each session will be adjusted to your horse’s individual needs and requirements on the day of appointment. What happens in one session, may not be in your horse best interest the next session.

I am officially qualified as as a human relaxation massage therapist. 🥳🌈🥰

I will soon be offering massage therapy to horse riders, horse trainers and of course will still be massaging horses.

Great information about photonic therapy (also known as red light)

PHOTOPUNCTURE & ACUPUNCTURE

Did you realise that when we apply the lights on acupoints we are doing Acupuncture ?

Except we call it Photopuncture !!

The light penetrates the skin via a conversion of energy within the collagen fibres. (Simple explanation). The light energy converts to an electrical which stimulates the cells.
A needle as it penetrates the skin and is turned causes microtears in the collagen fibres which stimulates the cells.

Acupressure is the stimulation of cells via the conversion pressure or thermal energy.

So we can use plans and protocols with our light. We can also make our own !!

We can also do dry needling ! Or should that be dry photopuncturing 🤔

Personally for me this is awesome as you need to be a Vet to do acupuncture in Western Australia !

Want to learn more ?

Happy New Year's everyone 🎉🎉👏🎇

2020 was sure a challenging year for all of us in one way or another.

For me 2020 meant I had to say goodbye to my boy Jasper back in September. He was an amazing horse who taught me so much. A real character with so much heart and a lot of personality. I miss him a lot. A lot memories we shared. 😥 R.I.P Jasper

2020 brought a lot of challenges and heart ache, but it also brought me an expected surprise. My very own orange rose 😍🌹🌈

I ended up with another beautiful chestnut that has found her way into my heart 💓🦄🥰🌈 I love my Rosie girl. I love spending time with my Rose 🌹💖🥰 She really is a special lady and very grateful I had her in my life when I had to say goodbye to Jasper ❤️

I hope you all can look back at 2020 and find at least one positive thing to come from it.

May 2021 bring many blessings for all of you and your horse's. 🐴🌈🦄

Merry Christmas everyone. 🥰🥰🐴

This year has definitely tested us all. Let us hope the new year brings about many blessings for us all.

Rosie (my chestnut reindeer) and I had a few more gifts to deliver 😊🥰🌈🥳

Have a great holiday everyone and enjoy your beloved ponies 🥰🌈

Great information and very well said

Sometimes, you just have to grin with joy after your massage 😜😂🤭

Put your heads up (or hands) if you love a good shoulder and chest massage 🤭🙈😅

I'm sure a lot of us can relate. Despite the weather, we still love our ponies 🥰

After the warm day we had yesterday in Canberra my dog Isabel insisted that I share my ice block with her as well. She knows the sound of the ice block box and will come running every time. 🐕😍😅

Something tells me she enjoyed it 😂😅