Arrow Equine

I will be away with the family for some much needed mountain time 🏔️ from Friday July 19 to Monday July 22. Looking forward to no cell service to reconnect, see you all when I am recharged ❤️ 🤟🏻

🖤One of my most favourite days🖤
These big boys are getting show ready to kick some ass at Calgary Stampede and every year I look forward to these days. Great horses, wicked rock and roll, amazing people, and the best part is this barn always feels like home when you are there. Brian and I were talking and figured out that I have been helping them for over 10 years, but even longer working with Dr Chad. It has truly been a privilege working with such team players, Brian and Colleen know these horses like the back of their hand and I love how they help all these big boys bring their own individual skills to the forefront. Thank you for all the good times, even though they give me pop quizzes about all the horses ha ha ha.
Good luck and much love Sara 🖤

Things look a little different these days when I get some peace and quiet! Finding myself again as I juggle motherhood and the balance of my career with where they all take me. It’s hard some days to trust the process, I struggle to slow down and smell the roses with my family but this is me taking it one step at a time! I do really love what I do 🐴

Have a Merry Christmas 🎄& a Happy New Year🥂
♥️ Sara

Do something that makes you uncomfortable!

Initially I felt completely out of my comfort zone and had some anxiety about it! I wasn’t too sure how I would be perceived as a sports therapist taking a podiatry seminar with Dr Sammy Pittman, but I was amazed and incredibly humbled. Our veterinarians and farriers have an incredibly important role in the welfare of our equine athletes. We learnt of the fundamental diagnostic techniques, Venograms are imperative when address foot function and health ( and so much more). I have great takeaways from this course and grateful for the professionals I know and highly respect! Thank you with for your priceless knowledge and expertise, hopefully you come back soon! Thank you as well to for hosting such a mind blowing seminar in such a gorgeous facility! Now to figure out the in between piece to the puzzle 🧩

Very cool Dr Thomas

BRIDLE FIT is becoming more and more important the deeper I have looked into it! I personally have tried all the things and done the good the bad the ugly! When you don’t know, you don’t know so horse people like to try all sorts of different things to ‘help’ their horses.

How tight is that nose band these days? Studies have shown that the more pressure but on the nose band the more restriction of the head piece. This puts more pressure downwards which will reduce poll movement. Nose band pressure can also increase severity of any bit in the horses mouth! It is now showing that ‘A stronger horse needs a stronger bit’ is not exactly the truth! Try the 2 finger rule and see if it helps make a difference for your horse. Get two fingers beneath the band and your horses face is a enough room to be comfortable for the horse and hold slight pressure when the bit rotated in rein contact.

In fact an increase pressure of nose band can increase stress responses and increase heart rate. It can directly impact facial nerve functions and further create internal cheek injuries (more specific to flash nose bands particularly)

If you are one that doesn’t use a nose band, we have bridles at home that don’t have them! Tight nose bands as well as no nose bands can increase risks of lesions on the corners of the horses mouth. They are hard to see and horses aren’t the biggest fans of us prying this point open to check 😬

Last but not least, I thought this was fascinating, as it completely changed how I saw horses under saddle in a multitude of disciplines. If that jaw is limited in range of motion, it reduces chewing and relaxation of the horse. The horse can not swallow, and we as riders would see the frothing or excess saliva build up as something appealing on a hard working horse. Now I see it differently! Biomechanically if that jaw is holding tension it’s going to change the movement of the body and of course effect that horses balance!

Head to tail we learn it all! If you are questioning this information and wonder about your own equine athlete have a professional team member out to assess them.

Much ♥️ Sara

In moments where I feel I truly know nothing, we push through and continue to learn! Did you know that in a specific study 62% of horses that did have dental issues did NOT present with any clinical signs of pain or discomfort! And if that isn’t crazy enough, did you know that 50% of the signs horses do to show pain relate to their heads.

If you were to look at your horse whether out in the pasture relaxing or post workout, would you feel confident in telling if your horse was comfortable or not?

Much ♥️ Sara

Hey friends,

If you have a minute take some time to help my friend out with her survey! See how much you know about your horses?

♥️ Sara

Identification of Barriers to the Prevention and Management of Laminitis in Western Canada Online survey BOS

Merry Christmas from the Vold family 🎄♥️

Hey gang!
It’s been awhile since I have posted but I thought it was time for a friendly reminder. The last two weeks especially I have noticed issues popping up in horses bodies that are directly effected by the winter weather changes. We have had snow fall, below zero temperatures, and I live in a area where we get significant chinook pressure changes.

Make sure if you clip your horse to include extra clothing outside to make up for that lost layer of insulation. Double/triple check their limbs before riding to look for cuts, or any strange swelling. Frozen ground is not forgiving if they fall. Kicks hurt even more when the muscle bellies are quivering to stay warm.

Much love and Happy Halloween ♥️🎃 Sara

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”

~Anonymous

If I was a bettin’ woman I would assume this boy got a solid kick to the shoulder! This was my first time working on this young man and unfortunately for him (and it’s not in the photo😬) but he ran into a tree, wounding the base of neck just above this. Doing my evaluation with him that scapula didn’t want to move much at all and he has significant base of neck and thoracic sling compensations.
So why is body work important? Does it do anything?
We had to addressed deep fascial and muscle tissue tension within the lateral shoulder stabilizers, which had began to pull into his scapular retraction and protraction tissue. One session completely changed that tissue and improved range of motion of shoulder, forelimb gait, thoracic sling function and neck mobility. The more consistent you stay on top of your body work, the quicker you address the mountains of issues within the body that really are only mole hills 😘 onward and upward gang
Much ♥️ Sara

Let me explain...

These black beauties have been my favourite horse since I was a little girl! They are mighty giants but they are teddy bears. I got to know this barn over 15 years ago and gladly call them family! We get to visit on a monthly basis and for the Christmas season we get to go for sleigh rides with the girls. 🔔

The reason I am overwhelmingly joyful to be working on these beauties in this barn again is a crazy story. This spring the trainer and a team of two gelding got in a wreck. Not just a little wreck, a HUGE wreck... horses ended up fine but the driver wasn’t so lucky! Broke bones, blood clots, oxygen machine and a neck brace later. He worried he may never drive horses again, heart breaking!

Well we had a good long chat yesterday and turns out that driver will be leading his teams sooner than I thought! Watch for them at Calgary Stampede and be sure to cheer on the Coleman’s with the Messenger team ♥️

Colleen Coleman
Faye Couture

I recommend not underestimating the power of a scar 😘
When a body gets any sort of trauma, such as a kick, bite, open wound, surgery, or impact of any nature. We may see the external portion as ‘healed’ and it looks better. BUT the underlying tissue has been disrupted and in simplest terms, is still confused! More directly I am wanting to address the scarring that effects fascial tissue!
I feel with my respect to fascial tissue that this could be very long winded, but for the sake of this post it’s not! Fascia is the information station of the body, it looks like a spiderweb of connective tissue to support, separate and protect the tissue. It is meant to be very giving and flexible with lymphatic fluid and blood vessels within. But when interrupted it becomes more and more rigid as it builds upon itself with limited fluidity.
Scars directly effect fascial tissue and can create pulling of fascial tissue beneath the skin, which is unseen by the eye. The fascial trains are meant to work with one and other but when one is out of sink it can cause further issues.
This horse had a severe injury to it hind cannon bone and in the second drawing I demonstrate how a scar can directly and indirectly effect the body!
Much love ❤️ Sara

This post has me feeling 💃🏻

First off I feel so proud, proud of how far this mare has come! If you only knew some of the road blocks that stood in these girls way, you would feel the same.

I also remember feeling straight intimidation. You would laugh at me if I told you the story of the first time I met this mare! She is such a tiny package but don’t let that fool you because her personality is enormous. First time working on this power house she squealed, tried to bite, pawed, reared... all the things! I am just glad 2 years later she enjoys having me around😂

If you hadn’t notice from the photos, those are some incredible muscle gains. You also should know that this didn’t happen over night. This is all about work, consistency, determination, and 2 years later her b***y is on point 🍑

This mare jumps some huge sticks and is more than ready for competition season. Periodically I like to take progress photos of the horses I work on, after taking the current photo I had to show the owner the frickin exciting changes🤓. I definitely geeked out and may have been more excited than her but this is so worth sharing! “We can do hard things!”

Much ♥️ Sara

📸of the talented Bulgari whom is owned by the fearless Ashleigh Charity

If you were asked your horses heart rate, would you know it? Did you just have a ‘intense’ ride and your heart is racing, but is your horse feeling the same?

A large part of conditioning a horses body for their sport is knowing and maximizing the effort of the heart and it’s pumping system! I personally have had those rides where your legs are about to fall off and you are sweating through all clothing. Then look down at the horse walking out afterwards and he hasn’t even broke a sweat PERIOD 😳

We have cool fitness watches that track our activity through the day and instantly can read our heart rate. If you are looking to up you and your horses game this competition season it wouldn’t hurt to invest in a horse heart rate monitor. I come across this a lot, where in the winter season riding inside we aren’t pushing our equine athletes excessively hard. Then spring comes and grass turns green so it’s time for the outdoors and our horses need more of a challenge as they have reacted a fitness plateau. (Where the rider is now working hard and the horse isn’t advancing physically.)

As a team you should focus not only on schooling rides were you address motor control and mental strength. There should be pull into the other side of conditioning that is maximizing performance and maintaining soundness. Without this balance we create injury and unneeded stressors! 📸 of Amara Duxbury on the her dynamite 🐉 Allie

Much love Sara ♥️

It’s a general rule of thumb that the fitter the body the faster the recovery time, back to a resting heart rate. I have always had a fascination and deepest respect of the heart ♥️

With increased cardio output during exercise it makes sense that there are circulatory adaptations. This ensures that the muscles get there share of sufficient blood flow. At resting, a horses muscles receive about 15% of circulating blood delivered, but that could potentially increase to 85% during intense exercise. (Also very interesting how the diaphragm receives the most blow flow of any muscle) 🤓

This small piece of information on the hearts importance brings me to my next very valid point. Imagine if that tissue is fatigued from hard work, or these muscles had build up of fibrosis effecting the function of that muscles contraction. That would directly effect the healthy circulation of that muscle tissue. Soooooo wouldn’t it only make sense to routinely address these little piles of waste so that fresh blood flow can feed those strong muscles 💪🏻♥️ Bodywork at its finest😘
Much love Sara ♥️

What is more fitting when discussing endurance and heart rate than an eventer. This team is so dedicated to the sport right down to the beats per minute ♥️... 📸 Courtenay Tuxhorn and the infamous Bam Bam

I’m back.... Okay, so I may not be working on horses JUST YET, but that hasn’t kept me from keeping my brain fired up!

As a body worker I address what the soft tissue needs, but it always helps by taking a step back and looking at the body in it’s entirety. So today I want to address what we all have and what we could not live without.... BLOOD 🩸

Spring is in the air and we are all excited for events to kick off and compete. I have mentioned previously how I am a HUGE fan of calling on your veterinarian team member to do a soundness exam every year at least once to make sure there is nothing underlying. Addressing joint maintenances needed before the thick of things in the middle of summer show season. That said it is hard to be able to tell how your internal horse health is!

Blood is made up of many different ingredients, white cells, red cells, platelets, etc. There are so many different roles of blood from carrying oxygen to the entire body, or healing and repairing injuries. The one thing that amazes me is that through simple blood tests you can tell so much of the bodies story. You could see if there is internal infections, see if your horse is dehydrated and even more so witness how the horses bodies have adapted to exercises. If their body is too stressed from strenuous exercises, or ‘overtraining syndrome’. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the adility to adjust this in the early spring oppose to the crash of summer effect.

Of course, I as a body worker do not do blood tests but talking with your veterinarian then informing your body worker of the findings is a good start. We can make changes to the program to ease or intensify what that equine athlete is going through to aid in optimum body health. 📸 Washington State University

Much ♥️ Sara

Merry Christmas to all ♥️🎄🎁
Much love, the Volds ❤️

‘The stifle has a locking mechanism providing support when the horse shifts much of its weight on to one leg.’ -Julia Brooks

I know it has been a hot minute since I have posted anything on social media. As I sit here refreshing my anatomy and reading some new material I purchased this fall I can’t help but share this moment. Our brains are a fascinating organ, it always humbled me when I can read someone else’s perspective on something that I already THOUGHT I had an understanding of. When I read this piece of information about the stifle joint in particular it honestly sent my mind racing. As simple the statement it switch my mind into a different dynamic of multiple cases I had been working on, allowing me to view and approach these horses in another way.

It doesn’t matter how long you have been doing something for! If you are a professional, amateur or just doing things for fun the more you broaden your mind and how you feel you see things the better you become. It is a multidimensional beauty, like hearing a trainer or coach say one thing numerous times and you don’t understand it, but watching or reading information from a person you admire or look up to may say it a simple but different manner clicks in your mind.

Never stop training your brain, brushing the dust off and viewing certain things threw new light! You never know how it can change things and make life exciting for the better.

That is all, much love
Sara ♥️

Why Bodywork?

This handsome young gelding is a very cool spring loaded jumper. Talking with the client her concern was the ‘hunter bump’ he was developing! If you have never heard of a hunters bump I highly suggest researching it because that’s not the point of my post 😉
This guy has had some training inconsistencies and is now in a more increased work load-program.

First photo you can see both fore and hind limbs are camped underneath his body. His mid back is inverted, pelvic sacral tuberosities are elevated dorsally, quadriceps are flaccid and sternum is pressing forwards and downwards. Common iliopsoas tension posture along with following up with trigger point tests and compressions to dig a little deeper to find the problem.

Second photo is post session, quadriceps are woke up and activate, six pack tissue is woke up, sternum along with thoracic sling was released, pelvic tilt no longer present and he presented with zero SI joint pain. Very square stance with stability and support.

This is great visual, the story behind this dude was that I haven’t seen him for 6 weeks, he is in a consistent body work program. He had a new chiropractor adjust him and there was substantial sacral restriction that we talked about and both us professional came up with a game plan and included trainers within the conversations. Seeing him a few days post adjustment, the joint mobility generally had improved from six weeks ago but he still presented with fatigue within particular muscle bellies that I needed to physically make change to. Once I had addressed this and made the change the body naturally follows suit into a more natural efficient posture. Now to give them homework to continue to wake up the weakness and support his strengths♥️

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there♥️
You deserve this day, 10 cm and all 🤟🏻

Clear as mud? 🤣

A lot of times during session, whether I have known the horse for years or it’s our initial appointment I love taking photos! I know I tell myself this all the time, that I need to take more before photos because lately the progression of the horses I have see are amazing 💖

This is just a peak inside my brain at how I evaluate the body and look for things through my static evaluation. A horse can tell you everything just by standing before you.

The blue lines are a ‘general’ idea of centre line of that forelimb as well as the sternal posture. I have lined up the joints to the opposite pair to show signs of any type of imbalance or offloading weight.

The red, in my experience is where I want to palpate the tissue for any signs of heat, swelling as well as tissue tension. This woman has a lot of stories to tell and I understand her body and why she carries it the way she is in this photo. Stay tuned for her after photo 😘

Much love Sara ❤️

My apologize for the poor quality photo!

Just gonna start this post off by saying that this case I show you, I never thought our progress photos would be so significant.

This mare has been dealing with a long list of issues and ailments and the owner was after a second opinion. was called upon and she called in for some back up, so .chiro and myself .arrowequine couldn’t wait to see what she had in store for us.

This was a brilliant visual on the benefits of joining forces with veterinary medicine, professional chiropractic care and soft tissue therapies. With a Sternal adjustment and a good release through this mares thoracic sling.... BOOM 💥

More even weight distribution through the front limbs, more open chest, not camped under or base narrow. If you are dealing with any issues with your horse and feel frustrated and ready to give up, please don’t! Just phone a friend 😘

Much love Sara ♥️

I have been sitting here starring at this beauty with so much going through my head. FINALLY..... that is my first thought, I finally worked up the courage to continue my education and fulfill my goal of achieving Level 3 specialty within my industry.

There are less than a handful of body workers within this country 🇨🇦 with this title and I FINALLY accomplished it.

There are also mixed emotions with this excitement because there have been so many highs and lows. Many tears, lots of frustrations and days where I didn’t think I was good enough to be in this industry. So many times where I honestly felt like I knew nothing and I wouldn’t have clients continue to schedule me with their horses! I have been bit, kicked, stepped on, body slammed, froze my ass off, literally been s**t on and yet we all love it for the horses.

This is not the end! I am blessed to have known Equinology and all the amazing instructors that have taught for this institute. I knew that I wanted to reach this title of knowledge even 13 years ago starting out this career, it just didn’t happen as fast as I wanted but that’s just the way it was suppose to go. Onwards to the next new knowledge that I embark upon.

Man I love horses... I want to thank all the clients I have now, in the past and forwards into the future that have had the patience with me. Keeping things consistent, throwing curve balls of challenges at me, reaching new progressions and learning new things along with me on this journey. I wouldn’t be here without you all❤️ I am very grateful for all the veterinarians, farriers, nutritionists, chiropractors, saddle fitters, trainers, body workers, acupuncturists, physiotherapists... and the list goes on of all the people I have met and learnt from as we all continue forwards in this industry to better our equine athletes.
🖤
Much love Sara xoxo
🍀

Hey gang,

Happy Valentine’s Day, hope you all get spoiled with chocolate.
My husband and I just wanted to let you know we have limited Bison for sale. It sure doesn’t hurt to have a little extra in the deep freeze through these tougher times 😘
Myself, I have had some issues digestively eating beef, but this lean bison is such a game changer. We know a lot of beef ranchers out there, but I am hooked to this 🦬

Message me or Jake for further details ♥️