Equine Bodywork Solutions

05/08/2025

Stretches, snoozes and sunshine 🫶

Beautiful Ava 🦄 An ex brood mare who is now lucky to be living with a family who clearly put her welfare and comfort before everything 🥰

Ava’s “Mini Mum” attended today too and asked if she could do any stretches for Ava in between sessions.

Their connection was clear to see as straight away they picked it up, Ava willingly gave her trust (and weight 😆) and enjoyed some great hamstring stretches.

Done consistently these will also help to relieve some of the tension in Ava’s lumbar spine from her past life 💚

01/08/2025

You all know how much I love my Epiony heat pad (well ‘pads’ now) 🫢

They currently have 15% off to launch their new website and products…use it for your horse, dog and yourself 🥰

The Heat Pad has been designed and developed to be used on people and animals such as equines, canines and felines just to name a few. Our innovative lightweight, flexible, super soft Heat Pad runs off a 12 volt smart lithium ion battery, providing soothing heat to all and delivering amazing results...

31/07/2025

Is asking for help a sign of weakness or strength???

Most of my life I considered it a weakness, fiercely independent from the day I could walk and under the impression that admitting you didn’t know, or understand, something meant you weren’t good enough.

Then major illness meant I had no choice but to accept help and having to relearn so many basic skills gave me the opportunity to be the student I always wanted to be 🤓.

I noticed that as I started to open up to people, share my feelings, problems and downfalls, they felt more comfortable doing the same. Friendships became stronger and I had the opportunity to study what my heart had always wanted 🫶.

Every opportunity I get I want to add more knowledge and skills to help more horses and their owners.
I’m that irritating person on a training course that always has a question!!

Lately I’ve been beating myself up for always seeking feedback from other professionals, such as the saddle fitter, farrier and my amazing mentor Helen Woolley 🥰

But I’m trying not to listen to those voices in my head and remember that I don’t know everything 🤯.

And that’s ok…and if seeking further opinions or asking questions gets better results, faster, for your horse then I’ll keep being that annoying person on your behalf 💚

27/07/2025

This is the only kind of Prada I need in my life 💖

Prada has just been given the all clear from the vet following an episode of lymphangitis 🤩

Her amazing Mum wanted to continue making her more comfortable and booked her a massage, which is a very effective therapy for keeping the lymphatic system healthy, critical to fighting infections 👊

At 18.2hh she is now officially the largest horse I have treated, and my muscles are feeling it this evening.

But I really enjoyed meeting this gorgeous and gentle girl who has found herself an empathetic, caring Mum on a relaxed and friendly yard 💚

20/07/2025

It might not feel like it this weekend…but the repercussions from lack of rain so far this year are widespread…the driest Spring in 132 years 😮

Shortage of hay, suppliers holding on to what they have for their livestock and prices on the rise.

Following this, livery yards may have no choice but to increase their rates and once again I’m pretty sure we will see a rise in the cost of hard feed.

I don’t want the comfort or well being of your horse to be compromised, so I will be reducing my prices until end of October 2025 when I will review the situation again.

Sports Massage is not a replacement for a vet call-out and massage therapists should not be diagnosing. But regular maintenance massages can help to maintain a healthy musculoskeletal system and to identify small problems before they become major issues - costing more 💶💶, more disruption and discomfort for your horse.

Although I have published prices, I do always try to be fair and reasonable. I am always happy to provide a quote for a treatment plan, especially if I know you are going to have - or have had - multiple vet bills, treatments, medication etc.

If you’re unsure about how to introduce massage or how it could be beneficial for you and your horse, please do send me a message ⬇️ for a chat, I’ll help wherever I can even if it means recommending an alternative treatment for you.

📎I will be putting out some enrichment ideas that may help your forage last a little longer, yes it’s a bit of extra effort but so is having a clear out and selling all your stuff on FB!

📃Terms and conditions:
✏️Bookings already in the diary will receive the discount
✏️Outstanding invoices are still binding
✏️Travel costs will be dependent on location (every effort will be made to avoid them)
✏️I reserve the right to withdraw this offer at anytime
✏️Signed T’s & C’s, Horse Registration Forms and a 50% deposit is still required, your booking is not confirmed until this is received

15/07/2025

Rehabilitation, in my view, is a journey that never ends, it goes in waves of good times, challenging times and awful times.

How often do we hear, or say, my old knee injury stops me from doing such and such, or I always get a pain flare up in this weather???

Professional sports people often retire early due to injury, not because they can no longer play their sport all together but because they can no longer perform at the same level.

And we have the ability to make our choices, avoid doing certain activities that will cause pain, ensure we take appropriate pain relief and to choose our rest periods, maybe even book back in with our therapist for some maintenance treatments.

On surface level it can appear that a horses injury has healed and rehabilitation is complete but should we lower our expectations of what they can achieve following this trauma? Are they still required to perform exactly as they used to?

Rehabilitation for us can look like friends popping by to help with errands or with treats and care packages. Time to heal not only physically but mentally and emotionally, adjust and accept a new reality.

Rehabilitation for horses often looks like being stabled for weeks without access to their herd, possibly reduced forage to ensure there is no weight gain. Boredom, anxiety and stress 😪 or only coming in for vet visits and treatments.

Enrichment is an often overlooked part of rehabilitation plans, and it doesn’t have to look like a hay or treat ball.

Enrichment also includes allowing social interactions with the herd - possibly over a stable door, or even just being able to see them can make a horse feel safer.

In hand grazing, foraging haynets, frequent grooming from us, puzzles and mental stimulation - start some small trick training like smile, hug, kiss etc., just a few examples of things we can do that don’t require much effort.

If you’re concerned about calories then substituting up to 50% of your hay to straw is worth a serious thought. As well as having less sugar, over time straw can reduce chew rate, meaning feed and haynets will last longer.
🛑Good dental health is essential for straw and it must be introduced slowly

Having less hay will leave you some spare calories for veggies and treats:
🥕100g carrot contains 7.5g of sugar
🍬3 Polo mints contain 4.2g of sugar
🍏150g apple contains 17g of sugar

Helping you reassess your horses husbandry, and offering advice, is all included within the treatment price and aftercare program.
If you have a horse recovering from injury, coming back into work or with ongoing issues from an old incident please feel free to send me a message for a no obligation chat 💚

09/07/2025

I’m not very good at saving 🫣 💶
But when Understand Horses released this course by Dr Emma Lethbridge, neuroscientist and equine behaviour consultant, I’ve been determined to behave!

I’m so excited to start in September and combine these skills into my treatments to better understand how horses think and behave if they are frightened and traumatised.

And I feel hopeful that combined with massage I can continue to successfully treat rescue horses and those with behavioural issues 💚

06/07/2025

When you’re right in the middle of a life changing event, it can feel like you’re loosing everything, what did I do to deserve this?? 💔

But maybe it’s a rare gift, an opportunity to rebuild your life and start living out your dreams.

Don’t wait for that life changing moment, the wake up call that nobody wants…make small steps and big things happen 💫

01/07/2025

Balance Pads are typically used as a tool to improve a horses…balance 🤗

As well as being easy to use and affordable they have many other advantages for your horse:
👍Improves strength and stability
👍Boosts proprioception abilities
👍A horse with good balance will have a reduced risk of injury
👍Improving balance improves performance and athletic ability
👍Encourages smoother transitions
👍Assist to strengthen the core muscle group to carry a rider

For Toby I wanted to see if they would be able to help us achieve something a bit different.

Toby had an SI injury many years ago and as he is getting older stiffness, weakness and compensation patterns are starting to take their toll.

We can’t access all areas of the SI joints externally and there are some big muscles in the hind quarters so we need to think outside the box.

I wondered if by adding a balance pad it would encourage the muscles throughout his hind quarter muscle groups to soften after the initial contraction. If he could get through that initial feeling of the muscles flexing and adjusting he might feel an amazing stretch 🤞

And it seemed he knew just what to do 🤩

Interestingly he chose to make his injured side do all of the work, despite encouragement to distribute his weight, he listened to his body and remained with his left leg (uninjured) in the rested position.

With a series of treatments and exercises over a short space of time we should start to see the muscles release tension and improve in strength, we can then move on to address compensation movements and areas of atrophy.

Toby is in his 20’s now but I think balance pads can be such an invaluable tool for young horses that are coming into ridden work.
The initial cost of the pads is approx. £40 and once we’ve done the introduction and set an exercise plan you can continue to use them regularly as part of your training plan.

If you’d like to book an appointment or have a no obligation chat drop me a message by clicking below ⬇️

Cath 💚