Anne Howard Physical Therapy

08/03/2025

Really enjoying our new MOVE powerplate in the office, come by and feel this new technology to increase exercise efficiency!

Research published in the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine provides the best evidence and explanation yet of how Power Plate helps keep your brain sharp. Using brain imaging technologies, researchers were able to see more blood flow in the frontal region of people using Power Plate Whole Body Vi...

08/02/2025

We are super intrigued sometimes by what information seems to be of more interest to you guys than others. With a couple more dissections coming up to round off the season, is there any part of the equine anatomy in particular you would like to see more of? Let us know in the comments 👌👌

To answer multiple questions at once, this lung adhesion was most likely from an historical respiratory infection (as advised by our veterinarian).

06/23/2025

06/10/2025

06/07/2025

Send a message to learn more

05/14/2025

People too, its not always an obvious injury, but our bodies store our experiences…

Galloping, Bucking, Not Broken: The Greatest Lie Horses Ever Told 🐎💥

You step into the paddock, coffee in hand, expecting a peaceful morning and a whiff of horse breath that says “all is well.” ☕✨

Instead, your horse is on the wrong side of the fence, looking smug and oddly unscathed—or worse, still tangled in wire. You cut them free, patch up a scratch or two (or marvel at the miraculous absence of any), and thank the gods of lucky escapes.

Crisis averted.

Or is it? 😬

Here’s the problem: the real damage doesn’t always bleed.

Over the years, I’ve met a string of horses who’ve all survived this advanced-level self-sabotage. They’ve jumped a gate (well… tried), crashed through a fence, slipped on a slope, flipped, twisted, crushed or compressed themselves in ways that would make a chiropractor cry and a vet sigh while reaching for the X-ray machine (which, by the way, won’t show the damage either). 🏅💀

The horse recovers. No visible limp. They run. They buck. They play.

You think:
“They’re fine! Look at them go!”
But they’re not fine. Not even a little bit.

Enter: The Invisible Injury 🕵️‍♀️

What you can’t see—and what many professionals miss—is the slow-burn catastrophe hidden deep in the horse's body.

Ribcage. Pelvis. Sternum. Neck. Stifle.
The kind of stuff that doesn’t light up on X-rays or respond to your carrot-stick-wiggly-wand of trust. 🥕🌀

It’s the kind of discomfort that turns “walk, trot, canter” into “grimace, flinch, explode.”

And here’s the kicker: the horse doesn’t limp. It compensates.

Because horses, unlike people, don’t throw dramatic tantrums and demand cortisone shots. They quietly adjust. They twist, tighten, avoid, or overuse other parts of their body to keep going.

They are the masters of stoicism.....until you put a halter on.
You ask for a transition, a bend, a float trip, or—God forbid—a trot circle. And suddenly—

You get emotion.
You get resistance.
You get confusion, agitation, blow-ups, shut-downs—
Every spicy ingredient in a full-blown training meltdown stew. 🍲🔥
The Spiral Begins 🌀

The owner thinks: “I’m doing something wrong.”
The trainer thinks: “We need more groundwork.”
The horse thinks: “Kill me.” ☠️
Eventually, the owner moves on—new trainer, new method, new online course promising the horse will “choose joy and connection.”

But the problems persist.
Cue spiralling shame, rejection of all prior knowledge, and a desperate descent into rabbit holes of essential oils, a connection-based enlightenment facilitator, and equine shadow work. 🧘‍♀️🌿🔮

When in fact, what they really needed was a bloody good vet and bodyworker, and someone to say:

“Hey, maybe your horse’s inability to pick up the left lead can’t be fixed with trust exercises and lavender oil.”

The Warning Signs We Miss 🚩

Here are the red flags waving harder than a liberty trainer at sunset:

The horse becomes emotional, reactive, or weirdly robotic.
What should be simple feels charged, unpredictable, and unnervingly fragile.
Training progress flatlines, no matter how much effort you throw at it.
The horse starts avoiding halters, floats, mounting blocks—or life in general.
The problem isn’t always psychological.

Sometimes, it’s a bloody rib.
Or a pelvis rotated like a cheap IKEA table leg. 🪑

But we don’t look there—because the horse looks fine.
It bucks in the paddock! It gallops!
It must be okay!

Nope. That’s not health.
That’s compensation.
It’s adaptation with the odd short step.

Or worse—when they can’t limp because everything’s uncomfortable.
That’s when it gets really insidious.

What Happens Next is Predictable… and Sad 😢

These horses often get labelled as:

Difficult
Shut down
Disrespectful
“Needing more wet saddle blankets”
Or… “Needing a softer approach”
Or… “Not aligned with your energy” 🙃
No one considers the simple truth:

It hurts to do what we’re asking.
Not in a “don’t feel like it” way.
In a “my sternum’s fused to my shoulder blade and I can’t rotate left without seeing stars” way. 🌟

They suffer in silence while we rotate through training ideologies like a midlife crisis through motorcycles—all because we never asked the most obvious question:

“Has this horse ever had an accident?”

Because if they have—if they’ve failed to clear a gate, slipped, fallen, crushed, or tangled in wire—it may have changed everything. Not just the body, but the brain.

Pain messes with movement.
It makes easy things hard.
It turns willing horses into wary ones.
And it ruins good humans who start to believe they’re not good enough.

What You Can Do Instead of Losing Your Mind 🧠➡️🧘‍♂️

Take my good friend Tami Elkayam’s advice:
If something happens, write it down in a diary. ✍️

Even if they seem fine.

Then, if things start getting weird months or years later, don’t reach for your third liberty course or $800 worth of chamomile pellets. 💸🌼

Consider that maybe—just maybe—your horse isn’t emotionally broken, disrespectful, or traumatised by a training method.

Maybe those fractured ribs are hurting when you do up the girth.

Before You Burn It All Down… 🔥🚫

Before you give up, throw out your halters, block your last five coaches on Instagram, or trade your saddle for an oracle deck… pause.

Reflect.

Is it possible your horse is trying—but simply can’t?
Could it be that what they’re resisting isn’t you—but a physical reality no amount of groundwork or paddock bonding can fix?
Is it time to stop blaming yourself, your horse, and everyone you’ve ever learned from—and instead… dig deeper?
Because sometimes, the source of your training failures, your emotional spirals, and your eroded confidence…
..was a bloody gate.
That your horse didn’t clear.
That day. 🐴💔

If this switched on a lightbulb 💡, hit share. Pass it on.

Disclaimer: This is satire. Humour helps people read long posts they’d usually scroll past—so they don’t miss something that might actually help them or their horse.

Feel like tone-policing? Fabulous. Write your own post. That’s where your opinion belongs.

📸 IMAGE: My Aureo—the horse who taught me this lesson...even the bit about lavender oil 😆

04/28/2025

Tip Of The Day: Did you know the Power Plate helps you build denser bones, and can help reduce the risk of falls and fractures? You just need to use it 20 minutes a day!

Here is how this works:

1. The Power Plate vibrates your body and engages the majority of your muscle fibers at one time. These vibrations also impact your bones in a very positive way.

2. Every tiny vibration gently engages your bones which then stimulates your bone building cells. These bone building cells are called osteoblasts and this process creates new bone! It also makes your bones more flexible.

-There are multiple studies that show how the power plate helps rebuild bone density.

-In one study people who used Power Plate increased their hip bone density by 1.5%, which is significant.

The people in the study also improve their posture, balance, muscle strength, and lean muscle mass.

The key finding in the study is that conventional weight training only slows bone loss, it doesn't reverse it.

==>Power Plate technology helps reverse bone loss in a much better way than simple weight training

Power Plate doesn't just improve your bones, it also improves your circulation, which is great for your heart, skin and joint tissue.

Plus the Power Plate helps to stimulate your body to increase the production of testosterone and growth hormone.

In fact, increase in growth hormone is directly linked in research to increased collagen production. This is why singer Stevie Nicks says "I think the Power Plate is the fountain of youth."

Most of us as we get older noticed that our joints and back feels stiff when we wake up in the morning. Standing or sitting on the power plate for as little as 30 seconds can help jumpstart flexibility immediately.

According to Joel Fuhrman MD the best way to maximize the bone building potential of the power plate is doing a series of gentle squats and other exercise for 20 minutes a day.

You start as slow as you like. Even sitting in a chair and just putting your feet on the Power Plate will help you feel good immediately.

Get a Power Plate MOVE unit in your home today for as little as $116 a month

04/28/2025

Come try our new Move in the PT office! Really wonderful research on efficacy for stronger bones, better muscle development, better brain blood flow, even stimulating hormones!

Power Plate is the global leader in whole body vibration technology. Explore our products to help improve strength, flexibility, circulation & balance.

01/03/2024

Urgent!! Hey local Santa cruz peeps does anyone have a contact for house and pet sitting?

We are looking urgently for coverage for Tracey Lert who needs about 24 hours of coverage this Friday morning through Saturday morning. Her cute little dog Lily needs regular medication and there’s one cat who probably doesn’t need very much other than basic feeding.located in Scotts Valley, nice mobile home. Please contact me or her directly if leads are offered.

10/03/2022

This is why IMT looks at all the different systems in the body. I have seen these types of patterns in people horses dogs cats and a ferret.

08/18/2022

07/24/2022

I wonder if you know,
the work your body has done today.
And every day.
How much disease it has fought off.
How many times it could have failed but battled on,
how many ways it could have broken but did not.

I wonder if you know,
the work your body has done today.
And every day.
And each day it has done this amazing job,
without your help,
without your approval,
your acceptance,
your kindness.

Each day it has soldiered on,
regardless of the constant stream of negativity,
pulsing its way from your brain to your cells.
Not good enough.
Not attractive enough.
Not the right shape.

Perhaps it’s time to see your body for what is truly is,
An amazing and mind-blowingly competent machine.
To get your soul to where it needs to be in this life.
To let you live.

I wonder if you know,
how much better you would be as a team.
I wonder.

Donna Ashworth
From ‘I wish I Knew’: https://amzn.to/3JVMJlZ

Art by The Ronald West Gallery