The Olive Holistic Animal Practices

03/09/2025

27/08/2025

These two hunky boys are going to make someone VERY happy once they're done with their rehab😍 Oh if i had all the gold in the kingdom 😍 Keep an eye out for some very special diamonds in the rough coming through the unit, you never know if your next best friend is a click away

Our equines getting spoiled!❣️ Sherize, thank you for giving your time and expertise to our equines at the Unit.

23/08/2025

Well... life never goes quite according to plan, but we embrace it and we look forward. Sadly we'll be out of action for magnawave treatments while our machine is in for repairs between now and 13 September - this doesn't mean we won't be around though, all other appointments and treatment options will carry on as usual - so your horses will be safe with the treatments they deserve and enjoy.

Thank you for your continuous support and love🌷🫶

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20/07/2025

Follow Becks Nairn for amazing educational information on real species 🐴

11/07/2025

Equine lameness... A taboo topic☠️

Equine lameness can be a SERIOUSLY confusing topic, and like they say, anything looks lame if you stare at it long enough 👀

But if you're having a hard time determining if your horse is lame, or what leg could possibly be the lame limb, here's a cool little interactive game to help train your eye on what to look for. Remember, if you suspect your horse has a lameness, issue make sure to call your vet to come have look, and rule out any serious injuries 🦄

https://www.lamenesstrainer.com/

# lameness # dressage # ottb # warmblood # thoroughbred # therapist # osteopathy # bodywork # veterinary

30/06/2025

SO, it's been a minute again.. But there has been some seriously cool developments here at TOHAP. But of course I must choose my favorite one to brag about a little bit, and what better to brag about than an AWESOME team member joining our string.

I'd like to formally (and finally!) welcome Aiden Lithgow and his two partners, Sinatra and Celu Stud Delphine (Dolly) to the TOHAP family. It is always a great pleasure to welcome people to my inner circle who have such gusto, patience and integrity when it comes to the horses and the people around them. Aiden is a phenomenal horseman, rider, coach, friend and mentor, not to mention multi talented and one of our very own show commentators, and it is such a priviledge for me to be a part of his team and their journey.

Welcome Aiden, Sinatra and Dolly!🦄🥳 We're SO happy to have you on board!

18/05/2025

Atrophy in top lines and performance horses.

Soundness in veterinary science is judged by the horses ability to balance evenly across all four legs, when one leg is sore it presents in a lameness. Traditional one leg lameness is easy to spot, head bobbing and a definite asymmetry in stride. This will definitely be identifiable as lameness in the trot ups for competition and should be pulled up. That being said I am often seeing assymetric movement be passed off as sound. This is soundness grey area, assymetry in my opinion is the stage before lameness, the body is protecting a weakness that is yet to develop to the lameness. Assymetry can be from a plethora of problems from soft tissue to skeletal and very few of these problems are identifiable through imaging for horses. Unless it’s in a distal limb and I would argue that is often a red herring for an issue higher up.

Where it starts to get very tricky is body lameness, one pathway for body lameness is atrophy of muscles but why does it happen? Two main reasons, either the muscles aren’t utilised or the muscles have lost intervation by the nerves. If you’ve never googled “sweeny shoulder”, a common injury in Thoroughbreds I suggest you do that to see how nerves affect muscles. The delicate nerves and vascular systems in the horses body are all
Interconnected, I don’t like to focus on one area because the horse is ONE body. But for efficiency I’ll focus on a few, the trapezius(cervical and thoracic) waste away when horses are ridden on the forehand and behind the vertical. The trapezius is also affected by saddle fit and can impede the shoulders movement, the scapular cartilage is often damaged in horses with poor saddle fit.
Logissimus dorsi, affected by riding behind the vertical and hand dominated posture that impedes lateral spinal movement, easily atrophied if worked in tension.
Multifidus is an over looked muscle group in the back, it has a massive impact on DSP spacing due to the way it attaches and can pull DSPs towards each other(kissing spines) this muscle group can be protective or destructive depending on how you condition them. There are many more important muscle groups I will go in to detail in my book.

The main thing to remember about muscles is they are extremely compliant to their loading, meaning they either develop or atrophy. Just look at the huge range of development in humans, a ballerina and a body builder are both athletes but have developed their bodies in radically different ways.

Competitive eventing horses are judged on two things, their soundness in the trot ups and their ability to complete the three stage course, Dressage, cross country and showjumping. Horses who display atrophy in their top lines, will do dressage behind the vertical, be heavy in the riders hands and movements on the forehand. You don’t need a great topline for this Level of dressage, you can carry your horses front end and still score well enough. Horses with atrophy will display big lofty scope on the cross country to clear fences utilising both speed and hind end power. You don’t need a great top line for cross country. Where atrophy will bite you though is in the showjumping, because you do need healthy top lines to be able to either shorten or lengthen a stride to a show jump. You do need the horse to be up and off the forehand to lift the front end because unlike cross country you can not run at a show jump flat and fast. Show jumping is the leveller in eventing at high level because the fences aren’t solid and clever horses get sloppy knowing they can drop rails with hanging shoulders and lazy hind legs. For a good show jumper you need a horse who can collect well, not just be held together by the rider. This is the stage where healthy toplines matter, whether riders know it or not…..a young horse may get away with it but horses over 10 years old wont have elastic youth on their side.

The horses topline tells me everything about how that horse works, when muscles are atrophied they arent working…..it’s that simple.

Year after year we see these horses in the trot ups and the internet goes wild. Soundness and what can be proven are two very different standards. Vetrinary science is built on a peer reviewed, rigorous and reductive method but I feel the problems are more nuanced than science can explain currently. I see horses in dissection constantly that I’m amazed haven’t just laid down and died. Horses that shouldn’t let humans ride them from massive internal issues. Every single one of those horses displayed behavioural issues that were passed off as quirky, naughty or being difficult. I would argue that competitive horses have the mental grit to do the job even with sub par bodies, they are the David goggins of horses! The argument is that david was self aware enough to understand the impact on his body long term and we expect this servitude from the horse without them understanding the impact.

The argument for top line atrophy and performance is “they wouldn’t be able to do it if their bodies were ruined” unfortunately the evidence I see in dissection is the complete opposite. Horses will endure incredible hardships because they are wired as prey animals with the most incredible survival instincts and competive horses have extreme mental
Fortitude. I dont have any judgements or answers, what you do with your horses is your business but I believe in education and understanding for the things we are yet to learn.

The body keeps the score

25/04/2025

Is repeated injections really doing what's best for the horse? Or what's best for the sport...

A 2017 study found that racehorses receiving corticosteroid injections were FOUR TIMES more likely to suffer musculoskeletal injuries. These weren’t minor lamenesses, they led to long layups, early retirements, and in some cases, catastrophic breakdowns. That stopped me in my tracks. When we inject a horse to keep them “sound,” are we treating the injury, or are we simply hiding the pain?

Corticosteroids are powerful anti-inflammatories. They offer quick relief, especially for sore joints, but repeated use has a risky side. Over time, corticosteroids can accelerate cartilage breakdown and damage the very structures we’re trying to protect. That’s not just theory, it’s been proven in multiple studies. One 2022 review published in Equine Veterinary Education warned that long-term use of corticosteroids, even in low doses, can lead to irreversible joint degeneration.

And it’s not just steroids. Treatments like IRAP (interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein) and PRP (platelet-rich plasma) are widely used, but the science behind them is still emerging. A recent meta-analysis found highly inconsistent outcomes with some horses showing improvement, and others none at all. These therapies show promise, but they are not miracle fixes. Their long-term benefits and risks remain unclear, especially when used repeatedly without a comprehensive rehab plan.

Even alternatives like Adequan and Polyglycan come with caveats. Adequan (polysulfated glycosaminoglycan) can help reduce inflammation and protect cartilage in the short term, but does not show lasting curative effects without rest or additional therapy. Polyglycan, often marketed as a joint lubricant, has been linked to increased bone proliferation and osteophyte formation. That means while it might make your horse feel better in the short term, it could be quietly encouraging abnormal bone growth that worsens arthritis and limits joint mobility over time.

It seems that most injections don’t fix the problem, they just silence the alarm bell. And when we quiet that bell without solving what caused it, we set the horse up for further breakdown. They keep working through masked pain, compensating, and eventually injuring something else. What seems like a solution quickly becomes a cycle of damage.

So, what does responsible use look like? It starts with intent. Injections should never be used as routine “maintenance” or as a preventative measure in otherwise healthy joints. There is no such thing as a preventative joint injection. Every time you inject a joint, you’re altering its natural chemistry and potentially weakening its future integrity. Instead, injections should be used after thorough diagnostics: imaging, flexions, lameness exams, and only as part of a comprehensive plan. That means rest. That means thoughtful rehab. That means time to retrain healthier movement patterns so the horse can come back stronger and more balanced, not just numbed. Injections can open a door to recovery, but they are not the recovery itself.

Responsible use also means reevaluating the workload. If a horse needs regular injections to keep doing the job, then maybe it’s the job that needs adjusting. I’m not saying injections are evil. They’ve done wonderful things for horses I’ve known and I’m not saying we should all stop injections forever. But if Beauty’s hocks need to be injected three times a year just to keep her jumping the 1.20s, maybe the 1.20s are no longer where she belongs. Maybe it's time to listen to what her body is telling us.

I’m not a vet. I don’t have a medical degree. I’m just someone who enjoys research and writing, and I would still argue that we need more research to ultimately determine what is "safe" for our horses. However, I do think it's important to be aware of what the science currently says, and having hard conversations about if the potential risk is worth the reward.

Your vet is your best friend in this process. Don’t change your horse’s care plan because someone on Facebook shared a study about joint injections being questionable…or because someone else said they’re harmless. Talk to your vet. Ask hard questions. Understand exactly what these drugs do, how long they last, and what they mean for your horse’s future soundness. Your vet knows your horse better than I ever could, and they want to help you make the best choices, not just the most convenient ones.

Studies used:

Johnson, B. J., et al. (2017). "Association between corticosteroid administration and musculoskeletal injury in Thoroughbred racehorses." Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 250(3), 296–302.

Textor, J. A., & Tablin, F. (2012). "Platelet-rich plasma in equine musculoskeletal therapy." Canadian Veterinary Journal, 53(8), 841–849.

Frisbie, D. D., & McIlwraith, C. W. (2014). "Evaluation of autologous conditioned serum and platelet-rich plasma for treatment of musculoskeletal injuries in horses." Equine Veterinary Education, 26(12), 572–578.

McIlwraith, C. W., et al. (2012). "Effects of intra-articular administration of sodium hyaluronate and polysulfated glycosaminoglycan on osteoarthritis in horses." EquiManagement Clinical Research Reports.

Burba, D. J., et al. (2011). "Evaluation of pentosan polysulfate sodium in equine osteoarthritis." Equine Veterinary Journal, 43(5), 549–555.

Garbin, L. C., Lopez, C., & Carmona, J. U. (2021). A Critical Overview of the Use of Platelet-Rich Plasma in Equine Medicine Over the Last Decade. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 8, 641818.

Boorman, S., McMaster, M. A., Groover, E., & Caldwell, F. (2022). Review of glucocorticoid therapy in horses: Intra-articular corticosteroids. Equine Veterinary Education, 35(6), 327–336.

Nedergaard, M. W., et al. (2024). Evidence of the clinical effect of commonly used intra-articular treatments of equine osteoarthritis. Equine Veterinary Education.

08/04/2025

THIS WEEK'S EXERCISE - CATHRYN NEILL

Cathryn Neill, former winner of the South African Championship title, spoke to HQ for this week's exercise.

Cath chose an exercise made famous by Luciana Diniz, known as the Butterfly exercise. This exercise focuses on teaching a rider to 'ride through the turn' and concentrate on landing on the correct leg.

To do this, you will need to set up five jumps in a 'X' shape. The beauty of this exercise is that you do not need to ride it in the exact order as laid out above; the jumps are set up in a way that allows you to come up with many variations.

We recommend starting off with poles on the ground, and only once you have ridden the exercise smoothly, should you can slowly increase the height.

This exercise is not just for jumpers but can be very helpful for dressage riders as well, with the focus on bending and lead changes over the poles.

TOP TIPS: When asking for the horse to land on a new lead, try not to throw your body to one side; rather, gently open your inside rein and look in the direction you want to go in.

Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!

04/04/2025

I read an article today about the need for change in equestrian sports, and it really struck me. As Dr. Andrew McLean put it, “There is actually a lack of education and understanding. Our top priority should always be the horse!” It’s welfare, well-being, and the way we communicate with it.

Too often, outdated methods and a focus on winning overshadow the fundamental principles of good horsemanship. True progress in the sport requires a shift in mindset, where education, ethical training, and respect for the horse take precedence over tradition and pressure for results. We need to challenge harmful practices, prioritize evidence-based training, and ensure that our sport evolves in a way that truly serves the horse, not just human ambition.

Change starts with awareness, but action is what makes a real difference. It’s time to listen, learn, and advocate for a future where equestrian sport is built on understanding, compassion, and the highest standards of horse welfare.

03/04/2025

A slow process, but good to see the progress into natural approaches to supporting our sport horses growing in the equestrian community 🦄

Read about the progressive incorporation of Ozone therapy in the recovery of horses in the Racing industry
👇👇👇👇👇👇

🔗 https://news.4racing.com/off-the-record-65

📖 Bookings for different Ozone therapy options available at TOHAP

05/03/2025