Working with horses is very rewarding. Even thou they cannot speak to us directly, they communicate in a powerful way by using their bodies. A horse communicates through behaviour. They use all of the parts of their body to let us know how they are feeling.

From a simple flick of their ears to a full kick from behind, horses will demonstrate their emotional state at that moment in time.

If the horse is in pain, there is a high possibility, that the horse will display unwanted negative behaviour. Often the change of behaviour can be sudden and dangerous. Not only will the horse become defensive, but he will also be suffering emotional stress.

So what can be done? Where to start? And, how can we tell if the horse is in pain?

In my experience, horses display pain differently. Some horses have a high pain tolerance, some are more sensitive, all of them, however, in time remember the spot where the pain is ,or was, and become defensive in protecting that area of their bodies, hence you get, head shy, not happy with their back feet being picked up, hard to flex on one side, won't go into canter properly or not at all, sometimes head carriage is crooked, tail carriage to one side, horse may be girthy, exaggerated head bobbing, anxiety shown by chewing on the bit excessively.

There are many ways horses will show us that they have some or a lot of pain, I have only mentioned a few.

Other problems that may arises if the pain is not addressed, are, the horse may becomes anxious, bad tempered, shut down , depressed or it can become flighty, nervous, shy a lot. The personality of the horse changes and what once was an easy horse becomes a hard horse to work with or a quite horse can becomes a flighty horse.....whatever the case maybe, the behaviour can become dangerous.

The horse needs to be treated to stop things from going from bad to worst.

So many horses I see are left to long and the issues have become complicated.

What do I mean by becoming complicated? Well....if there is an injury, the body will compensate and just like us, other muscle groups will become stressed.

The pain can then spread which could cause other physical problems. It becomes a lot of fun trying to track back to the original problem.

The second thing that occurs, which is really interesting is the memory of the emotional trauma that can become attached to that area. Long term negative behaviour can often be traced back to old injuries or abuse or in a lot of cases, just plain ignorance.

I believe from my experience that horses hold on to memories of pain/trauma as an instinctive behavioural protection mechanism, and I have to treat not only for physical pain but also the memory of pain.

I do this a number of different ways, by using different methods of touch and/or moves in certain emotionally sensitive areas to help the horse to calm, which allows me to treat the horse according to his physical and emotional needs.

Have a look at my clinic page . I hold clinics at different places where I teach the basic principles of equine muscle therapy which does incorporate what I am talking about.

So for the love of your horse, if you feel there is something wrong, for peace of mind, even if it seems to be only slight, please contact me.