Basic Massage & Saddle Fitting Courses - Thoughts?!

[Becki1802]

Well at the moment I seem to be haemorrhaging money on my 2 boys. Both are injured and have needed vets, Physio, saddle fitters. To top it off spent £200 having work done on my trailer due to the ramp not closing properly. I'm finding it quite depressing.

I'm also become increasingly disheartened with the number of people that seem to take my money and seem to do little for my horse - they just seem to refer amongst each other. & being told my £1200 saddle (sold by Master Saddle new to fit horse) has caused all the pain (despite being checked by said MS as appropriate) - I think that some of the experts are just after my money.

So I found this:
http://www.horsesanddogs.co.uk/3.html

I'm not thinking of replacing 'experts' with amateur DIYing but was thinking if I knew how to release the tightness in my horses back for example then I could help him when I know he is sore etc and save £60 here & there. Similarly I was thinking if I learnt a bit about saddle fitting I could avoid being ripped off in the future!!!

Anyway long winded way to ask if anyone has done an equine massage course or similar and whether it is worth the money?!

 

[orsceno1]

Holistic horse help is run by a qualified equine physio and she does fab one day massage courses and also has a DVD you can buy on amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horse-Massage-for-Owners/dp/B004IECPWU
I have the DVD and its made a massive difference to my boy who has ongoing back problems, mainly due to past saddle issues and his general conformation. Plus he loves the massage routine and it's really easy to follow - def worth 25 quid. Think the courses are run all over the country so maybe worth getting in touch if you were interested

 

[Becki1802]

Thanks! Think I will buy the DVD and see if I get into it, if I do then I can research a few courses! I just know my boy won't be a quick fix so anything I can DIY will help!

 

[sbloom]

I did the saddle fitting course before I trained with the then Saddle Exchange Ltd (and just in case anyone reads that site, it's really out of date - Andrea Hicks the designer of all the saddles now has her own company and SE Ltd no longer exists though there is a similar sounding company out there it is technically a different company) - I Have to say it was interesting but unless you have access to a lot of horses and a variety of saddles that fit well enough for the owners to be happy to ride in them, you can't put that much of it into action.

There is a lot of reading you can do out there - saddlefitter's Blogspot blog, loads of stuff on YouTube (variably useful), discussions on Ultimate Dressage BB where lots of people posts photos for saddle fitting critiques....

I know there are a handful of saddle fitting books which may or may not be useful, I've not read them, though have seen fittings done by one or more of these authors which were not how I'd fit a saddle - so many different approaches! There are also of course a lot of one-off bit of info on saddle fitting on the web, one or more of which I may have written but I'm not allowed to mention them