Equine physio? mctimoney? bowen? What are your experiences of each?

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kez1001

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Having had the vet out today to check horses teeth and I am planning on having his saddle checked too in the next few weeks as he has changed shape a lot over the past few weeks with increasingly workload and using correct muscles!

It has got me thinking about treating him to a little tlc, he is not sore but has been working well and i was looking through the equiads trying to decide who to phone and thought you knowlegeable bunch might have some advice to share :)

So which have have you used out of equine physio? body worker? bowen? or mctimoney?
What benefits are there to each? which one did you think most benefited your horse?

Thanks :)
 
My personal experiences

I have had 2 bad experiences with McTimoney, the first, we had a horse that fell over on the lunge, vet came to treat, suggested McT, the guy treated and the horse went lame, very lame, ended up that he had a hairline fracture to his pelvis, healed in the end. Second incident, different horse, strained it's sacroilliac joint, McT treated, horse very lame! Had to have 6 months of physio treatment to repair the damage :(

Physio, 1st physio, did not really treat the horse, just loads of exercises to do, no real difference. 2nd physio, was good just REALLY slow...... everything had to be done really slowly, no riding, lots of in hand stuff, I would have been able to canter in about a decade :rolleyes: 3rd physio, I cannot rate highly enough, he is ace, he has an excellent eye, better than most vets, the horses are going better than ever and he keeps them on the road perfectly, he is very thorough and gives a full assessment of how they are going, strengths, weaknesses etc, brilliant :D

Not used Bowen :)
 
I had a McTimoney, who was brilliant and really helped after the first visit, but then on 2nd visit diagnosed my horse as lame and referred me to a vet. Vet gave horse a full work up, flexion tests etc and couldn't get anything other than just very slightly stiffer on one rein compared to the other (which is fairly usual) and I have to say I hadn't noticed anything and was feeling awful that i'd been riding a horse that was "lame" according to the McT. Vet said just carry on as normal and if it flares up or something bring him back. He's done great since.

So I got a regular physio out. It was just so "violent" compared to the McT, loads and loads of punching etc etc. My poor horse was just so upset, we were having to rein him in and sort of restrain him so the guy could work on him and he just didn't like it at all.

So THEN I got a human/animal chiropractor out who actually does pretty much the whole horse. This is a great happy medium and he's been full of beans and seems to be feeling really well since.

I did a poll on this about 6 months or so ago on this very topic in this board so if you can find it it might give you some help - I can't remember who won though - I think the results were just fairly mixed.
 
can I just say the old boring - prob there can be good and bad people in each of those? I'd go with somebody more on recommendation than what they actually do. but that's me.
 
I've not tried bowen or physio.

But I've tried McTimoney. She was recommended to me by Yard owner, who swears by her and uses her for her own mare and the riding school ponies. Not cheap, but we tried it.
She was really really good..noticed where handy's tight spots were, pointed out things I never knew and I learnt a lot from her. She mentioned my boy may be slightly arthritic behind, his back may be not perfect after having badly fitting saddles in the past, and his pelvis was out slightly (she went and popped it back together!) She's working over at the Sandringham stud with TB's aswell so knows her stuff :D
Anyway, after carrying on the exercises she taught me, the joint supplement he's started and following her ridden advice to the letter, he's doing so well :D She's coming back in May/June. He feels a lot better in walk and trot, and his rolling's improved (couldn't always roll right over and sometimes struggled to get up). Now can roll and get up no probs.
 
my horse has had mctimoney and lots of physio for some kind of SI injury/strain/undiagnosed lameness and both were recomended by my vets, the physio i have works with some top top eventers and i must say both her and the mctimoney have been more use than the vet!!!!!!!
 
Thanks guys all interesting replies! :)

Will have a think and see who does stuff in my area and who can be reccommended.

Anyone else?
 
I have used all three and had the best results from Physio and Bowen.

He has the Physio for a chronic problem (he wouldn't be eventing if it wasn't for my fab Physio) and he had Bowen recently because others on my yard have had good results from it, he was in pretty good shape apparently (all things considered) but felt great after his treatment! :)
 
Use McTimoney on my lad, he loves it ;) Initially used her when he damaged his back a few years ago and just kept it up throughout the season. He feels much better for it and really enjoys her visits. In fact, he came up a little unlevel in front last night and she happened to be on the yard, 20mins of poking, prodding and stretching later he was a much happier beastie and looked much more comfortable (and the grumpy faces stopped!). He's having a couple of duvet days with some stretching exercises and hopefully will be good to go by the weekend again. The girl I use is also doing her vet physio exams and will eventually be able to combine the two depending on what the horse needs. Would highly recommend her to anyone!
 
i'm a McTimoney devotee, for myself and the horses. Have used a few different ones in diff areas of the country and never had a bad experience (some really excellent, some just good though), i can really feel and see the difference in myself and in the horses, esp for atlas/axis area, C7, and pelvis.
i won't use Osteos now, they are too bone-crunching for the horses and for me. ditto unqualified 'back' people, i've seen some real horrors, incl on my horses... one did a certain thing to my grey mare's hindlegs, i've since seen the same techniques on a vid my vet showed me, of experiments at an Aussie vet school, and they next day they had to shoot most of the horses they'd done it to. :( :( lucky my girl was such a toughie.
i have used Bowen a couple of times, it's a bit too 'airy fairy' for me BUT it did seem to have quite an effect on one horse. made no difference to me at all, might as well have waved a wand over me for the effect it had, unfortunately! but, i know some people rate it.
i used a very well-known physio for months on two horses long ago, it cost me thousands (literally) and tbh did neither of the horses any good imho! same person treated a friend's Advanced eventer and didn't seem to do it any good either. so, not a fan of that one anyway, i'm sure there are great ones out there though.
 
eva said:
can I just say the old boring - prob there can be good and bad people in each of those? I'd go with somebody more on recommendation than what they actually do. but that's me.
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I agree with the above - definitely go on someone who is recommended in your area. Your vet should be able to recommend someone to you.

I have used physios and McT and neither did any good, infact the physio charged me a small fortune and was constantly telling me my horse needed a week off after treatment even though nothing was wrong.....

Now use a Bowen lady and she is absolutly super - never seen so much difference in my mare as i have with her. She also works on humans and did my friends back and she said she felt amazing afterwards and its the most difference any one has made on her back. So shes got to be doing something right!
 
I've used a bowen therapist, an equine body worker, a mctimoney-corley/shiatsu therapist and Equine Touch.

Bowen - horse hated it - wouldn't let the guy touch him so it was never successful.

EBW - my yard owner is an EBW so Casper has had a fair few sessions and seems to enjoy this.

McTimoney Corley/Shiatsu - I used Lisa Cleeton for this. Was very impressed by her and horse seemed to enjoy it. She also gave me lots of exercises to try and I'm hoping to book another session with her soon.

Equine Touch - similar to bowen but I did the level 1 training myself so I give C a monthly rebalance session. He used to hate it but now seems to enjoy it.

Hope that helps! :)
 
Babybear said:
McTimoney Corley/Shiatsu - I used Lisa Cleeton for this. Was very impressed by her and horse seemed to enjoy it. She also gave me lots of exercises to try and I'm hoping to book another session with her soon.
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Me too ;) As said above, Mr J loves Lisa's visits and she is always very helpful and accommodating :)
 
Thanks again for the replies - i dont know why but i really didnt anticipate so many positive experiences for mctimoney, perhaps due to own lack of experience in this area (my late mare was very much a tough cookie and didnt enjoy being groomed so never felt physio etc would have been something she would have enjoyed.

But as Rex is a wee bit younger than Izzy and changing shape a wee bit as he gets some grown up muscles thought it would be something to consider. Flyingcoo gave me a number for a physio so have left a message so will see how that goes.

Saz and Babybear - have seen Lisa number in the equiads so thats great you both found her useful. Might consider her in the future.

Thanks again all input is greatly appreciated :)
 
I use a Veterinary Physio- have used the same one for years- she is brilliant at her job and makes a huge difference when she's had to work on one of the horses!- I don't use her very often, just if theres been a problem that needs working on and more often than not in conjunction with vet treatment. She always takes the details of the horses vet too, like they are supposed to and checks first i think.

I've never tried any of the other types of treatment available- but on one occasion years ago I did try another equine physio who was going to the yard I was at so decided to give them a try- she was on paper as qualified as the other physio and she made no difference to my horse and made him worse not better!

Also once I did try a back man/therapist - not sure what you would call him!- apparently all the top riders were raving about him saying how good he was and that he flies around the world and stuff and the lady who owned the yard where i was had him out for hers so we tried him for one of our horses too- he did some stretches and things i remember including waving a crystal in front of her head- which er, made no difference at all!!! Lol!:)
 
My mare has regular mctim she used to love it until she fell over backwards being a tit and must have been sore when the chiro came, so she has got really crabby but due to the patience of my chiro she had found a way to treat her. My lady is learning to be a human chiro has sports massage quals and recently did equine touch which is what she has used to gain my mares trust again. She even came out and did a treatment for free to practice and get my mare to relax.

I also have mctim and it makes me feel so good after
 
I use Liz Jones for McT-C and she's fantastic. She's picked up issues missed by 2 vet practices and an overnight stay/full work up at Dick Vets. My whole yard (nearly) use her now and some can't believe the difference that she has made.

I've only had bad experiences with physio but I see him recommended a lot on here so maybe I was just an off day...

I trained in EBW after seeing positive results in my horses. I like it as it's whole body & non-evasive.

Everything has it's place but at the end of the day it's very dependent on the individual practioner.

Lucky Rex getting some pampering :)
 
I have found good mctimoney lady in my area (also does laser therapy and massage to if they need it) and two good physios. I tend to use them each once a year, but at six month intervals, so if anything goes wrong, will hopefully be picked up be one of them.
 
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