Equine Physio- Would You....

showjumper101

showjumper101

Member
Joined
11 July 2010
Messages
11
Location
Hullavington
Visit site
Would you go for an equine physio that has got the qualifications over experience and results?

im stuck because i want to be an equine physio but not sure weather to do the human route first, or go straight to the physio specialist college for animals!
please post ideas and opinions!
Thanks
 
Properly qualified everytime - experience will come quickly enough. Tbh, most clients wouldnt realise you are lacking experience if you are good at it.
 
Fully qualified. Theres a reason why the correct and main method makes you do human physio first. You may be like me and realise you prefer humans over horses in the end ;)

Experience and results comes with time and qualifications. You need the qualifications to learn all the necessary A&P, methods and problems you could encounter. You get experience with the qualification also as you have to accomplish over so many hours human, before you can be registered as a physio, and then you have to practise as a human physio (or you used to) for 2yrs before you can consider getting accepted onto an animal physio course which is a 2yrs masters degree. In total, youre looking at 5 years at uni, and 2 years in practise between - thats 7 years experience and knowledge youve gained.
 
Yes - anyone working on horses in a professional capacity should be justly qualified, but why have to study human's first?

I am a senior staff nurse - I use my knowledge of humans and acute medicine in emergency situations every day. But it doesn't particularly transpose enough to be much use in the equine field.

I have just got home from doing the 9-day Equinenergy EQ100 course. I now know all the equine bones and muscles in Latin.

Just because I have learnt it quickly - doesn't mean I know it less than someone who studied for longer.

The physio's I've seen at the hospital spend their time assessing elderly ladies walking up and down stairs, doing chest physio on cardiac patients/pneumonia patients and rehabing stroke patients. I am sure there is much more to the role - but how does that help with horses?

I find the snobbery towards the CEPT training disheartening. At the end of the day, there are people out there with the ability to be great help to horses, but making it so hard to study just squeezes them out.
 
Last edited:
Only a creature which can talk can tell you how hard you are pressing and how much you are or are not hurting them. I would always use a physio who had trained on humans first, as indeed I just have. I have a VERY stoic horse and if the physio had not trained on a human she would not be able to judge from his reaction how much pain she was causing him. Unfortunately, some physio work requires you to cause a moderate amount of pain (breaking adhesions, for example) and only work on a human who can express what they are feeling can tell a physio what is really going on. Personally, I have no respect whatsoever purely for letters after a persons name, but in the case of a physio I'd go for the letters every time.
 
And yet we don't force vets to qualify with humans first. Or farriers to be chiropodists. Or nutritionists to study humans first? Yet there seems to be this stubborn insistance for physiotherapy?

I would hope a lifetime of experience with horses and a reasonable display of empthy would let someone know they were causing the horse pain rather than studying humans first.
 
Oberon said:
And yet we don't force vets to qualify with humans first. Or farriers to be chiropodists. Or nutritionists to study humans first? Yet there seems to be this stubborn insistance for physiotherapy?

I would hope a lifetime of experience with horses and a reasonable display of empthy would let someone know they were causing the horse pain rather than studying humans first.
Click to expand...

Well your questions are easy to answer Obereon. Vets aren't taught equine physiotherapy, which is why we all use equine physios in the first place. People don't have hooves. Humans are omnivores and horses are herbivores.

You cannot tell from the horse if you are causing pain or not. Some shut off. Some overreact completely to the slightest touch.

When the physio who came to treat my horse on Friday showed me how to massage his injury, she did it on me, not on him. Then I could feel how hard she pressed, press my own hand that hard (which was HARD!) and then put the same effort into doing it to his leg. How could she have possibly explained that to me (or learned it herself) without an exchange between two animals who could talk?

That's why I'll always use one who has trained on humans first in preference to one who has not.
 
A physio (or any physical therapist) who has trained on humans first has the added bonus that they could work on the human as well.

Hypothetically - horse has imbalance somewhere, needing physio. Physio takes a look, notices that rider is very crooked. Could the riders' own imbalance be contributing to the horse's problems? If so, then potentially the physio/other therapist could work on both horse AND rider. Because if the rider is, however inadvertently, contributing to the problem, them nothing's gonna fix the horse!

So, I would always go for a therapist who has trained on humans as well as animals, as I believe they have the knowledge to see the "bigger picture".
 
showjumper101 said:
Would you go for an equine physio that has got the qualifications over experience and results?

im stuck because i want to be an equine physio but not sure weather to do the human route first, or go straight to the physio specialist college for animals!
please post ideas and opinions!
Thanks
Click to expand...

I'd want both!!!

I am studying an MSc in Vet Physio through the NAVP and would advice you to either follow the human physio route then become a chartered physio followed by the animal qualification and become ACPAT registered.

OR

Follow the route I have, which is gain a good degree (2:1) in a equine/animal science/vet nursing/vet science and then do the masters at Harper Adams in association with the NAVP.

Both the NAVP and ACPAT are tough courses and require substantial experience in animal handling etc and good science background. They are also covered by insurance, which is really important.

The problem with other courses/association is that the title "Veterinary Physiotherapist" is not a registered or protected title, meaning that any one can call themselves one... so please make sure that you choose a course (and those reading this - choose a phyiso) with the correct "letters (!)" after their name.

All the students on my course are from different backgrounds but all bring knowledge and experience to the course. We all have to look at horses and small animals (mainly dogs) and have to take part in lectures and practical sessions.

Oh and I agree with Oberon - we don't make vets become doctors before they qualify - so why a physio? BUT this doesn't mean that ANYONE can be a physio!!

Hope that helps!
 
I would take one with qualifications and a good way with horses. Book knowledge, but without a good way and empathy around horses is pretty useless I think! So long as the physio is good around my two and has the qualifications then I am happy.
(if you are thinking about it as a career are you aware that harper adams has recently started an Msc, spread over 3 years, so you don't need the human physio part but do get a 'real' qualification).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top