Sarah Deeming McTimoney Animal Practitioner

02/05/2025

Holiday Notification

Just a heads up that I will be away from the 8th-29th August 2025.

I will be very busy with bookings either side of my holiday.

If we haven’t already booked in advance, please get in touch if you want to book an appointment between July and September.

I will do my best to fit everyone in and avoid long wait times, however it will be on a first come, first served basis.

Thank you!
Sarah 🙂

25/12/2024

Wishing all my clients a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy 2025!
Thank you for your custom and support throughout 2024😊
Look forward to seeing you all next year 🐶🐴 x

01/01/2024

I would like to say a huge Thank You to all my wonderful clients and their animals that I have had the privilege to work with in 2023.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy 2024! I hope it’s a good one for you.
In the absence of me posting pretty much all year (sorry, I’m useless 🙈) I would like to share a few photos of your lovely animals enjoying their McTim treatments during 2023 🥰 x

07/10/2023

We’re incredibly excited to announce the launch of our 2024 NFRSA Calendar.

The cover shot (and the month of January), features RPD Duke. This stunning lad served with Warwickshire Police until his retirement to his wonderful handler, Amy Deeming - just look at those eyes…

We will be featuring further portraits over the coming days and weeks, (we know, it’s a tease..😁), but suffice to say the breathtaking images captured by the hugely talented Photography by Gerry Slade are just gorgeous.

Although a bit early to mention the Christmas word, they really will make a memorable gift.

You can pre-order your calendar now by visiting our website and clicking on the link.

https://www.nfrsa.org.uk/shop/

The calendars are £14.95 each, and include postage and packing.

All the proceeds will go towards supporting our heroic retired dogs and horses from the police; fire & rescue; prison; border force; and national crime agency services, with medical and veterinary bills.

Order yours now and you’ll be helping to ‘Protect Our Protectors’ - they will be shipped soon!

Thank you.

https://www.nfrsa.org.uk/shop/

💜🐾🐴🐾💜

27/07/2023

Not an easy subject but very well put by Yasmin Stuart. It’s so important we advocate for the horse and the horse comes first!

Here's a spicy one for you this evening - because i havent made a career limiting post in a hot minute(!)

How complicit are you in your own (or your horse's) suffering?

I appreciate we all have horses for a reason, and I appreciate their care and management is a complicated thing.

When I work with people, sometimes I have to say things they dont want to hear:

"Your horse shouldnt be ridden right now" - because theyre in pain, their posture is too compromised, they barely have enough muscle to support themselves yet alone a rider, their saddle doesnt fit.

"You shouldnt be jumping your horse" see above reasons why.

"You shouldnt be cantering right now" because it will definitely strengthen the compensatory pattern.

Compromise can be made when making the argument between streamlining the process - not riding will get quicker postural changes, but if you want to ride and ultimately the horse isnt in overt pain/discomfort, then that should be fine.

But I really dont compromise when your horse is in pain. Nor should you.

There are SO many people who are wonderful when they hear this -

"I just want my horse to be happy" - literal music to my ears

But there are many people who want their horse to be happy - stating as much - but when it comes to taking the above guidance, they push back.

It's not the answer that they want to hear.

Yet they've been chasing an issue with their horse for months or years and you've given them a solution... its just not a solution where they get to do what they've always done...

And I wonder about the graveyard of professionals behind me, who have given them appropriate advice that again was not heard because it wasnt the answer that they wanted to hear.

I understand that professionals dont always get it right. I also understand that there are many professionals that get it really really quite wrong -

I just find it to be very profound that when you point out the behavioural indicators of pain, the lameness and the biomechanical dysfunction, you can still be totally ignored -

Especially when your friend in the stable next door (with no formal training in anything equine related) says their horse does the same thing, so therefore your horse must be fine!

-

📸 sharing a moment with a lovely patient during my most recent trip to Aberdeenshire 🤍

27/05/2023

Movement, turnout and a healthy herd structure are so crucial to a horses well-being that rehab simply doesn’t work without it.
You can’t fix a problem without providing for the deepest, most essential need of a being- horses are social creatures and movers at their core. Any training without providing for the horses basic needs is shallow at best.

02/04/2023

Mr Boggy enjoying some myofascial release work on his back, while George the cat was most unimpressed I wasn’t fussing him! 😂

03/03/2023

If anyone, anywhere tells you to pull the horses head down (or uses leverage and gadgets to do so) they have no knowledge of healthy horse biomechanics or of correct training.
The horse's nose must always lead, with the poll highest and the gullet open. The base of the ears mustn't be lower than the withers. The jaw must be mobile. If the horse cannot chew and swallow, the hindlegs cannot operate correctly. If the hindlegs cannot operate correctly, the horse will not be able to jump, or stay off the forehand, or stay sound.
"Don’t be obsessed with the head and neck, learn to feel what the hindquarters are doing." ~ Glenys Shandley

16/02/2023

Hello, I am now on holiday until the 13th of March. I will respond to all work related messages when I return.
Thank you. Sarah x 😎

25/12/2022

Merry Christmas to my wonderful customers and their lovely 4 legged friends. Thank you for your continued support throughout 2022 and wishing you all a happy, healthy 2023. Sarah and Seamus x

11/12/2022

I completely agree!

⭐️ LAMENESS - are we over-investigating? ⭐️

Lameness. It always needs to be investigated. I saw a post the other day that shared the opinion that maybe we are over-investigating lameness in horses, and that such a high percentage of horses in research have been shown to experience lameness to some degree… so why should we not accept that as a reality?

So I thought to share my opinion. They’re not designed for competing at the highest levels, jumping over puissance walls or even carrying a rider. Key word being DESIGNED.

The sooner we accept the fact that horses were not put on this Earth for us to ride, the better. I always say, the way you treat and preserve your horse is significantly more important than riding your horse.

Can we over-investigate an unsound horse when pain is believed to be involved? Absolutely not. Why take the risk of further damage, pain memory or pushing to a point of no return on the off-chance it could be behavioural?

I remember being told by one person that 50 years ago horses did not have PSD, OSDP and arthritis was not as prevalent. Whilst management and modern riding practices may play a part, it’s not necessarily that horses did not have these conditions back then… it was that they were often undiagnosed. Diagnostics progress.

If in doubt, find it out. 🤍

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