Sarah Read Equine Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation

03/08/2025

🧳 I’m on holiday now until Monday 18th August… 🚐☀️🏔️🌊

I will reply to all messages when I am back ☺️

09/07/2025

🌟 WE NEED YOUR VOTES! 🗳️

The NAVP awards are coming up…this is your opportunity to recognise your veterinary physiotherapist for the first class care they provide for your animals 🐴 🐶

There are four nomination categories and you can chose a nominee for each or just a selection.

Voting closes on the 8th August so get clicking!

Thanks for your help and support 🙌

Please click the link to complete this form.

03/07/2025

These two gorgeous ponies were keeping a close eye on each other’s treatments today 👀 😍

12/06/2025

🤩 Excited to be implementing new exercise plans to make achieving those performance and rehab goals even easier!

Complete with videos and detailed guidance notes available via the app, browser (or good old fashioned PDF 😉), plus an interactive element allowing you to track and report your horse’s progress as you go 🐎💪

21/04/2025

04/04/2025

Equipment deep clean…tell me it’s moulting season without telling me it’s moulting season 🤪

25/03/2025

Another step in the right direction thanks to the hard work of all those at RAMP-Register of Animal Musculoskeletal Practitioners 👏

RAMP welcome the RCVS development on their position around autonomous practitioner status for regulated and highly qualified musculoskeletal practitioners, should the professions become statutory regulated under legislative reform in veterinary healthcare provision.

Full announcement can be found on the news page of our website:
https://www.rampregister.org/news

10/03/2025

💵 April price rise 🐎

From 1st April I will be increasing my fees slightly by £5 per session to £75. This is my first price rise in 2 years and is broadly in-line with inflation 📈

I try to keep prices as low as possible to make access to physiotherapy available to all horses🐴

Also…just a little reminder that there are no hidden charges and that session costs are fully inclusive of all therapies, including Indiba 🙌

Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support and for keeping me busy, it really is appreciated 🚙💨

22/02/2025

🌟FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR THE NATIONAL EQUINE SHOW 🙌

Courtesy of RAMP 🤩 - see details and link for booking below👇

🌟FREE TICKETS: NATIONAL EQUINE SHOW🌟

🌟 Visit RAMP at Stand 154🌟

We have a link for a limited number of FREE tickets for our followers!
Just like this post and access the link below.

https://nationalequine.seetickets.com/event/the-national-equine-show/nec/3134348?OfferCode=RAMP
All things equine, presentations, your favorite celebs and retail!

HURRY before they run out!

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10/02/2025

A useful reminder, especially at this time of year…

*** WHY YOUR HORSE MUST BE KEPT FIT AND CONDITIONED BETWEEN COMPETITIONS ***

Yes, it’s common sense that your horse cannot just be left for months and then dragged in from the field and jumped. Or at least I would have hoped it was common sense. Judging by a recent advert, it’s apparently not. And it’s not the first time I’ve seen or heard people proudly stating that they haven’t ridden their horse for months and have gone straight out and won a class. This isn’t okay. In fact, if you ever see an advert displaying such a claim, I’d run in the opposite direction.

A horse in full work and fitness won’t lose much of that fitness in a week or so, but in human studies fitness and muscle loss has been observed when runners take more than 7-10 days off. As an example, my horses have just had 9 days off, so I have ridden them pretty much as normal on the flat straight away, but they won’t jump for a week.

A horse must be suitably conditioned for the job you are asking him/her to do. If that job involves carrying a rider and saddle, then the requirements for correct conditioning will involve the horse carrying a rider and saddle several times a week. A horse must have suitable topline/back muscles to ensure he doesn’t quickly fatigue whilst carrying weight on his back. You can’t expect a horse to wander around a field for 3 months and then be suitably conditioned to carry you around for an hour. Unless your horse is packing 10 stone of lead weights into a rucksack, popping it on his back and trotting and cantering around for half an hour a day, you can’t expect them to then be able to carry you and a saddle around as a horse ridden several times a week would be able to. So you most definitely can’t expect them to go out and jump. Yes, a horse in a paddock will maintain slightly more fitness than a stabled horse, but definitely nowhere near full ridden fitness.

I have posted before about ensuring that even those horses who only hack out quietly at the weekends are kept fit enough for their job. It isn’t acceptable to not ride from Monday to Friday every week and then hack out for two hours on a Sunday. Expect issues if you do that.

A fatigued horse has slower reaction times, poor coordination and tired muscles; they are far more likely to stumble/trip/catch a toe, which can result in a tendon or ligament injury. If you then add jumping to the equation, the risk of injury due to riding an unconditioned horses will be even higher.

If your horse hasn’t been ridden for months, then it’s also highly likely they may have gained weight; add extra weight to weak muscles and this results in an even higher risk of injury. A little reminder that horses require forage for most of the 24 hours in a day, so it’s also not ok to withhold forage to try to decrease their weight; if you’re not riding them, you may need to soak hay to ensure they don’t gain a lot of extra weight, which will increase the time needed to get them back to full fitness.

A final point to remember, which links back to the insufficient back muscle point, is that your saddle may well need looking at before you even think about riding a horse that has been off work for several months.

A post that is really just common sense, but feel free to share (not to copy my words) if you think it may help someone!

The little sentence from the advert that “inspired” me to write this post.

29/01/2025

Some really great tips and ideas for schooling when out hacking - who needs an arena anyway?! 🐎

27/01/2025

Please can all my lovely followers take just a few minutes to complete this survey 🙏

🐾 Accessing Animal Musculoskeletal Professional Care for Animals 🐾

https://forms.gle/hVNd161RJUE8QK136

⬆️Help us, help you, by sparing a few minutes to fill out our survey above.⬆️

We want to know how you as animal carers access musculoskeletal care for your animals, what you expect and who you turn to for advice.

The survey is anonymous and does not collect any personal data.