Acey Veterinary Physiotherapy

06/11/2025

Highly recommend Martin Brookes Equine Dental Services, close attention to detail and highly knowledgeable. Beautiful purpose built facility.

26/06/2025

Variety is the spice of life, always a pleasure to work as part of the team approach ☺️

Saddle check for Joey yesterday, with the amazing Anna Choma. Anna is not only a qualified saddle fitter, but also a vet physio. So she totally understands the fit of the saddle & the bio mechanics & confirmation of the horse & how it all needs to work together.
She’s super professional & can’t recommend her enough.
Joeys saddle fitted, but did need some re balancing with the flocking where his muscle isn’t quite even.
Anna Choma SMS Qualified Saddle Fitter
Acey Veterinary Physiotherapy

30/12/2024

Last horse of 2024 treated 🐎

Bear is such a gentleman to treat, and really interactive with his sessions. Glad to be fitted into his busy diary this week, Jessy Grove !

Also an opportunity to thank all of my existing clients for such a great year! You are a wonderful bunch, and a pleasure to work with! It doesn't feel like I have had a single "work" day this year!

Looking forward to 2025 and supporting so many equine partnerships ☺️

16/09/2024

I hear this phrase ALL the time and every time I do my heart breaks for the horse in question.

It is a very big misconception in the industry that pain can be ruled out in the horse.

What leads to this statement can also vary drastically from person to person.

The horse might have had a quick muscle palpation, they might have just been scoped for ulcers, or they might have had a very extensive (and expensive!) veterinary work up over days or months.

Regardless, you cannot rule out pain. You might not be able to find a source, but you cannot rule out pain.

Ask any human who has not received an immediate diagnosis for their pain or not been listened to regarding their own health concerns.

Pain does not have a blood test or a specific color or feel.

Pain can be obvious, it can be concealed, it can be complex, it can be poorly understood.

There are certain things, like gastric ulcers, that can be definitively ruled in or out as a SOURCE of pain with a gastroscopy.

But it is the horse’s behavior that says whether pain is or isn’t present. And unfortunately, very often pain in the horse is not a simple thing to diagnose and cure.

When a trainer, owner, rider, or vet says “we have ruled out pain” it is often an invitation to train the horse with harsher methods to overcome performance or behavioral problems.

If the horse refuses to do something, doesn’t cooperate, struggles with tasks, has a change in behavior, or exhibits behaviors that have been scientifically studied to indicate pain in the horse (such as the equine discomfort ethogram and ridden horse pain ethogram)….ALWAYS keep in mind that just because it can’t be located, DOES NOT mean a horse is not in pain.

26/06/2024

Is it true that if we use cold water on heat stroke pets they will go into shock?

One of the most common things we still hear is that we can only use tepid water on a pet with heat stroke, incase they get some complications like hypothermic overshoot, peripheral vasoconstriction hindering a cooling response, and cardiogenic shock...

We have heard not to use cold water in case it causes shock... this rarely happens!

But guess what? In a recent study over 26% of dogs presented with heat stroke died, with flat faced breeds making up nearly half of heat stroke cases seen in the study.

You should:

💧Get someone to call the local veterinary practice and tell them you're going to travel down with a heat stroke patient
💧Pour, hose or if possible immerse the pet in very cold water (this should obviously be done under constant supervision, ensuring the head is fully above water and immersion should not be attempted if the animal is too large, or you are unable to do so without hurting yourself)
💧NB: If using a hose pipe, make sure it has run through until cold, as they can often contain water that is extremely hot in the tubing initially
💧Do not drape in towels and leave them in situ. Keep the cold water flowing.
💧Move to a cool, shaded area
💧Prepare to transport to vets in a cold, air conditioned car

In studies they found that:

🌅International consensus from sports medicine organisations supports treating EHS with early rapid cooling by immersing the casualty in cold water.
🌅Ice-water immersion has been shown to be highly effective in exertional heat stroke, with a zero fatality rate in large case series of younger, fit patients.
🌅Hyperthermic individuals were cooled twice as fast by Cold Water Immersion as by passive recovery.
🌅No complications occurred during the treatment of three older patients with severe heat stroke were treated with cold‐water immersion.
🌅Cold water immersion (CWI) is the preferred cooling modality in EHS guidelines and the optimal method applicable to UK Service Personnel
🌅Studies suggest using either ice-water or cold-water immersion

The best intervention is PREVENTION, but if you find yourself with an animal with heat stroke, using cold water either by pouring, hosing or ideally (if safe) immersion then this may help reduce their temperature to safe levels while you transport to a veterinary practice.

Read more below:

https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/post/cool-icy-cold-or-tepid

15/05/2024

Compensation
The word compensation is used so often that we, perhaps, do not even think how the compensation can look and what it means.
Yes, horses are masters of compensation. They can compensate
– finding strategies or techniques that work around limitations for many reasons. Pain - trying to avoid it, restriction - trying to find other ways to move when for example the saddle is restricting their shoulder movement, imbalanced rider and many more....
The longer the horse compensates, deeply it is 'written' in his soft tissue. We can see overdeveloped muscles (those are sometimes easy to spot), but there are also changes in the fascia.

Those changes didn't happen overnight, so they will not go away overnight.
The body can do miracles but do not expect those to happen today....the body needs time and.....CHANGES!

I can say we can adopt and adapt the saying: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them", to: "We cannot change the soft tissue with the same stimuli that created changes in the first place".

Can you spot the overdeveloped muscles (A) of the horse battling for three years with changed mobility in his carpus?

Also, notice that the deep fascia (on the shoulder) has a different pattern in all horses. That is the most challenging in the mapping of the soft tissue, as I am finding that each horse is adapted to different work, lifestyles or compensates for whatever reasons.

26/04/2024

Next time you're with your horse, take a closer look at how your horse's body has developed.

Remember, you can only do so much in that one hour of training a day.

What does your horse do in the remaining 23 hours?

How does he move his body? What patterns do you see?

If your horse moves in a way that negatively influences his body, make sure to pay attention to that when training your horse.

Give him the tools so he can manage himself in a better way when you're not around.

20/04/2024

Why fascial bodywork is so important...

26/03/2024

We are aware of quiet on social media we have been recently, but we have been focusing our time on expanding our knowledge base and qualifications... We are very excited to launch an expansion of our services, please like and share our new business venture...

22/03/2024

‘My dog is naughty/bad/untrainable/dominant/stupid’

I hear this most weeks on intake forms. Usually I get pretty excited to see these cos I know I’m gonna get to change a dog and owners life!

So often we write our dogs off as any adjective that fits the above and honestly, I’m yet to meet a dog who fits any of those adjectives (and I have worked with 10k plus dogs over the ten years I’ve been doing this!). I do however week in week out meet dogs with health issues that contribute to their slow progress in terms of training. Did you know dogs don’t show pain or discomfort how we do? We often think ‘oh he isn’t limping or yelping so he is fine’.

Please read the examples below ⬇️

🐾 A huntaway cross who I work with who bit his owner. Reluctant to have his feet cleaned, got spicy over any intense handling, had periods of seeming insanity and relentless barking and being unable to calm down. Huntaways are vocal dogs… but…

Turns out he had hip dysplasia. This dog didn’t limp. He wasn’t lame in any way. He chased his ball and sprinted and jumped and had no issues physically on the surface however under that behaviour was pain.

🐾 A French bulldog. Resource guarding to the extreme. Bit his owners while resource guarding the knot pattern in their wooden floor. Also bombed around without a worry in the world and had no outward signs of pain.

Turns out he had a severe spinal condition causing intermittent excruciating pain.

🐾 A young spaniel owned by a very good friend who was having confidence issues. She would ‘tap out’ of training on the regular and my friend went from ‘this is my ticket dog who will represent my country’ to ‘is this even possible?’

Dog had hormonal issues and likely spikes of hormones left right and centre. A carefully timed spay and she is now grade 6 in agility.

🐾 A friends Border Collie. Owned by a very experienced and talented agility handler and trainer. Regularly ‘checked out’ of training sessions, seemed to not be able to learn things that were moderately straightforward. Described by other trainers as ‘oh she is just a border collie it’s what they are like’.

Turns out she is mostly deaf.

🐾 A black Labrador. Always social and friendly and attended brilliant puppy classes and adolescent classes. Had the best start training wise you can imagine. He started showing some intermittent aggression to his owners in the home and aggression to other dogs out and about.

Turns out he had bilateral elbow dysplasia.

🐾 Young German Shepherd. Always energetic and silly in her behaviour but suddenly got worse. Excessive zoomies, inability to settle, increased reactivity to other dogs, reluctant to get in the car, obsessive destruction at home.

Turns out she had an infection in her va**na that was causing discomfort and exacerbating all those teenage behaviours to the point of being unmanageable.

🐾 My own dog! My NSDTR started missing his dog walk contact early last year. I was tearing my hair out trying to fix it.

Turns out he had a minor iliopsoas strain and some physio fixed the issue for us.

———————————

All these dogs have one thing in common. They are not stupid or untrainable or naughty or dominant. They are uncomfortable and that is triggering extreme behaviour fallout.

None of the above issues would be resolveable with training. All of the issues will be resolveable with training ONLY when the pain is resolved. Some of them will have drastic improvement from the moment the pain or discomfort is managed!

If your behaviourist or trainer doesn’t immediately advise a veterinary visit if any aggression, excessive ‘naughtiness’ or strange behaviour is present, walk away immediately. Even if you think your dog is fine, visit the vets. Ask for a thorough examination and push for a proper evaluation of your dog from nose to tail and potentially blood tests too. If you’re still not sure, get a second opinion.

You cannot train the pain or discomfort out of your dog. Address THIS first and foremost.

05/03/2024

Exciting things to come...watch this space!

A massive thank you to Debbie, who has been fountain of knowledge, and provided much support to train me over the last couple of years. Hears to the adventure ahead...

Great day at the office. Congratulations to Anna Choma, our trainee! I am delighted to announce that she has passed The Society of Master Saddlers saddle fitting exam. So now she is an SMS Qualifed Saddle Fitter.

Many of you have already met her, but we will begin to send her out on the road as an expansion of our business.

Anna has been working alongside us for the last couple of years and is a Qualified Veterinary Physiotherapist in her own right.

As you can see, we are lucky to have such a huge range of saddle brands to work with which makes the job easier.

20/08/2023

Nevermind the therapist, the rider is the physio.

My trainer and I once had a conversation about as a rider, we must take the responsibility to encourage the horse to go in the most efficacious way to be able to support the weight of the rider and perform their job with ease. In this sense the rider must also be the horses physio.

The majority of my riding is hacking, and it is here that I take the opportunity to test and improve the flexibility and mobility my horse. Of course hacking is also for the horse to stretch out and relax, so for the most part I encourgae the horse to be long and low in a carrying posture, unless of course their are hazards about such as traffic or spooky things to pass in the hedge.

But I will then begin to test and play with the suppleness in my horses body, starting at the poll with a little poll flexion, then through to the neck with varying degrees of flexion of the neck, both shallow and deep, playing with differnet heights of head carriage. I will then begin with some leg yielding, testing the lateral stability. Then on to shoulder in and quarters in, testing suppleness through her quarters and trunk. Through these steps not only can I mobilise each segement of the body and improve everyday suppleness, but I can also test for any restrictions, which I will make a note of to either target on the day or mention to my trainer, saddle fitter, farrier ect. As a physio I also have the luxury of investigating and addressing these myself, otherwise I would make a mental note of them for the next physio visit for my horse.

Of course different days have different purposes, and some days are focused more towards cardiovascular fittening work or skill training. But the principles remain the same; I ride the horse with a physio head on to ensure that their body is as supple and dynaimicaly stable as possible.

Lateral exercises help to improve the dynamic stability of my horse, as the "core" stabilising muscles (or postural muscles) are recruited to allow for the body and the limbs to be stable while the horse changes its shape and posture. When we ask the horse to leg yield or for quarters in, the deep postural muscles of the spine must contract to stabilise the spine so that the limbs can move away from the body. Meanwhile the muscles of the limbs (movement muscles) are recruited to action the movement . Although this in itself can be further split into the agonistic limb muscles actioning the movement while the antagonistic limb muscles stabilise and control the degree of movement.

Transitions, changes of pace within each gait; collecting and lengthening the stride, are also exercises from the school which can be performed on a hack.

Whenever we ride the horse we have a constant input into their way of going, whether consciously or not.

In fact over the years, I have had conversations with numerous horsemen/women with the general consensus being that as the rider we have the responsibility to encourage the horse to go in the way that best enables the horse to both perform the task that is being asked of them and maintain their long term comfort and soundness.

This responsibility does not end when we leave the arena, or schooling area, everytime we ride we should be feeling our horses and feeling for what their bodies are saying they need that day 🏇