Down East Equine, LLC

Down East Equine, LLC Down East Equine provides bodywork and massage for horses in the Northern Virginia area.

06/09/2025

Dr. Kevin Haussler DVM, DC, PhD, DACVSMR Joins NBCAAM Advisory Board to Help Advance Animal Acupressure and Massage Standards

The National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure and Massage (NBCAAM) is pleased to welcome Dr. Kevin Haussler, DVM, DC, PhD, DACVSMR, to its Advisory Board. Dr. Haussler’s expertise in veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation along with his efforts to promote teamwork across all scopes of practice will support NBCAAM’s mission to advance professional standards in animal acupressure and massage.

Dr. Haussler, an Associate Professor at Lincoln Memorial University and a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, is known for his research in musculoskeletal pain assessment and treatment and veterinary chiropractic techniques. As the founder of Veterinary Compendium (vetcompendium.org), he provides online education to all members of the animal’s care team. His keynote at NBCAAM’s March 2025 virtual conference drew 275 live attendees and over 1,300 replay views, highlighting his impact in the field.

“Dr. Haussler’s knowledge strengthens our efforts to improve certification standards and education,” said an NBCAAM spokesperson. “We’re excited to work with him to protect animals by setting high standards that ensure bodyworkers have advanced training.”

Founded in 2008, NBCAAM certifies professionals in equine and canine acupressure and massage through rigorous testing. It offers review sessions and lists recognized continuing education classes for practitioners on its website. With Dr. Haussler’s involvement, NBCAAM will continue to support its community of certified practitioners.

We invite members and interested professionals to explore NBCAAM’s certification process and continuing education classes at nbcaam.org.

06/08/2025

❤️

05/28/2025

I’m going to level with you; training aids are bad. All of them. Bungees? Bad. Chambons? Bad. Any kind of fangled, tie-the-head-down-push-the-bum-under, really, really BAD!

To give you an idea as to why, I’m going to talk to you about resistance bands. If you use these at the gym, chances are you are using them to provide resistance in an exercise. For example standing bicep curls; you stand on one end of the band, hold the other end in one hand and curl your arm- engaging your bicep. The band makes it significantly harder to do this, therefore increasing muscle fibre recruitment- theoretically helping you to build more muscle and get stronger in targeted areas.

Now, relating this to your horse. You’re acutely aware that he likes to float around like the proverbial camel. The only time he puts his head down is...well...to eat! He’s lacking muscle over his back and has a nice dip in front of his wither. So to rectify this you invest in one of these gadgets and set to work.

You attach the gadget of choice to your horse and can already see that it’s working. His head is down and he seems to be focused on what you’re asking- wonderful! But as time goes on you may notice that, if anything, he’s building more muscle on the underside of his neck. This is because the gadget is actually increasing resistance and so your horse is having to work harder to stabilise his neck (to stop it dropping on the floor!) and is therefore recruiting more brachiocephalic and sternocephalic muscle fibres. He is in a false outline. He may look pretty but this way of going is physiologically damaging.

What a gadget doesn’t do is give your horse time to slowly build his strength. Working in any outline takes time to develop. Holding their head down for prolonged periods of time isn’t sustainable. Muscles will fatigue and disengage and before you know it, your horse’s way of going will have completely altered.

I may have set the cat amongst the pigeons here, but I promise you that if you take the time to learn how to lunge properly, without gadgets, your horse will thank you. And if you need more evidence of how damaging gadgets are- take a look at how your horse’s facial expression changes when you tie him down.

05/08/2025

Out of town for my niece’s graduation. 👩‍🎓 Be back on Tuesday!

05/08/2025

"Every horse would like to have better communication with their human, all they look for is comfort." ~ Martin Black

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Fairfax, VA
22032

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