Why I became a Vet Physio

 Why did I become a vet physio?

 

Money.

 

The end.

 

I joke of course!

 

… You can’t make money working with animals :’)

Becoming a vet physio wasn’t a long-term game plan of mine.

 

To be honest, I’ve never had a long-term game plan, I still don’t!

 

I remember the idea first came to my head when I was working as a groom.

 

I was working on a private, high-end eventing yard in the Cotswolds.

 

I was well paid, had accommodation included, and the workload was perfectly manageable (most of the time).

 

Then, one day I had a sudden realisation that my grooming career had potentially peaked.

 

I wouldn’t have minded, but I was 24, I couldn’t be at the height yet?

 

Plus, I had been a groom for over 5 years at this point, and although I loved it, I didn’t love the idea of doing it forever.

 

I’ll write a blog in due course about why that is … it’ll be a long one!

 

I’d toyed with the idea of becoming an equine massage therapist in the past. But I had no idea where to begin with it, plus, I wanted to make sure I was appropriately trained.

 

I didn’t want to do a 6-week course and be sent out into the world to make it up as I went.

 

I wanted a thorough, in-depth education (a degree, preferably) in something I was passionate about, that would keep me in the world of horses

 

Then my boss got in a veterinary physiotherapist to assess her horses …

 

I hadn’t really heard much about vet physios at the time

 

I knew about equine chiropractors and equine masseurs, but not so much about vet physios

 

(I imagine you can see where this is going…)

 

Well, I must say I was very impressed with what he did

 

This man would watch the horses walk and trot up, and would compile a list of things he could see that could be a current or potential issue

 

And everything he said made sense

 

He’d explain his thought process and show us what he meant where he could, and it was incredible

 

I would watch him work whenever I could, and loved how well he understood everything

 

Plus, once we’d implemented his treatment plans, we started seeing the results he promised us

 

More proof that this man knew what he was talking about, and that vet physio really did work

 

This is when I realised that I’d love to be a vet physio if I could

 

Following some discussions with him, I found that I could complete a degree in veterinary physiotherapy

 

So I started my research, found a uni I liked, applied, and now look! I’m all graduated and stuff!

I enjoyed the idea of vet physio so much, because of the proof of effect I saw

 

I’m very much a ‘see it to believe it’ kind of person

 

I’ll rarely take things at face value, and I like to understand how something works completely before I put my faith in it

 

And now that I am educated in vet physio, and am now emersed in that world, I can see just how much there is to it

 

There are a lot of different avenues to go down, and many things you can specialise in

 

There are countless techniques, and therapies, and ideas going around that the possibilities of what could be done to help an animal seem endless

 And, I think it’s that fact that draws me to vet physio so much

 

It fits perfectly into my unplanned career path, I can go all sorts of ways with vet physio and still be completely involved with it

 

At the moment, I would love to get into lecturing one day, and do that part-time alongside my vet physio business

 

I would also eventually like to do a masters in McTimoney Chiropractics

 

But I’m not beholden to anything, and would certainly love to see what opportunities come my way in the future

 

I mean, if you’d told 19-year-old me, that I’d be a vet physio one day, I wouldn’t have believed you!

 

And now – fully qualified, owning my own business and growing steadily!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog.

 

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about topics you’d like me to write about, or any suggestions to improve my blogs.

 

For any other information, or to book a veterinary physiotherapy appointment, please contact me directly.

 

All the best,

Emma, The Biomechanic.

BSc(Hons), FdSc, MIRVAP, RAMP

07861195709

emma@the-biomechanic.co.uk

www.the-biomechanic.co.uk

Is there such thing as a 'naughty horse'?

I imagine this is something we’ve all heard when we were taught to ride and handle horses …

 

‘Don’t let him do that, he’s just being naughty!’

Nowadays almost everyone will say ‘there’s no such thing as a naughty horse, only a horse who’s in pain’

 

Which I don’t entirely agree with …

 

The new thinking now seems to be that every horse is in some degree of pain or has some kind of trauma which is causing them to act a certain way.

 

Obviously, this is the case with some horses & absolutely must be addressed and treated with care and consideration.

 

But I honestly believe that there are plenty of horses who are not in pain, but are potentially confused, unfit, scared, or simply not in the mood!

I tend to find that the concept of a horse ‘not wanting’ to do something seems to unsettle some

 

There seems to be the thought that horses are always willing & eager to please

 

Yet, there is also the well-known fact that horses are intelligent beings & can fully make their own decisions

 

So, surely it stands to reason, that sometimes a horse will decide that they do not want to do something, so they will do what they can to not engage with said activity

 

I know some people will say that animals have no concept of forethought.

 

But

 

If horses are capable of trauma response, they must be capable of forethought

 

They must understand that if X happens now, Y will happen later

 Therefore, I believe it is entirely possible for a horse to be ‘naughty’

 

I say naughty in quotations because I do not believe that horses will actively do things to be disobedient or difficult

 

They do not have the mental capability to be intentionally ‘difficult’ or ‘naughty’ as they have no concept of these behaviours

 

It is only our idea of what is naughty that we then apply to our horses

 

This is a difficult subject, because horses are also always learning, and they will realise which actions results in what consequence, especially if its of benefit to them

 

So lets say the horse does not want to go in the school, so they rear, they spin, they nap and are just generally difficult

 

If you then get off them & pop them back in their stable or field, then you’re reinforcing that that behaviour will result in that consequence –

 

And I truly believe that most horses would rather be in a field than at work, making it a positive consequence!  

 

So this is where having an understanding of your horse & a bond with them is essential for an optimum relationship

 

Why does the horse not want to go in the school today?

 

As mentioned – they’re not doing it to intentionally annoy you …

 

So why?

 

Are they tired? Too full? Too hungry? Dehydrated? Too hot? Uncomfortable? Hormonal? Did they find the pervious experience too difficult? Or boring?

 

If you can be aware of these things before working your horse, you can sometimes alter your plan to what will be more suitable that day

 

And again, this is a tricky area – as we all have days where we’d rather not do something, but we need to press on with it anyway

 

So this comes back to the understanding of your horse, when do we push on & say ‘sorry fella, you’ve got to’ and when do we say ‘okay, we’ll do something else today’

 

And I’m fully aware that I’m coming at this from the land of the idealistic, and real life is rarely like this

 

But I want to give food for thought, in both the positive and negative way

 

Positive in that just because a horse is being ‘naughty’ doesn’t mean that you’re now in for months of vet tests, saddle fitters, physios and farriers trying to pinpoint where the mystery pain is coming from – because it cant possibly be anything else!

 

And the negative in that sometimes if a horse is behaving in an undesirable way – it’s because of your actions or misunderstanding

 

And absolutely every single one of us, from the very beginner, to the Olympic standard rider has misunderstood their horse and got it wrong

 

And that is okay

 

Because although horses can feel testing to us at times, they are actually very forgiving, and will allow us to try again

 

And it is so often up to us to try harder to understand and cooperate, rather than dominate  

 

So I’d suggest we change the initial thought process to:

‘there’s no such thing as a naughty horse, only a horse who’s trying to communicate’

(I can’t take credit for that, I’m fairly sure I’ve heard it somewhere else before!)

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog.

 

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about topics you’d like me to write about, or any suggestions to improve my blogs.

 

For any other information, or to book a veterinary physiotherapy appointment, please contact me directly.

 

All the best,

Emma, The Biomechanic.

BSc(Hons), FdSc, MIRVAP, RAMP

07861195709

emma@the-biomechanic.co.uk

www.the-biomechanic.co.uk