Equine case study – massage and pulsed electro-magnetic field therapy
“Blue (Nil Bleu) is a 16.2 9yr old ex-racer that retired as a 4yr old, after some time out he then went onto the P2P circuit; however he suffered a massive bleed and a big fall in March 2012 which put an end to his P2P career. After a long recovery time, lots of treatment and tlc, he re-started his training and we are currently working on his flatwork with the view to doing dressage as a starting point.
“Blue and I recently attended an intensive training weekend which involved two sessions a day over a 2 day period. As this was Blue’s first intensive training, and I’d been looking into the benefits of different massage rugs, Nicki offered to bring the Activo-Med combi rug out to Blue and do a demo on him before and after training sessions.
“The first day was just treated as normal and then on the second day the rug was used for 10mins of massage only (just to see how he would react to it) before the first training session– he did seem more relaxed for the morning session, didn’t take so long to warm-up and worked well. Then on the afternoon session he had the full 20mins pre-training warm-up treatment (which incorporates both massage and pulsed electro-meganetic field therapy) and WOW what a difference it made to our training session. He was definitely much more relaxed, especially in his walk and trot and then his canter work (which we had struggled with up until this point) was amazing, gone were the bunny hops and dis-united hind legs. He cantered on both reins evenly and managed 2-3 full circles with ease, which was the best achievement ever. Ok, there are still lots of things to work on in this area and it’s not been resolved overnight, but for that training session alone with the help of the Activo-Med Rug it definitely made a huge difference in his temperament and his work. He also had a follow-up recovery treatment session the next day to help with any potential aches and pains.
“Theo (Abbey Theatre) is a 15.3 20yr old ex-racer that also retired as a 4yr old but with leg injuries, he has had numerous injuries over the years and always seems to bounce back full of beans. He has completed several activities over the years like XC, fun rides, showing and has hunted most seasons up to Mar 2013. However, recently he had suffered with bruised soles and general all over stiffness from having a few months off, so again after talking to Nicki she came out with the Activo-Med Rug to try on Theo and see if it would help him. He had a 20min session and although he wasn’t ridden after the treatment, the difference in his general well-being was noticeable. He was taken back to his paddock or should I say towed his owner back to the paddock and proceeded to trot up the field! This was just after 1 treatment session.
“Theo has had a couple of treatments since and he seems much more relaxed after them, it has helped with reducing his overall stiffness and improving his general well –being.
“I have to say that having never used anything like this before I was a bit sceptical about how the rug could make that much difference, but I am impressed and converted. This rug is now on my shopping list and I will be paying a visit to the FMBS stand at the BD Nationals in September.”
– Headstrong Equestrian, UK
