My pony was exhibiting behaviours that could have been related to pain but having had a variety of equine body workers to check/treat him without improving I was thinking it must be my interactions that were unwittingly training unwanted responses.
Fortunately I found Louise.
On her assessment she identified the source of his discomfort said she could improve things but it would take a while.
It didn’t!Just three full treatments later I have a comfortable generally co operative boy.
Louise’s calm sensitive scientific approach made it easy for my anxious pony to co operate with her and I can’t thank her enough.– Jan, Ben’s owner
Spoiler alert, the muscle wasn’t missing!
I met Ben and his owner Jan a few months ago. During the initial assessment, we realised that he was hypersensitive around his stiffles and inner thigh muscles, so much so that it was impossible for me to have a feel of the area at first. He was also quite reluctant to give his hind legs, which made the trimmer’s life a bit hard, and so I suggested he might have gelding scars that were making the area both painful and hypersensitive.
But I was incredibly surprised, once he actually allowed me to have a feel for his inner thigh muscles because he didn’t display gelding scars, but it felt as if one of the inner thigh muscles was missing!! No wonder he wasn’t too happy having the area touched!
So what actually happened with Ben?
The muscle was so badly atrophied that it felt almost nonexistent. The reason for the atrophy, we believe, comes from the time he was gelded back in Wales, where I can only assume things didn’t go too smoothly. This disrupted the insertion of the muscle on the pubic bone, resulting in muscle atrophy.
The good news? I saw Ben recently for his check up and his thighs have regained asymmetrical shape. He stands proud and square after only a few sessions, and I’m really impressed with this strong little horse that has healed far better and far quicker than I would have ever expected 😀
His trimmer was also pretty happy with him:
Wow, Louise – Manual Therapist for Animals Ben was amazing yesterday, all 4 feet trimmed and he was angelic. Thank you! He’s let me handle his hinds before occasionally but always anxious and resistant with it. So only very briefly. Yesterday it was as though there had never been a problem…
– Catherine Bell, Ben’s trimmer
For more info on Catherine, click here!