Osteopathy for horses
Osteopathy is a way of treating that does not only treats the symptoms, but also to find the underlying patterns that form the complaints.
Because symptoms of complaints sometimes occur in other places than where the source is located. This is already one of the major principles of osteopathy, that the horse’s body is seen as a whole.
The osteopathic philosophy is holistic, it is not that the disease is treated but the sick horse is treated.
Other principles are:
• Everything in the horse’s body is mobile, can and must move.
Loss of movement is caused by exterior factors (e.g. overload) or interior factors (e.g. infections) and can be restored by the osteopath.
• The horse has a self-healing ability.
Circulation plays a very important role that can be influenced by the osteopathy.
In the osteopathy, the following systems are used as target in the treatment:
1. Parietal system (bones, muscles, tendons, spine and all joints)
2. Visceral system (the organs)
3. Cranio-sacral system (the skull through the meninges and spinal cord tissue are connected to the sacrum)
If a problem or disorder occurs in one of these systems, it will carry on in the other two systems.
This is done mechanically, or by reduced circulation or through the nervous system.
The osteopathy seeks the lost balance of the horse’s body with horse-friendly manual techniques and tries to restore this.
