Bioscan Light Therapy

[Speedy]

My TB mare can be spooky and a bit nappy when I ride her, to the point that her nickname is Baggage! The worst thing she does is rear, kick out her back legs (whilst rearing!!) and spin in the air!! She had her saddle made to fit, her back checked by a vet and a chiropractor and her teeth checked. Apparently she was fine. Just before xmas she got bullied in the field, cornered by another mare and jumped out, from a standstill (livery owner saw her do it). She was fine on the day, but afterwards she was unlevel on the left rein and I thought she had re-aggrevated an old shoulder injury. I got someone (a very well-qualified friend) to do some bioscan light therapy on her yesterday as we thought it would help loosen the shoulder for her.

She was so sore, through her whole body that she even found the testing a trauma (and I've had it done to me and I can't feel anything at all!). The therapist marked her with a green pencil when she found areas of discomfort and she now looks like an apaloosa. It took us over 2hrs to check and treat her - once she realised we weren't hurting her, she relaxed and was fine. The therapist said, that rather than being a baggage, she was an angel. She said that she was in so much pain that a less genuine horse would have thrown me everytime I got on. I was horrified. I genuinely thought that I'd checked everything to make sure she was comfortable and that she was just playing me up. My therapist/friend said that I shouldn't beat myself up over this as I noticed when she went lame and did something about it straight away and that straining to jump out of the paddock was the straw that broke the camels back. She said she's probably got used to the pain and only reacted when she suffered a spasm (hence inconsistent rearing episodes).

She's now been treated and I will ride her at the weekend - strictly on a long rein to start with, just to feel whether she is more comfortable. I will then have her treated again and apparently she should then be fine to resume work.

Two points to make: 1. Has anyone else used this therapy? 2. I want to publicly apologise to my horse for blaming her and calling her baggage when she was actually in pain.

[Sarah]

hello!

Wow, that sounds amazing. Can you give us a bit more info as to what this treatment actually is?

I hope that it will have worked and that your horse's problems are on the way to being solved. It is so easy to look to the 'conventional' horse treatments (vet, saddler, farrier) when somehting is wrong and then be persuaded that all is well, when a more 'alternative' approach will quickly point out a probelm and work to solve it.

Do keep us informed with how you get on.

bye!

[intouch]

Speedy, congratulations on recognising your horse's pain and perservering till you got to the bottom of it. Many, many horses out there are berated for being lazy, cantankerous or simply bad, when they have been suffering most of their lives and often only retaliate when it gets beyond toleration. I only wish more owners were like you and seek help beyond vets - although I would never dismiss a vet's opinion, often the owner's instincts are more astute.
I would dearly love a bioscan but the bank balance would not run to it, however the Equine Touch is very effective and needs only your hands.
I hope your horse continues to improve and you are repaid for your thoughtfulness by your enjoyment of her!

[Speedy]

Sarah, I don't know too much of the principles behind it, but this is what I was told.

It works on a similar principle to an ECG heart monitor - it measures electrical impulses in the body. When a muscle is under stress there are higher levels of electrical activity. The therapist scans the horse using a metal instrument and creates a circuit by touching the horse with what looks like small piece of damp sponge. When increased electrical activity is present, the circuit is completed and the machine beeps - the higher the note, the more stressed the muscle. The therapist then marks where the stressed muscles are. She went all over the horse and my mare was sore everywhere - neck, back, thoracic girdle, hind quarters. They can scan at different levels - the lowest level picks up really stressed muscles and the highest level picks up all stressed muscles. We did my mare on the lowest setting and the machine hardly ever stopped beeping. Once she'd finished scanning, she did the light therapy. This was two devices which emitted a red light and she placed these on the spots she'd marked and worked around the whole body. Apparently the lights "massage" the sore muscles and they release their stress and relax - don't really know the ins and outs of it all. She also put a light cap on her which has little red lights in and goes over the ears and quietened her down - this works on the top few vertabrae and some acupuncture points. It makes some horses sleepy so they lick and chew and apparently people sometimes use them on bad travellers.

That's it in a nutshell - I'm sure there's loads more to it, but I don't really know enough about it. My therapist is in the middle of creating a website, so I will let you know when it's done and there'll probably be more on there. I also think she is doing a talk/demo at the Horse mag show thing, but I'm not 100% sure.

I can't really tell if it's worked yet as my mare is always a gem to handle on the ground - I will hopefully ride her on Saturday so will let you know how I get on. She won't be perfect yet, but hopefully I'll really notice a difference.

[ponyvet]

I do think these massage based types types of therapies play a useful part in equine health, but I hope intouch, you wouldn't suggest that people sought this treatment before checking with a vet that there's nothing more serious going on. Vets should be open to suggesting this as an option if there's no obvious problem, or if there is some degree of muscle spasm or discomfort.

I suspect speedy that when she did her old injury there was some muscle damage and since then she's been doing some muscle guarding (this is where muscles are abnormally tense, as protection around a painful or damaged area). often muscles continue to do this long after the initial problem has gone. It's a classic symptom in human disc problems. It then means you feel pain in the area of old injury for longer than you should, after it's healed, simply because the muscles are so stressed. After her incident in the field they probably went into spasm a bit, and that's what made her worse.

I think with any case of muscle guarding massge therapy works wonders (I could do with some now!). I hope she's a lot more comfortable.

I also would like to point out that muscle guarding is a large component of why lameness can present as a back problem, and that is why I prefer people to go to their vet first and check that there is no leg pain, before going to a back specialist. Also that's why I prefer people to use qualified, registered specialists who are trained to recognise muscle guarding for what it is - a symptom of a possible problem elsewhere. An untrained person is more likely to give your horse treatment for the muscle spasms, take your money and then your horse will be fine for a while, get worse and then they can take your money again. That's a con. And it's cruel to the horse.

[Speedy]

Ponyvet, I think you are probably right. She did the shoulder injury before I had her, so it was over three years ago. When I first got her, she was stiff on the left rein (and still is stiff on the left), but she had loads of massage treatment then and I thought we'd cracked it. She then had some time off and when she came in I thought she was fine, but she got progressively worse. Vet was unhelpful and said that I should get rid of her as she clearly had a temperament problem, so I changed vets. Chiropractor said there was nothing wrong with her spine and her teeth were also fine. Interestingly, her spine and withers are the only parts that didn't show up as painful, so at least I know that the chiropractor and my saddle fitter did a good job!

[intouch]

Sorry folks if I didn't make it clear that no "alternative" should ever take the place of properly qualified veterinary care.
I'd like to point out that Equine Touch is NOT massage, nor is it a therapy as such, but a very gentle means of allowing the horse - or human, Ponyvet! - to rebalance all the systems of the body.
If anyone is interested, my trainer's website is www.theequinetouch.com, he runs regular courses for horseowners as well as practitioners, and has chiros, vets, physios etc attending them, all over the world.

[Speedy]

Rode my mare at the weekend. On Saturday we went in the school in the pouring rain and apart from her "bum to the rain" tendencies, she was a lot better. She was actually stretching down and seeking a contact rather than hollowing and resisting. On Sunday I took her for a wander down the lane on our own - something we haven't done for ages as she's been so unpredictable. She strode out really well and was positively bouncing. If she'd been a human she'd have been skipping! We had a trot and she was really onward bound (a bit fresh!) and kept trying to canter (on the road!), but I could really feel her using her back. On the way home, she jogged the whole way. I was exhausted, but she had her ears pricked the whole time, didn't spook unnecessarily or play me up. When I got back to the yard, the therapist and another friend both commented that she looked really well and had the sparkle back in her eyes. I turned her out and she was cantering around the field, and generally having a lark. I think she definately feels a lot better!!

[Sarah]

Speedy,

That sounds like good progress has been made.

If the weather in Herts was anything like it was in Berks this we with regard to wind, i am very impressed indeed that she was stretching into the contact in the school on Saturday. It sounds like she must have been a lot happier in her ridden work.

Do carry on letting us know how you progress.

bye!

[Speedy]

Been away on hols so we've both had some r&r. Sarah, the weather here was dreadful that day - sideways rain - yuck, so she did really well.

Put her on the lunge on Sunday to see her move and she was looking a lot better (about 98%). Got on and rode a few circuits in walk and trot on a long rein - she was working ok and not fighting me and trying to run off. But she still feels really stiff (on both reins now) She has had a few months doing very little now though and she was blowing abit after a little bit of trot, so I think she's lost a lot of fitness. Will start her back slowly with lots of long walks and hopefully things will keep improving. Don't know if its me being optimistic but I think she's put on some condition behind the shoulder blade too (it had gone a bit dipped), so am hoping that this is good news.

[Sarah]

hello!

It really sounds like your mare is making good progress.

With regard to her topline building itself back up again with you not riding, when I had the osteopath out to see Tango a few weeks back he was amazed at how much topline she had grown and said that that was due to her body having been shown the easy way to work and her doing it all naturally now so that she built up her own topline without me riding much at all. Maybe that is what is happening to your mare too, now that a lot of the stresses have eased, she can go back to being a normally postured horse and muscle herself up. Maybe Ponyvet would know about this and whether i am speaking out my backside or not!

bye!

[Speedy]

Makes sense to me, as a fellow horsey-person-but-not-a-vet.

There's an article on bioscan light therapy in the March edition of Horse magazine - it actually gives the address of the people I used as a contact!

Much to my disappointment, I think she's changing shape so much that her saddle no longer fits. It no longer sits evenly along her back - the back of the saddle doesn't touch her back at all unless I sit on it, so I guess when doing rising trot, it's lifting up and down with me. Doesn't sound good, does it? The back seems to move side to side a lot too (when I'm on the ground watching her walk). The pommel seems ok and there's loads of clearance over the withers and along the spine. Put my friends saddle on her and although it sits a bit high over the withers it sits much better along her back, so I really think I'm going to have to get someone out again. Had Kay Humphries last time, but can't afford her call-out fee on top of getting it re-fitted, so will need to find someone else.

It never rains, but it pours..... :(