26/05/2026
Tom was described to me as a stressy horse, he might be difficult to treat.
His owner wanted a Physio appointment for him because he had been head-tossing in canter or any contact, since she she got him 3 weeks ago.
When I looked at him, he was very wary of somebody approaching,
And normally I go to horses' shoulders n offer a scratch over their withers
But he was different.
He did not want that.
I could tell straight away, no idea how, that that's actually where he hurt.
He wasn't stressed about me touching the hind half of his body, just very guarded of his shoulders & neck.
That's so unusual for a horse, it wasn't personality. It had to be pain.
So I did my usual full assessment, and of course he wasn't lame, but his gait showed limited shoulder movement and spinal muscle spasm every time he landed in trot.
His leg joints were all fine, nothing abnormal about his tendons & ligaments, and lumbar spine & pelvis no problem.
But his entire shoulder girdle was tight, tender and he just gave me some looks when I 'got the bits'.
His withers (T2-6) were very stiff and sore.
His nuchal ligament was tender from the lack of gliding over the thoracic spinal processes, but it didn't feel like the problem itself. And his poll was actually fine.
Actually all his facial muscles were fine.
Cos normally you'd expect head tossing to be a problem around the head end!
But what Tom needed, what i did, was loads of soft tissue release of his triceps, deltoids, lat.dorsi, shoulder girdle tractions, and spinal joint mobilisations to allow freedom through his withers.
He did about 20 yawns in a row when I felt his right shoulder 'give'.
He finished the session in a very sleepy state -a huge shift from the guarded horse I went in with.
So I drove away actually buzzin'. I kinda knew we'd achieved something good, but obviously I never count my chickens!
You never really know if what you've done will change any behaviours afterwards, cos they can be complex multifactorial issues.
So to then get this message a few days later was pretty darn cool 😁
