Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog post!
I figured this would be the best way to better introduce myself and what it is that I do!
I started NSET because I want to provide a much-needed service to our equine patterns. No matter what discipline you ride or compete in, it is important to recognize that our horses are athletes, and they should be treated as such.
How often do you see human athletes getting injured and requiring rehab to help them to both recover and improve their performance afterwards? Or even personal training or conditioning at practice to improve and prevent injury? It's such a common occurrence with athletes that you, and even them don't even realize they are doing it sometimes (i.e their everyday workouts and practices, even before an injury occurs).
Why should horses not get that same type of treatment?
What most people don't understand is that there are people out there, such as myself, that are here to help both you and your horse not only feel better, but also improve. I don't just come to your barn and provide massage (unless that's all you ask for). Your horse doesn't even have to be injured for me to work with them!
I am there to make a full assessment on your horse, their posture, their musculature, how they move their body, how they feel when you ride or perform. I am looking at how your tack fits, their feet, their nutrition. I am looking not only at the horse as a whole, but also everything else that is involved with their daily routines. After that is done, then I get my hands on the horse.
With my years of education and experience working on people and helping them to rehab, I have improved my palpation skills (my ability to feel and sense things with my hands not visible to the human eye). It takes years and years to develop and fine tune this skill, heck I'm still constantly working to improve it!
After I gather all the information I need I am then able to formulate a plan that can be carried out not only by myself, but the owner too. I am here to do what I can with my hands and tools to help stop the cycle of pain, increase motion, and increase strength. Then once we reach that certain point I am here to provide you, the owner, with the tools and help you need to continue with treatment on your own! This might be in the form of ground work, ridden work, getting your hands on your horse and teaching you how to do things.
I DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOU FOREVER!
I want to solve the problem and teach you along the way.
I am not here just to take your money, I want to improve your horses quality of life. Everything I do is to benefit you and your horse. And guess what, I'm not afraid to say, "hey, I think you should have a vet out" or a chiro, or a dentist, or any other practitioner that can help your horse. I know there is no way I will ever know everything, and I strongly believe the best thing is to have multiple people involved to provide what is needed. (If anyone tells you otherwise, RUN!) It is literally impossible to one person to be able to know and provide everything your horse needs. And make sure to do your research on them as well... lets save that for another post though.
Back to me though... Not only am I a licensed Physical therapist assistant, but I am certified in specifically equine rehabilitation and I have my bachelors in exercise science.
Part of my bachelors degree required me to create individualized and group exercise plans. I had to work with varying clients that signed up for personal training, to meet their specific goals. These people had no current injuries, they just wanted to improve their physical well being through "tools" such as cardio and strength training. This is where I learned to formulate exercise programs based off of anatomy, kinesiology, and even nutrition.
During my bachelors degree I was also required to complete an internship. I chose to work at a physical therapy clinic near home to learn how to better help people. This internship eventually turned into a full time job where I was their exercise specialist. I helped the therapist to develop specific exercise programs for patients and would report back to the therapist daily. Here I learned hoe to become more specific with the exercises I prescribed, to treat specific ailments.
From there I got accepted into PTA school where I spent time learning about all the fine details of how the body works, moves, and different manual techniques that could be performed to improve patient care. I went through 3 different clinical rotations, all with different focuses. In-patient elderly care, out- patient aquatic therapy, and the regular outpatient where I saw all different age ranges and fitness levels. Through all these rotations I was expected to work with patients on my own and create plans based off what they needed. This time of my life is when I learned to develop my palpation skills, treat patients with my hands, and became more confident and educated in exercise prescription.
What people might not realize is that PTAs are considered the "exercise specialists". Our job is literally to take the patient and progress them through specifically tailored exercise routines to help them improve. Not only that, but we help to create exercises programs for these patients to work on in between therapy sessions and then after they "graduate" from therapy. We are also still responsible for providing manual techniques to help patient improve when exercise isn't enough, or they aren't ready to do it on their own.
Now don't get me wrong. I enjoy what I do and get a lot of gratification out of it. When I see how happy my patients are when they are able to do the simplest things, such as putting a belt on, doing their hair, reaching for a glass on the top shelf, it's a pretty great feeling to know you helped that happen.
So why not provide this service to the equine industry!?
How happy would you be if you could finally get your horse to bend to the right, if you could finally get your horse to rock back and use their hind end. What about if you saw your horse was just able to walk around better while in the field? Or that they no longer had that inverted neck you've been trying to fix?
I am here to help you, no matter what the issue or problem might be. If it's the smallest "issue" that you just can't figure out, a problem thats been bugging you for years, or a quick question, don't be afraid to reach out.
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