EQUIINE THERAPY
Background
Horses have been my passion since a young age. While my family has no background in horses I was hooked after a trip to the Dublin Horse Show at the age of 7. I don’t think my parents knew what they were letting themselves in for when I began lessons at my local riding school!
In my teens I fell in love with dressage and was lucky enough to work and train with some exceptional riders both at home in Ireland, in the UK and the continent as well as working as a flatwork rider and groom for a number of showjumpers and eventers along the way before stepping into the racing world later on.
Having trained as an Amatsu practitioner (physical therapy), I knew the next step I wanted to take was to combine my passions and train in Equine therapies in 2015.
Treatment
It is hugely rewarding to me to see an improvement in these horses, reducing pain, improving their mobility and helping them to be comfortable and happy in their work. I firmly believe that by choosing to ride or train these horses, at any level in any discipline, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are as comfortable and happy in their job as is possible. Without that, we cannot expect them to perform at an optimum level.
Whether it is a Blacktype level racehorse, Grand Prix showjumper or your faithful Riding Club or Pony Club partner, seeing them develop and improve is just as satisfying to me as a therapist.
Qualifications
This began with qualifications in Equine Sports Massage and Rehabilitation before continuing to Integrated Support Therapies (Racehorse Specific) encompassing several modalities. I regularly attend CPD training in topics such as Biomechanics, Kinesio Taping, Biosecurity and other applied therapies to ensure I can provide the highest level of care to your horse. Knowledge is power and in the equine world we certainly never stop learning.
Katie Timmins has been a great help to us taking care of our horses and in particular our horses in training. “Miss O’Connor” was suffering from a soft tissue problem and was treated successfully by Katie and went on to win both group and listed races. Katie has also taken care of “Bounce the Blues” who has also gone on to win a listed race and was group placed.
In general, we use Katie to attend to any musculoskeletal issues or injuries from foals to our racehorses and find that she does an excellent job.
Benefits to your Horse
• Increase suppleness and flexibility
• Improve stride length and fluency
• Encourage correct muscle development
• Improve muscle tone
• Increase circulation/blood flow
• Improve lymphatic function
• Improved recovery
• Increase range of motion of the joints
• Encourage relaxation
• Reduce negative behaviours caused by discomfort/pain
Horse and Rider Packages
Treatment of both the horse and rider can be hugely beneficial. As riders, we very often have a weaker side or an aspect of training that we struggle with. Do you find yourself having to regularly adjust stirrup length, notice that your horse is always tighter on one side or if you ride several horses is there a common trend in how they work?
We expect ourselves to ride symmetrically when in general, people function a-symmetrically. If we have a weaker side, perhaps a postural issue, tightness through injury or falls etc we carry this with us into the saddle. This is of course going to impact on your horse’s way of going.
If we consider you and your horse as one unit and considering restrictions or discomfort in you both we can improve your overall performance as a combination
