Bowen Treatment & Aran

Aran is a 15 year old Irish Draught who has been in very light work for the last couple of years following two long term injuries. I have owned him for 10 years and prior to his injuries we did a bit of everything but mainly concentrated on dressage and showjumping, with the odd hunter trial and sponsored ride thrown in.

4 years ago he damaged the deep digital flexor tendon in his off hind and had to have a year off for it to heal. Then, two months after coming back in to work, I found him in the field with a fractured skull. Recovery from that has been slow, physically and emotionally, and he has developed a way of “holding” his body as if to protect himself from the pain and trauma.

Lotty was recommended to me when I moved him to a new livery yard (North Farm Andalusians). My main reasons for wanting some treatment for Aran were partly because he doesn’t always seem sound on that hind leg, but mainly because I think he has a constant headache and carries a lot of tension in his body and I wanted to give him some relief from that. We had three initial treatments each one week apart and then a further treatment after a month. We will have another follow up three months or so after that.

During the first treatment Aran was completely energised - I hadn’t seen him so engaged with anything in a long time as he has seemed quite “shut off” since his head injury. Every time Lotty moved on to treat another horse he would call her back (literally!) to treat him some more! When I turned him back out in to his field he drank very deeply and had a lot of discharge from his nose. He also seemed to need to be on the move a lot as he would start to eat and then walk around a bit, then eat, then move, etc. I gave him a couple of days off after the treatment but even then when I tried to ride him he felt absolutely exhausted and in the end needed almost the whole week to recover. The next two treatments had less of a dramatic effect but each time he would react positively to it and you could see relief in his eyes as either tension or pain was relieved. He always found the treatment tiring.
He is still very unfit after his long lay off and so we are gently building things up again but I feel as if I have been given my horse back. He feels sound, his range of movement has definitely improved and, most importantly, he is enjoying life again and is enthusiastic in his work.

Liz Williams
October 2007

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Lotty came to treat Harry my beloved 16.3hh 21yr old TB. harry is my "therapy horse" and my whole world. He helps me physically and mentally cope with my own ill health. I wanted to treat him to a session as he is an old boy, has had a hard life competition wise - evented for Great Britain, competed affiliated dressage before coming to me following tendon injury. He has arthritis in both hocks, as well as having done a suspensory, and this easter had a suspected fractured pedal bone that thankfully wasn't. He has also had laminitis so is carefully managed in terms of feed etc.

Harry is not only my therapy horse- I ride him bareback to help my muscles relax and stretch and do various exercises whilst bareback, such as stretches, lying across him, lying along his back/ lying along his neck, leaning over his shoulders, all kinds of things. We also hack almost every day, as he is pretty much hunting fit,ready to go autumn hunting (cubbing) as soon as restrictions are lifted. We have just started our career in dressage,and yesterday we Won at prelim level and also won a novelty freestyle to music competition which was done bareback to "wind beneath my wings"!

We compete in showing,at county and regional level, and we were 2nd in the VHS & blue chip Regional final Championships last year, both last year and this year we have also Qualified for South West Veteran of the Year Championships, although this year's are postponed due to foot & mouth. We also did a display every day at the Royal Bath & West Show this year, and hunted twice last season (didnt go any more due to lack of brakes!!!!). He turns his hoof to anything and we jump at home, both cross-country and show jumps, but I can only hold him if its in an enclosed space so competing in jumping is limited!!!! We are considering side-saddle.

He is also ridden by a 2 year old, who has to have the stirrups run up to the top of the leathers as her feet dont even come half way down the saddle, Harry just knows she's there and is SO steady and smooth for her. Harry LOVED his session, lots of sighs, going sleepy, totally relaxing, you could just tell he loved it - he really enjoys touch-type things and has a daily massage when I can manage. Lotty was brilliantg and qiuckly found where he was stiff, treated it and suggested exercises to help too. He had the next 2 days off for the Bowen to kick in, as I have ti myself and know how it wipes you out initially while it works on your body. I got on him the 3rd day and the difference was amazing, free-er loooser strides, the BIGGEST extended trot Ive ever sat to - even though we were hacking and meant to be doing a nice quiet trot along the lane, and he was absolutely full of himself.

I text lotty after to thank her and tell her how different he felt! A few weeks after his session, We competed at county level where we were placed 3rd in the in-hand class, were 3rd in VHS members placings, and then in the ridden veterans we were placed 4th, coming 3rd for VHS members again, and just missed qualifiying for the regional final championships by 1 place!! Usually you can take Harry off the lorry and just do a brief warm up then go in the ring. This time he was jumping up and down in the lorry with excitment, so I ahd to get on him and work him under saddle before quickly whipping it off and going in the in-hand class, becase he was feeling far too well to go straight in!. I must have ridden him for 4 hours that day with classes and riding in-between, doing a couple of dressage tests (unjudged as no judge!), we got home and he dragged me down the ramp, trotted in the yard and everyb ody said he looked like an 8 year old, despite the fact he had just done a 11 hour day! He then did pony rides for the children before being turned out to gallop round his field!! all this after just 1 bowen session!!!

There is also a link to a short clip of us competing in dressage afetr his session here. We are now looking forwards to more dressage, jumping, Hunting, and showing next season, as well as enjoying going for gallops over blackdown regularly and lots of bareback work to help my muscles / health problems too. Wasnt sure what you wanted photo wise so here are several -all post session. If you would like the same for humans Id be very happy to, maybe we could do before and after photo's of my pelvis showing how far out it is then how much it goes back after just a couple of moves or something? Id be more than happy to do anything like that. Could do with another session anyway when finances a bit better, back been really bad recently, thank god riding bareback eases it, guess it free's everything up / loosens it all and so makes it less painful. Clever H pony is sucha star.