Maintaining the Western Performance Horse with Photonic Therapy and the Touch and Torch Method™
By Janet Crow
Maintaining the soundness of a performance horse is critical to assure a long and healthy career. Performance horses are asked to perform maneuvers that they would seldom do in a natural environment. As an example, a performance reining horse would probably spin more 360’s in a normal week of training, practice, or showing than he would normally in his entire life if left to his own devices.
Because we ask so much of our horses we must be aware of the stress areas and that measures are taken to insure soundness and prevent “breakdowns” and serious injury.
Extreme stress is put on joints, tendons, and ligaments in all performance horses as a group more than any other group of horses. Many performance horses are retired at an early age due to injuries that prevent the horse from continuing his show career. These horses are often sent to rescues, sold to others for light pleasure riding, or retired to pasture or paddock and most often kept on a regiment of pain relieving drugs with negative side-effects, no healing properties, and continued degeneration of the condition.
Muscles are designed to take the load and stress off the tendons and ligaments and it is imperative that a horse is in proper physical condition for his chosen discipline. If the muscles are not in condition to do the job they are being asked to do the stress transfers to the tendons and ligaments which are not designed for this type of stress and injury occurs.
Different disciplines stress different areas. In time the horse’s entire musculoskeletal system is involved and the horse’s movement as well as his mental and spiritual health is affected. When a horse is in pain it often reflects as reluctance to perform and “sour” attitudes.
Below is a case study on a seasoned western performance horse. The owner’s goal is to keep her horse sound and to prevent injuries to insure her horse’s health and show career. This case reflects a wide range of conditions arising over a number of years in a western performance horse.
CASE STUDY
HISTORY
Ima Dakota Diamond “Scooby” is an 11 year old western performance Quarter Horse gelding. Scooby was trained as a two year old in a colt starting program at an area college. After this foundation training he was placed into reining training and competition with a trainer until he was purchased by the current owner as a five year old.
The current owner continued his training and competition vigorously in both AQHA reining and NRHA competitions for the next four years until he was eight.
At eight years old the owner changed disciplines to Versatility Ranch Horse and included Stock Horse Competition the next year both of which he is still actively involved in to date.
INITIAL EVALUATION-NECK/POLL/HAMSTRINGS
Scooby began TTM™ maintenance treatments in January 2008. Reining was his only discipline at this time and at 8 years old Scooby had had no major injuries and was still in good shape. Because of his age and usage the owner wanted to insure continued wellness and avoid a serious injury. She had begun to feel some differences in his movement and had a chiropractic adjustment performed prior to the TTM™ treatments to assure that he was in alignment.
The initial TTM™ evaluation reveled stresses in the poll area/neck and hindquarter/ hamstrings primarily. Because reining horses are collected and driven forward so much in this discipline the added stress is obvious in these areas.
TTM™ treatments were performed once per week for three weeks to work out the issues in these areas. The owner was advised to let Scooby stretch out his neck, body, and legs by letting him long walk, trot, and canter without collection some in every riding session. Light massage was recommended to be done after cool-down to help flush the toxins from these muscles to insure continued wellness. Manual stretches are also helpful.
SADDLE FIT DAMAGE
At about the age of 7 or 8 a horse’s body type will mature and change. A saddle that has been used and fit a horse for the past few years may no longer fit at this age. Depending on the fit issues there are things that can be done with pads but sometimes the saddle has to be changed entirely.
At the same time that Scooby’s body type was maturing his discipline was also being changed. Because he was now being asked to perform maneuvers that he had never done different muscles were now being strengthened and at his age this helped to change his body type even more drastically at the same time.
The owner had also changed saddle pads at this time so all three of these factors caused Scooby to get sore, causing white hair patches on his withers, collagen scarring, and affect his movement and performance.
TTM™ treatment was performed on the affected areas to release the blockages, restore the circulation, release spasmodic muscles, and remove collagen scarring.
The owner then switched back to the thinner pad and evaluates his back after each ride for stress areas and massages the withers if needed to prevent toxin buildup and increase the flushing process.
Once the blockages were removed and balance was restored with TTM™ Scooby has not had any further issues.
TRAUMA FROM REPETITIVE MANUEVERS
Scooby is a powerful horse in great physical shape. He stops hard and spins fast. Because of his excellent muscle condition he is able to perform these maneuvers with ease.
He developed a fluid filled lump on his right carpus (golf ball size) that would not go away.
Scooby received a TTM™ treatment and the inflammation began to flush and reduce at the site immediately and restore the callused skin.
We determined that the lump was caused from spinning fast 360’s to the right. His left carpus was slamming into his right carpus when he crossed over causing the trauma.
The owner was advised to use a knee boot in practice and be aware of his knees striking while spinning when not protected.
The lump completely disappeared within a few days and Scooby has had no flare-ups since the initial treatment
COLIC/ULCERS
Approximately 70% plus of all performance horses have ulcers and are more susceptible to ulcers than any other group of horses in general. Often horses with ulcers will exhibit symptoms of colic that is a reflection of the pain from the ulcers and not from a compaction or gas blockage.
Scooby was exhibiting signs of severe colic and I performed a TTM™ Colic Treatment on him. He was back to normal within ½ hour and the owner thought that the new hay may have initiated the colic and made changes to her feed program.
A few days later he was showing symptoms of colic again. When it happened again so close in time I was fairly certain that the colic symptoms were being caused by ulcers. The richer hay may have also attributed to worsening ulcers because less was being fed because of the higher quality than the previous hay.
Scooby was treated with TTM™ Ulcer Points and his feed program was adjusted and he has had no reoccurrence since then (7 months).
JOINTS, TENDONS, AND LIGAMENTS
When Scooby was six he began receiving injections in his hocks. He was injected 2X per year as a six and seven year old and 1X per year as an eight, nine, and ten year old with the last injection in July 2010.
This year as an eleven year old he was tested and did not require injections in his hocks!!
Not only did TTM™ treatments prevent further degeneration of the hock joint it also helped the body to reverse the damage to the joint. This is a huge discovery as an alternative to invasive and expensive injections that have no actual healing properties.
When tendons become stressed or injured excessive force is put on the related joints. Because of this stress joints can be pulled out of alignment causing pressure and crushing of the synovial capsule in the joint. The synovial capsule is very thin and the amount and viscosity of the synovial fluid is extremely important to the continued health and function of a joint. When the synovial fluid is cut off by a blockage cartilage and joint damage can be caused within just a few minutes or hours. Tendons and ligaments under stress can be kept healthy and elastic with TTM™ from the onset of training to insure that further degeneration does not occur. A tendon that is rigid or has scarring from an injury is not elastic and cannot stretch to the degree that is required and puts undue stress on the related joint.
Fluid or inflammation on or around a joint will deteriorate the joint and must be alleviated at once. If the stress has already caused inflammation the flushing process can be restored with the first treatment. One to three treatments are normally needed to completely remove the inflammation barring no large floating bone or cartilage chips are present as is sometimes in extreme and chronic injuries.
Hard sliding stops and cattle work is stressful on the hind flexor and extensor tendons and Scooby continues TTM™ maintenance on these areas as needed to insure tendon health.
The owner warms up Scooby up properly to insure the tendons and muscles are elastic and cools Scooby down properly so that the toxins are flushed out. Light massage can also be used for flushing and to check tendon wellness.
MAINTENENCE/WELLNESS
TRAINING
Regular TTM™ maintenance started on a horse at the onset of training is optimal for the health of that horse throughout his life and career.
By maintaining wellness with TTM™ from an early age you can reduce the risk of injury from occurring and help insure continued wellness for joints and soft tissues.
PERFORMANCE
TTM™ treatments and continued maintenance can rebalance and reverse stress and damage that has already occurred to joints and soft tissues. TTM™ maintenance treatments to be performed as needed.
INJURY
When an injury occurs the cells are disrupted and unbalanced and blockages occur in the form of swelling and inflammation at the onset. Inflammation blocks the circulation and the healing process in slowed down which allows for scar tissue or proud flesh to occur.
By treating injuries with TTM™ inflammation can be flushed and allow the body to heal 3 to 5 times faster. Wound healing with TTM™ can prevent the formation of scar tissue and proud flesh. Scar tissue is not elastic so the importance of accelerated healing and minimal scarring on tendons is critical.
RETIRED
TTM™ is proving to be effective in the treatment of arthritic joints. Arthritis can develop in joints that have chronic injuries. TTM™ can remove or reduce inflammation and help to break down and flush deposits in joints which reduces pain and inflammation. The arthritic process can be halted and even reversed allowing the horse less or no pain and an increased range of motion.
IMMUNE SYSTEM
Once again performance horses as a group are at a higher risk for compromised immune systems. Because of the regiment of training, showing, and traveling they are exposed to more stress and are in contact with many other horses from around the country.
TTM™ treatments can help to maintain a strong immune system to enable the horse to resist diseases it may come in contact such as EVH-1 and other viral diseases.
For more information about this case, other treatments, and courses visit and to see more articles by Janet: http://holistic-herd.com/natural-horse-power-llc/
