Just arrived back from Kuwait.  Thanks to Fajer for looking after me yet again.  I can fully recommend the Regency Hotel - just superb!  And the service, like many in the region, goes beyond 5*.  I hope next time I might be able to use the facilities other than my hotel room to sleep!

This time of year the weather is quite warm, 26 degrees by 9am and 30+ for the rest of the day. The horses were pretty much all moderately sore.  This is expected to be honest.  It is too hot to ride in Kuwait over the summer months, most Kuwaities leave the city for more moderate temperatures.  And whilst the majority of the horses are housed in airconditioned and fanned stables for their comfort, they dont really get turn out.  So they effectively spend 3 months in their box.  When the temperatures cool a little, the riders come back, and the horses are put into full work.  As you can imagine, doing not much at all, then full work, will make most horses sore.  People don’t deliberately try to hurt their horses and so I try to educate as best I can on an exercise program to bring their horse back into work.  And it is amazing just how much a horse can harm itself just stood in a stable – what do they get up to!  A few I am sure were sore as a result of being cast.

But the horses are all lovely. I was fortunately enough to ride three – Sheila, Mystery and Tenda Mona.  Thank you.  I had a surreal experience riding under lights at 9pm at night with a thunderstorm brewing further out in the desert and watching the lightening coming closer. 

 
I arrived at my horse today to find his 2 x 4 post at his stable door was broken!  Apart from wondering what had been going on for him to actually break a post that was on the inside of his door, I also wondered what force it would take to do so, and if he was sore.  Sure enough, he was very sore at the base of his neck and into his chest. Luckily I was able to relax the whole area and he responded very quickly to the treatment - I used muscle manipulation and massage techniques.  In cases like these, the sooner you treat the affected area the better.  In cases I have seen some months later, the horse was presenting with very sore trapezius, serratus muscles, neck out of alignment, sore in the chest and pectorals, thus stifling the movement of the horse in front. Clients comment on the horses inability to lift in the canter strike off or not being as ground covering in the trot.  It is only when I comment on the horse having possibly run into something that the client remembers that in the past... 


No equine therapy is a substitute for veterinary attention. All work carried out is in accordance with the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, which states that veterinary consent must be approved before working on any animal.

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