Disclaimer:
The information contained in this book has been carefully compiled and checked by the author, and it reflects the current level of knowledge from practical experience. No guarantee can be assumed, however, for its accuracy. Every reader is urged to check for him/herself whether the contents appear to be appropriate for their situation. The information provided is not intended as a diagnosis, treatment or a substitute for medical care. Please consult your veterinary surgeon for these purposes.
© 2020 Volesky, Birgit
Production and Publishing: BoD – Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt
ISBN: 9783753410388
Project management: Madlen Dorandt, horseenergy.academy
Editor: Andreas Kreutz, magazinemaker.de
Design: mehnert / paris GmbH, mehenrtparis.com
Drawings: Sabine Lackner, tier-zeichnungen.at
Printer: www.bod.de
1st edition 2020
Bibliographic information published in the German National Library:
The German National Library catalogues this publication in the German National Bibliography: detailed bibliographic data are available in the internet under www.dnb.de.
This book and its contents are protected under copyright law. All rights of distribution, including by radio, television and other means of communication, photomechanical or audio reproduction, including the reproduction of extracts, are reserved. In particular, the use of the contents for presentations, seminars or training is only permitted with the consent of the author.
STOP!
THIS IS ABOUT YOU AND
YOUR HORSE.
My book is not a comprehensive textbook, but rather a summary of my
practical experience and of discussions with trainers, veterinary surgeons,
horse owners and other horse lovers. I started off simply wanting to write a
guide for my clients, because I pass on similar information every day. Now I
have put it all together for the general public. Please look the contents as my
humble offer to communicate this information.
My aim is to build a network of horsey people who are interested in expanding
their own knowledge.
This QR code takes you to a site where you can get in touch with me, give
feedback, or pass on further information to me.
Scan this QR code or just enter this link:
www.horseenergy.academy/community
Why a cold back in a horse is just a symptom.
The overbuilt horse, a severe ewe neck, pelvic obliquity, injuries to the suspensory ligament, kissing spines and many other issues may be present when a horse is suffering from a weak back. These symptoms are avoidable in most cases if they are dealt with early enough.
In this book, Birgit Volesky sums up her experience from over 10 years of practice in osteotherpy and with horses. These have led her to the understanding that 90% of horses have similar functional problems. If these problems are solved, then you can establish a basis from which you can make a sensitive start to working with the horse.
The objective of this book is to provide every horse owner with a tool that allows them to understand their horse and its behaviour patterns better for themselves. Anatomical backgrounds and chains of action illustrate the factors to which the horse owner needs to pay attention in order to prevent long-term problems with their equine partner.
Birgit Volesky is a german equine osteoptherapist who specialises in topline syndrome. The aim of her work is to identify early on when a horse is having problems, because at this stage it is easy to deal with many potentially serious problems. The horse’s well-being can be maintained.
Dear Reader
Welcome! I am delighted that you are going to accompany me on this little journey, in which I would like to tell you about the experiences I have gathered in the course of the several thousand osteotherapatic treatments I have carried out over the last 10 years. I am looking forward to telling you about my personal history with horses and the insights I have gained from all this.
The contents of this book are drawn exclusively from experience and insights gained from my practice. Because, after their training, every therapist starts off with a big case full of tools, even if they only truly learn which tool should be used for what purpose through many years of experience. My therapeutic eye, too, only started to focus properly with the passage of time. When I look back today, I have to smile: in the beginning I couldn’t actually see a thing. My lack of experience saw me struggling through the treatments I carried out. At least I had kinesiological tests to help me to get a better picture.
That meant that at that stage I was able to provide the horses with some sort of help, but today I also aim to give them back their natural geometry, with the correct curve in their back line. I don’t want simply to make a bit of a difference, but to take them back to square one – to return them to their original state, so to speak. I achieve this using gentle techniques based on the idea and the feel of sensitive riding. I call this the HORSE ENERGYToplineRESET®. This method of treatment results in horses having the chance to develop their full physical potential once again. Over the years I have got to know many wonderful horses and their worried owners, and these in-depth encounters have given me the incentive to publish my experiences. I hope that as many horses as possible can be helped with my methods, because over and over and again, after the first treatment, I have heard the sentence, “If only I had known that sooner”.
Some of these owners burst into tears and sat next to me on the ground sobbing. They knew that their horse had a problem, but their attempts to help him had been fruitless. They were desperate.
Perhaps you’re in a similar situation, which is why I want to tell you my own story here. I’m sure it will be of some consolation to you if you know that you are not alone in suffering from this plight.
I too have made plenty of mistakes when handling horses, and I still make them today. We always try to do our best, of course, but there are situations when we simply get stressed and behave unfairly towards our equine partners. But, drawing on my experience from all the encounters I have had with horses, I can confidently say that a horse will reeeally look after us if it feels that we are trying to do our best, and when we are not just (mis)treating it as an item of sporting equipment that needs to work properly all the time, and when it’s not just some bloody nag that won’t do what we want when we want. But regardless, it is our job and our duty to work on ourselves every day so that we can improve. And we need to focus on our horse’s true potential, not to follow a plan that isn’t his plan.
There are, however, horses that follow a completely different plan. They have bigger plans, which we don’t recognise at first. That’s the way it was with the first horse I owned.
Even today I choke up when I think of Navall. Losing this great horse left a big hole in my life. Because it was when he came to me, as a five-year-old, and took me by the hand, that the path my life was going to take was determined.
Navall was up for sale on a yard in Zeulenroda in Thuringia, in the centre of Germany. I had only gone there with the riding teacher from my riding club to help her to buy a school horse. When we arrived at the yard there were several horses tied up outside. On the right-hand side, standing at a rail, was a huge, rangy chestnut. Head down, he looked nervously round to see who was coming. The yard owner said that he wasn’t actually supposed to be a school horse, but because he was so good with children they had brought him out anyway. He had a few flaps of skin hanging down, the excuse for which being that he was only just being integrated into the herd at the yard. I can’t remember any longer exactly what happened next, but anyway we went back there a few days later and I rode Navall to try him out. Then I was able to take him home to our stables for a two-week trial period. I still have pictures of him standing on the yard after he arrived, looking expectantly at his new home. Navall was a young horse and at that time I didn’t have much idea about the interrelationships that are involved with riding. We had offers of help from lots of people. But the more Navall worked, and the stronger he got, the harder it got for us. Anyone who has bought a young horse will probably understand. I tried everything, bought every aid and listened to loads of people. It got a bit better, but not exactly good.
And then, through Navall, I met an excellent instructor who was new to the area. When we had our first lesson he explained to me that my horse had blockages (Navall’s stride was significantly shorter in the near hind than on the offside), and that these needed to be released if he was to have any real chance at proper training. After that an experienced acupuncturist visited us regularly from the Rhineland, and I was fascinated to see how he managed to release the tension my horse was suffering from. With the help of the trainer, Navall continued to get better and stronger. Over the next few years I learned a lot, my own interest in therapeutic approaches grew, and I started to educate myself – this was the beginning of my life as a therapist.
Navall and I tried several times to go to shows, but there was always a reason why we never managed to make it. The last time I wanted to take him show jumping, and the week beforehand he suddenly developed a sand crack which restricted our exercise for a whole year. I finally understood: Navall did not want to compete. When I went into his box that evening it was obvious. And as that thought entered my head he gave a loud sigh. I suspect he was thinking, “She’s got the message at last”.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because I know how it feels to have a goal that you never achieve with the horse because life has other plans. I know, too, how it feels when you start behaving unfairly towards the horse because it isn’t doing what it should. Yes, that is something I know only too well. I can only apologise to Navall from the bottom of my heart for all the many mistakes I made with him, and for being unfair to him at times. He always let me know that it was his job to help me to develop my strengths. I bow humbly to all the horses who take it upon themselves to make better people of us so that eventually the world can become a better place. I know now that Navall was there to open my eyes. He gave me the chance to grow from all these experiences, and to recognise that above all I needed to work on my personality so that I could improve my interaction with horses and become a good therapist. For that I would like to take this opportunity to thank him from the bottom of my heart.
To be a dependable partner in the eye of a horse is perhaps the best reward that we can get in life. Perhaps you, too, now realise what an opportunity your horse gives you.
Two days before Christmas 2019, after he had been with me for 15 years, Navall suffered an accident and broke his leg. We spent 10 intensive weeks together trying to save his life. It might sound strange, but I shall be eternally grateful for that time, in the course of which we did a lot of things, knowing it would probably be for the last time. In the many hours we spent together I had lots of “conversations” with him. He told me that it was time I wrote about our experiences. It was his wish that all the insights he had triggered throughout his life should be passed on to as many people as possible. To people who are able to understand that issues such as a reluctance to be ridden, resistance, and problems with behaviour and handling are not due to malice but have a cause. Because that is just the conclusion that I have come to from these times:
There is always a cause!
From all my years as an osteotherapist, all my work with experienced riders, horse trainers and caring owners, and from the many seminars and training courses I have attended, I have come to the realisation that, in 90 per cent of the physical characteristics we see in horses that have problems with movement, there are similarities. Of course the symptoms often manifest themselves as different disorders and disabilities. But, when viewed holistically, the causes of the problems can be classified according to certain specific features.
My desire has always been to illustrate a simple system that allows every horse owner to recognise at an early stage when something is wrong. So it seemed obvious to me that this system has to be easy to understand on the standing horse. Because when I see the descriptions in sundry Facebook groups, textbooks and the like, they always try to explain the problems in relation to the horse’s movement. Nowadays there are countless books on biomechanics, and many of these really are worth reading, but most of them do not enable the average horse owner to recognise problems for themselves. Nearly all of us know just how difficult examinations for lameness are. How is a hobby rider supposed to recognise something that the experts often disagree on?
I want to change that, and my objective in this book is to establish a list of criteria that every horse owner will be able to recognise and understand quickly, even without the aid of a professional or a guru. My aim is to make things clear, rather than confusing. To do this I am going to deliberately limit myself to presenting the points that I think are essential, and I am not going to write a detailed book on biomechanics, an anatomical atlas or a work on physiology. I intend only to include complementary knowledge gleaned from my own personal practice, in simple language that any horse owner can understand. I very much hope that I can succeed in this.
My descriptions are also intended to help in recognising problems at an early stage. The earlier a problem is detected, the faster it can usually be sorted out. Unfortunately, the horses that come to me for initial treatment often arrive too late. I am not criticising the owners, but when I talk to them it generally becomes apparent that the horse had shown early signs that should have prompted them to think. I explain it like this: the first thing the horse does is to raise a white flag, which sadly, in most cases, is not detected. It is just as difficult for me with my own horses, when I see them every day. The next thing is that the first problems manifest themselves when the horse is ridden on both reins. If it resists, rears, bucks, or exhibits other unusual behaviour, this is the final method of expression that the horse possesses in its repertoire of communication.
Based on my experience I can only say that horses enjoy working with people. They want to be seen and respected.
When problems occur, there may be a physical cause!
For this reason you, my reader, should examine your horse with the assistance of the criteria that I am going to provide you with, and think about what it might be trying to show you. Pay attention to this and try, with the help of my explanations, to work out what the physical cause is, and then to alleviate this together with a good therapist.
My list of criteria applies to every horse and every style of riding. Each type of horse has, of course particular characteristics arising from their breed and lineage that result in certain features being especially apparent or more strongly pronounced. This doesn’t mean, though, that there are breeds or styles of riding that are exempted from this. Horses don’t read books or check out Facebook groups. They certainly wouldn’t dogmatically follow any system, because these are all conceptual ideas thought up by humans. For this reason it is incorrect for a rider to systematically use the same approach when riding every horse, because each horse is unique and must be ridden uniquely and appropriately for its own current situation and stage of development. This is what makes the true horseman (or horsewoman), and this is what every rider should aspire to.
This reminds me of a quote from British horse healer Margrit Coates, who wrote this in the voice of the horse:
“We read energies, we are telepathic,
we communicate soul to soul….
Are you listening?”