Friday, March 29, 2024
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Hands-on help in healing horses

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Gill Cure looks at an effective treatment for horses, carried out by a local practitioner.

Heather Powell has lived in Alvechurch for two years. She has always enjoyed riding in this area and trained at Seechem Equestrian Centre in Rowney Green and qualified as a riding instructress.

Heather’s profession was as a manual lymph drainage practitioner. Treating people for lymphodema was very satisfying and she had a successful clinic in Birmingham for several years. From her initial training, Heather saw how this treatment would be very beneficial in the equine world.

Knowledge of the horses’ lymphatic system is little known and researched in Britain. So Heather travelled to Germany in 2006 and trained as an equine practitioner. Germany is presently the only country where training is available for an official qualification. There are very few practitioners in equine manual lymphatic drainage (EMLD) in the UK.

EMLD is a very specialist treatment used for reducing swelling and discomfort, and it’s totally non-invasive and drug-free, so suitable for horses during competition. Heather travels all over the country successfully treating a variety of conditions, such as lymphangitis, laminitis and tendon injuries to name a few.

Heather is not a vet and does not diagnose conditions. She works alongside vets to relieve pain and swelling and increase recovery time. EMLD has proved most successful in the reduction of inflammation in laminitis cases.

Heather feels that laminitis and the lymphatic system have a close connection, and medical research is ongoing. Christopher Pollitt, a well-known laminitis specialist from the University of Queensland, has expressed an interest in ELMD and Heather’s treatment.

Shortly, Heather is to travel to California to further studies in EMLD in treating chronic progressive lymphodema (CLD), which is mainly found in Shire and gypsy horses. Gypsy “vanner” horses are very popular in the USA.

Heather is to team up with the veterinary medical department at VC Davies University in Sacramento and will then return to the UK to continue her work.

Heather still continues to treat people as well as horses, and more information can be found at www.mldandmassage.co.uk. For equine information visit www.equinemld.com, ring 0121 447 7873 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)