YOUR HORSE'S CARE KEEPING HIM COMFY | OSTEOPATHY
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A WHISKERY BAY head gently bobs up and down, ears at half-mast and eyelids drooping, as osteopath Michael Pye runs his hand over the patient's face, gently manipulating the space between his eyes in an almost imperceptible motion.
You could be forgiven for thinking that it is just a cursory caress. But you would be wrong.
With the lightest of touches, Michael, who treats horses through his equine practice, In Hand Equine Osteopathy, can send even the flightiest and most anxious individuals into a relaxed slumber.
Here, he is practising a form of cranial osteopathy, feeling for the softening of the fascia — the thin layer of connective tissue that surrounds every structure in the body.
“I'm assessing the movement between the individual bones in the skull and trying to release some of the tension in the forehead,” he explains. “A horse can hold a lot of tension in this area and you can get some really strong releases when it starts to ‘give’.”
What is osteopathy?
An osteopath understands that everything in the body is inter-related and must therefore be looked at as
