Osteopathy for horses
Osteopathy is a holistic medicine that sees the horse's body as a whole. The cause of the complaint is investigated and treated using manual techniques. My goal as an osteopath is to restore the mobility of the parietal, visceral and craniosacral system.
Osteopathy is based on the principles of anatomy, embryology, neurology and physiology. The Greek word osteo means bone and the word pathos means disease. From this one would infer that an osteopath only treats bones, but this is not the case. The spine and pelvis are the central places of the body that are treated. By treating these places, nerves, blood vessels, organs, muscles and much more are also treated.
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Andrew Taylor Still (1828-1917) was an American physician and the founder of osteopathy. He based mainly on the anatomy of man and the flow of natural forces in the body.
A healthy body is able to keep itself in balance, but sometimes due to, for example, a fall or a period of illness, the body can no longer bring itself into balance and will compensate. For example, because one wants to relieve one leg, one sometimes unconsciously puts more pressure on another leg. This puts another load on another link.
One can view the body as a chain of a bicycle. If one of the links fails, the entire chain will no longer be able to perform its normal function and other links will wear out more quickly. This is exactly the same in a body. eg. if one of the vertebrae is not in the right position, it affects the entire body.
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Osteopathy has 3 systems:
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The parietal system
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The visceral system
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The craniosacral System
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These systems are to some extent mobile from each other. This mobility is necessary for the proper functioning of the body. The mobility depends on the space they are in and in relation to each other.
The parietal system consists of muscles, tendons, nerves and joints. The spine consists of all successive joints in which blockages easily occur.
This can have major consequences if one knows that between all these vertebrae nerve pathways run from the spinal cord, which in turn innervate a certain segment of muscles, blood vessels, organs, bones and skin.
Due to a blockage, complaints and symptoms arise so that you can not only have muscle pain, but also pain in a joint or a change in the skin.
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The visceral system consists of all organs. Organs are partly controlled by nerves that come from the spinal cord.
The visceral system consists of all organs. Organs are partly controlled by nerves that come from the spinal cord. Due to a blockage of a vertebra, a horse can have problems with the associated organ, but also vice versa.
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The Craniosacral System consists of
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The central nervous system, the spinal cord and the brain
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The dura mater, arachnoidea and the pia mater
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The cerebrospinal fluid that runs between the previous two points
This system is surrounded and protected by bones from the skull to the spinal cord to the bottom of the sacrum and is seen as a whole. Within this system is the nervous system.
In osteopathy we are always looking for the primary link and disrupted chains.
That is why we always look at the body as a whole.