Week 6: Red Light
Emily H -
Welcome back to my blog!
This week I shadowed Melinda on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, Melinda worked nine different horses and on Wednesday I got to see Drifter again! Each of the nine horses got the standard treatment that Melinda offers, which includes: thirty minutes of magna wave therapy, massage of the body, and joint adjustments. Magna wave therapy requires a Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) machine and it helps promote healing, reduce pain, and increase circulation. While Melinda does the bodywork on the horses, I red light any areas that Melinda has noticed sensitivity or tension. Red light therapy can accelerate muscle recovery by reducing inflammation and promoting cellular energy production, help relieve pain, and improve circulation, which can help reduce pain and inflammation. Each of these horses did well for their treatments. Only one horse stood out to me, Tater, who is a six year old gelding that has not received treatment before. Tater did well for his treatment however when Melinda went to adjust his sternum, he gave her some difficulty. Typically Melinda adjusts the sternum by picking up and holding one front leg, either side, and pushing weight onto the horse to get the horse to “hop” over on its other front leg. This movement adjusts the sternum and moves it back into position. However, because Tater has never received treatment before, he did not understand what Melinda was asking of him, so she had to adjust his sternum another way. Which is not a big deal but the other way puts a greater load on Melinda rather than the horse doing the heavy lifting. I thought this was interesting because I had not seen Melinda use the other method to adjust a sternum before!
Now moving on to Wednesday, I was able to see Drifter and his stablemate Burnell. Burnell receives standard treatment when we see Drifter, however Drifter typically gets the most focus. This day Burnell was quite sore as she was ridden the day before. On her we noted a lot of tension and soreness in her neck and shoulders. To treat this we used the magna wave all over her body, but primarily focusing the most amount of time on her neck and shoulders. As well as this I red lighted her neck shoulders for longer than normal. And afterwards she was feeling and moving a lot better! Noe for Drifter, I’m happy to report he is doing well! We did the standard treatment Drifter usually gets and I red lighted his entire body primarily focusing the most time on his hind and neck.
Thank you for joining me this week! Next week I will have some information regarding my anatomy study and tools. See you next week!