Silvi, 10YO Mare, Sport Horse. Poor Performance “Not Jumping as before”

Poor performance is the most frequent complaint with equine clients. It can be hard to unravel because it is often a mix of different factors that cause it. With acupuncture we approach it with my favourite points called exactly that PERFORMANCE POINTS: 7 points located around the sacroiliac joint. On top of these points we will use more specific points depending on the Chinese diagnosis. ** tengo q explicar en algun sitio el body scan para diagnosis tb.

Silvi has been competing in international show jumping for the last few years, however 2 months ago after a competition away, her rider felt like she was not the same. After a full lameness examination with her vet, they found out that she had some arthritis in her hocks. They treated them and she has been better since then. But, according to the owner “something is missing” so she decided to contact me, to try something else.

During the first appointment I found out about Silvi’s personality; she is strong, competitive and the boss of the yard. Based on the 5 elements theory I asked a few questions to the owner, and I established that she was the WOOD element.

Next step is to find out the diagnosis using pulses, tongue colour and there and specific points along the body that are diagnostics for types of pain.

Pulse diagnosis: you need to feel pulses in both sides of the jugular vein.

Tongue diagnosis: colour and coat will determine part of the diagnosis.

Body scan diagnosis: with something a bit sharp you stimulate those points and depending on the reaction you get; you consider them positive – meaning the horse has got pain in that location – or negative: pain free.

Then we started the treatment with a massage with fascia-release and tui-na basics that I’m learning – another tool from the Traditional Chinese Medicine. Once the body is relaxed and not hyperreactive to touch, I place the first needle in a permission point, for example Bai Hui. Sometimes we can leave the needle halfway while we insert others and then come back to that one and keep pushing it in. Bai Hui is a very strong point that connects and opens many channels. My acupuncture treatment that day started with dry needles: performance points, BL60-KID3, BL54, BL40…

In this case, I didn’t use electroacupuncture at the first session but I will likely try it at the follow ups. I left the needles for 30min, some came out alone, others were hard to remove. One bled a bit – that’s normal when there is a lot of stagnation on that point.

I came back 3 days later; my plan was to do 4 sessions every 3 days and then come back 4weeks later. This always depends on the response to treatment, evolution, acceptance etc.

In this case, Silvi was much better after the first treatment already but after the second and third they didn’t notice much improvement. Acupuncture works – almost 100% of the time- but the body needs time to heal, to balance and to show us the changes so patience is important.

When I came back after one month, she was jumping much better, pushing from behind, collecting herself etc.

Now I recheck her every 6 weeks, that keeps her in very good shape, and as soon as we feel something different, we treat to prevent.

The diagnosis changes every time I visit, and the stagnation I found on the first day is now gone.

The stagnation means blockage of the energy, no free flow of Qi which means pain.