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Eurodressage
Interview
Horses for Courses: Anna Johnson Reflects on
Physiotherapy for Horse and Human - Page 2
 Anna's
practice on humans and maintenance of human physiotherapy
skills hugely benefits her horse clients also. "Although
people want a physiotherapy course that is just veterinary,
I personally feel that the technique on humans is more
advanced than veterinary. There is more human research
and they can talk. Equine practices have just got MRI
scanners but humans have had them for years. I maintain
human skills because they are far more technically advanced
and I can then transfer them across. If people become
just veterinary physiotherapists they will be missing
out on some of the basic principles," stresses
Anna.
As human medicine devotes much larger resources to
research than the veterinary world, it is for the most
part human ideas and technology that are transferred
across to animal physiotherapy and not the other way
round. The market for veterinary medicine could not
have supported the development of lasers and ultrasound
used in human field. Transcutanious Electrical Nerve
Stimulation (T.E.N.S.) machines are used as a basic
muscle stimulator on horses after they were developed
for pain relief of women in labour. Rugs and boots for
pulsed electro-magnetic energy also evolved from human
technology.
Horse whisperers and faddish treatments are quite vogue
in today's horse world and Anna is quite emphatic there
is nothing magic about what she does. "It is all
clinical and proven. Any clinician must have the skills
to palpate or have a feel with joints, watch an animal
move, and perform gait analysis. With experience you
spot lameness or stiffness far quicker than the average
person does. However, quite a few dressage riders and
trainers have knowledge from watching horses over the
years to recognise an abnormality or asymmetry. I have
great empathy with horses and known horses from age
two. It does help to have an inbuilt knowledge of horses
and I feel or listen with my hands. However, this is
a learned skill that comes with experience," Anna
explains.
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