Stifle overuse and chronic injury in dressage horses

Stifle injury, Buqi case study

Stifle injury

Dressage Horse - Recovery from Stifle Injury

  • continuous feedback tracking 'pressure on the joint' coming back into work
  • clearing binqi from the affected area
  • diagonal shifting in deep relaxation
  • nearly fully recovered with careful management, good veterinary care and Buqi sessions

A stunning 8 year old Danish Warmblood, this horse was under the direction of the Vet and undergoing box rest when I first met him having been diagnosed with damage to the ligaments and/or cartilage of the stifle (patella) of the right hind. He had been injected with corticosteroids with a tentative prognosis for recovery.

As the horse was under veterinary care and the outlook was potentially bleak the sessions were to 'do what we can to help'. Whilst a lot was being done in terms of good management, progressive re-introduction to work, physiotherapy, etc the Buqi sessions became an adjunct and contribution in getting this horse back into work. It has been an interesting and eventful journey so far and the upshot has been a couple of wins, both first time out and subsequently.

The Buqi has allowed us to a keep up a reasonably refined assessment as to 'how things are doing now', rather than waiting for expensive diagnostic tools to show how things have done. On many occasions this horse 'blew up' emotionally because of his long internment, offered his version of blasting around the field, or under saddle, when he shouldn't have and left us all heart in mouth on more than one occasion. Notably, at one point, during re-introduction to being in the paddock, the horse did the inevitable mad galloping, bucking, cavorting, etc and came in looking very sorry behind. The owner and I feared the worst but amazingly the Buqi session (which was the following day) revealed that more strain had taken place in the hock than the patella. To our mutual relief he actually 'got away' with that little episode.

With careful management and skilled riding this horse has gone from strength to strength and is almost fully recovered. I have seen him every 3-4 weeks to support progress and more frequently when progress has been difficult. One memorable session resulted in binqi being clearly felt around the stifle which allowed a direct interaction with the area on an 'information level'. This horse has progressively deepened in relaxation as time has gone on, although he didn't relax fully until the 4th or 5th session. During deep relaxation he is seen to shift the weight from diagonal pair to diagonal pair and is clearly relieving the tension that had built up due to the initial injury. The owner also noticed that, on going back out to competition his demeanour had changed and he was calmer than usual.