About Equine Craniosacral Therapy & Technique (for horses)

What is Equine Craniosacral Therapy?

In the early 1900’s, an osteopath named Dr William Sutherland discovered that when pressures were applied to the bones of the skull, the sacrum and pelvis were affected and vice versa. However, whereas traditional osteopathy focuses on the individual bones themselves, craniosacral focuses on bringing balance throughout the skeletal and muscular systems with specific focus on the individual bones of the skull, spine and sacrum.

Craniosacral therapy was originally developed by osteopaths for people. In the late 1990’s US-based Maureen Rogers started developing the technique for use on horses and other animals. The technique is a very gentle hands on therapy which encourages the horse to release the restricted movement of the bones of the skull, spine and pelvis.

Through Equine Craniosacral work, issues which are very often seen as conformation issues have been shown to be postural issues. As a therapy it offers an excellent an extremely effective alternative to more conventional therapies such as massage and physiotherapy, especially for nervous and anxious horses. Krystyna Monks works with horses from all disciplines, from top level, high performance competition horses to children’s ponies. Many horses are forced to retire from injuries and wear and tear caused by lack of preventative care and treatment. Equine Craniosacral therapy can help horses combat the physical stresses and strains imposed on them (competing, hacking, or even just pulling back when tied up) and allows them to rebalance their bodies so they are able to perform more effectively and comfortably over a longer period.

Equine craniosacral therapy helps top level competition horses maintain peak performance and competitive edge and is gaining popularity in many disciplines, especially eventing.

Equine craniosacral can help horses that suffer from head shaking, lameness, hindquarter injuries, head traumas, tempromandibular joint (jaw) dysfunction and many other conditions.