T ank you to the three wonderful students at the Arizona
Agri-Business and Equine Center College Prep High School at Prescot Valley, Arizona for their assistance with this ar- ticle: Kaylee Reynolds, Brit any Hubbard and Julia Tone.
For more information about the best alternative therapies for horses, see:
GroomLight™, p.27 Back On Track, p.90
unit there, and also get the whole zone of muscles worked at the same time. For example, I will put the light at the top of the
poll of the horse and dwell, while I am doing small and big circles (in both directions) on the horse’s jaw, up and down the horse’s neck. T en I move one
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be able to help their horses themselves. I have been working on a project to fi nd a red light system that could work for every horse owner whether they are on the racetrack, or on a pleasure ride.
And you found red light therapy helpful? I did! T ere are diff erent types of light therapy: blue, yellow and red. T ere is a range of power with
which each approaches the tissue, and the body accepts it in a way that makes it change in a certain way. I have found that optimal power is 660 nm (nm refers to wavelength and is measured in nanometers of one full wave cycle). Lower or higher power can actually be irritating to the horse. So I wanted a unit that was specifi cally calibrated for horses at 660 nm and utilizes visible red light. T e 660 nm has been tested across the board by all kinds of scientifi c institutions including NASA, and there are volumes of research available showing the value of using this light for humans and horses. For the past 20 years, I have been using Jack Meagher’s book
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“Beating Muscle Injuries,” and in this book he identifi es what he calls “stress points.” He has identifi ed 25 muscles that come up over and over again as being dysfunctional. He used a manual ap- proach to release these stress points, but with the red lights I was able to over and over again identify the same stress points and use the lights instead of massage to trigger the release in the muscles.
What is the status of your project at this time? You know, when I would leave the barn, I was happy with the horses I had treated, but it always tugged
at my heart when I walked past other horses than needed some help. My passion became to provide a product that everyone can aff ord and everyone can use. If you can groom your horse, you can do therapy on your horse. So we created the GroomlLight™. T e GroomLight™ has 12 red light diodes in a grooming brush
tool, so it has the largest surface of red light available that I know of. I have taught my clients to use this in what I call “zone therapy.” I use two of the units, and place one on a stress point and “dwell” there, while I use the second one to do circles in a muscle zone. T is way you get extra lights to the stress point by keeping one
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groomer to a stress point on the shoulder, dwell there, and use the second groomer to do circles on the shoulders, withers, forearms, etc. By the time you do this on both sides of the body, the horse feels fabulous! T ey are ready to work. And then you repeat this when you bring them back from their work.
What about the legs? Absolutely, in my sessions I put a GroomLight™ on either side and go down the front legs from the top
to the pastern and back up again. I do the same thing from the hock down on the back legs. Basically you want to hit every part of their body as oſt en as you can. You can dwell on a place you know is a problem, the girth area for example on a cinchy horse. I fi nd the top of the loins is a problem with almost all horses because of poor saddle fi t. So I always give extra dwelling time there.
When is the GroomLight™ going to be available? My company Equus Novia is the exclusive distribu- tor worldwide for the Groomlight™ (
www.groom-
light.com). It has taken awhile to get all the testing, patents and trademarks in place, but we started selling them on our website in June.
T is has been fascinating! Will you come back again and talk more about the biomechanics of the horse and how the horse owner can keep their own horses healthy?
I would love to! I love to share the knowledge and experience I have learned. If everyone knew these basics of biomechanics and kinesiology with their horses, they could have a huge impact on their horses’ longevity and well-being.
Susana Gibson is the founder and publisher of trailBLAZER Magazine. She completed in the sport of endurance riding for 20 years, rode the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim solo on her own horse a few years back, and now enjoys traveling to great destinations around our great USA and the world to camp and trail ride.
FMI
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