Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy in the Management of Trigeminal Mediated Headshaking in Horses.

29 Sep 2025 Equine

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For horses affected by trigeminal-mediated headshaking, the prognosis is sobering. The condition — characterised by violent, involuntary vertical flicking of the head, nasal irritation, and profound distress, often triggered by exercise, light, or wind — has no confirmed cause and no reliably curative treatment. When EquiPENS, supplementation, and pharmacological options fail to bring meaningful relief, euthanasia is frequently the outcome.


Sadie Pearce’s thesis does not offer a clinical trial or a treatment protocol. What it offers is something arguably more valuable at this stage: a carefully constructed hypothesis. Through a systematic narrative review of the available literature, she maps the anatomy and neurophysiology associated with TMHS and asks whether the physiological changes described in osteopathic somatic dysfunction could illuminate — and potentially address — the underlying pathology.


The trigeminal nerve is the largest cranial nerve, with extensive sensory coverage across the head. Research has confirmed hyperexcitability of its maxillary branch in affected horses, with measurable reductions in the threshold at which the infraorbital nerve fires. What has not been established is why. Pearce traces the anatomical connections between the occipitoatlantal joint, the superior cervical ganglia, and the trigeminal nerve’s origin in the brainstem — a pathway where osteopathic lesioning, she argues, could plausibly contribute to the dysfunction observed.


The review draws on spinal lesion research, fascial mechanics, neurological signalling, and even the emerging evidence around gut microbiota differences in TMHS horses, building a layered picture of a condition that may be systemic in origin rather than localised to the nerve itself. The role of calcium and magnesium in neural excitability, and the known therapeutic effect of magnesium supplementation, adds further texture to the hypothesis.


Whether OMT could offer these horses a meaningful pathway to relief remains an open question — but this thesis makes a compelling case that it deserves serious investigation. The full paper is worth reading for anyone working with horses for whom current treatment options have run out.

Osteopathy in Foals and Growing Horses

30 Jun 2025 Equine

Another standout work by an LCAO student! Read about Osteopathy and its effects on foals and growing horses in a thesis by International Diploma in Equine Osteopathy student, Claire Delisle Legrand.

 

The Use of Neurological Segmentation in Equine Osteopathy

7 Apr 2025 Equine

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Touch a vertebra, and you are not just touching a bone. You are entering a neurological network that extends outward to skin, organs, muscles, and the brain itself. This is the central insight of Frouke-tea Friedhoff’s thesis, which argues that equine osteopaths who understand neurological segmentation can address the underlying cause of dysfunction rather than managing only its visible symptoms.


The paper moves methodically through the architecture of the equine nervous system — central and peripheral, motor and sensory, somatic and autonomic — before arriving at the heart of its subject: the ways in which spinal segments, somatotopic maps, referred pain patterns, and dermatome regions can each guide more precise osteopathic diagnosis and treatment.


Particularly compelling is the discussion of spinal segmentation in practice. Working on the thoracic region at Th1–Th3, for example, carries implications not only for the vertebrae themselves but for the lungs, the heart, and the brachial plexus. The practitioner who knows these connections treats with intention rather than by location alone.


The thesis also explores somatotopic mapping — the idea that each region of the body corresponds to a specific point in the nervous system and in the cortex. Drawing on both human research and emerging equine-specific auricular acupuncture maps, Friedhoff suggests these tools could significantly enhance osteopathic diagnosis, helping distinguish whether a spinal lesion originates from the vertebral column or from organ dysfunction.


Referred pain in the horse is examined with appropriate caution — it is difficult to detect and often overlooked — but the author makes a persuasive case that ignoring it risks misattributing lameness to the wrong source. A dull coat, an unusual hair pattern, a subtle asymmetry: Friedhoff shows us how to read these as neurological signals. The thesis ultimately invites practitioners to look past the surface and ask: what is the body actually telling us?

Osteopathic Treatment of Animals in Rehabilitation

30 Dec 2024 Equine & Canine Osteopathy

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When a horse comes back from injury or a dog recovers from surgery, the conventional plan typically involves rest, anti-inflammatories, and — if the owner is proactive — some form of physiotherapy. It is a reasonable plan. It is also, argues Tony Smit, often an incomplete one.

Smit’s thesis is a structured examination of where manual osteopathy fits within animal rehabilitation — and why it occupies different ground from every other complementary therapy available. He begins by mapping the landscape honestly: Bowen Therapy, the Emmett Technique, myofunctional therapy, kinesiology taping, and acupuncture all have their place. But none of them, he argues, operates from a comprehensive model of structural and functional interdependence in the way osteopathy does. The five osteopathic models of health — biomechanical, respiratory/circulatory, neurological, metabolic/energy, and behavioural — give the osteopath a diagnostic framework that positions the musculoskeletal system as a window into whole-body function, not merely a collection of parts to treat individually.


Two case studies anchor the argument in practice. Axel, a 12-year-old German Shepherd with cauda equina infection and severe neurological deficits, had failed to sustain improvement through veterinary medication alone. Three weeks of integrated osteopathic care, including visceral manipulation that identified a peristaltic dysfunction the vet had not yet connected to the presentation, produced marked recovery — improved weight-bearing, regained continence, better temperament and appetite. The equine case study is equally telling: a cob hack with unexplained left forelimb lameness and stumbling was fully resolved with a single osteopathic treatment, after two veterinary assessments had failed to identify the cause.


The thesis then builds a physiological case for why these results make sense — covering circulatory enhancement, lymphatic drainage, neural modulation, respiratory mechanics in quadrupeds, and the role of fascia as a body-wide signalling system. Smit does not overstate. He also discusses the clear limitations: conditions requiring veterinary diagnosis first, the challenges of anxious patients, and the importance of integrated care. What emerges is a thoughtful, well-referenced argument for placing osteopathy at the centre of any serious animal rehabilitation programme.

Osteopathic manipulative treatment on Parkinson´s related symptoms

19 Aug 2024 Canine

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Parkinson’s disease is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder in the world, and its numbers are growing. Pharmaceutical management remains the primary treatment pathway, but it is increasingly clear that drugs alone cannot address the full range of what the disease takes from a person — or, as Kendra Byers reminds us, from an animal. Horses can develop toxic equine parkinsonism through prolonged ingestion of yellow star thistle or Russian knapweed. Dogs may develop it through hereditary or injury-related pathways. The symptom overlap with human PD is significant, which means the potential value of OMT as a cross-species intervention is worth investigating seriously.


Byers structures her review across three domains: pain management, functional mobility, and quality of life. On pain, the picture is encouraging. Around 60% of people living with PD experience pain, most commonly in the lower back — an area where OMT has demonstrated clear efficacy in the broader clinical population. Byers makes a compelling argument that reducing reliance on opioids and NSAIDs, both of which carry serious risks with prolonged use, makes osteopathic management not just clinically interesting but ethically important.


The functional findings are equally promising. A single session of whole-body OMT has been shown to increase sagittal hip range of motion in PD patients — meaningful in a condition where reduced joint mobility directly contributes to falls, injury, and loss of independence. Postural stability improvements have also been documented, attributed to reduced muscular rigidity allowing a more upright centre of gravity.


Perhaps the most unexpected territory concerns the glymphatic system — the brain’s waste-clearance network, dysfunction in which is implicated in both Alzheimer’s and PD. OMT’s effects on lymphatic and cranial circulation may have a role to play in reducing the toxic protein build-up that drives neurodegeneration. It is a hypothesis still requiring species-specific research, but the mechanistic logic is sound and the early animal data is encouraging.


Byers is clear-eyed about the limitations: sample sizes vary, species-specific studies are scarce, and technique classification needs greater consistency across the field. But the overall trajectory of the evidence points toward OMT as a meaningful complementary therapy. For a disease that currently has no cure, that matters considerably.

An Analysis of Biofluids & Heat Transfer Mechanisms

14 May 2024 Canine

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Every somatic dysfunction leaves a trace in the body’s physiology. The question is whether we have the tools to find it. This thesis by Hollie Victoria Acres approaches that question from an unexpected angle — through the physics of heat, the mechanics of fluid flow and the infrared light spectrum — to argue that thermal imaging may give canine osteopaths a window into dysfunction that palpation alone cannot reliably provide.


The scope here is genuinely ambitious. Acres works through the fluid mechanics of biofluids — intravascular, interstitial and lymphatic — mapping how changes in mass flow rate alter the heat a body generates and releases. The connection matters because osteopathic philosophy has always held that impediments to fluid flow underlie disease. If that is true, then patterns of thermal asymmetry on the body’s surface should, in theory, reflect those impediments — and thermal imaging cameras, operating in the infrared spectrum, can detect precisely those patterns.


The thesis works through each of the five osteopathic models in turn. The biomechanical model shows how overloaded muscles run warmer and underloaded ones cooler, with hypothermic regions becoming stiffer and more injury-prone. The neurological model reveals how vasoconstriction and vasodilation — driven by the autonomic nervous system — produce the thermal signatures that cameras can quantify. The biopsychosocial sections raise particularly intriguing questions: can thermal imaging detect emotional states and pain anxiety in dogs who cannot tell us where it hurts?


Acres includes thermal images taken in collaboration with veterinary thermographers, showing real cases where asymmetries visible on camera preceded or accompanied lameness that conventional examination had not fully explained. The limitations are addressed honestly — coat type, ambient temperature and camera resolution all affect results.


What this thesis ultimately argues is that thermal imaging is not a replacement for osteopathic skill, but a powerful complement to it: an objective layer of assessment that catches change before symptoms become performance-limiting.

Tori is based in NSW Central Coast, Australia, and runs Canine Body Balance. To learn more about her work or to get in touch, click here.

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