Tendon Therapy

Tendons, are not given a moments thought until they go wrong – and when they do become damaged, as many athletes and horse owners will testify, it is a huge problem resulting in time off from competition.

A tendon injury for a competition horse or racehorse paints an extremely bleak future for horse owners but particularly the apparent lack of coherent treatment regimes available to horses.

“There is no such thing as a good bad leg” is a well known saying in the horse world but increasingly, with a changing environment and with scientists who have worked with world class athletes for many years the equestrian world is now able to benefit from a therapy which has proven results.

Tendons, tendons, tendons

In view of the fact that the causes of pathology occurring in tendons in horses is almost certainly the same as in humans - multi-factorial, a combination of biomechanical, pathological and structural changes all contributing towards painful, swollen and dysfunctional tendons. The thinking behind the introduction of micro-current to the equestrian world was that treatment that worked on athletes had to have a similar effect on horses.

A bit of science!

Particular cells that are specialised to produce the tissue (collagen) required to make the structure of the tendon are often the reason why a tendon problem fails to get better.

In the tendon these cells are located within the tendon sheath and are called tenocytes. The tenocytes appear to become 'lazy' and as a result are less in number and the ones that are present produce less collagen. This is particularly evident as we age or if the tendon is overstressed. This cellular 'go-slow' results in a lack of the protein called collagen, the biological scaffolding that gives the tendon or ligament its structure and strength. This slows down healing in acute (immediate) and chronic (long-term) conditions giving us the problem of how to deal with this problem and treat these conditions successfully.