Geriatric Equine Care: Osteopathic Treatment Benefits | LCAO

Click to view

Horses are living longer than ever before. Improved nutrition, veterinary care and owner awareness mean it is now common to find horses well into their twenties and even thirties still in active work — or at least in active retirement. But longevity brings its own challenges, and the geriatric equine presents a clinical picture that demands more than reactive treatment. Jennifer Rakas's thesis takes a careful look at the musculoskeletal and neurological changes that accumulate as horses age, and at how osteopathy can be positioned not just as a response to pain, but as an ongoing tool for maintaining function, comfort and quality of life. The conditions she focuses on — osteoarthritis, cervical dysfunction and back pain — are among the most frequently encountered in senior horses, and each carries its own complexity. OA, for instance, affects an estimated 60% of lameness cases in horses, with prevalence rising steeply with age. Yet the molecular cascade that drives joint degeneration is only part of the story; the compensatory patterns that develop around chronic joint pain often do as much long-term damage as the original pathology. Rakas examines how Osteopathic Articular Balancing and other manual techniques can interrupt these patterns, restore movement and reduce inflammatory load — without waiting for the condition to reach surgical thresholds. Cervical dysfunction receives equally close attention. Its presentation in older horses is often subtle: a slight head tilt, reluctance to lower the head to graze, or an asymmetry in neck carriage during turnout. These are signs that are easy to dismiss as normal ageing, but Rakas argues they deserve structured assessment and hands-on intervention. What makes this thesis particularly readable is its grounded clinical perspective. Rakas draws on a body of veterinary and human literature to build a case for regular osteopathic assessment as part of geriatric equine management — not as a luxury, but as a genuinely practical contribution to the horse's later years.