An Introduction to the Allied Professionals

In order to maintain the health of horses it is important to have a team of well educated health professionals working together. At the current time there is a large problem with poorly qualified people offering diagnoses and treatments to horses. This is a real welfare issue, but one that attracts no major headlines or shocking pictures to offer the public.

We are fortunate in the UK to have some excellent bodies of allied professionals working in the musculo-skeletal field. These professionals are highly qualified Physiotherapists, Osteopaths and Chiropractors, all of whom have had post graduate training and are members of their own professional body. They work with veterinary surgeons, liaising over treatments and progress. In contrast there are people with no formal qualifications, who are not members of professional bodies, diagnosing and treating horses without even notifying the veterinary surgeon - for example the ubiquitous ‘back man’.

The aim of this session of Congress is to highlight this issue, to give a platform to our allied professional colleagues and to begin educating veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and the general public about who should and who should not be treating horses.