"Red is a 13.3hh roan New Forest pony who is 16 years old. He is an RDA pony at Wakefield which involves mainly walking in sessions with unbalanced riders. Over the past year he has become stiff and can appear lame at times.

Dawn initially made an assessment of Red looking at his conformation, shoeing, tack and the type of work he was doing. Before working with him she observed his movement when ridden by both able bodied and disabled riders and being lunged. Dawn advised us that we should take care to work him before the RDA session and walk him afterwards, she made us aware of the extra stresses and strains that are put on his body due to the nature of his work and how we could help him.

Dawn made a series of visits where she used aromatherapy and massage to help reduce the sore areas on his body. Red enjoyed the treatments, which could last up to 1 1/2 hours; once he knew Dawn he would whicker when he saw her approaching. After treatment Red was so relaxed he was reluctant to move and had to be coaxed back to his field. After each massage session Dawn gave us a chart showing his worst affected areas which were shaded in bright colours and as the course progressed the coloured areas were reduced. Red benefited from aromatherapy massage sessions, we saw an improvement in his movement, he stayed sound and his attitude to work improved.

Dawn is very professional with the pony and gives understandable explanations of her work and good advice to our staff. We would continue her sessions should problems reoccur with Red."