Carrie is a 10 year old palomino who developed an allergy to hay and stable dust, resulting in a wheezing cough and poor exercise tolerance. All dust was removed from her stable, the doors and windows opened out, she was fed moist haylage from the floor and her bed was made of dust free, shredded paper. However she still wheezed and her owner did not want to start her on anti- asthmatic drugs but preferred to manage her with acupuncture and herbal remedies.
Local lung points were dry needled as well as association points BL11, BL13, Feishu and LU7, and the end point of the channel Ting point LU11 was needled. Carrie was put on a course of herbs: Rehmannia Six (eastern) and coltsfoot and garlic (western) to warm and strengthen her. The result was a happy, coughless horse, who snoozed comfortably during her acupuncture treatments.

Fassy is a 7 year old cob mare who had a back problem. When brought to the clinic to be assessed for poor performance, she arched her back when saddled and leaned heavily into the bit on the right when being schooled. She had stopped liking jumping, preferring to run sideways instead. Her foot balance was checked and found to be fine, but saddle fit was a problem. Her muscles had altered in shape under the saddle and it tended to drift to the left. The saddler altered the flocking on the saddle and a gel type numnah used under it. Fassy was still sore and tried to kick me on examination because it was so tender.
Local points for lower back and hock were stimulated with needles and laser. When the points were first palpated some of them showed piloerection where the hair stands up around the acupoint; this often happens with strong acupuncture reactors and is a sign there will be good response to treatment. After three treatments at weekly intervals Fassy was back to enjoying both dressage and jumping, and having no problems with the saddle or balance.