EQUINE THERAPY GETS A LEG UP; REHAB CENTER'S HUMAN TECHNIQUES HELP HEAL FOUR-LEGGED ATHLETES.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

A pulled muscle is a pulled muscle, right?

Doesn't matter whether you're a football player, a tennis player or a hockey player.

Or a horse.

At least that's the way Leanne Marlier looks at it.

A licensed physical therapist - for humans - for the past 21 years, Leanne, 43, and her husband, Tim, 45, a minister and horse buff, recently opened Equine Rehabilitation Centers, a 40-stall physical therapy center for horses in rural Moorpark. It's the only such horsepital between Los Angeles and Santa Ynez open to the public.

``Every athlete needs treatment for injuries - and we feel that these horses are just four-footed athletes,'' Leanne said, patting the nose of Katie, a copper-colored thoroughbred with a lame rear leg.

``The difference is when human athletes get hurt, they quit playing. This big gal wants to please so she keeps going, adjusting to what's hurt. But the owner has no way of knowing what's going on until the horse completely breaks down, as she has.''

So to repair tendons that have somehow frozen up in her right rear leg, Katie is undergoing daily therapy - a little ice, a little heat, a little medication, a little massage, a slow daily walk up and down a steep hill, and a daily hydrotherapy session on a treadmill in a water-filled, 6-foot-deep trough equipped with a whirlpool.

Except for the treadmill, it's pretty much the same regimen Leanne - former owner and still director of Back to Work Physical Therapy in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley - has prescribed for traffic accident victims, post-surgery patients, and amateur and professional athletes.

``The therapy all uses the same principles,'' Leanne said. ``Like human athletes, we want to rehabilitate horses so they can return to their sport. The goal here is not just to eliminate pain. It's to eliminate the cause of the pain, to rehabilitate them so they don't have the same injury again. There's a lot more that we can be doing for these athletes than we are.''

Dr. Mark Rick, an equine surgeon affiliated with the Alamo Pintado Equine Center in Los Olivos in Santa Barbara County, said the principles of human physical therapy should transfer well to the care of horses recovering from surgery or injury.

``The difference is, you tell a human patient, `We're going to bend your knee this way 10 times today and 15 times tomorrow,' and he understands and does it,'' Rick said. ``With a horse, getting cooperation requires some finesse and some horse knowledge.''

Many of the horses he operates on are from Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and if the Marliers' facility proves to be an effective rehabilitation center, it would be a boon to Southern California horse owners, he said.

``There aren't many facilities like theirs,'' he said. ``And there's a real need for physical therapy after surgery. The Marliers are trying to add some science and education to this rather than just turn the horses out (to pasture) and see what happens, which is what's been done in the past.''

So far, the Marliers have worked with four horses; two have already gone home, pronounced fit again. They're expecting seven new ailing thoroughbreds soon, but there's room for many more as local vets learn about the facility.

Dr. Charles Liskey, a Somis veterinarian, has referred two patients - including Katie - to the Marliers since the facility opened May 1 and is waiting to see the outcome of their treatment. ``It's too soon to know how well the therapy works, but both Leanne and Tim are definitely qualified to work with horses,'' he said.

Katie, owned and ridden in shows by 16-year-old Nicole Mead of Thousand Oaks, seemed to enjoy a recent day's massage, heat treatment and a trot on the submerged treadmill, where the water's buoyancy lifted about two-thirds of her 1,500 pounds off her sore leg.

``She loves it,'' Nicole said as the horse kept up a steady trot, shoulder-deep in the water. ``Look at her. This is great for her.''

The 10-year-old mare, who's been treated at the Marliers' ranch for about eight weeks, could barely put weight on her sore leg when she arrived. Now, she walks without a limp and can trot for nearly a half-hour on the treadmill, growing stronger and building endurance.

During a recent water therapy session, Tim ran the treadmill from a trough-side control panel. Leanne lay flat on her stomach, reaching deep into the water to feel the horse's leg muscles as they expanded and contracted, oblivious to the sheets of water sloshed about by the trotting horse. Within seconds, the therapist was soaked, but had a grin on her face as she rose to her feet, winding soggy hair into a knot on top of her head.

``She's doing fine,'' Leanne told Nicole. ``She's fully extending that leg, just like she should be. She just needs to build up some strength and endurance. She should be going home in a couple of weeks.''

That was good news to Linda Mead, Nicole's mother, who was worried that Katie's injury would never improve - until her vet referred her to the Marliers' new facility.

``We were really impressed by Tim and Leanne,'' she said. ``It's a great facility they have here. And the whole thing makes so much sense. This is so much better than Katie having surgery again.''

Ironically, it was Tim, pastor of the Moorpark Grace Brethren Church, who convinced his wife to use her skills to help horses. It started when Matt Dillon, one of a pair of Tennessee walking horses he bought, failed to improve after surgery to correct a congenital foot problem.

Tim urged Leanne to try the human techniques on the horse. It worked, and a new business was born.

``She likes to rescue people - and now, horses, too,'' Tim said with a laugh. ``Leanne would probably work for free if I didn't have to pay the rent. Now, we're really pioneering a whole new world here. And we're having a good time doing it.''

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6 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) YOU CAN HEAL A HORSE WITH WATER ...

New Moorpark center is rehabilitation station for four-legged athletes

(2--3--Color) Leanne Marlier, a registered physical therapist, gives ultrasound to Remington Steel, a thoroughbred jumper, to heal his aches and pains. Right, Leanne gives Katie a little rubbing of the nose before her treatments.

(4--Color) Marlier massages Remington Steel. The horse's stay at the Equine Rehabilitation Centers for daily treatments is expected to be eight weeks.

(5--Color) no caption (Remington Steel gets ultrasound on a tendon in a rear leg)

(6--Color) Tim and Leanne Marlier put Katie through an underwater treadmill - a process that helps with conditioning and healing of Katie's rear leg.

Tina Gerson/Daily News