EQUINE MASSAGE
WHAT IS IT? WHAT
CAN IT DO FOR A HORSE?
INTRODUCTION
Massaging the
body to reduce pain and increase comfort is an ancient form of health care that
has been used for thousands of years in cultures throughout the world. It lost favor in our culture when antibiotics
and other "miracle" drugs were introduced in the late 1940s and early
1950s.
Even as recently
as 1980, massage was still being thought of as an enjoyable, relaxing
experience indulged in by people who went to spas and resorts; it was not
considered to have health benefits. But
today the health-care community recognizes massage as an effective option for
many of the aches and pains that afflict a large portion of our population.
As massage
benefits have become better understood, acceptance of massage has enjoyed
resurgence, and massage has been shown to be especially effective with horses.
A horse’s
primary value today is in its performance ability—whether breeding, competition
or pleasure riding. The majority of our
horses, therefore, are asked to carry riders or pull weight. These activities increase the chances that
they will suffer from muscular and skeletal aches and pains just as we do. If a horse can’t perform, then most horse
owners don’t want to keep them.
Something needs to be done to allow them to perform, and massage offers
a way of making horses comfortable, enhancing performance and prolonging their
“useful” lives.
This course
provides students with a greater understanding of the wide variety of massage
techniques that can be successfully used on horses. The course covers different kinds of massage,
when to use it, when not to use it. We
will also look at the equine anatomy and gaits, and the stresses and pain that
can be caused by the different types of riding we do.
Finally, you’ll
learn how to do a full body massage, gaining a complete understanding and
knowledge of the important areas of the horse’s body to be massaged and the
specific techniques to be used.
DEFINING EQUINE MASSAGE
Massage is a
broad term for a process of using our hands to loosen tightness and relieve tension
and soreness within the muscles of a body (horse as well as human).
Massage
accomplishes its effects without the use of drugs, medical procedures, machines
or needles. Massage uses the human hands
to achieve its results. Massage loosens
and releases tension in muscles and facilitates the repair of muscle
damage. As muscles relax there is a
reduction of the pain and discomfort that occurs when there is cramping,
tightening or tearing in muscles.
But massage can
also be done with a more specific intent when the person doing the massage has
greater in-depth knowledge of how the individual muscles work, how the entire
muscle system works and what kinds of problems can occur within the
muscles. Throughout this course you will
be learning massage that has the “specific intent” of rebalancing the entire
muscle structure and bringing it into anatomical balance as well as relieving
tightness and soreness in the muscles.
Successful
massage applies the most appropriate of the many techniques available for
treating specific muscle problems while understanding how the massage will also
affect other systems of the body.
There are many
ways in which massage can contribute to the health and comfort of a horse.
It can either
be relaxing or energizing in its broad applications, or it can be very specific
in intent (as when working on scar tissue, pain in a specific area or joint
constriction).
Heat generated
by massage will increase blood flow in an area, thereby helping in improving
circulation and correcting metabolic imbalances. This, in turn, speeds the removal of waste
products such as carbon dioxide, lactic acid and other by-products of metabolism.
Massage can
also assists in the release of mental tension as body tension is decreased.
When you
complete this course you will know how to evaluate the condition of a horse and
how to use the most effective massage techniques for the greatest benefit to
the horse.
THE GOALS OF EQUINE MASSAGE:
The basic goals
of equine massage therapy are:
1. Decrease pain and discomfort in the
horse’s body that is caused by tension, stiffness and tightness in the muscles.
2. Aid in the healing process in injured
muscles.
3. Allow the body to move without pain and
with greater efficiency.
4. Return an injured horse, or one that is
not working to its full potential, to full function.
5. Prevent injuries from occurring or
re-occurring.
HOW MASSAGE ACHIEVES THESE GOALS
1. Massage releases cramping and
tightening in the muscular system, thereby reducing pain.
2. As muscles relax, there is a release of
endorphins that help reduce pain.
3. Massage increases the blood and lymph
supply to an area, bringing oxygen into the area and carrying away metabolic
waste such as lactic acid and carbon dioxide.
This increased blood and lymph flow promotes healing of an injured area.
4. As massage loosens tight muscles, there
is a corresponding ability for correct, comfortable movement in the muscular
system.
5. As muscles loosen, constriction around
joints is released. This allows greater mobility
and better movement in the skeletal system.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MASSAGE THAT CAN BE
USED EFFECTIVELY ON HORSES
There are many
different types of massage that can be used to elicit specific results or
responses within a body.
1. Swedish, or relaxation, massage.
This type of massage has the primary intent of relaxation and improved
circulation. It has a calming, soothing
effect. The techniques used involve
long, smooth, gliding strokes that follow the contours of the muscles. The pressure is firm, but gentle, constantly
adjusting to the horse’s responses. It
resembles a good, deep grooming, but there are two important differences. You will have a knowledge of the anatomy
beneath the skin and will be will be able to feel what is normal and not normal,
so you’ll know when more specialized types of massage are appropriate. And you will be capable of applying the more
specialized forms of massage. This type
of massage would be appropriate for high-strung, nervous horses that need to
relax, or for competition horses needing to relax between classes or at the end
of a long day. Relaxation massage is
the foundation for all other types of massage.
2. Sports Massage.
This is a branch of massage that has had a significant impact on human
athletes and their attitudes toward conditioning and training. It has also had a great impact on the
training and conditioning of horses.
Sports massage goes beyond just massage and involves itself with all
phases of a horse’s training. In
addition to general massage training, you need more specialized knowledge of
horses—their anatomy, their gaits and movement and the physiology of muscles
and how they work. You need to
understand the total concept of athletic training, not just how massage can
facilitate and complement training.
Sports massage is a powerful tool to mitigate the effects of the stress
of athletic training and bring muscles back to a healthy state. The massage can be used for maintaining
flexibility and good health in the body’s tissues, in the prevention of
injuries and in rehabilitation if an injury should occur.
3. Stimulation massage.
This is a type of sports massage that is most often used on athletes
just prior to competition; it is usually referred to as “pre-event”
massage. While most massage is used to
loosen and relax the body, stimulation massage is used to energize and bring
horses to a keen edge in anticipation of activities that involve significant,
forceful expenditure of energy. The
strokes used in such a situation would be quick, brisk and energetic. The intent would be to increase circulation
and sensory stimulation and warm up the muscles in preparation for athletic
events.
4. Injury Rehabilitation.
This is an area of primary importance in both human and equine
massage. Injuries to horses are
something that all horse owners have to face at one time or another. Some of these injuries will be minor, some
may be severe enough to require medical treatment, but there will come a time
when healing is complete and the rehabilitation process is ready to start.
With a minor injury, often just going back to the normal work routine
will be all the rehabilitation that is necessary.
Serious injuries will require much more, and the timing of when the
horse is started back to work can be crucial in determining how successful the
horse will be.
Massage can significantly reduce the time involved in rehabilitation.
Anyone doing injury rehab work will need knowledge of correct movement patterns
and anatomy, as well as a wide variety of massage techniques for dealing with
the muscular problems.
Injury rehab work may also involve developing specific exercises, either
from the ground or under saddle that will address specific movement and gait
problems resulting from the injury. With
good horse skills and experience, you have an advantage in this area.
In addition to the primary injury site, you may also have to deal with
some special processes that can occur in the body when dealing with a painful
injury. Two major ones are
“compensation” and “splinting”. I will
describe these in a later section.
5. Performance Enhancement.
By loosening muscles and freeing joints for better movement, the
performance of the horse can become more fluid.
The horse will show greater flexibility, suppleness and agility, and the
horse’s responses to the rider’s aids will be quicker due to better nerve
responses.
6. Injury Prevention and Maintenance
Massage. Some injuries develop slowly. These types of injuries are usually the
result of poor or incorrect use of a horse’s body, rather than a fall or other
accident. The rider is seldom aware of
the subtle early signs of this incorrect use; they are not usually aware until
the problem becomes more advanced and the horse is beginning to react
openly—either in a physical way (going unsound) or in a mental way (attitude
and behavior problems).
The same basic process of loosening muscles and freeing joints by using
performance enhancement massage can be a major factor in preventing muscle
injuries. Massage performed on a regular
schedule can detect and resolve muscle imbalances before they become
problems.
Many
top competitors use a regular schedule of maintenance massages for their horses
and have assistants skilled in equine massage that travel with them, monitoring
their horses on a daily basis.
Maintenance
massage on a regular basis can be very beneficial to older horses that often
suffer chronic health problems. Such
massage can aid stall-bound horses where circulation problems are common.
7. Structural Massage and Rehabilitative
Exercises. Every joint in a body (horse, human, other
vertebrate animals) is designed to work in specific ways. Some joints can only move in one
direction—the knee of the horse (carpal bone of the horse’s front legs) is one
of these. Some joints can move in
multiple directions—the horse’s neck vertebrae and the human shoulder joint are
good examples of this. Muscles allow and
control the movement of joints. Structural
massage balances the muscles in such a way that the joints can work to the
maximum of their design. It is a highly
specialized area of massage whose aim is the re-balancing of the entire muscle
structure of a body. Performing such
massage requires systemically going through the entire muscle structure,
balancing the different muscle groups and pairs and balancing the different
areas of the body (head/neck, torso and haunches) in relationship to each
other. Such study can pinpoint the areas
where the rider will meet resistance in the horse’s body. The massage can release that tension and
resistance. This type of massage can be
especially valuable when working with crooked horses, and in injury
rehabilitation. It is a more involved
process than other types of massage and is usually done in a series of sessions
combined with Rehabilitative Exercises.
Rehabilitative Exercises are closely associated with Structural Massage
and they involve using specific exercises performed from the ground or under saddle. Its primary emphasis is movement—evaluating
the gaits and developing the appropriate exercises to correct specific muscle
dysfunctions after the massage has loosened and prepared the muscles.
WHEN NOT TO USE
MASSAGE—CONTRA-INDICATIONS
This course is
all about the ways in which massage can be of great value in affecting changes
in a horse—in physical comfort, mental attitude and improved performance. But it is also important to know what it
cannot do, when it is inappropriate to use it and how to recognize a situation
or condition that will not respond to massage.
Primary
contra-indications.
1. Massage should not be used during the
acute stage (first 24 to 48 hours) of an injury or illness.
2. It should not be used when there is heat,
inflammation and swelling present.
3. It should not be used in the presence
of a fever.
4. It should not be used when there is
bleeding.
5. “Nodding” lameness. Nodding of the head and neck, as the horse is
moving is usually a sign of some kind of lower leg or foot problem. This should be checked by a veterinarian or
farrier. There is one situation in which
“nodding” when moving could be from a muscular condition and I will describe
this in the section on Body Reading, but it is best to have it checked first.
All of the
above conditions indicate a medical problem and should be treated as such by a
veterinarian.
RECOGNIZING A VETERINARY PROBLEM
All of the
contra-indications listed above are pretty easy to distinguish and understand,
but there are other times when there may be a veterinary problem and the signs
are not so obvious.
How can you
know if massage is appropriate or if there is a subtle, undiagnosed veterinary
problem?
Massage, when used
in appropriate situations, will produce improvements in a horse’s comfort and
movement with each session. If, instead,
the horse begins to look more uncomfortable or the movement problem becomes
more obvious, this would be a signal that a veterinarian should be called.
Does this mean
that the massage caused the problem or injury?
No! Massage is a non-invasive; it
will not cause unsoundness, but it can expose an undiagnosed medical condition.
When faced with an injury or painful situation, a horse’s body will begin to
cope with the discomfort or pain by tightening muscles and shifting and
reorganizing its weight; when the massage loosens the muscles, the protection
is taken away and the injury can become obvious.
There are two
primary ways that the body can provide protection to an injured area.
One is know as
“splinting”, the other is “compensation”.
Splinting
happens when the muscles around an injury tighten in order to support and
protect the injured area, in much the same way that we put a splint or cast on
a broken bone to protect it.
Compensation is
the process of shifting and reorganizing the weight or changing movement
patterns in order to relieve the pressure on an injured area.
Splinting
occurs around the injury, compensation occurs in other areas of the body away
from the injury.
When muscles
tighten and go into spasms in response to an injury, either as in splinting or
in compensation, it is an automatic process.
But there is no automatic process for the muscles to release that tension,
after an injury has healed; they stay that way until there is some kind of
intervention that releases them. This is a condition where massage is an
appropriate approach for loosening and rebalancing the muscles. If the injury has indeed healed, you will
quickly see an improvement in the horse’s level of comfort and his way of
moving.
But suppose the
injury has not healed and the splinting or compensation is what has allowed the
horse to function sufficiently well that it is difficult to detect the exact
problem. In this case, if massage is used to loosen and rebalance the muscles,
the sudden loss of support to an injured area that had been depending upon that
support will quickly cause the horse to show signs of pain and discomfort. The injury has been exposed and this is the
time to call a vet. If nothing is done,
the muscles will gradually tighten and readjust again in order to protect the
injury, and again it will become difficult to detect the problem.
CASE HISTORY
EXAMPLES
Cherry was an
eight-year-old TB mare. In the previous
year she had had a foal and there was a problem during the birthing. The foal’s hoof tore the membrane between the
rectum and vagina. Fortunately, the tear
was close to the outside and the veterinarian was able to repair the damage.
But a year
later the mare was not moving as well as she had before having the foal. Her trot was stilted and she could not hold a
right lead canter.
Massage
sessions, plus some simple exercises under saddle, produced significant
improvement.
Cherry’s
problem was a good example of splinting.
All of the muscles around the rectum and vagina had gone into spasms in
response to the pain of the birthing injury.
This injury had had medical attention and was fully healed, but the muscles
were still in spasms.
When the spasms
were eased, the mare was able to resume normal movement.
George was a
completely different situation. He had
an undiagnosed tear in the ligament that supports the fetlock joint of his
right foreleg. In response to the pain
he tightened the muscles in the right shoulder in an effort to keep weight off
the right fetlock.
The problem was
seen as tightness in the shoulder, while the fetlock tear went undetected. After massage, George looked worse and seemed
more uncomfortable.
The owner took
George to a university veterinary school where radiographs and testing
discovered the true problem and appropriate medical care was started.
In George’s
case, loosening muscles that were trying to protect an active injury made the
condition appear worse, which indicated massage was not the answer and further
diagnostic work was needed.
George’s torn
ligament did mend and with appropriate massage for the compensations he went on
into his late 20’s as a fully sound riding horse.