Remedial Massage for Horses is a whole-body treatment for your horse.
Rarely does one location in the horse’s body get sore without other areas and muscle groups carrying some sort of stress. For example, if there is a problem in the hindquarter there will always be tension in the horses back as well, and vice-versa.
When there is tension above, there is always tightness and strain below. By that, I mean when a horse is tight in the neck and shoulders, there will always be strain in the legs and lower extremities.
There is no muscle below the knee and hock, it’s all tendon and ligament. these tendons and ligaments cope with a lot of concussion. Problems to the lower legs usually come from above and a lack of blood flow caused by all the tension above.
Blood flows a lot slower through ligaments and tendons, and then the frog in the hoof is a pump sending the blood back up the leg . Muscular and soft tissue tension slows down blood flow!
I am often asked ‘How can I fix a horse with a sore back ?’ The answer is simple. Release the wrapping around all the muscles in and around the area. Let the ‘Fascia’ release.
All muscles and soft tissue structures in the horse’s body is wrapped up in a type of Connective Tissue. There are several types of connective tissue in the horses body and the one we are most concerned with is ‘Ordinary Connective Tissue’ or ‘Fascia’. When the fascia is released the muscles lengthen and expand straight away allowing for better blood flow.
With the whole-body concept, during a normal full treatment, everything expands. Horses fill out and after anatomical adjustments have improved posture and overall balance.
- Horses don’t like pain- sensitive or tight areas must be massaged lightly before deep muscle work. All horses love having their legs done, they will stand there all day !
- There are a lot of horses with a sore back or at least carrying some amount of tension. When its bad the horse will throw the rider. This is always a pinched nerve caught up in the muscles fibres. What happens is, when there is too much pressure put on ‘the spot’, well, its like an quick zap of electrical build up, an electrical shock in other words. We, as humans have a lot of bio-electrical activity going on, and its the same for horses. Every horse I have had to work on has pretty much had something going in its back and back-end.
- Tension always accumulates at the base of the skull. It’s the end of the line and the tendons attaching to the base of the skull get very tight from what is going on in the neck muscles
When horses are tight, maybe a bit ‘girthy’ and showing signs of something going on, well, usually there is a bit more to it than one first thinks. They will be tight over the top of the ribs, this affects the amount of oxygen they can fill their lungs with.
When I take the pressure off the rib-cage, the lungs ‘open up’, increasing oxygen intake. This is highly beneficial because it allows more oxygen into the bloodstream, which travels throughout the horses body to the brain and then back to the heart, the biggest plus of the lot.
This is what reduces the frequency of the bio-electrical impulse that the nervous system sends to the brain every split second. Thus, allowing the body to heal and restore memory that muscle and other soft tissue structures have.
