Massage is the manipulation of soft tissue; it can help to trigger the horse’s natural ability to heal from minor injuries that we cannot even pick up on yet to helping the recovery time of major injuries. The horse is just as much an athlete as any human athlete and they would not compete and train without complimentary therapy to keep there bodies in top shape this should also be true for the horse, we ask them to push there bodies to the maximum by jumping, racing and dressage and that is with us on top of them!!! For those horses that can enjoy a hack at the weekend they benefit just as much, think about when we exercise once a week out bodies ache for 2 days, there bodies will not be as fit and there muscles will ache!!
More than 60% of the horses bodyweight is muscle, this means massage and stretching techniques helps to enhance your horse’s performance and prevent injuries. In a horse’s case preventing injuries are much easy then curing them.
Benefits of massage
PREVENTING INJURIES is better than treating them-
One of the main benefits of massage is to pick up small injuries to the horse and prevent them from becoming a major problem. Small muscle injuries can take up to 90 days to be noticeable by the horse’s attitude changing, there performance decreasing and lameness. By this point it has already turned into a problem and the horse will have had to decrease the amount of work they are doing.
If the horse has a muscle spasm in there back and it is not treated then this will put more pressure onto other muscles groups and limbs which can then make the horse lame, the primary problem you will see if left is lameness but this is not the primary problem but a secondary problem caused by the sore back. As you can see one minor injury that can be treated so easily can very quickly escalate.
Benefits of massage include
- Improves performance
- Speeds up recovery time
- helps to identify any physical problems, pain sore points
- relax muscles spasm
- Enhances muscle tone
- helps muscles to regain there full range of motion- very important when horses have been injured or ridden in a
bad way and they no longer have the correct muscle memory
- Competition horses it helps to maintain healthy horses for the season and prevent injury. If they are competing one day after another then it helps them to be able to perform at the top of there game for days in a row by increasing the lymphatic and circulatory system- getting rid of the lactic acid and replacing toxins more efficiently
- we all know how we feel after a sports massage and it’s the same for the horse
- beneficial for those horses that are being brought back into work or those that ate only just being started as it will help to relive very tired or sore muscles
- stimulates lazy and lethargic horses
- relaxes uptight and nervous horses
Pre and post competition massage helps to keep muscles healthy, maintains strength and suppleness and picks up and treats any jarring or slight muscles tension before it turns into anything more serious. After hard exercise massage minimises stiffness and helps to restore damaged tissue from the muscle fatigue which would have been incurred.
The pre sports massage will relax nervous horses and can stimulate lethargic horses as well as warming up the muscles so that they are ready to work. Warming up the muscles and stretching the legs increases the flexibility of the muscles fibre which helps to prevent ligament, tendon and muscle injury.
Post sports massage helps the lymphatic system to take the lactic acid build up away from the muscles quickly and allows the circulatory system to bring oxygen to the cells. This means that the muscles will not be so stiff, reduces risk of azatoria and the horse will be able to perform the next day as well as the day before!! It also allows a through check of the horse to make sure that there are no injuries, any hot joints/ tendons
Contra Indications -
- Areas that must be avoided when being massaged
- Unhealed wounds
- Areas of acute inflammation e.g. bites
- Areas of acute trauma
- Tumours, sarcoids, cysts
- Areas of bacterial infection e.g. abscesses
- Hot, inflamed joints
Reasons why I will not massage your horse -
- If the horse is suffering from shock or low blood pressure
- If the horse is suffering from extreme exhaustion
- If a fever is present
- The horse has cancer e.g. lymphoma/cushings disease
- If the horse is suffering from strangles, tetanus or pneumonia
- If the horse has a skin condition e.g. ringworm, lice etc
- Through early or late stages of pregnancy
- In acute stages of a viral disease e.g. equine influenza
What does it involve – - I will need you to check with your vet that they are happy for me to perform massage on your horse, I will ask you to sign a declaration
The initial session will last about a 1- 1 1/2 hours
- depending on the horse it would be normal to have a further 3 sessions 1 week apart and then maintence sessions every 4- 6 weeks depending on there work, any issues and for competition horses more regularly when competing
- After the horse has been massaged they should have the next day off then light work the next day then as normal
info@equinesports-massage.co.uk and 0783 445 2210