Kate Fisher - ESMT - Shadow Sports Horse Massage & Rehabilitation

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Kate Fisher - ESMT - Shadow Sports Horse Massage & Rehabilitation Rooted in Care, Guided by Connection 💫

💫Equine Sports Massage & Rehabilitation Therapist
💫Reiki Healer

Lifetime lover of animals 🐈🦮🐎🐄

✨ The Magic of Reiki – For You & Your Horse ✨Reiki is a gentle yet powerful energy healing practice that helps bring bal...
30/08/2025

✨ The Magic of Reiki – For You & Your Horse ✨

Reiki is a gentle yet powerful energy healing practice that helps bring balance to the body, mind, and spirit. 💫 Whether it’s easing stress, supporting recovery, or simply creating a deeper sense of calm, Reiki works beautifully for both humans and animals.

🌱 For You: Feel more grounded, release tension, and reconnect with your inner peace.
🐴 For Your Horse: Support physical healing, soothe emotional stress, and strengthen your bond together.

With my mobile massage bed, I can treat you and your horse right at your yard — no need to travel. Imagine the whole yard feeling more relaxed and connected! ✨

📅 DM me to book your session
📍 Serving Somerset and the surrounding areas
💆‍♀️ | |

💔 Your horse isn’t “having an attitude.”Too often we label horses as stubborn, cheeky, or defiant when really… they’re j...
29/08/2025

💔 Your horse isn’t “having an attitude.”

Too often we label horses as stubborn, cheeky, or defiant when really… they’re just trying to cope the only way they know how.

🐴 Horses don’t plot against us. They don’t “misbehave” out of spite.
Their brains simply don’t work like ours. Instead, everything they do comes from:
• Instinct — flight, fight, or freeze
• Past experiences — especially pain or fear they haven’t forgotten
• Learning & training
• Physical discomfort — sometimes obvious, often hidden beneath the surface

⚡ So what we call “bad behavior” often means:
• They’re confused by our signals
• They’re stressed or afraid
• They’re protecting themselves from pain (from the saddle, teeth, feet, or body)
• They’re struggling with physical issues we can’t always see — sore muscles, old injuries, ulcers, joint pain, or restrictions
• They’ve never been taught another way

✨ The truth?
Horses aren’t giving us a hard time.
They’re having a hard time.

When we replace blame with curiosity and compassion, training becomes kinder, clearer, and far more effective.

💬 Next time your horse “acts up,” ask yourself: What are they trying to tell me?
❤️

📩 If you’d like help exploring whether hidden discomfort could be affecting your horse, send me a DM — I’d love to see if I can support you both.



🐴💨 Ever seen your horse twitch their skin when a fly lands? 🪰It’s not just a random flick—it’s a fascinating built-in re...
29/08/2025

🐴💨 Ever seen your horse twitch their skin when a fly lands? 🪰

It’s not just a random flick—it’s a fascinating built-in reflex!

That quick shiver is called the panniculus reflex, powered by a thin layer of muscles under the skin known as the cutaneus muscles. They work automatically, without your horse even thinking about it.

✨ Fun fact: Vets actually use this reflex (called the Cutaneus Trunci Muscle reflex) to check for spinal cord or nerve issues. By gently running a finger along the horse’s back, they can watch where the twitch happens—or doesn’t!

The main twitching muscles are:
🔹 Cutaneus omobrachialis – covers the shoulders and merges into…
🔹 Cutaneus trunci – spreads across the belly and flank
🔹 Plus two smaller ones in the neck area (cutaneus colli & fasciae)

Sometimes you can even see the edge of these muscles as faint lines under your horse’s coat—totally normal, just part of their unique “fingerprint.”

But what about flies that land where the twitch can’t reach?
👉 That’s when the tail comes out, or your horse might nip, stomp, or line up with a buddy so they can swish flies off each other’s faces. 🐎🐎

Horses: masters of teamwork, even when it comes to pest control! 🪰✨

✨ Why does your horse still lack topline?✨ Why does your rehab plan keep failing?🚩 Here’s the truth: it’s not just about...
24/08/2025

✨ Why does your horse still lack topline?
✨ Why does your rehab plan keep failing?

🚩 Here’s the truth: it’s not just about muscles.

Your horse’s ability to lift their back, stand tall, and carry themselves isn’t only about strength. It depends on how their brain and body work together through the senses — sight, balance, touch, and awareness of where their body is in space.

If those systems aren’t firing properly, your horse will keep slipping back into poor posture and crooked movement, no matter how many poles, transitions, or hill reps you do.

👉 Think of it this way: if the brain is organising movement using “bad information,” the body will default to protective, inefficient patterns. That means topline muscles never get activated properly.

So what works? Rehabilitation that retrains the nervous system — not just the muscles. This includes:

✅ Proprioceptive exercises that build awareness first
✅ Gentle footing or terrain changes to challenge balance
✅ Tactile stimulation or groundwork to reset posture
✅ A reset of bit and contact (often overlooked but essential)
✅ Balance pads → one of the most powerful (and underused) rehab tools

⸻

🟦 Why balance pads?
• They gently challenge the horse’s balance and stability without force.
• Standing on them activates small stabilising muscles while feeding rich sensory input to the nervous system.
• They help the horse find neutral posture and switch off bracing patterns.
• Just a few minutes can release tension and improve body awareness.

How to use them:
• Start with front feet only, allowing the horse to explore the new sensation.
• Progress to hind feet, or one diagonal pair, as comfort grows.
• Keep sessions short (1–3 mins at first), focusing on relaxation, licking/chewing, and soft posture changes.
• Use them before ridden work or bodywork to “wake up” the nervous system and prepare the body to use the topline correctly.

⸻

When the brain gets the right input, the body finally delivers the right output.
That’s when the topline starts to come back — strong, functional, and pain-free.

Girthiness: A Real Can of Worms 🪱What can cause girthiness?Here’s a list — in no particular order — of things worth chec...
24/08/2025

Girthiness: A Real Can of Worms 🪱

What can cause girthiness?
Here’s a list — in no particular order — of things worth checking:

⸻

• Tack troubles → Ill-fitting saddle, pad or girth.

Think: a badly fitting bra or too-tight underwear you’re forced to exercise in every day. It won’t take long before you hate it.

• Diaphragm restriction → Saddles and girths limit deep breathing. Horses (like humans) become “neck breathers,” with altered movement and nervous system tension.

Ladies, it’s why the first thing we do when we get home is ditch the bra and breathe.

• Heart & fluid pressure → Many horses react more on the left side. Compression patterns may affect pressure gradients, leaving long-lasting tension and hypersensitivity.

• Phrenic nerve sensitivity → This nerve powers the diaphragm. Horses that dislike grooming often show girthiness here — a sensory connection issue that loops back to breathing.

• Elbow arthritis → Common in ridden horses. Arthritis = inflammation = sensitive tissues and fascia that can’t function normally.

• Gut & stomach issues → Increased girth pressure can flare pain responses if there are underlying digestive or GI problems.

• Muscle & fascia strain → Constant friction causes irritation, inflammation, and eventually chronic pain — which is much harder to track or resolve once the brain “learns” it.

• Nerve irritation → Superficial nerves can become overstimulated, creating pain signals in the brain long after the local tissue is fine.

• Hair & skin stretch (piloerectors) → Twisted tights or socks driving you crazy? Same idea. Small hair muscles and stretch receptors send pain-like signals that amplify with other issues.

• Scapula & spine pain → Ill-fitting tack can create pain higher up. Girth pressure “closes the tube” of the body, compressing structures both inside and outside.

• Organ compression → There’s no spare room in the thoracic/abdominal cavity. Girth tightening can shift pressure onto organs far removed from the girth itself.

• Vagus nerve involvement → Affecting the heart, diaphragm, and stomach also impacts this key nerve — which links directly to the horse’s stress response.

• Hormonal changes (mares) → Just like us: some days everything hurts because hormones are shifting.

• Learned behaviour & anticipation → Yes, horses can remember pain and pre-emptively react. But it’s never safe to stop looking for a physical cause.

⸻

⚡ And that’s not all…
Even the sternum, linea alba, groin, and hind end can play a role.

👉 Next time your horse pulls a face when the girth is tightened, pause and ask: have I really checked all the possibilities?

Because more often than not — there’s a real reason behind the behaviour.

🐎 From Chaos to Connection: How Horses Saved Me 🐎I’ve been in love with horses for as long as I can remember. From the m...
23/08/2025

🐎 From Chaos to Connection: How Horses Saved Me 🐎

I’ve been in love with horses for as long as I can remember. From the moment I could walk, I was drawn to their power, grace, and quiet wisdom. By 16, I left school just to be fully immersed in their world—riding, grooming, learning, living with them every day. 🐎

Life wasn’t always smooth. My younger years were clouded by addiction and alcoholism, and for a long time, achieving anything felt impossible. Even the horses I loved so much couldn’t pull me out alone.

Then, 14 years ago, I found sobriety. It changed everything. Since then, I’ve poured myself into being the best version of me—physically, mentally, and spiritually. 💪

Horses have been my constant. I’ve worked in nearly every setting: riding schools, livery yards, event yards, hunting, breeding, rescue, and rehabilitation. Each experience taught me something invaluable—not just about horses, but about resilience, empathy, and dedication.

Last year, life threw me another curveball: a major car accident stopped me from working in my usual roles. But it opened a door I didn’t know was there. I trained as an equine sports massage therapist and Reiki healer, combining years of hands-on experience with the healing power of Reiki and massage. Now, I connect with horses on a much deeper level, helping them move freely, recover from injuries, and live healthier, happier lives. 🌿

This work isn’t just a career—it’s a calling. Every horse I meet teaches me, inspires me, and reminds me why I never gave up. My mission is simple: to support these incredible animals with the care, knowledge, and love they deserve, and to help their humans see the beauty of what’s possible when body, mind, and spirit are in harmony.

💛 If you want your horse to move better, feel better, and thrive, I would be honoured to work with you and your horse.

Truth? Healed doesn’t mean ready.Yes, the injury may be medically healed. But that doesn’t mean your horse has the stren...
20/08/2025

Truth?
Healed doesn’t mean ready.

Yes, the injury may be medically healed. But that doesn’t mean your horse has the strength, stability, or coordination to safely return to full work. Most injuries leave behind compensation patterns, weakness, and guarding behavior that don’t just disappear with time.

Jumping straight back into training without rebuilding proper movement and muscle support can lead to re-injury… or new issues entirely.

Rehab doesn’t end when the vet clears them, it shifts into phase two: restoring function.
That’s where intentional strength and conditioning work comes in.

Because soundness on paper isn’t the same as strength in motion.

Looking for help on restoring function in your horse?
Comment “HELP” and I will see if I can help!

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