Your Horses tail is an extension of their spine,
Tail mobilisation work can tell us a but about the muscles along the horses' spine.
Here, you can see their is no resistance to what I am doing.
This exercise stimulates the muscles controlling the tail and the ones at the base of the spine.
Horses should be warmed up before trying this exercise.
This is not something every horse enjoys, so be aware that some horses may kick out.
Here, you can see the start off the massage aimed to relax the splenius muscle.
The splenius muscle runs from the cervical vertebra to the poll area of the horse.
It extends and elevates the neck, stabilises the head and neck, and provides lateral flexion
Here you can see I started with some light effleurage to show Millie where I was going to be working followed by some plamer hand circles to get the area warmed up and the blood flowing before moving on to some deeper work. Which will be shown at a later date
Massage is important for maintaining and enhancing your horses performance
Bonnie showed all the signs of relaxation and releases during her massage last week,
As you can see, she's licking chewing, slow blinking, and yawning
Here I am demonstrating some palmer hand circles.
I use this move to help increase oxygen to the area I am working on.
It also increases the removal of carbon dioxide and waste products out of the muscle.
It warms the are up nicely before moving on the deeper work within the muscle.
If you have any questions about my work, please feel free to message me 🙂
Here is an example of effleurage strokes,
These are used for initial strokes, so your horse is aware of where I will be working. They are also used when going from one area to the next.
They warm the area up and prepare the tissues for deeper strokes.
It has a mechanical drainage effect. This stroke is used towards the heart to assist the natural flow of venous blood. It also assists with the drainage of lymphatic fluid.
It warms the tissue and encourages the release of natural endorphins.
This is a brief overview of one of the many strikes that are used in your horses massage.
All horses benefit from massage. Feel free to contact me for more information 🐎🐴 😊
I am not sure whether to keep it short or grow it out from now on 🤔🤩😍💖
What would you do?
How often do you feel your horses back muscles?
This back muscle I am checking is the Longissimus Dorsi. It's the largest muscle of the horses back. The saddle sits here.
With it being just under the surface, it's the easiest to feel to detect any issues.
As you can see here with Millie, her back is lovely and supple there's no tension, pain reaction or muscle fasciculatuon. This is how we like the muscles to respond, they are soft supple and spring back in to place when my fingers move over them.
If you would like your horse checking over feel free to message me. I am a fully qualified and insured sports and rehabilitation massage therapist 🐎🐴
Regularly watching your horse move will give you a good indication of when there is a problem.
It also gives us massage therapists a good indication of which muscles need the most work 🐎
In the first part of this video you can see I am asking Suzie to do a back lift by applying pressure to her belly, we really don't get a great response from this. So the second part of the video is me getting Suzie to do a carrot stretch between her front legs, on this one you can really see the lift in her back. Just goes to show no every way works for every horse