Sports massage is a holistic therapy that considers the whole horse, and in my treatments, I accept that pain and behaviour are not separate. Trauma and chronic pain are complex and for that reason can be difficult to diagnose. Incorporating sports massage into your treatment or rehabilitation plan can effectively and naturally aid recovery and offer pain relief for acute and chronic issues.
Your horse is unique and requires a unique experience. All horses deserve to be heard with not just my hands but eyes, ears and my heart. Wellness comes not from just physical health but from mental and spiritual health also, and massage is an effective therapy that can be customized to meet your horse’s physical and emotional needs.
Pain, muscle tension, restriction and dysfunction are all signs that physical and/or mental trauma is embedded within the muscles and the communication between your horses nervous system and mine throughout the treatment aids to restore balance, alleviate pain and improve their body’s natural ability to heal. Especially helpful if your horse is recovering from injury or is highly strung, it encourages their body into the parasympathetic state, in which it can relax, digest and repair.
Incorporating sports massage into your regular care plan can improve the health and function of your horses muscles and tendons to help decrease the chance of your horse becoming injured. Paying particular attention to underdeveloped or overdeveloped muscles the stimulation of massage will encourage weaker muscles to develop and assist to relieve the tension where muscle atrophy exists, acting as a natural analgesic to reduce muscle soreness.
Combining massage and a prescribed exercise plan, that happily fits into your daily life, will restore your horses balance, flexibility and improve their proprioception (awareness of position).