Horse Therapy: Equine Bodywork

Equine bodywork is a general term for physical therapies applied to horses.

Their main purpose is to help a horse's comfort and well-being and lead to higher levels of performance.

These therapies are many and varied. They include several kinds of massage, acupressure, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, laser treatment, sound and shock wave therapy, magnets, homeopathic treatments, essential oils and herbal treatments, just to name a few.

Some of these therapies can also help build the relationship between your horse and you. They add a different aspect to the horse/human exchange. By offering comfort and release of tension to the animal, we can deepen the bond.

Why do we need to consider these therapies for our horses?

Horses are creatures that move. Wild mustangs travel up to thirty miles a day! When we limit, control and contain their movement, we should also assume responsibility for their issues of movement.

Although equine massage appears to be a relatively recent happening, it is not. Historians note that massage of horses can be traced back thousands of years to the Greeks. One particular type of massage seems to help performance by as much as thirty percent.

Equine Sports Massage Therapy officially began in the 1970's with Jack Meagher, a highly-skilled and well-respected human physical & sports massage therapist for the NFL. In 1976, Mr. Meagher was invited by the United States Equestrian Team to join them to use his equine massage technique (The Meagher Method) for the Montreal Olympic Games at which they won the Gold Medal. The Meagher Method is still the classic standard against which most others are judged. More recently, ESMT has become the mainstay of U.S. Olympic equestrian teams and the horse-racing industry.

Let us take a quick look at what exactly we are massaging!

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

The skeleton is the framework of the body. It is held together by muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia (connective tissue).

About 200 bones (varies by breed) are linked together by joints. The skeleton gives a horse its shape, bears the weight of the body, and protects the internal organs and nervous system.

There are different types of bones making up the skeleton.

THE VERTEBRAE

7 cervical (neck)

18 thoracic (withers to mid back)

6 lumbar (back to croup)

5 sacral (end of hip)

15-21 caudal (tail) vertebrae

SMALL SQUARE BONES in the knee and hock absorb concussion

FLAT THIN BONES found in the skull and shoulder blades

PNEUMATIC BONES in the head

SESAMOID BONES which act as pulleys over which tendons run

There are several types of joints.

Moveable joints -hinge- as in the elbow

Ball and socket joints- as in the hip

Gliding joints-stifle, hock and knee

Pivot joint- between skull and top two vertebrae

Slightly moveable- between the vertebrae of the spine

Fixed- skull and sacrum

The fluid in between the joints is called synovial fluid. It acts as a lubricant.

Movement warms and thins this fluid, spreading it across the cartilage and joint surface.

Ten minutes of walking BEFORE warm-up begins is recommended in order to thin the synovial fluid.