Welcome to the Mare Masseuse...
Like human athletes, performance horses work extremely hard to reach optimum results. Considerable emphasis has been placed on training, nutrition, preventive and palliative care to help them reach their maximum potential; to jump higher, run faster, stop quicker, and to execute technical and difficult maneuvers.
Unfortunately, these performances result in increase injuries, pain, and prematurely burned out animals. For a while, strong drugs were the "quick fix" but eventually, it was realized the not-so-desirable, occasionally negative side effects.
It is surprising that equine massage therapy hasn't been used more systematically with horses, especially because so many of their physiological problems are similar to those of humans.
Massage therapy is easy to learn, easily applied, and is cost efficient. It is one of the oldest forms of therapy and has been used by people from ancient times, to the present. Today, advances in equine massage therapy allow us to apply techniques more knowledgeably, to better assist our faithful equine companions!
Equine massage therapy techniques have kept pace with the ever changing methods of training, playing a very important role in prevention therapy and in recovery from injury as well. Entailing deeper and stronger communication, these techniques have lead us to a much richer relationship with the animal, resulting in better caring for its needs.