| Why Equine Sports Massage? Go Ask a Horse! |
Horses are silent athletes. Can you imagine if you couldn’t rub your sore shoulder with your own
hand and say out loud to your friend, “Ow, my shoulder is really sore today?” Can you imagine if then
your friend patted you briskly on your sore shoulder, put a saddle on you, and rode you over jumps or
up a mountain? The fact that more and more folks are taking the time to try to understand behavioral
and performance issues and to provide preventive care in the form of body work represents a change in
how we take care of horses.
Why are people embracing alternative health care practices like sports massage for horses? The
simple reason must be that they get the results they are looking for! When asked if his technique
worked, Jack Meagher, known as the father of equine sports massage replied, “Don’t take my word for
it. Go ask a horse.” It makes sense that the man who professionalized sports massage for horses in the
early 1970’s would be as enigmatic as an equine himself! Perhaps the final word came in Meagher’s
obituary in the Boston Globe in 2005 from Patrick Lynch, the manager of the US Equestrian Team who
hired Jack Meagher to take care of their horses, “If it didn’t work, we wouldn’t have used him…. He did
wonders.” Clearly, his endorsement was not just for the practice of sports massage, but for the expert
technique of the practitioner himself.
Sports massage works primarily by increasing circulation. During a body work session, muscles that
have “frozen” — resulting in head tossing, choppy strides, failure to take leads, and a myriad of other
difficulties and irregularities — are directly addressed with rhythmic strokes, compression, and gentle
pressure. A good practitioner will note the horse’s unique conformation, take a complete history,
inquire about performance and training issues and expectations, watch the horse go in hand and under
saddle, provide a thorough session, and leave detailed notes and follow up exercises. A studied
knowledge of equine anatomy and biomechanics, in addition to massage techniques and other
modalities, allows body workers to be accurate. As Jack Meagher said, “The difference between a
rubdown and a massage is an art form, an art form called accuracy. You have to know where the
architectural stress points are. The places where the traffic jams of spasms happen.” In his book,
Beating Muscle Injuries for Horses, which is the original primer of equine sports massage he published
in 1985, Jack Meagher catalogued about 25 of these “architectural stress points." Today, students
attending Debranne Pattillo’s Equine Body Work Certification classes through her California-based
school, Equinology, learn to work over eighty different points! Since her initial interest in body work
over twenty years ago, Pattillo has continued to catalog the key stress points of equine anatomy that
can be addressed by sports massage. “I can never learn enough,” she says. “I’ve taken and taught the
same anatomy classes over and over again, and I still have “light bulb” moments every time. Practicing
and teaching equine body work gives me a chance to realize daily that I will never be done learning."
Whether you choose to work with a body work practitioner to help you and your horse work more
smoothly together as a team or whether you are motivated to take matters into your own hands, so to
speak — there is no question that sports massage is as much about learning from and about horses as it
is about helping them. In selecting a certification program or practitioner, Dr. Joyce Harman
recommends finding one “such as from Equinology (with a 250-hour certification program), not just a
week or so.” Good body workers work as a team with owners, farriers, trainers, and veterinarians —
your vet should always know if you are having some work done for your horse.
In her article “Equine Sports Massage 101” on thehorse.com, Gabrielle Pullen asks and answers an
interesting question about sports massage: “How can something as simple as rubbing muscles cause a
horse to transform from a hypervigilant animal of prey to a relaxed, trusting partner?? The answer is
intriguing because it unfolds not only inside the muscle cells, but also within the brain. There is actually
a shift in the nervous system from the fight or flight response to the relaxation response ....The
psychological effects are equally well documented in humans, but less so in horses. Yet, unequivocally,
one psychological benefit of equine massage is trust.” So the next time you find yourself standing with
a horse at the crossroads where your knowledge and inspiration are turning to concern and frustration,
whether it is due to behavioral, training, performance, or health issues, consider that you are being
invited to learn more, and hey, once you've got clearance from your vet, why not start with a massage?
© 2008
References:
Jack Meagher, 81, masseur to famous athletes, horses
By Tom Long, Globe Staff | March 10, 2005 http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2005/03/10/jack_meagher_81_masseur_to_famous_athletes_horses/
Equine Sports Massage 101
by: Gabrielle Pullen
October 01 2006, Article # 7710
http://www.thehorse.com
EquiSearch's Ask the Vet: Back Pain
Dr. Joyce Harman explains how an aged gelding could acquire back pain and how to alleviate it in
By Dr. Joyce Harman
http://equisearch.com/advice/expert/backpain_051007/
Meagher, Jack, “Beating Muscle Injuries for Horses,” Hamilton Horse Associates, Hamilton, MA 1985.
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