Inside equine massage 101, my students are having incredible transformations with their horses…

My very first online course purchase and what it taught me & why I’ll NEVER make a program like it! 5 years ago, I was desperate to help my horse. I always thought Equine massage would benefit him, so I googled “equine massage course” and found one. It was around $1,300, which was a big investment for me at the time. I knew he was worth it and was desperate to help him, so I pulled the trigger. I was disappointed that the course barely taught me any massage techniques

I was pulled into this career for an all too familiar reason. My horse Westley and I were struggling with our partnership. He was my best friend, but I felt like we just couldn’t get on the same page, no matter how much I wanted to. He was cranky to groom, tough to ride, and got eliminated at every competition we went to. I felt hopeless. I looked high and low for an answer to what was bothering him, with numerous vets and professionals weighing in.

You know that your horse is amazing, but it seems like they never show it at competitions. Every event you try something new: You might be trying different supplements, different bits, different calming pastes, or even different trainers…But nothing seems to stick.

It’s no secret that the horse’s hind end is of the utmost importance to their performance. No matter your discipline of riding, from dressage to showjumping to barrel racing and beyond, the hind end is the engine and the power source that propels everything. We as riders always strive to set our horses back on their hind ends to correctly harness the power and send them forward.

STRETCHING YOUR HORSE IS AN INCREDIBLY BENEFICIAL FORM OF EQUINE THERAPY, BUT DO YOU KNOW WHERE TO START? HERE ARE SOME SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE STRETCHES TO ADD TO YOUR TOOLBOX. INTRODUCE THESE STRETCHES ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK, THEN BUILD THEM UP MORE FREQUENTLY AS YOU GO.

For years I, like many riders, have struggled with my sitting trot. I took lunge lessons, I watched youtube videos, I rode with respected trainers, and still, I found it impossible to swing my hips naturally to follow my horse’s movement. I found it so frustrating that I seriously considered giving up my dream of riding at the upper levels, doubting my talent. Luckily for me, it was around that time that I entered massage school, and started receiving regular massages. My instructor found my back and hips incredibly tight and showed me a diagram on a poster we had in class. It showed a pair of muscles on either side of the spine that begin at the end of the mid back, fan out to the inner pelvis, and insert into the tops of each femur. “This is your iliopsoas,” she told me, “it’s your major hip flexor. Because you’ve been riding your whole life, and your hips are constantly flexing and extending to follow the horse, yours are very tight. I’m going to work on them for you.” After massaging me, she showed me a few stretches to do before I rode. The next day, and over the next months, I became more and more able to open my hips and master the elusive sitting trot. I thought to myself, all this time I have been so frustrated and blaming my riding ability, when I have just been held back by a small mechanical obstacle in my own body.

In my last blog, I highlighted the importance of diaphragmatic breathing for riders. And with this article, I am adding another layer to that concept: how your primary hip flexor, the iliopsoas, and your ability to diaphragmatically breathe are connected.

To give you some anatomical context, let me outline the iliopsoas and the diaphragm. The diaphragm is the primary muscle of breathing. This dome-shaped muscle contracts and flattens with every inhalation, creating a vacuum effect that pulls air into the lungs, then with every exhalation, it relaxes, and air is pushed out of the lungs.

The parasympathetic nervous system mediates “rest and digest” responses: its functions include slowing heart rate and increasing digestive secretions. The parasympathetic response also serves to suppress the sympathetic nervous system (a.k.a. the “fight or flight” instinct). You might feel your sympathetic nervous system at work right before heading out to cross country, or before going into the ring for a dressage test: you shake; your heart races at a mile a minute; you feel like you are going to be sick. These are all effects of your sympathetic nervous symptom being activated by a perceived threat. So, what can you do about it? Well, now we know there is a better way than hiding in the port-o-potty fantasizing about enjoying something less dangerous, like chess or bridge. We now know the power of stimulating the vagus nerve.