July 8, 2018 – A life-long horse lover with a desire to learn all I could about the magnificent creatures, I enrolled in my first course towards a diploma in Equine Studies in the fall of 2016. I soon learned one of my classmates was a certified equine massage therapist—my curiosity was piqued! I couldn’t think of a more hands-on and therapeutic way to interact with them. She spoke very highly of the course, the instructor, and the amount of knowledge gained—I simply had to wait until the course was offered at a time and location that worked for me.
Fast-forward to June 2018 and I successfully completed the 80-hour Certified Equine Massage Therapy course. It was a fascinating and rewarding experience. The learning curve felt steep at times and there were many moments when—to borrow an analogy from the instructor—I felt like a pig on roller skates! But I wasn’t the only one.
The group was small and all but one of us had zero experience in massage therapy. We were all beginning and learning at the same pace with guidance from an incredibly knowledgeable, patient, and kind instructor. Homework before the course included an overview of the skeletal system and layers of muscle along with a few fancy words, like Effleurage (ef·fleur·age) and Pettrisage (pet·riss·age), both pronounced with a soft “G” like in the word fromage.
Each day, we learned the theory behind the practice and applied it right away, hands-on with the horses—an invaluable part of the learning experience. Homework was assigned at the end of each day to review what we had learned and prepare for the next day. I did little more than eat, sleep and study that week.
On the very last day, we tied it all together, each of us on our own to fully assess and treat a horse. My client was Oliver, a gentle, blue-eyed paint I fell in love with on the first day of the course. He, along with all of the other therapy horses at T.E.A.D. were very patient with the many inexperienced hands constantly poking them throughout the week.
When I walked into Oliver’s stall to begin my first full treatment, I 100% felt like a pig on roller skates! Luckily, that feeling was short-lived. As I ran my fingers along the sides of Oliver’s spine, he winced when I hit a sore spot along his lumbar vertebrae. I felt an immediate sense of relief! Not because he was in discomfort, but because I had identified an area to focus on in an attempt to relieve his discomfort. I applied all of the techniques I had learned that week to the muscles surrounding the area of concern on one side and slowly worked my way around his rump to the other side. Once there, he leaned into me as if to say “That’s the spot!” and stayed there as I massaged the muscles.
During the treatment, Oliver stretched his body in a way I have never seen a horse move—a long, low full-body stretch. After observing this twice, I decided to assist him with some hind leg stretches. He leaned right into it on the left side, put the weight of his leg in my hands and extended fully, with his hoof pointing straight out to the wall behind him.
After focusing in on a couple of other areas, at the end of a 2-hour treatment, I finished with some myofascial release. I gently placed my hands on the top of Oliver’s forehead, closed my eyes, and slowly rocked with him, pushed and pulled by the force of the cerebral spinal fluid flowing back and forth along the length of his body. He fell asleep and I shed a few tears.
I have an amount of gratitude for my instructor, Sidonia McIntyre, all of my classmates who contributed to the learning experience with their curiosity, encouragement and support, to T.E.A.D. for hosting us, and to Joanne Rutley at Happy Neighs Tack Design for answering my questions and encouraging me to take the course. I will be practicing my newfound skills with the therapy horses I learned on over the coming weeks and months, with the intention of building a client base of my own in time.
Owl Equestrian 