Welcome to the Equine Massage List Sixth Photo Contest!
Entries are of your favourite equine massage technique or stroke, or stretch. Any hands on technique a horse has benefited from. Have a friend take a photo and describe how to do the technique and what benefits it has. Convince us this is the best way to ‘rub’ a horse. You can enter as many times as you like, techniques do not necessarily have to be the ‘traditional’ way of employing equine massage. Entries are limited to members of the Equine Massage List.
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1) Catherine massaging the equine mouth.
Mouthwork: I really enjoy how the horse plays with you when you use this technique. The key to this one is to wet your hand with water before doing anything in the mouth, this technique is not very comfortable for both if your hand dries out the gums. Keep the side of your fingers along the gums, you can see here with Henry how he wiggles his top lip back and forth to help me and let me know he is enjoying it, but if he gets a bit exuberant it can be tricky keeping my fingers up there. I originally came across the idea of massaging here with TTEAM, and more recently in Equinology’s advanced class.
2) Gretchen demonstrating the belly lift.The belly lift has a two fold purpose--to release tension in the pectoral muscles and to stretch the back muscles. Start by applying light pressure to the caudal deep pectoral muscle (girth box) with thumb and fingers. Slowly bring your hands up the ribcabe, stroking all the way to the spine. Release, start again, using moderate, then heavy pressure. Move down the ribcage and repeat the entire process until the entire abdomen has been treated. This will cause rounding of the back, stretching the longissimus dorsi, the longissimus costarum and the spinalis dorsi. This move is useful for horses who hold tension in the abdomen or horses with gas/colic symptoms.
3) THE GLIDE
by DebranneThe horse does most of the work for this move which is why it is a favorite of mine in the head and neck region. All you have to do is place the palm of your hand at the lower region of the area which needs work and apply pressure. If you wait a few seconds, your horse will lean into you for more pressure. When he is ready he will actually lower his head and neck and your hand will slowly move up.
When you might use this stroke in this area:
If your horse bulges his neck and holds his head high with his nose leading, he is overstretching this muscle. This is an “upside-down” horse.
If this muscle is restricted (shortened), he may take a shorter step with the affected limb.
When tight and sore on one side, he may hold his head and neck towards that side.
