Equine Massage Storie, Pg. 6

6.) Fancy Inspirations

By Candy Cornell

I never thought too much about alternative/natural therapies for my animals before. I saw a chiropractor on a regular basis since high school due to my own back problems. But over the last few years I dove into these therapies for my animals with both feet. I have been training horses and teaching riding for quite a few years, and now thanks to my Thoroughbred mare, Fancy. I have a budding new career in massage and a big interest in so many other modalities, I don't know if I'll ever have enough time and money to learn them all. :o)

I bought Fancy as a coming 2 yr old. She was sent to me by a local Thoroughbred farm as they had too many young horses and couldn't care for all of them. The deal was that I was supposed to train her and sell her and could keep whatever money was over the specified amount that they wanted. She was so easy to train and such a sweetie, I couldn't bear to think of her dainty legs being beat up on the track. She doesn't have a racehorse attitude either, she wouldn't have been a horse to push to the front or take any bumps along the way. I made them an offer below what they wanted and much to my surprise they agreed! Believe it or not she made a great western show horse! Over the next 5 years she decorated my walls with trophies and ribbons in many events from Showmanship, to English and Western Pleasure, Western Riding and even a few in Reining. She was proving to be a great mount with a great attitude.

I decided to breed her as my other mare whom I had had since I was 9 yrs old was getting pretty ancient. I wanted another young horse and hoped to get some color and good conformation. I bred her to a leopard appaloosa stallion. She took easily and had a trouble free pregnancy and delivered me a beautiful bay roan filly with a blanket who eventually roaned out to look like a leopard! I couldn't have been more happy. And she was a great mother to boot. Everything was going great until I weaned the foal from her. Within 2 weeks she was sickly, thin depressed and peed constantly. Her tail and bladder were paralyzed. After several tests and vet visits it was decided that she had EPM. I was heartbroken! She was on the traditional EPM meds for 9 months straight. I was so worried about her that I took someone's advice and put her on some herbal supplements as well. She was looking so much better after about 5-6 months, but the vet wanted to keep her on the meds longer to make sure.

In the fall of 1998 a spinal fluid test said she was clear of the EPM. She continued to have problems with her bladder. In addition she was unrideable. She was so spooky and sensitive. Riding her felt like riding a bomb ready to go off at any second. Fancy would not walk, always pranced nervously and breathed like she was in a constant panic. I didn't know what to do for her. I tried taking her back to the round pen and starting her again like a young horse. I tried B1 supplements, calming supplements, lunging the crud out of her. Nothing seemed to ease her mind. One day when brushing her I found her low back to be extremely sore, so I called a chiropractor out to work on her. I told him all about her EPM and how she was so tense and spooky. He adjusted her and did acupuncture. After 3 visits she was no longer sore and seemed a little calmer. Better but still not right!

I was out to lunch with a friend, when she introduced me to an acquaintance of hers who had just finished an equine massage course. She was interested in seeing if she could help with Fancy so I gave it a whirl. She came out and massaged Fancy about 4 times. She did not like it at all. For a sweet tempered mare, she acted as if she was so irritated and was tempted to kick several times. I didn't ask her to come out to work on Fancy anymore and thought I was back to square one again. Then I got to thinking about the woman's techniques. She seemed kind of quick and rough, and the more I thought about it the more I could see why Fancy would be irritated. She just didn't have a good rapport with the horses.

So, knowing nothing about massage at all I tried to massage Fancy by copying things the woman did, but being slower and gentler. She seemed to enjoy it and I got quite interested in learning how to do it myself. My first thought was to learn massage only to treat my own horses. Certainly the school would pay for itself in what I wouldn't spend paying someone else to massage! When I came back from school as a Certified Equine Massage Therapist, I spent about a month working on my own horses to get comfortable with it. Fancy got massages 3 or more times a week. I found all kinds of issues in her neck, low back and her hamstring muscles on both sides were so tight! I became interested in essential oils as well and starting buying a few and trying them on her. Between the two, she became rideable again. That was last spring. Fancy is still tense and somewhat spooky, but not as much as before. There is so much improvement and so much that she has taught me along the way. She has been my inspiration to try something new and learn a new career just to try and help her. This spring I am enrolled in human massage school! I have found a whole new road in life to walk down and I owe it all to a horse! Thank you Fancy!

P.S. Fancy can also be seen on the home page of my website enjoying some massage!

Horses In Harmony.com

Fancy and Glory Baby