Equine Massage In Human Terms
By Linda Branston

When I’m treating my equine clients I’m often asked “Are you the Back Lady?” My Equine Massage Therapist colleagues are frequently asked the same question.

I do treat backs … with massage. Massage is a gentle therapy which coaxes the knots out of muscles and, with the correct technique brings muscles out of spasm, returning them to their original state and soothing the stressed muscle fibres bringing natural pain relief to the area. However pain and muscle spasms travel and become a problem in their own right and massage is a fantastic way of feeling your way to problem areas. Just as Reiki rebalances the body’s energy systems and brings the body back into harmony, so too does massage on a physical level.

Muscles Work In Chains
To better explain this, I’ll use my mother! A slip down the stairs last year hurt her back creating deferred pain in her right hip so she found walking and weight-bearing extremely difficult …. Not because of back pain, but because of hip pain even though there was no problem with her hip.

She changed her posture so that it didn’t hurt so much but as her right shoulder was now being asked to do something it wasn’t used to, this resulted in this shoulder muscle going into a painful spasm making her understandably glum … I wonder how many horses are moody for no apparent reason

She naturally changed the way she positioned herself when sitting, standing, walking, etc in attempt to stop her shoulder going into spasm, however, as muscles work in chains, the muscles under her arm joined in, also going into spasm, followed swiftly by her left shoulder muscles.

In equine terms, a horse will take the weight off a painful near side leg, favouring the off side thus putting extra stress on the offside structures, and these muscles will then become painful as they are asked to do something different, followed by neck and shoulder muscles which are used for foreleg locomotion. Similarly, the diagonal leg often carries additional weight, causing similar problems with the hind quarters and so the chain reaction continues throughout the body.

Tug of War Between Muscles
A friend of mine who is a masseuse for people – myself included – strongly advises me to ensure I use both arms equally when massaging. She’s already noticed my right shoulder muscles bulking up as I favour this arm whilst working. Her concern is that this will put my whole body out of balance.

As these muscles are more developed that those on the left, she fears they will start to pull my spine toward them, and the weaker muscles on the left won’t be strong enough to compete. This will alter my posture and just like my mother and our hypothetical horse, other muscles throughout my back will start to complain.

At this point I considered my equine clients – the vast majority of whose right shoulder muscles are far more developed than those on the left as most of them lead with the right leg – and yes, often there are more issues at various points on the off side than the near side, and the loins are frequently a tender area.
Do Horses get headaches?
I’ve suffered from migraines for years. The start of an attack was always a pain in my left shoulder, tracing it’s way up my neck, into the base of my skull and over the left side of my scalp lasting days.

My help came in the form of my masseuse friend. What I didn’t realise for years is that it was my shoulder muscle going into spasm and locking solid, causing a chain reaction up my neck onto my scalp – and this is what my migraine was! She massaged my shoulders and over two treatments two weeks apart I was in real discomfort as the muscles complained their way out of the spasm I never realised they were in.

Hey presto, my migraines have gone and if I feel my shoulder tensing I manage to apply a massage technique to bring it out of spasm which nips it in the bud.

I’m a strong advocate of animals and people sharing similar experiences and therefore strongly believe that horses suffer headaches, so now I know why many of my equine clients squeal and buck with glee around the paddock following a massage, because that’s exactly what I felt like doing (and a friend of mine reckons I should go for it!!!)

By drawing a direct comparison between people who can tell me what’s happening, and horses who can’t, the situation can unravel along with muscle tension and bring comfort to the client.


Muscles and Bones are just like a Ship’s Rigging
My favourite analogy when considering muscles and bones is that of a ship with sails. The ship and the mast(s) are the bones, and the rigging represents muscles, tendons and ligaments.

If a mast (bone) has shifted it’s position for whatever reason, and for the sake of this explanation, lets say it’s now 15º to the left instead of being absolutely vertical, then the rigging (muscles) on one side are going to be stretched, whilst on the other side they are going to sag. When a muscle is over-stretched it goes into spasm and locks in order to protect itself from further damage.

If this situation occurs during a trip or a slip for example the muscles do their job by contracting and pulling the structures back into place, but as it was over-stretched it will now be locked in order to prevent further damage occurring.

This may not unlock for some time and is likely to be sore and movement limited and painful as the pulley system has seized up somewhere along the line.

This can be related to a vertebra in the back or indeed any other bone in the body. However, backs do get pulled about a lot as we mount and dismount, movement of the saddle as well as jumping, galloping, etc. or, just as with people, the simplest move can sometimes just catch us wrongly and put an area into spasm.