Equine Massage – Yeah or Neh?

Remember my last post about having an Equine Massage Therapist out to work on Gracie and Vinni? Well it’s now been a week since she was out and a little bit more has happened.

The Massage Therapist came out aka Tanya and looked at all my horses. We started with Vinni and needless to say he wasn’t enjoying being poked and rubbed on. He was more interested in chewing on the lead rope, walking around, and stomping his feet. She told me to watch the signs he gives us to see where he might have problems and where it feels good. While there were a couple signs of liking what she was doing such as licking and yawning for the most part he just kept stomping his leg. Which she said is a sign of him not liking it. She spent about 15 minutes feeling on him and then said she felt some places where he really needed to be worked on by a chiropractor and that until this she probably couldn’t help much. Which she showed me a few spots, one particularly on the left side of his neck where the spine was bulging out and at that point I figured its best to get a Chiro out.

After Vinni though we moved on to Gracie. Well, either my horses loves a woman rubbing on her butt or she really liked what Tanya was doing. She kept twitching her lip, and licking them, she would push against her as if saying “more more please!” I was just completely shocked at the difference between the two. She stood still and really seemed to like what was being done. Tanya worked on her and said she was perfect and nothing felt out of whack. Great news for Gracie that just means she’s being stubborn not getting her right lead.

Well I had her out with just the intentions of having her look at Gracie and Vinni but she ended up looking at all my horses. For the most part everyone was ok except for Vinni and Te. She thought Te might also need some Chiropractic work too.

Before I proposed the question “Will a Massage help my horses?” Well basically I still can’t say for certain whether it did or didn’t. Since Vinni didn’t really get worked on because of the issues we found there was no difference in him afterwards. However, I do feel she can help him out more so after the Chiropractor comes out fixes his spine issues. As for Gracie, I haven’t noticed any difference in her at all when I’m riding or messing with her. She feels the exact same to me. I won’t say that I don’t think it’s worth it because I definitely think there is a need for it. I just think at this point mine didn’t really need it and that’s why I didn’t see much benefit from it.

However, despite what I’m saying, Tanya is absolutely wonderful and I highly recommend her to anyone looking for an Equine Massage Therapist. She cares about the horses 100% and isn’t all about making money doing what she does. She also loves to teach people how to do what she does so you can care for your horse in between visits. If you would like to contact her and get her out to see your pony, you can get more info on her site http://www.sonnysequinemassage.com.

What are your thoughts about Equine Massage?