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What Does Massage Therapy Do For Horses?
What Does Massage Therapy Do For Horses?
We ask our horses to do much more for us than they were built to do. Horses were built to roam free and graze, they were not built to travel in trailers, jump 5-foot fences, gallop around a track, or piaffe on the spot, but they do it anyways for us. Horses are powerful creatures that have been adapted to perform. They are athletes.
Given the extraordinary physical demands we place on our horses, it is important that we provide them with the proper care and support they need - just like any other athlete. Human athletes regularly receive maintenance for their muscles and joints to allow them to perform at their finest, the same should go for our equine athletes.
Massage therapy can be used to relax tight and sore muscles, increase range of motion, realign the pelvis, break down scar tissue, and can also help with an array of behavioural issues. Horses naturally want to work and when a horse starts to exhibit a new bad behaviour, they are usually trying to tell us something.
Beyond the physical, massage therapy can be an amazing tool to help your horse's mental well-being as well. Like humans, horses can experience stress and anxiety which takes a toll on their physical well-being. Horses can also experience headaches which can be related to stress and anxiety. Like in humans, massage therapy can help the horse relax and reduce feelings of stress. We can also relieve discomfort caused by headaches.
What Does Kinesiology Taping Do For Horses?
What Does Kinesiology Taping Do For Horses?
Kinesiology taping offers a wide range of support for your horse. We can use kinesiology tape to relax stiff muscles or stimulate atrophied muscles. We can also use the tape to stabilize joints, decompress tissue, reduce scars, and reduce swelling.
When kinesiology tape is applied to the horse, the tape sticks to the hair and lifts it up. Each hair follicle has nerve endings that are triggered when the hair is lifted in this manner. The skin then also lifts up which allows more space beneath the skin to allow blood flow. The triggered nerve endings send signals to the brain to increase blood flow and nutrients to the affected area and since the skin has been lifted, the blood and nutrient supply have more space. This allows the muscles beneath the skin to heal at a faster rate than normal as the muscles are getting more nutrients than they normally would.
Kinesiology tape can also be used to stabilize joints. Among the pictures, you will see how the tape has been applied to the hocks to help with arthritis problems, as well as to the sacroiliac joint. The tape is made with a certain amount of stretch to it, meaning we can stretch it according to what we are taping. When stabilizing a joint, we use a greater amount of stretch to keep the joint in one spot.
We can also facilitate muscle function to allow a horse to perform a task with more ease. Among the pictures, an example of this would be the shoulder taping. This taping helps the horse pick up and move their leg forward with less strain.
Kinesiology tape is also helpful for reducing swelling. We use a technique called lymphatic drainage to lift the skin and allow the fluid to flow towards the lymph node rather than stay stocked in an area.
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