Equine Massage & Injury Rehabilitation
Part II
Update on Maggy and more!
Laura Attaway, LMP, ESMT II
For those of you who may have missed last month's issue of Horse
Previews, Maggy is a sixteen year old Quarter Horse mare whose leg
was sliced open at the left pastern. Her rehabilitation has progressed
well. Here is an update on a stellar patient.
Three weeks after the accident, Maggy was turned out and allowed
to graze. She showed no signs of lameness and very limited dragging
of her left hind foot. Amber, her eager owner, hand walked her
for the remainder of the week and then rode her bareback. All
went well. Over Spring Break, Maggy spent four days in Riverside
Park exploring the trails with her rider. Again all went well
and Maggy is back to her energetic sound self, ready, willing
and able to give hours of pleasure to her rider.
Many of Maggy's "kinked" and "tight" muscles were worked out through
a series of massage. Some of you may be facing the same situation
for you and your horse, though hopefully without the injury. You
and your horse have had the winter "off"; (well, at least off from
riding, shoveling snow doesn't do much for your riding muscles!)
The next weeks will be full of training and toning muscles in both
horse and rider. Massage can help you both as you get ready for
the show or, recreation or rodeo season.
First massage will relieve those sore and achy muscles. Muscles
that are worked, build up lactic acid. That's the burn you feel
when you push muscles to their limits. Massage will flush the lactic
acid and other by-products of hard work out of the muscles relieving
the soreness and getting them ready to work again.
Second, and possibly the most important, massage will help you
and your horse work together as one flexible powerful unit. Imagine
that your lower back is tight. As you sit in the saddle with your
horse moving through his/her paces beneath you, you have to hold
yourself more rigid because of the discomfort. You may put more
weight in one stirrup. All of this is then transferred to your horse
and how he/she responds and moves with you. Yes, these are very
subtle things; you may have been riding this way for years and winning
some races or competitions. Possibly your horse has had a shortened
stride because of tight hamstrings, the muscles in the back of your
horse's legs. Over time you have adapted to their way of moving.
Now imagine you BOTH get a massage, loosening you BOTH up! You will
be able to move freely with your horse and your horse with you.
I worked on a horse and rider dressage team and in the very next
meet they improve their score by 4 points, to their highest score
ever. Marvelous results!
Hopefully, none of you readers get "dumped". If you do, massage
will help in your recovery. As with horses, massage on people should
never be done during the acute phase when there is still heat and/or
swelling. As with horses, if you are hurt, you will compensate with
the rest of your body. Massage above and below the injury and over
the rest of the body, sure does make you feel much better faster.
As we have seen, massage is a versatile tool. In Maggy's case,
massage was a very strong ingredient in restoring a horse to optimum
performance and adding years of riding pleasure. For you and your
horse, as you start the 2002 season, massage will relieve the aches
and pain and add flexibility and suppleness to the both of you.
Why wait? Make this season a great one, call today for a massage
for you and your horse. Call Laura Attaway, LMP, ESMT II at 509-990-9608
to schedule a massage or if you have questions
|
