Services
There are many reasons to get treatments for your horse. A few examples:
- Relieving excess tension,
- Rehabbing an injury
- Providing comfort or pain relief,
- Overcoming a training plateau
- Preparing for upcoming travel or competition, or
- Increasing a horse’s work or bringing a horse back into work.
Customized massage or PEMF therapy sessions are designed to help your horse in the way that they need most. Below is additional information about my services, as well as peer-reviewed, scientific support.
Packages are preferred, whether you are looking for short term support or to space out treatments. Bodywork and PEMF sessions can be combined or used interchangeably.
Massage, or Bodywork
Using light touch and gentle range-of-motion movement, I support horses in releasing tension at major joints and junctures in their bodies. The result is happier horses, often with softer fascia, reduced physical stress, and more flexible muscles.
Using techniques I learned from Jim Masterson in Tuscon, Arizona and Salisbury, United Kingdom, I use light pressure, and sometimes movement, to guide your horse through tension release. The result is a subtle unwinding for your equine partner. Or not, depending on how your horse releases! Massive yawning, stretching, coughing, and more are not uncommon during bodywork sessions.
In addition to the Masterson Method, I do use traditional forms of massage, formally called effleurage, and lymphatic massage techniques as needed.
Since I began treating horses in Feb 2019, I’ve worked on: dressage horses, eventers, pet horses, barrel racers, polo ponies, off-the-track thoroughbreds, more dressage horses and eventers, hunters, therapy horses (including a miniature horse), and the occasional dog. Several of the horses had specific injuries or conditions.
I am very lucky to treat great horses. It is a pleasure seeing the horses I treat grow happier and healthier.
Note: You will see that I use the terms massage and bodywork. Bodywork is my preferred term since many hand-ons treatments do not include direct manipulation of the muscles, what people think of as traditional massage. A lot of people are not familiar with the term bodywork, though, so I use both.
Benefits of bodywork
The benefits of bodywork are scientifically supported. Here are two studies.
- How massage relaxes heart rate, improve performance in racehorses:
Kowalik, S., Janczarek, I., Kędzierski, W., Stachurska, A., and Wilk, I. (2017) The effect of relaxing massage on heart rate and heart rate variability in purebred Arabian racehorses. Anim Sci J, 88: 669– 677. doi: 10.1111/asj.12671. - A review of beneficial massage and bodywork practices (aka “manual therapies”):
Haussler, Kevin K. “Equine Manual Therapies in Sport Horse Practice.” The Veterinary clinics of North America. Equine practice vol. 34,2 (2018): 375-389. doi:10.1016/j.cveq.2018.04.005
PEMF
Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, or PEMF therapy, helps your horse at a cellular level. A portable PEMF machine emits a pulsed magnetic field, penetrating skin and tissues to repair cells. There are several professional-grade PEMF devices, I use a Magnawave.
Peer-reviewed research shows PEMF is successful in:
- Providing pain relief
- Accelerating bone and tendon repair, and
- Reducing inflammation
The bottom of this section contains links to research on PEMF. There is a wide body of research supporting its efficacy, these are a few varied examples.
The wide range of applications make PEMF a great therapeutic device to help horses heal from very specific injuries, like a fracture, as well as general pain and discomfort. Magnetic waves are beneficial for bruising and abscesses as well.
For horses in good health and performance horses, PEMF provides a different kind of body treatment. Treatments can be adjusted to provide relaxation or a full-body boost.
Note: Like any health or wellness provider, practitioner matters. My horse knowledge and bodywork training means I am careful and skilled with PEMF treatment. My goal is always to provide a relaxing, beneficial session.
PEMF Research
Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy has been shown to help healing in a number of physical and emotional ways:
- A review of PEMF for tendon degeneration:
Gehwolf, Renate et al. “Global Responses of Il-1β-Primed 3D Tendon Constructs to Treatment with Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields.” Cells vol. 8,5 399. 30 Apr. 2019, doi:10.3390/cells8050399. - On the mental benefits of PEMF:
Carlezon, William A Jr et al. “Antidepressant-like effects of cranial stimulation within a low-energy magnetic field in rats.” Biological psychiatry vol. 57,6 (2005): 571-6. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.12.011.
