12/15/2025
It is a good question to be asking “is what I’m doing truly benefiting the body?”
Many times when working on a horses body we are unknowingly fighting their protective mechanisms
We are missing the moments when the nervous system switches from parasympathetic into sympathetic activation
We are missing the meaning of a horse looking away as we approach certain body parts
We are missing the excessive yawning that is a result of sympathetic overload and flooding
We are missing the feeling through each layer of tissue and finding the layers that are more resistant and listening to them in order to gain response not force it
These nuances are what can make things confusing when we’ve always done things with horses a certain way, but they are the things that make the most profound differences
Why I don’t do deep tissue work on horses.
I am extremely grateful for the quality of training I received as a body worker. Before I could qualify as an equine massage therapist I had to train in human massage. I had no desire to do this (I mean, human bodies……….) but there was an important reason why. We humans have a voice, and can and should use it when receiving therapy. It is easy to impose ourselves on the equine body in a way we imagine feels good, but does, in fact, not. Spending time on human bodies first provides the verbal feedback many of us need.
Several years ago I got ran over by a training horse. A good looking Arab who’d had it with people. Not his fault, but the end result was he ran over me - all four feet- up my side, over my neck and head. I learned a lot, about horse owners and horses. And of course, my own short comings.
I have been gently - and sometimes not so gently- suffering ever since. It caused a bone spur in my neck which produces residual pain in my shoulder and arm. Mostly it just grumbles, sometimes it spasms.
Ever since I have taken myself along to an incredible cranial sacral therapist who, by ostensibly ‘not doing very much at all’, is actually doing an awful lot. This keeps me out of serious pain and comfortable enough to function.
A few weeks ago this injury was aggravated. and as my cranial sacred goddess is away I looked for a massage therapist. She did what is often done, and dug away with her elbow on the sore bits and applied a lot of cross tissue pressure on the spasmy bits. I said ‘Oh that’s a bit sore’ in a small breathless voice a few times, and she said ‘I’m not really using that much pressure’. So I shut up and held my breath.
Now, following this treatment, I can’t move that arm or shoulder at all. I’m rattling with pain killers, strapped to a TENS machine and trying not to get too far away from a hot water bottle. Again, my fault. I should have got off that table and protected my body, rather than her feelings.
The more time I have spent with my hands on horse bodies, the less and less it seems necessary to do. I don’t impose stretches, I don’t use trigger point therapy, I don’t use knuckles, or elbows or digging about into sore points.
If a body is having to protect itself from a therapist, my experience is that not much good is being achieved. It might feel satisfying to knead away at tight muscles, but bruising should not be the outcome of a treatment. I no longer have my horses cracked, or ‘overly’ manipulated, or in any way manhandled in treatments. There are very, very few people I’ll let get their hands on my horses.
The body will do its own remarkable amount of healing in response to small suggestions and touch which feels safe, Very often ALL we need to do is provide a space for the body to feel safe in and it will begin to weave its own magic. It’s remarkable what we can offer our horses with the most minimal of touch (I don’t want to say ‘light’ touch as this often produces something from a human which horses also don’t appreciate).
While we may enjoy seeing a body worker ‘Get right in there’ with our horse; very often their body might have been better off with a lot, lot, less.
