26/02/2026
Grooming the most underrated massage technique out there 😁.
We often think of Grooming as just that getting your horse clean before we do anything yet again observation, assessment and palpation are in there aswell.
Remember how we learned to use a small soft face brush and would cringe at the plastic curry comb being used back in the day or scoff at the person using the body brush on the horse that lived out whispering they are going to remove the natural oils, c,mon we all have been a little judgemental 😅
Yet Grooming is a great way to see how your horse feels about you, the tools you are using, the pressure, the timing and if you are listening to what they are asking.
So here are my top tips as a bodyworker
First before brushes just wait and see how your horse feels about it, it may not be the brushes that they have angst with it could be the tack that follows, the routine ride, the stoney pathway they will walk over, for as much as horses love routine we love it more
So change up your Grooming routine become a little bit less rigid in that routine dont always do things the same way. Even something simple as untying your horse can make a world of difference for the horse in that moment.
I mean if your horse doesn't like you coming into their space then we have to ask why??
Now I am wierd I let my horses choose which brush and where they want groomed, Thomas likes a particular brush just behind the scapulas on that Latissimus muscle when the grass is growing and it makes sense he will be more on the forehand and while he may like the poo picker scraper on it he hates the plastic curry comb and will walk off if I dont make the right choice. I did try to explain to him I dont speak horse then realised he doesn't speak human, what a waste of a conversation 😅
Tied up or not?? I dont tie up because I like the horse to move around and often they position themselves so so we hit the right spot.
Behaviour, watch your horse while your Grooming often we miss the right spot because we are looking at the body not the face, if you brush past a place and notice a nice soft eye, go back over the area a little softer and more smaller movements then stop and stay (hey now you are a bodyworker congratulations 😁).
If your horse doesn't like an area then dont focus on it, horses can have an opinion on preference areas just like us, but its something you should note, a girth area may be ok in winter but as summer hits and the flies are out the Panniculus muscle or fly twitch may become sensitive so maybe in summer go a little easy in that area.
Keeping a mental note or writing it down can often help if that behaviour escalates as you will have a log
Brush type does matter chestnuts are way more sensitive to touch so they may not be happy to see a harsher brush, think of our sensitive areas and think would we like to be vigorously groomed on our face and heck I am not even going to mention the groin.😆
Mane and tails are sensitive hairs so just like us it can hurt if done harshly and we are setting up emotions for the next time (I know we all dread the hairdresser combing our hair) I was never allowed to use a brush on a tail we had to use our fingers as combs 😁
Technique is everything we have the superficial muscles, the superficial fasica, the lymphatic system all there which we can affect
I have a video of a lymphatic groom techniques on my page if we follow the path we can have a really good postive affect on our horse and dont forget the limbs
Soft swirling motions with a medium brush can do wonders for all those structures mentioned above a remember if we affect superficial we reach the deep.
Use your hands at the end like a karate kid, wax on wax off all over the body, going down the limbs then back up.
All the while watching your horse adjusting your pressure as you respond to the behavioural cues from the horse.
Dont rush, just once a week dont groom to do something else, just groom your horse with no other thought than to spend quality time with your horse often for horses Grooming is a prerequisite for something else it can be nice sometimes just to do nothing but the thing you are doing.
Ps no pictures of my horses as they are filthy 😅😅
