Centaur Equine Massage Training

09/12/2025

The importance of treating each horse as an individual, something which is focused on a lot with our students.

26/11/2025

❄️How Cold Weather Can Affect Horse Muscles❄️

🐴Muscle Tightness and Stiffness🐴

➡️Colder temperatures cause muscles to contract and become less flexible. This can lead to:

⭐Stiff movement
⭐Reduced stride length
⭐Difficulty bending or collecting during riding

‼️Older horses or those with prior injuries may feel this more strongly.

🐴 Increased Risk of Muscle Strain 🐴

➡️Cold muscles are more prone to injury. Without proper warm-up:

⭐Muscles can tear more easily.
⭐Tendons and ligaments become less elastic.

‼️This is especially important for performance horses.

🐴 Slower Warm-Up and Cool-Down 🐴

➡️ Horses take longer to get their muscles warm enough for work. If they cool down too quickly afterward, muscles can tighten again.

🐴 Reduced Blood Flow 🐴

➡️ Cold causes blood vessels to constrict, which can:

⭐Lower circulation in muscles
⭐Delay removal of lactic acid
⭐Lead to muscle soreness after exercise

🐴 Increased Risk of Conditions Like Tying-Up 🐴

➡️Horses prone to tying-up (muscle cramping and stiffness) may be more affected in cold weather, especially if:

⭐They are exercised without proper warm-up
⭐They have inconsistent exercise routines
⭐Their diet is not adjusted for winter

🐴 Compensatory Tension From Posture 🐴

➡️ Cold wind or icy footing may cause horses to brace their muscles, tightening:

⭐Back muscles
⭐Neck muscles
⭐Hamstrings

‼️Over time, this can lead to soreness and reduced performance.

🐴How to Help Protect Your Horse's Muscles in Cold Weather🐴

✅Warm-Up Thoroughly

⭐Walk for 10–15 minutes before trotting or cantering.
⭐Gradually increase work intensity.
⭐ Use Exercise Sheets or Quarter Sheets, especially for clipped horses or those prone to stiffness.

✅Keep Them Moving
⭐Turnout and light daily exercise help prevent stiffness.

✅Ensure Proper Nutrition
⭐Adequate electrolytes, vitamin E, and potassium support muscle function.

✅Massage or Stretching
⭐Regular massage and stretching can help older or stiff horses loosen up.

✅Maintain Appropriate Rugging (this will vary horses to horse, there is no one size fits all when it come to what rug to put on).
⭐A warm horse = warm muscles = less stiffness.

www.centaurequinemassagetraining.co.uk

25/11/2025

How can equine massage therapy help shift a horse from flight mode (sympathetic nervous system activation) to rest and digest mode (parasympathetic activation)?

Equine massage therapists use touch, pressure, and movement to calm the horse's body and reset the nervous system. Below is how it works….

🧠 1. Influences the Nervous System
Massage activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation. The results:
Lower heart rate
Slower breathing
Relaxed muscle tone
Improved digestion

These are all signs a horse is moving out of stress/flight mode.

🐴 2. Releases Muscle Tension
A horse in flight mode keeps muscles ready for action. Massage will:
Softens tight muscles
Releases trigger points
Improves circulation
As muscle tension reduces, the brain interprets the body as “safe”, helping transfer the horse into rest and digest mode.

🩸 3. Improves Blood & Lymphatic Flow
Long, rhythmic massage strokes:
Increase blood flow (bringing warmth and relaxation)
Improve lymph movement (reducing inflammation and discomfort)
This reduces physiological stress that can keep a horse on high alert.

🧩 4. Promotes Endorphin Release
Massage therapy stimulates endorphins—natural feel-good, pain-relieving chemicals.
This creates a positive cycle: Less pain → less stress → easier to relax.

🐴 5. Encourages Mind–Body Connection
The rhythmic, predictable nature of a gentle massage session:
Reassures anxious or hyper-vigilant horses
Builds trust
Gives the horse permission to release tension and let go
Horses often start licking, chewing, yawning, lowering their head, or softening their eye—their version of “rest and digest.”

🧘 6. Restores Normal Breathing Patterns
Stress causes shallow, rapid breathing.
Massage on the rib cage, shoulders, and neck helps:
Release the intercostal muscles
Improve diaphragmatic movement
Encourage deeper breaths
Deep breathing directly activates rest and digest mode.

📉 7. Reduces Cortisol
Regular therapeutic touch can help lower cortisol levels over time.
Less cortisol within the horse system means they are more easily able to enter a relaxed physiological state.

🐴 Noticeable signs that the horse is transitioning into rest and digest mode
Lowered head and neck
Licking, chewing, blowing out
Softening eye or “droopy” eyelids
Slower breathing
Relaxed stance, weight-shifting
Yawning
Gut sounds increasing

👍These are all good indications the massage session is successfully shifting the horse out of flight mode.

www.centaurequinemassagetraining.co.uk

24/11/2025

On Friday we held our last group hands-on experience day of 2025 (where has that year gone) 😳

The horses and ponies at were, as always very willing participants. Helping our students on their way to become qualified equine massage therapists.

If you would be interested in more information on the courses we offer please pop us a message and why not make the most of our black Friday offer.

www.centaurequinemassagetraining.co.uk

24/11/2025

⚫️ BLACK FRIDAY SALE ⚫️

Enjoy 10% off of enrolment on our equine massage therapy course this black Friday week.
Offer ends on Sunday 30th of November.

PM us for more information.

21/11/2025

Really good advice from Emma Lucy - Equine Massage Practitioner

⚠️ Cold weather warning ⚠️

Just a reminder that if you have been given stretches as part of your follow up plans it is advised you never stretch a cold horse. During this cold spell, stretches are best applied after exercise, once the muscles have warmed up 🥶

11/11/2025

I was pulled from my field, from my work, from my play,
Ne’er again to see England, in lands far away,
Through death and destruction, through blood sweat and tears,
I carried my master, along with my peers,
So I ask you to remember a while,
Along with the soldiers, in smart rank and file,
Remember our beauty, the strength of our kind,
As we galloped through danger, without care to mind,
For we were the horses thrust into war,
And we gave up our lives for your peace evermore.

The War Horse, 1914 – 1918

We will remember them.

06/11/2025

Why Facial Symmetry Matters Before Equine Massage

Before beginning a massage session it helps to take a moment to look closely at the horse’s face.

What Are You Looking For?

Is it symmetrical?
Is one eye softer than the other?
Are both of the eyes at the same level?
Is one nostril tighter or higher/lower than the other?
Is one ear set slightly higher than the other?

Facial asymmetry can tell you a lot before you begin a treatment.

It may indicate:

🐴 Muscle tension or restriction higher up in the poll or jaw.
🦷 Dental imbalance or TMJ discomfort.
🧠 Uneven nerve tone or habitual posture patterns.

Checking symmetry helps you to identify where the horse may be compensating, and it guides you to approach the treatment in an effective way.

www.centaurequinemassagetraining.co.uk

05/11/2025

🟣STRETCHING

Over the next few weeks, I will take you through step by step some simple stretching exercises which you can carry out with your horses.

Before we begin look at different stretches there is some important information below including when NOT to use stretching with your horses.

🟣WHY IS STRETCHING IMPORTANT?

🔹Gentle and regular stretching will help to prevent injury and create an overall sense of wellbeing

🔹The primary benefit of stretching is that the horse will be able to comfortably increase the length of both muscles and tendons, consequently allowing for an increased range of movement. This is something that is continually demanded from each of our working horses.

🟣THE PHYSICAL BENEFITS OF STRETCHING.

🔹Promotes elasticity to the tendons and ligaments.
🔹Promotes the flow of blood.
🔹Promotes the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to heal and cleanse the tissue structures.
🔹Promotes the flow of lymphatic fluid.
🔹Promotes the effective removal of lactic acid - trigger points.
🔹Promotes the joint’s action and abilities - providing a more advanced range of action.
🔹Promotes co-ordination.
🔹Promotes emotional relaxation.
🔹Promotes the effectiveness of the reflex actions.
🔹Maintenance of the older horse (all the above).
🔹Prevents consequential/future injuries/stresses.
🔹Prevents muscular/tendon stress and injury – stress points.
🔹Alleviates current cases of muscular stress.
🔹Alleviates the causes of soreness.
🔹Alleviates the causes of compensatory movement.

🟣THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF STRETCHING.

🔹A horse living with the positive benefits obtained from stretching will automatically benefit from
induced feelings of relaxation, security, calmness and general wellbeing.
🔹Each time the muscle fibres are gently stretched, they send impulses to the brain via sensory nerve endings that automatically order a state of relaxation created through physical and psychological reactions.
🔹The horse’s own self-awareness is stimulated, and relaxation is created also improving co-ordination.

‼️WHEN NOT TO STRETCH‼️

⛔️Never stretch cold body parts as this can cause injury.
⛔️Never pull a stretch beyond its established range of motion, this again can cause injury.
⛔️Never bounce a stretch back – always return the stretched body part to its normal and recognised position through slow and deliberate means.
⛔️Never stretch an injured area.
⛔️Never stretch a healing area.

02/11/2025

Did you know that a horse uses 31 muscles to complete just one stride?

It’s quite remarkable just how much of the horse’s body is used to complete just one full stride.

Imagine if just one of these muscles is housing some tension/stress within it, this stressed muscle will now call for help/support from its neighbouring muscles.

These neighbouring muscles must now work harder in their supporting role causing them to become fatigued and in turn begin forming stress/tension of their own.

Now that these supporting muscles are housing compensatory stress/tension they will call on their neighbouring muscles for help/support and so the cycle continues.

www.centaurequinemassagetraining.co.uk

01/11/2025

Yesterday, Douglas came in a bit full, bloated and looking slightly like he had eaten too much at an all you can eat buffet. He had to be moved onto the winter grazing as the summer field are slippy now and had literally stuffed himself on grass.

I offered him a selection of herbs (pictures of each included) which help support the gut as well as aiding with EMS, laminitis, etc.

Doug's clear choice was the barleygrass which he had 3 helpings of before deciding that he had had enough.

www.centaurequinemassagetraining.co.uk
www.laurasequinemassage.co.uk

21/10/2025

Here at Centaur Equine Massage Training we are proud to be supporting The Household Cavalry for another year.