Reflections of an Equine Massage Therapist
January 7th 2008 02:44
It is now 2008 and I have been looking back through my own archives to see what direction I may head in this coming year. I did this following interview in July 2000 and I have added a few comments as a reflection today.
Catherine Bird is an Equine Massage Therapist based at Randwick in Sydney. When you meet Catherine there is one thing that you know for sure, that she cares for the horse and they always come first.
HC: Why did you become an Equine Massage Therapist?
CATHERINE: Why? I can't give you a specific reason. I had always wanted to massage horses from when I first learnt to massage humans, but back then it was too hard to convince people it was of benefit to them and their horses. It was in the old days when if you advertised massage, it was presumed you were operating a brothel.
One day years later I was asked to massage a horse who had fallen through a fence. I agreed hesitantly, and found miracles happened. From that moment on I was compelled to learn as much about horses and how to massage and employ other natural therapies I was using.
A Vet friend today commented on my passion for my work, I have to admit it can be more of an obsession some days.
HC: How long have you been an Equine Massage Therapist?
CATHERINE: From that day I considered myself an Equine Massage Therapist.
That was about 6 years ago. It was a while before I massaged my next horse, as I wanted to study as much about horses as I could before I rubbed them again. I also found a local riding school that let me turn up one morning a week and practice on any willing horse. Once I was confident I had figured it out for myself, I packed my bags for the States and attended courses and spent time with therapists I had read about here.
Well if someone asks these days what course I did, its multiple, and the studies continue. I am lucky I am still working at what I love, and its coming up to 15 years now with horses, and twenty with humans.
HC: What changes over the years have you seen in people's attitude towards massage?
CATHERINE: I could be crude here, but I wont. Massage is no longer associated with the sex industry. It has finally gained credibility of its own as a therapy. I once stared incredulously at my first teacher of massage and thought him insane when he said that massage was the most under rated therapy available. I now believe that to be true.
HC: Are there a lot more qualified therapists now? What do you see for the future?
CATHERINE
epends on your definition of qualified. In Australia there has not been training available until recently. Some of us have studied either in the US or UK, and yet even when you have completed a massage course to massage humans, I would never consider the person qualified. A qualified therapist is one who has experience and knowledge, and that is something only working on many horses will teach you. I see the need for training for people (except I want a grandfather clause to cover us who know what we are doing), I would not be surprised to see an institution introduce maybe a diploma level course but not for a few years yet, they are going that way with human therapies. I run day courses for owners to understand their horses, which are fun, but not intended to train would-be therapists.
This has now happened, Richmond TAFE now offers a diploma in equine massage and I am lucky enough to be one of the teachers for the their hands-on practical components.
HC: What's the training involved in becoming an Equine Massage Therapist?
CATHERINE: That varies on who you talk to and where they studied. It ranges from an intensive one week course to a two year course.
In my opinion you need knowledge of the movement of a horse. You need to have a 'touch', you need to understand muscle structure and you need to know where your boundaries end as a massage therapist. It is important you do not step over the line and try and diagnose and provide answers to questions a Veterinarian should answering.
Understanding the horse from as many aspects as possible is important too. When I wanted to learn more, I tried every discipline. Once found myself staring down a side of a mountain hanging off an endurance horse to see what they went through on rocky mountain climbs. I dont know how many times I grimanced during a dressage lesson, or how many mornings I wandered down to the racetrack at dawn to just observe. I decided rodeo was something to be watched from the spectators seats.
HC: What are the oils you use, are there many different types?
CATHERINE:With the Aromatherapy I spent a lot of time transferring my ideas across to horses and there are some that cant be used on horses that can be safely used on humans. We also have to remember that in some situations essential oils may swab. Commercially I think I could easily buy just over 200 essential oils. I used to have a dispensary of about 60 when massaging humans, I now use about 20 on horses.
HC: Working professionally, what tools and what quality do you need to have?
CATHERINE: Your hands. These are your most valuable tool. The horse will talk to you through the sensitivity you develop with your hands. Next you need your eyes, little things like an upturned hair will give you a hint of a sore muscle. You also need to be aware of a horses body language, so you can read their reaction and not leave yourself open to a kick or bite because you ignore warnings.
If you start using essential oils. You must use pharmaceutical quality. No short cuts allowed or you will not have the success you desire. As you apply the oils diluted in a vegetable oil, this must be fresh and of a high quality, our food quality oils are not good enough to place on our horses skin and will go rancid too quickly.
HC: What signs do you look for in a sore horse?
CATHERINE: Signs. I assess a horse by their disposition and behaviour. I often find difficult horses are sore horses. A sudden change in a horses demeanour usually means they have hurt themselves. The way they move or behave often point you to where they need help.
Once it has gotten to affecting their movement, as in lameness, it is preferable a Vet checks out all possibilities before I go in and rub.
Things like difficulty in obtaining flexion on one rein or engaging the hind are often muscle tightness in corresponding muscles. Also a horse suddenly bucking and throwing a rider can be a sore back.
HC: What do you avoid?
CATHERINE: I avoid seeing a horse I have not attended to before that has injured itself badly and the person has not had Veterinarian care first. I have insisted on it to the point of losing the client, but the horse must come first. The Vet may say the horse has only bruised itself, but at least any serious injury has been eliminated by a proper diagnosis.
HC: There are many theories and misconceived ideas on Massage, what are yours?
CATHERINE:I am not sure what you mean here. I suppose massage in my own mind, and I am mercurial about this and constantly developing my ideas, massage is VITALITY. It improves the level of 'life' in a being so they can achieve what they need to. Be it to overcome a sore ache or pain, or to give a touch of kindness so one feels they can overcome a mental adversity.
HC: What do you recommend as the regular Massaging cycle?[/B]
CATHERINE: This varies on the horse. Some racehorses in heavy work I will see once a week or fortnight.
Horses that are at intermediate levels of dressage or other performance disciplines, I usually find I may have to see them 2 or 3 times close together if there is a problem that has been building up for a while. Then once every 4 to 6 weeks will keep them happy.
Other horses after the initial visits, I may end up seeing 3 or 4 times a year.
HC: At what age should you start massaging horses?
CATHERINE:I have worked on newborn thoroughbred foals to ease out tight spots from birth in conjunction with corrective farriers to avoid conformation problems as they grow into racehorses. So depending on your philosophy on how soon a foal should be handled, from day one if you see the need. Though you better know yourself around horses, handling foals can be dangerous.
Actually working with horses requires you always respect the power and strength of each and every horse.
HC: What common problems do you see with massaging?
CATHERINE: Well, Massage is for MUSCLES, so I am dealing primarily with soft tissue damage. I have to address a lot of shoulder/hip diagonal imbalances, that if not addressed will end up with sore backs at the point the body pivots. So simply, shoulders, back and hind quarters seem to have the most muscle spots to attend to.
It is also refreshing to see a horse's demeanour return to that of politeness and willingness once an irritating soreness has left his mind.
HC: How can you find out if someone is qualified to massage?
CATHERINE: At the moment with great difficulty. There are a lot of people wanting to do this as a career lately. I get more phone calls from people wanting to learn some weeks than I get people needing their horse massaged.
In finding a good therapist, find someone who understands your horse. Sometimes your horse will be the best judge of a therapist, the first massage for a horse may seem a strange experience and they may shuffle about a bit, but they will accept most moves. The second massage they will be accepting and willing to just snooze through most movements.
I think "paper" qualifications are important to a point.
Horse sense is just as important. I have heard shocking stories of horses not letting therapists near them the second time, or of therapists being injured because they did not listen to the horse.
Thirdly, there is a 'gift' of touch, its something that is hard to explain. When I was teaching humans to massage humans, in a class of 20 students, each term I would glance around the room as they practiced their moves and I would only see one or two of the students with the 'gift'. When you experience their touch or see it on your horse you will know what I mean.
HC: There are many different techniques, which of them do you use?
CATHERINE: I use all the techniques I would use on a human and the ones I learnt specifically for horses, plus a few that just develop with individual horses.
My favourite on horses is myofascial release. I studied this in Colorado from Mark and Shannon Barnes, Mark's father developed the technique for humans. You find a resistance in the horse and slowly ease into it until the resistance reaches it peak, hold, and wait for it to release. You often get a beautiful dynamic with the horse where you can place your weight against his and you are holding each other from falling over in a wonderful space where you can share thoughts.
I have since done further studies in this technique and if you are lucky enough to source a course present by Ruth Mitchell (based in VA USA) do it!! She was able to take my use of this therapy to another level.
HC: What type of horse owners makes up your client base?
CATHERINE: It is so varied. What I find is each week will have a favourite discipline. I do a lot of dressage horses, but thats the discipline I train in and understand how it feels from a riders perspective. Eventers are also a large proportion of clients. Then one week I may be doing reining and camp drafting horses or endurance. It often depends on what discipline is coming up to championships or big competitions.
Horses always find a way to strain a muscle or bring up an old injury just before a big event unfortunately.
I also have a few clients in the race industry and they make up a solid base to my business. However, I tend to only encourage clients that are prepared to use me as part of their preventative and maintenance program. It is unpleasant being called into a trainer for the first time 3 days before a race and asked to "fix their horse up".
I now focus more on a local clientèle, with equine influenza still with us, I prefer stay close to home and look after my regular clients. What I do and how I manage biosecurity when I open up my travel area again, is hard to know.
HC: How can you find out if someone is qualified to massage?
CATHERINE: Questions, Questions, Questions. Quiz them to the point of
exhaustion if you have to.
Your horse is a valuable friend and you need to be able to trust the person working on him. I insist all owners are present when I massage their horses so they understand what I am doing and can also lean a few things to keep up the maintenance between my visits. I travel a large territory and I may not be in a country area for another 6 weeks or so.
Fortunately nowadays the quality of course available has improved since I first started to explore this as a possible career change. If a therapist has managed to survive the first two years of being in business for themselves, hopefully it is because they have a knack with horses and can help you.
HC: Why massage a horse?
CATHERINE:Why not? I am always busy on August the First, giving many horse's birthday gifts.
In competitive circles and the race industry, I am there to improve performance of the horse. To find any restriction in the soft tissue and ease it out so a horse can obtain a higher score for its extensions or movements, or so a race horse can stretch his neck out with ease and win by a nose.
One beautiful horse I massaged was Ned. Ned was a 33 year old TB dying of cancer. His owner wanted his arthritic neck eased so he could graze a few more weeks and she had time to accept it was his time. Ned had massages over 6 weeks to make his last days more comfortable and when his time came to leave, his owner was assured in herself she had done something special for him for all the wonderful years they had shared together.
So many horses have come into my life since this article, some I could help, occasionally there were some I could not. That is also part of being a good therapist, knowing when to refer on. It is important to know where your skills cover in being able to help, and when it is important to help the owner go back to their vet, farrier, dentist or any other specialist out there who may be more appropriate at that time.
.
each day has its special moments
Catherine Bird is an Equine Massage Therapist based at Randwick in Sydney. When you meet Catherine there is one thing that you know for sure, that she cares for the horse and they always come first.
HC: Why did you become an Equine Massage Therapist?
CATHERINE: Why? I can't give you a specific reason. I had always wanted to massage horses from when I first learnt to massage humans, but back then it was too hard to convince people it was of benefit to them and their horses. It was in the old days when if you advertised massage, it was presumed you were operating a brothel.
One day years later I was asked to massage a horse who had fallen through a fence. I agreed hesitantly, and found miracles happened. From that moment on I was compelled to learn as much about horses and how to massage and employ other natural therapies I was using.
A Vet friend today commented on my passion for my work, I have to admit it can be more of an obsession some days.
HC: How long have you been an Equine Massage Therapist?
CATHERINE: From that day I considered myself an Equine Massage Therapist.
That was about 6 years ago. It was a while before I massaged my next horse, as I wanted to study as much about horses as I could before I rubbed them again. I also found a local riding school that let me turn up one morning a week and practice on any willing horse. Once I was confident I had figured it out for myself, I packed my bags for the States and attended courses and spent time with therapists I had read about here.
Well if someone asks these days what course I did, its multiple, and the studies continue. I am lucky I am still working at what I love, and its coming up to 15 years now with horses, and twenty with humans.
HC: What changes over the years have you seen in people's attitude towards massage?
CATHERINE: I could be crude here, but I wont. Massage is no longer associated with the sex industry. It has finally gained credibility of its own as a therapy. I once stared incredulously at my first teacher of massage and thought him insane when he said that massage was the most under rated therapy available. I now believe that to be true.
HC: Are there a lot more qualified therapists now? What do you see for the future?
CATHERINE
epends on your definition of qualified. In Australia there has not been training available until recently. Some of us have studied either in the US or UK, and yet even when you have completed a massage course to massage humans, I would never consider the person qualified. A qualified therapist is one who has experience and knowledge, and that is something only working on many horses will teach you. I see the need for training for people (except I want a grandfather clause to cover us who know what we are doing), I would not be surprised to see an institution introduce maybe a diploma level course but not for a few years yet, they are going that way with human therapies. I run day courses for owners to understand their horses, which are fun, but not intended to train would-be therapists.This has now happened, Richmond TAFE now offers a diploma in equine massage and I am lucky enough to be one of the teachers for the their hands-on practical components.
HC: What's the training involved in becoming an Equine Massage Therapist?
CATHERINE: That varies on who you talk to and where they studied. It ranges from an intensive one week course to a two year course.
In my opinion you need knowledge of the movement of a horse. You need to have a 'touch', you need to understand muscle structure and you need to know where your boundaries end as a massage therapist. It is important you do not step over the line and try and diagnose and provide answers to questions a Veterinarian should answering.
Understanding the horse from as many aspects as possible is important too. When I wanted to learn more, I tried every discipline. Once found myself staring down a side of a mountain hanging off an endurance horse to see what they went through on rocky mountain climbs. I dont know how many times I grimanced during a dressage lesson, or how many mornings I wandered down to the racetrack at dawn to just observe. I decided rodeo was something to be watched from the spectators seats.
HC: What are the oils you use, are there many different types?
CATHERINE:With the Aromatherapy I spent a lot of time transferring my ideas across to horses and there are some that cant be used on horses that can be safely used on humans. We also have to remember that in some situations essential oils may swab. Commercially I think I could easily buy just over 200 essential oils. I used to have a dispensary of about 60 when massaging humans, I now use about 20 on horses.
HC: Working professionally, what tools and what quality do you need to have?
CATHERINE: Your hands. These are your most valuable tool. The horse will talk to you through the sensitivity you develop with your hands. Next you need your eyes, little things like an upturned hair will give you a hint of a sore muscle. You also need to be aware of a horses body language, so you can read their reaction and not leave yourself open to a kick or bite because you ignore warnings.
If you start using essential oils. You must use pharmaceutical quality. No short cuts allowed or you will not have the success you desire. As you apply the oils diluted in a vegetable oil, this must be fresh and of a high quality, our food quality oils are not good enough to place on our horses skin and will go rancid too quickly.
HC: What signs do you look for in a sore horse?
CATHERINE: Signs. I assess a horse by their disposition and behaviour. I often find difficult horses are sore horses. A sudden change in a horses demeanour usually means they have hurt themselves. The way they move or behave often point you to where they need help.
Once it has gotten to affecting their movement, as in lameness, it is preferable a Vet checks out all possibilities before I go in and rub.
Things like difficulty in obtaining flexion on one rein or engaging the hind are often muscle tightness in corresponding muscles. Also a horse suddenly bucking and throwing a rider can be a sore back.
HC: What do you avoid?
CATHERINE: I avoid seeing a horse I have not attended to before that has injured itself badly and the person has not had Veterinarian care first. I have insisted on it to the point of losing the client, but the horse must come first. The Vet may say the horse has only bruised itself, but at least any serious injury has been eliminated by a proper diagnosis.
HC: There are many theories and misconceived ideas on Massage, what are yours?
CATHERINE:I am not sure what you mean here. I suppose massage in my own mind, and I am mercurial about this and constantly developing my ideas, massage is VITALITY. It improves the level of 'life' in a being so they can achieve what they need to. Be it to overcome a sore ache or pain, or to give a touch of kindness so one feels they can overcome a mental adversity.
HC: What do you recommend as the regular Massaging cycle?[/B]
CATHERINE: This varies on the horse. Some racehorses in heavy work I will see once a week or fortnight.
Horses that are at intermediate levels of dressage or other performance disciplines, I usually find I may have to see them 2 or 3 times close together if there is a problem that has been building up for a while. Then once every 4 to 6 weeks will keep them happy.
Other horses after the initial visits, I may end up seeing 3 or 4 times a year.
HC: At what age should you start massaging horses?
CATHERINE:I have worked on newborn thoroughbred foals to ease out tight spots from birth in conjunction with corrective farriers to avoid conformation problems as they grow into racehorses. So depending on your philosophy on how soon a foal should be handled, from day one if you see the need. Though you better know yourself around horses, handling foals can be dangerous.
Actually working with horses requires you always respect the power and strength of each and every horse.
HC: What common problems do you see with massaging?
CATHERINE: Well, Massage is for MUSCLES, so I am dealing primarily with soft tissue damage. I have to address a lot of shoulder/hip diagonal imbalances, that if not addressed will end up with sore backs at the point the body pivots. So simply, shoulders, back and hind quarters seem to have the most muscle spots to attend to.
It is also refreshing to see a horse's demeanour return to that of politeness and willingness once an irritating soreness has left his mind.
HC: How can you find out if someone is qualified to massage?
CATHERINE: At the moment with great difficulty. There are a lot of people wanting to do this as a career lately. I get more phone calls from people wanting to learn some weeks than I get people needing their horse massaged.
In finding a good therapist, find someone who understands your horse. Sometimes your horse will be the best judge of a therapist, the first massage for a horse may seem a strange experience and they may shuffle about a bit, but they will accept most moves. The second massage they will be accepting and willing to just snooze through most movements.
I think "paper" qualifications are important to a point.
Horse sense is just as important. I have heard shocking stories of horses not letting therapists near them the second time, or of therapists being injured because they did not listen to the horse.
Thirdly, there is a 'gift' of touch, its something that is hard to explain. When I was teaching humans to massage humans, in a class of 20 students, each term I would glance around the room as they practiced their moves and I would only see one or two of the students with the 'gift'. When you experience their touch or see it on your horse you will know what I mean.
HC: There are many different techniques, which of them do you use?
CATHERINE: I use all the techniques I would use on a human and the ones I learnt specifically for horses, plus a few that just develop with individual horses.
My favourite on horses is myofascial release. I studied this in Colorado from Mark and Shannon Barnes, Mark's father developed the technique for humans. You find a resistance in the horse and slowly ease into it until the resistance reaches it peak, hold, and wait for it to release. You often get a beautiful dynamic with the horse where you can place your weight against his and you are holding each other from falling over in a wonderful space where you can share thoughts.
I have since done further studies in this technique and if you are lucky enough to source a course present by Ruth Mitchell (based in VA USA) do it!! She was able to take my use of this therapy to another level.
HC: What type of horse owners makes up your client base?
CATHERINE: It is so varied. What I find is each week will have a favourite discipline. I do a lot of dressage horses, but thats the discipline I train in and understand how it feels from a riders perspective. Eventers are also a large proportion of clients. Then one week I may be doing reining and camp drafting horses or endurance. It often depends on what discipline is coming up to championships or big competitions.
Horses always find a way to strain a muscle or bring up an old injury just before a big event unfortunately.
I also have a few clients in the race industry and they make up a solid base to my business. However, I tend to only encourage clients that are prepared to use me as part of their preventative and maintenance program. It is unpleasant being called into a trainer for the first time 3 days before a race and asked to "fix their horse up".
I now focus more on a local clientèle, with equine influenza still with us, I prefer stay close to home and look after my regular clients. What I do and how I manage biosecurity when I open up my travel area again, is hard to know.
HC: How can you find out if someone is qualified to massage?
CATHERINE: Questions, Questions, Questions. Quiz them to the point of
exhaustion if you have to.
Your horse is a valuable friend and you need to be able to trust the person working on him. I insist all owners are present when I massage their horses so they understand what I am doing and can also lean a few things to keep up the maintenance between my visits. I travel a large territory and I may not be in a country area for another 6 weeks or so.
Fortunately nowadays the quality of course available has improved since I first started to explore this as a possible career change. If a therapist has managed to survive the first two years of being in business for themselves, hopefully it is because they have a knack with horses and can help you.
HC: Why massage a horse?
CATHERINE:Why not? I am always busy on August the First, giving many horse's birthday gifts.
In competitive circles and the race industry, I am there to improve performance of the horse. To find any restriction in the soft tissue and ease it out so a horse can obtain a higher score for its extensions or movements, or so a race horse can stretch his neck out with ease and win by a nose.
One beautiful horse I massaged was Ned. Ned was a 33 year old TB dying of cancer. His owner wanted his arthritic neck eased so he could graze a few more weeks and she had time to accept it was his time. Ned had massages over 6 weeks to make his last days more comfortable and when his time came to leave, his owner was assured in herself she had done something special for him for all the wonderful years they had shared together.
So many horses have come into my life since this article, some I could help, occasionally there were some I could not. That is also part of being a good therapist, knowing when to refer on. It is important to know where your skills cover in being able to help, and when it is important to help the owner go back to their vet, farrier, dentist or any other specialist out there who may be more appropriate at that time.
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Comment by katyzzz
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I'm sure animals are more appreciative than humans although any thing/ person who has their pain relieved will feel the most wonderful sense of relief, and I'm sure you have many grateful 'patients'
katyzzz
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