Massage relaxes horses, but it's hard work

POWELL, Wyo. (AP)--When Kori Cross uses her hands to massage and relax an equine customer, the horse shows his appreciation by sighing and making chewing motions with his mouth.

In this case, the massage recipient is Chex, an 8-year-old gelding who has been ill. His owner, Ashley Smallwood, has been unable to ride him for several weeks due to a serious infection, followed by stomach ulcers caused by the antibiotics needed to treat his infection.

As a result of the pain of the ulcers and lack of riding, his muscles are tense and sore. Light touches in some places along his back and hips cause him to flinch visibly.

To relax him, Cross starts by talking gently to him while stroking the horse's forehead. Gradually, she moved her hands to his right ear, where she inserts the thumb of one hand inside his ear, then pulls upward on his outer ear with the other hand.

It's not a gentle tug, either.

"You can yank on a horse's ear, and the more pressure you put on it, the better they like it,'' she said. "You can put up to 400 pounds of pressure on a horse's ear, but I don't have that much strength.''

Horses like having their ears pulled because there are 250 pressure points in their ears, Cross said. Pulling on them helps set nerves straight and relax the horse from his nose to his tail.

"It's kind of like when you have a headache,'' she explained. "You massage your temple because it feels better.''

"As soon as I do that, they're completely relaxed,'' she said. "They wait for a second, then shake their head and lick their lips.''

That is a horse's way of expressing the relief of muscle tension and the accompanying release of toxins and negative energy within his body, Cross said.

Not all horses like having their ears messed with, Cross said. When a horse resists, "I have a different way to get around it. I work on their head first, then I can put my finger in their ears.''

After working on Chex's head, Cross moves down his neck, feeling for knotted muscles or tense places. She kneads the muscles along his spine with her fingers as she goes.

She puts gentle pressure on the top of his head, and he obliges by lowering his head. Then she puts her hand under his chin and quickly pushes his head up and to the side. This releases muscle tension in his neck and throughout his body, she said.

After a few seconds, he responds again by licking his lips and making chewing motions with his mouth.

Cross said horses don't respond to anything she does immediately. It takes awhile for his nerves to tell his brain what just happened.

Cross said she always has the horse's owner hold the lead while she's massaging him. That way, he associates the relief and pleasure he feels with his owner, not with her.

"It's his owner he sees,'' she said.

Once Chex's head and neck are done, Cross is ready to move on to his back and legs. She uses her hands and elbows to work out the muscle knots and tension along his spine, ribs and hips.

"You always start at the head, because you want to relax the horse so it doesn't kick your head off,'' she said. "If I went straight to the horse's back, he would be moving at me, trying to kick, push and bite.''

Even that precaution doesn't guarantee there won't be problems.

In many cases, horses that are hurting are able to turn off the pain; rather than feel the pain, they feel nothing. Massaging reconnects them with the sensations in their body, some of which aren't immediately pleasant.

"I've been kicked, I've been bit, I've been stomped on. When they're hurting, their first reaction is to kick. ... They'll do anything to avoid the pain.''

But horses often act apologetic afterward--"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'' she added.

Eventually, most horses relax and enjoy the massage.

Chex is no exception. The farther into the massage Cross is, the more relaxed he is. The tension melts from his muscles; knots that were visible in his neck and back muscles before the massage disappear. His eyes, which appeared somewhat anxious before the massage, now are calm.

He gives an audible sigh.

Some horses even fall asleep during the massage, she said.

Chex resists a little when Cross moves to his hind legs; he doesn't like people touching them. But Cross insists, and eventually she is able to lift his hind feet and move them in the ways needed to relax his leg and hip muscles.

It's hard work, and she puts all of her strength into it.

"It's physically demanding,'' Cross said. "It makes me kind of sick sometimes. I have to take all their bad energy and give them my good.''

Cross said she makes sure to eat well before she does a horse massage, and to breathe while she's doing one.

That was a lesson she learned the hard way early on in her training. She had hands-on instruction from a certified teacher in Arizona six years ago, and attended Buster Harlow's Massage Clinic in South Dakota four years ago.

Cross said she tried massaging people, but found she prefers horses. Her hands are too strong for people, and she finds horses less complicated to deal with.

"They don't tell you too much,'' she said.

Cross finishes Chex's massage by pulling on his tail--hard, using her body weight. The resulting pop at the base of his tail tells her the nerves and muscles are in place. Chex remains relaxed, still making chewing motions.

She repeats the procedure with the front lock of his mane, and he licks his lips.

Once the massage is complete, Smallwood's mother lead's Chex to a rail at the other side of the front section of the Northwest College Equine Center building. As he walks, he looks almost drunk, his legs and feet moving lazily.

Cross watches and chuckles.

"When they're done, they're like Jell-O,'' she said. "It's funny.''

She said she instructs horse owners to make sure they have enough water to drink after a massage.

"They need a lot of water,'' she said. "It really dehydrates them.''

That's because their bodies are ridding themselves of all the toxins released during the massage.

"It loosens them up, getting all of that bad stuff out of their guts, out of their muscles,'' she said.

She also advises owners to let their horses rest for a few days.

"It won't hurt them to ride them,'' she said, "but it defeats the purpose. The muscles are moving still and reacting differently. If you ride them, everything you just worked on gets tight.''

Cross said the horses she massages leave happy, and so do their owners.

Ironically, she can't massage her own horses--she has someone else do that.

"I don't do a good job,'' she said. "I'll massage them, but I know they're not getting the full extent of my massage. I think it's because they're like my children, and I don't want to hurt them.

"My massage therapist said a good massage therapist can't work on his own horses or his own family.''

Date: 3/15/10