We’re hoping that this will give you the opportunity to attend a very high quality program without overburdening your wallet. We initially thought we’d offer to include lodging, but it is too overwhelming to try to meet everyone’s expectations when making a lodging choice. So, we’re offering the discount instead which should be enough of a savings to cover your lodging expenses depending on where you choose to stay and perhaps a few days worth of meals, etc.

This is a super deal and an excellent opportunity for you to attend a high level program at an extremely reduced course fee. Don’t wait; go to www.equitouch.net for more details today!

Now I know we’re not supposed to attribute human thoughts and emotions to animals, especially horses. However, I do wonder what is going through their minds. There are four horses that I work with regularly at that barn. And, they most certainly know me and know that when I come out, I’m going to massage at least one of them since the only times I go to that barn are when I have a horse scheduled to massage.

So one does wonder what each of the other horses is thinking when only one of them turns out to be the chosen one. Interestingly enough, when I took the horse I massaged back to the pasture, the others were still lined up at the fence as if waiting their turn. One even tried to bully the others out of the way to be the next in line. Alas, on this occasion, I’d only scheduled the one horse to work with, so I simply gave a quick scratch to the remaining hopeful ones and told them, “Sorry, not today.”

A similar thing happens with my dog clients. I have four dogs in the same home that I massage from time to time. One of them had a stifle injury, so he gets scheduled for massage more often. All four dogs tend to line up when I arrive. When I pick the one with the injury, the others seem to sulk and either sit or lie nearby staring at me during the entire massage session. The other dogs also seem to know exactly when the session is over and they immediately jump up and start vying for space to be the next in line as soon as I’m finishing the final strokes.

I always feel badly about disappointing the others, so even when I don’t have them all on my list for the day, I try to give each a little neck or shoulder rub so none feels left out. I do the same for the horses I massage and try to give each of the others a little scratch and rub before I leave.

So I do wonder. Do animals “feel” or experience disappointment as humans know it? Scientists tell us, “No, they do not.” They tell us that animals are not capable of those types of thoughts or feelings. Yet most of us animal owners believe they do. Are we not positive that our dogs are capable of feeling love, loyalty and sadness? If so, why can’t they experience disappointment? Why can’t other animals have similar emotions?

Most scientists tell us that while dogs are capable of feeling loyalty, if not love, horses are not capable of those types of emotions or reasoning. I don’t buy it. While horses may not “think in words” as some people believe they do, in my opinion, there has to be more going on in their minds than basic needs, i.e., food, water, safety, etc. Thus I simply cannot make myself believe that horses have otherwise blank minds and few emotions.

In any event, wouldn’t you love to know what animals are really thinking? I know I would. Maybe I’d be disappointed if I found out the scientists are correct, yet it still would be nice to know for sure. Until the time comes that it can be proven that animals have very few thoughts, those of us who grace animals with human-type emotions and yes, even human-type thoughts, will go blithely on our way. In the end, I sincerely hope that it might be the scientists who will be “surprised.”

Anyway, I was just “thinking” as we humans tend to do from time to time.

What better, loving gift than a protective turquoise saddle charm for Mom to show you care on Mother’s Day? Turquoise saddle charms are believed to help protect a rider from falling from a horse. Not only are these charms considered protective, they are beautiful decorations for Mom’s saddle as well.

The charms pictured above include a lovely doubled turquoise, agate, and clear quartz crystal charm, a beautiful blue turquoise, white turquoise, and agate charm, and a delightful white turquoise, amethyst, lapis lazuli and clear quartz crystal saddle charm.

We offer even more varieties of saddle charms in our store. Prices range from $6.99 – $9.95 and shipping is FREE! At these prices, you can even get Mom two or more saddle charms that she can change whenever she chooses. We also have a variety of lovely pendants and necklaces available in the store if you prefer to get her a gift she can wear. You can even get her one of each as your budget allows.

Each variety of semi-precious stone used in our saddle charms, pendants, and necklaces has its own legend and lore. You’ll find the legends listed below the description of each item. Learn more by visiting our store today at www.equitouch.net! Or, you can click on any of the links in this article. You can also learn more about the legend of saddle charms by reading our March 15, 2010 blog, “Legend of the Saddle Charm.”

Thanks for reading and we hope you and your family enjoy a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Body-building is a dedicated work program designed to increase the horse’s muscling in specific areas. Body regions in which a horse might need this type of work include the top line, shoulders or hindquarters. We might focus on these areas or even on specific muscles when the horse becomes weak or falls off in development due to injury or inactivity.

In the perfect world, body-building and exercise/conditioning should always be combined in a horse’s training program. Work in each of these areas is required to bring your horse to a good level of fitness.

For example, I’m working with a friend’s mare to help the horse build a top line and increase muscling in her hindquarters. This mare has been out to pasture for about a year while my friend was undergoing cancer treatment. At 20 years of age, the mare has not been very active at pasture and has declined in muscling and fitness as a result. So our work with her is two-fold. She needs basic exercise to increase cardiovascular fitness and needs dedicated work to increase muscling in the areas that have dropped off substantially.

My friend would like to get back into riding; however, her mare’s back muscles are under-developed and so out-of-condition that she would not be comfortable working under saddle. So we are focusing on building the mare’s back and hindquarters from the ground while ensuring that other areas of her body increase in fitness as well.

My friend handles the basic exercise program which serves to help build cardiovascular and overall body fitness. Then, several times per week, I’m helping my friend learn specific work and exercise to encourage the mare to use her back and develop and strengthen her hindquarters and her abdominal muscles. We are also working with stretching movements to help keep the mare’s muscles supple and relaxed during the body building process.

We’re only a few weeks into the work now, but we are already seeing the mare’s top line and hindquarters increasing in development. As she increases in fitness, she is also able to work a bit longer during each session. Our preliminary goal is to get her to a stage where my friend can begin riding in the next month or so. Once the mare can begin ridden work, the plan is to have my friend continue combining conditioning exercises with body-building to encourage a higher level of fitness so her mare can continue to work well into her twenties.

It is wise to remember that basic exercise and body building are not the same things. We should always combine the two in our horse’s training program. If we monitor both, we can ensure that our horse has good cardiovascular fitness and stays strong, supple and healthy in overall body musculature.

As always, we at EquiTouch look forward to working with you and other new students coming to us from all over the country and from varied backgrounds this spring and summer.

Because our students get such great results during their hands-on training, some of our past “horse teachers” are becoming “maintenance massages” and have few muscle issues to present to our students. To correct this problem and to make sure you receive a great educational experience, we’ve added several new stables to our working list. As a result, we have even more horses available for you to work with as you continue increasing your massage skills.

Although we still work with many of our past “horse teachers,” working with new horses is always a great learning experience for both the students and our instructors. It gives us even more horse personalities to work with as well as horses that have varied muscle issues and problems. The change also gives us well over 50 horses of varied breeds and riding disciplines from which to choose. And, it allows us to more easily match your horse handling skills, massage educational needs, and personality to the correct horses.

Visit the EquiTouch website today and join us for a class or seminar this spring or summer!

To learn more, go to http://www.myearthhour.org/about

Horses, like people, can become bored with routine. We’ve already learned this in our training and/or riding efforts. Who hasn’t heard the term “ring sour” or “arena sour?” This occurs when we ride our horses day after day, week after week in the same patterns and in the same place without variation. We often see evidence of the horse’s boredom through his lethargic response to a repetitive training routine. If the boredom continues, we may even see the horse displaying bad manners or poor behavior under saddle.

Just as the horse can become bored with repetitive training patterns, he can easily become bored with a limited massage pattern or routine. His boredom could be displayed in poor ground manners, refusal to stand still for the massage, and/or an inability to focus on you during the massage. The bored horse may choose to pick at your clothes or he may even attempt a bite or two. While this behavior may call for a reprimand, we need to try to understand what the horse is really trying to tell us with his undesirable behavior.

If you decide the horse has become bored with your work, the simple cure is to learn new techniques or new variations of the techniques you already know. This is easier said than done since nearly every book on equine massage you can pick up tells you to use strokes x, y, and z; repeat on the other side. You may even have learned this same type of massage during your equine massage training. If this is the case, you can learn to break the pattern.

There are several ways you can learn to vary your massage. You can attend a different equine massage program, taking care to make sure that they offer a greater variety of techniques and more than a patterned approach to massage before you enroll. Or, you can attend an advanced course in equine massage that offers new techniques and varied applications.

Another option is to begin reading books and literature based on human massage techniques. There is much more information available in this venue than is available in equine massage books. And, many human massage books will offer you more in-depth information about the strokes you already know as well as some different strokes and variations of each. Other study options include massage periodicals and articles that discuss massage techniques as well as other modalities.

By learning a greater variety of massage techniques and applications, you can make sure that the horses you work with remain interested and coöperate more fully in each massage session. More importantly, you’ll rediscover the excitement in your work as you explore new ideas and learn new techniques. As a bonus, you’ll find that your new knowledge of technique and application will help you achieve a more permanent, positive change in each of your equine clients!

So begins one legend that surrounds Turquoise. Many riders believe that wearing this beautiful stone or using it as decoration on their saddles, offers protection to both horse and rider, guarding them from falls. Thus we come to the legend of the saddle charm and to Turquoise as one of the major gemstones used in their design.

Saddle charms are usually made of turquoise or a combination of turquoise and other stones such as coral, amethyst, clear crystal, and onyx. Adding other stones to the charm’s design enhances the beautiful color of the turquoise and adds each stone’s legendary healing and protective properties to the strength of the saddle charm. Turquoise combined with silver, other gemstones, or by itself, can also be added to a horse’s bridle to help protect the horse from broken bones and falls, or simply to add decoration.

There are many other legends associated with turquoise. Throughout Native American history, we see turquoise used by medicine men for healing and by warriors who affixed the stone to the ends of their bows to ensure accurate shots. Native Americans have a long-standing love of turquoise and use it extensively for protection and healing. They believe turquoise is a sacred stone and a connector of the earth and sky. It is one of the four “elemental” gemstones of the Pueblos (the other stones include jet, coral, and abalone shell). Today, we can find turquoise either by itself or combined with other stones that are usually set in silver, to create Native American jewelry as well as carvings of birds or animal shapes called “fetishes.”

Our research tells us that there are more legends and folklore about turquoise than any other gemstone. Due to those legends and the protective properties of turquoise, it remains the primary stone that we associate not only with horses, but with saddle charms, bridle charms, and the rider’s personal jewelry.

No one can guarantee that adding a turquoise charm to your saddle will make sure that you never fall from your horse, but I’ve had one attached to my saddle for several years and can honestly say that I haven’t “bitten the dust since.” Of course, over the years I’ve become a better rider. I’ve also quit riding horses beyond my skill level (that’s a good choice) and now that I’m what you might call a “senior rider,” I stick to riding horses that have a bit more training and sense. Silly though it may be, there’s still that one little piece of my mind that believes that my little turquoise saddle charm just might be helping to keep me onboard. So, I’ve decided that whether the legend is true or just a bit of hokum, that saddle charm is going to stay right there on my saddle! It may work, or it may not, but it sure can’t hurt!

Footnote: To read a longer article on Turquoise gemstones, visit our website at www.equitouch.net and click on “Past Topics.” Also, feel free to browse our store for saddle charms and other natural gemstone jewelry.

The horse’s skull consists of many bones with most of the joints classified as relatively immobile. These are called fibrous joints or “sutures.” However, there is one major moveable joint associated with the skull. This is the temporomandibular joint or TMJ. There are actually two temporomandibular joints; i.e., there is one on each side of the skull. A simplified description of this joint is that it is formed by the mandible articulating with the temporal bone. Also included in this articulation is the joint capsule, articular disc and ligaments, and all can be subjected to damage.

Because the mandible is a lengthy bone, it can create what we call a long lever arm. According to the mechanics of levers, the longer the lever arm, in this case the mandible (jaw bone), the greater the torque force. Thus, an ounce of pressure, placed on mandible at the bars where the bit lies in the mouth, can translate to pounds of pressure at the TMJ.

Obviously, when we see a handler jerking on the horse’s reins from the ground, there is much more than an ounce of pressure being used. In fact, it’s much more likely that the handler is using a pound or more of pressure on the reins. Consider the repercussions of this.

First, the horse will experience pain on the bars of the mouth, followed by pain at the joints (TMJ) and quite possibly damage to the joint itself. The result may include chronic pain and inflammation surrounding the TMJ as well as tension in the muscles around the joint. Those muscles can eventually become hypertonic and may even become ‘locked’ in spasm. Thus, the pain-spasm-pain cycle well-known to massage therapists is now set up to begin.

The muscles involved might include the masseter, temporalis, occipitomandibularis, obliquus capitis cranialis & caudalis, longissimus capitis, etc., as well as restrictions in the surrounding fascia. Note that all muscles involved have not been listed, so have fun investigating and learning if you choose to pursue this type of study.

In cases where TMJ Syndrome/Disease is suspected, I always recommend veterinary intervention as there can be other causes for this problem. Among these causes are poor dentition, blunt trauma, or a trauma such as getting the face caught in a feeder, fence, etc. Veterinary care is paramount since proper care must include a correct diagnosis of the problem, assessment of the joint itself, dental assessment, and treatment to help decrease pain and inflammation at the very least.

Once the vet clears the horse for massage, the massage therapist should pay special attention to the muscles surrounding the TMJ and the muscles around the lower jaw. Areas of ‘referred pain’ should also be considered. Thus, you should investigate other facial muscles as well as the muscles around the ears and poll.

To find information about these muscles, their attachments, actions, etc., we recommend the study of a good equine anatomy book such as: Textbook of Veterinary Anatomy – Dyce, Sack, Wensing, or Anatomy of the Horse – Klaus-Dieter Budras. Visit the EquiTouch website and use the Book List button to find a more complete listing of anatomy texts.

Future blogs will continue this discussion to include other areas of the body affected and the muscles involved. We’ll also discuss the horse’s automatic response to the handler jerking on the bit as well as behavioral issues the horse may develop as a result.

For example, on a day when the temperatures were to reach 52 degrees, I noticed that some of the horses I had scheduled to massage were wearing what I call “polar wear.” These are blankets designed to keep the horse warm into the negative temperatures. Unfortunately, at 52 degrees, the horses in question were sweating underneath their warm winter wear.

I generally like to discuss blanketing/un-blanketing policies with my regular clients during the colder months. So, if I’m scheduled to massage their horse on a warm day, I often offer to leave the horse un-blanketed or change the blanket out to a lighter one after I finish the horse’s massage. If the horse was one of my first clients for the day and it’s on or near the route I take home, I can offer to stop back and re-blanket the horse. If the horse is not on my route home, the owner will need to be available later in the day to exchange the lighter blanket for a heavier model if temperatures are going to plummet. As you can see from the examples, exchanging a blanket or leaving the blanket off must always be arranged in advance with your client.

In some cases, leaving the horse with a mid-weight blanket might be fine for several days, so your client might not need to worry if they can’t make it to the barn later on. For example, today’s temperatures in my area will reach a high of 53 degrees drop to a low of 27 degrees. In this case, the horse should probably be fine with the medium weight blanket throughout the night, so the horse’s owner would not need to change the blanket out in the evening. Also, since temperatures are to reach the upper 40’s for the next few days with abundant sunshine and lows ranging from 26 – 28 degrees, a mid-weight blanket should suffice for those days as well.

My personal preference at 50 degrees and above, especially on a sunny day, would be to leave the horse without a blanket post-massage. This gives the horse’s skin a chance to breathe and the horse can enjoy soaking up all that marvelous sunshine.

Naturally, this choice requires permission from the horse’s owner. And, as mentioned above, the horse owner may need to be available later in the day or evening to re-blanket the horse, so this may affect their decision. This is especially important if the horse has a full-body clip or even a trace clip. If the owner cannot make it to the barn that day and the horse has a body clip, it is always best to leave the horse with at least a medium weight blanket.

Changing out blankets or leaving the horse without a blanket is just one of those little extra services you can provide for your equine massage clients. It really costs you nothing in time or in money and most horse owners will really appreciate you considering their horse’s comfort.