When you don't know something's wrong because it's never felt so right
Recently I've had several clients remark that they're horse felt so floaty & free after a massage and this made them realize just how "stuck" the horse had previously been. One owner mentioned this when I came out to do a follow up session after the initial massage and she stated that after riding her horse and having him feel so great she was slightly horrified that she failed to realize he'd been holding himself back so much. I responded by telling her not agonize over failing to realize this because how was she to know he had been holding himself together with incorrect muscle memory patterns if she'd never felt him move free of those constrictures? Now that he's been corrected and we're repeating the massage sessions regularly the muscle memory should start to "rewrite" itself if you will. The second client's sweet old mare had experienced several bouts of choke recently and had a freak accident which kept her stall bound for several days. The owner knew she was tight and sore from all the recent trauma but told me the day after her massage that she hadn't quite grasped the extent of the mare's discomfort until she turned her out that morning and for the first time in over a week the mare cantered across the paddock to be with the other horses. This is a common response from owners & trainers and it all goes back to the muscle memory & holding patterns created by trauma and training. For more information about how massage therapy helps overcome this problem and reset the body check out this article from The Institute of Integrative Health Care.
