29/07/2020
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while..... meet Merlin . I wish now we had a video of my first session with him . When I first met Merlin he was very guarded but exceptionally polite when either he wasn’t happy with a certain area being massaged or he was struggling to process what this bizarre hoooman was actually doing to him . His owner Lesley was his safety blanket and has been religious with after care stretches and plans .
It’s always hard for me when I see a horse like Merlin . The horses needs and what he can mentally and physically cope with come first but I also have to take into consideration the owners expectations and thoughts . They are paying me at the end of the day . There are times when I see a horse move , palpate and create a plan and within minutes of getting my hands on the horse properly that plan changes. Merlin was one of these cases .
There was nothing jumping out at me in either his static or dynamic assessment . Small areas of tension were located during palpation but nothing that made me think this horse couldn’t cope with a thorough sports massage . BUT shortly after starting it was clear Merlin wasn’t overjoyed with what was happening (no licking , no chewing etc) his expression was tense and he needed his mummy hooman. I see many horses and I was 99% sure that his reaction wasn’t due to physical pain but he did not trust me combined with the fact I was doing things to him that had never been done to him before , so he was trying to process this with “fight or flight “ mode at a relatively high level . I had to change tact and we ended up doing a fairly light massage on visit one. I wanted him to have a positive experience and his owner was agreement . Visit 2, 6 weeks later , Merlin still needed mummy hooman but he started to relax (the work mummy did in between was amazing) and we did some deeper work with some different techniques. But always making sure that he stayed within his comfort zone . I needed endorphins running through his system no adrenaline. Moving on to visit number 3, videos below : his hooman was able to do jobs whilst he happily had a Sports Massage . He is relaxed and releasing which is what all therapists want to see . So I suppose what I am trying to say is I can’t always do what I need to do in one session and Merlin is a prime example of this . I will always explain to owner what I am doing and why.
