Safety Steps

Massaging a horse without taking proper safety precautions can result in the horse biting or kicking, but a proper certification training course will include lessons on these safety techniques. View some examples of safe handling in this video on equine kinesiology.

Hello, my name is Jennifer Oliver. I'm an equine massage therapist, and the question is how I maintain my personal safety while on the job. Well, safety-wise, when you're massaging a horse in front of their shoulder normally we wouldn't, you know, always have them in cross ties. So, sometimes they're just tied up in their stall or loose in their stall, so what you want to do is just make sure you have a hand on the halter as you work down their neck. Now, I've been working with Casper for a really long time so I know that I don't have to worry about him so I don't not necessarily safe as if he were a new client horse, but I work down the neck while just holding on to his halter. That way, because if I'm over here doing this and he doesn't have his cross ties on, he could reach around and bite me pretty easy but he wouldn't do that. And then as far as hinding goes, once you're behind the shoulder, but when you're out here, you're pretty, you're okay but once you get behind you know, about this point you want to try and keep a fist right there on that stifle, that way if he tries to pick that leg up forward, if you have your hand there it will push you out of the way before he has a chance to kick or anything like that. So you'll be working and so you pretty much will just work with one hand. Now since I trust him I have a tendency to be more, get into it with both hands but it's always safer to make sure you know, when you're working with a new animal that you use the precautions that you learned while in training. I haven't run into too many issues that refer to safety because I work with a lot of horses that are very well handled, very well mannered and they're very calm natured. But through my certification program, they are very stringent on teaching you safety techniques so that if you ever do need to use them, you know how.