Retraction and embarrassment

Having raved about the Equissage massage equipment, I have to confess that my feelings about it have changed since my last post.  A lot of doubts and worries have crept in to the point that I have decided I wish to return the equipment and claim a refund.  I'm hoping this will be straightforward.

My worries about the massage equipment began to steal upon me as I thought about the setup of the sale and since using the equipment on my own.  I had been offered a free massage session – but this turned out to be a sales demonstration, and a pretty intensive one at that as she was with me for nearly four hours.  This in itself leaves a bad taste with me and also makes me feel a little embarrassed – for being foolish enough to believe it was truly a free session.  Unfortunately I did not take notice of the sales patter and the way I was being drawn in because I believed it to be a genuine, one-off free session.  I was compromised to begin with because I was committed to being happy and grateful for my kindly offered free massage.

The second aspect that set alarm bells ringing is that the demonstrator suggested to me that I could recoup some of the cost of the equipment by massaging other people's horses.  This seemed like a good idea at the time, but on reflection I think it is actually a rather crazy and even irresponsible thing to suggest.  Who would want an unqualified person massaging their horse?  Do I in fact want me—an unqualified person—massaging my own horses?  Dee has gone lame and I just pray this is a coincidence and not the result of the massage I gave her.  Even if it is a coincidence—which is likely—this has still frightened me and I will not risk it again.  It is a very different experience doing a massage on one's own to doing it with a person beside you who you believe to be an expert.  I now doubt that the massage device can never do harm and only be of benefit.  If I were to massage someone else's horse and they developed a problem I would be liable.

Red does seem to be looser after the two massage sessions he has received and he does seem to enjoy it, but I still would not risk using the device on him again either because of Dee's lameness, unless I believed myself to have more knowledge and understanding of horse massage.  I also felt some benefit but it is physically impossible for me to give myself the massage that the demonstrator gave me, so the device is useless to me for that.  I would have to find someone who knows how to do the massage for me.  In the hands of someone who knows what they are doing I'm sure the device can be of some benefit, but I do not think it so useful to me to be worth the money.  I feel I would need to invest in training in horse massage to be sure I was doing good and certain I was doing no harm.

I'm hoping to spend time with the horses tomorrow, to check how Dee is, and possibly to ride Red.

Massage benefits

One of the first things I do in the morning is a set of stretching exercises.  I find this helps keep my back strong and my joints supple.  I am usually a bit stiff in my joints first thing in the morning, so it is useful to try and ease this out straight away. 

This morning I had a surprise.  I went into the leg stretch posture – one leg extended and straight, the other bent tightly with the sole of my foot into my thigh, leaning over to reach for my toes.  Usually on the right side I can grab my big toe fairly easily, while on the left side it is a bit more of a struggle but I usually make it in the end.  This morning I stretched across in this posture and found that I could put both my hands right around my foot easily on each side.  Moving to the neck stretches, I discovered that I could turn my neck round much farther than I could previously – or have been able to for quite a while.  This improvement manifested throughout all my stretches.

I can only assume that this benefit is because of the Equissage massage I had yesterday as part of the demo.  I am amazed.  If Red has been feeling this much benefit today from his massage—which was much longer and deeper than mine—I should think he's been skipping round the field like a colt!

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement... if this continues with regular use of the Equissage massager, I will be most satisfied and feel that it was well worth the money.

Massage

I never had my ride last Friday because I started to feel ill on Wednesday evening.  Sigh...  It has been a strange illness – never really developing but staying in my head so I feel a bit top-heavy and off balance.  I think it is probably something like a sinus infection rather than a cold.  I rested up for a few days, but it didn't really seem to help, so I'm just getting on with things as usual now and putting up with feeling a bit odd.

Today Red was booked for a massage.  I was offered this free massage demonstration after entering—but not winning—a competition to win the massage equipment.  It was difficult to decide which horse to give the free session, but decided on Red in the end.  He tends to be rather stiff in his hind quarters and he works more than Dee.

The Equissage massage was quite impressive, and the 'before' and 'after' rides were noticeably different.  Red was reluctant to stay out on the left rein during the 'before' ride and could not give me any flexion.  On the 'after' ride he was staying out without being asked and giving me a good bend.  In fact I felt quite disorientated having him staying out so well on the left rein because both he and Dee are usually hard work to achieve this.  He really enjoyed the massage and was so snuggly and affectionate during it.

The demonstrator did one side of Red's body and I gave him the treatment the other side.  Fortunately having trained as a reflexologist I understood the principles of the treatment and quickly picked up the technique.  I particularly liked that the device has a rubber attachment for working on bony areas so that it was comfortable for him on his legs.  To find out how it felt, I was also given a massage over my back and shoulders, and shown how the unit could be used on my knees.  I think the version of the equipment that is put on like a saddle and left to run automatically would be the most convenient way to regularly massage a horse, but that was nearly twice the cost of the hand-held unit.

So... did you guess... yes I bought one of their hand-held massage devices – for a frightening amount of money.  I haven't told 'ö-Dzin how much it cost!  To try and offset the cost a little I am hoping to offer my services to massage other people's horses with it once I have a little more experience, so if you are a local reader and want an Equissage massage for your horse do get in touch.

I didn't manage to take any photographs today, so I thought you might like to see these caligraphies crafted by my teacher, Ngak'chang Rinpoche.