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.