Inspired by a colleague I just had to check if an effect of horse massage is possible to measure. I decided to measure the length of the stride before and after treatment in a few horses, and I was very surprised. Most of the horses increased their stride by about 10 cm after the treatment, which is quite a lot. The length was only measured for walk, but I think the results says a lot. The hind legs landing in front of the front legs also increase significantly, about 5-6 cm.
One of the horses had quite a shorter length of the stride on the right hind leg, by 5 cm shorter than the other legs. After treatment this horse also increased the length by about 10 cm on each leg, and even more for the right hind leg with 14 cm, and the horse had now approximately the same length of the stride on all legs.
The owner of the latter horse got for homework to stretch the horse at least 3 timers a week after training, and she really dedicated herself to this. At the next treatment 4 weeks later, the length of the stride was again measured before and after the treatment. Not only was the length maintained from after last treatment, but it had also increase by another 3 cm. The hind leg landing in front of the front leg had increased by 6-7 cm. After the second treatment the length increased by 2-3 cm and the hind legs landed additionally 3-4 cm in front of the front legs. The total increase of the length of the stride was about 15 cm and hind legs landing in front of the fore legs by more than 10 cm.
Horse massage is a treatment I really believe in, and even though I have other techniques in use during a treatment, I always use the massage the most. I have not become less inspired after these results. That many cm I guess could mean several seconds in a race, more points with nicer movements in a dressage competition or ability of jumping better at show jumping.
The results after stretching should inspire more horse owners to perform stretching often, and also let their horse receive a massage by a professional therapist regularly.
