Listening Through Your Hands: Introducing Horse Massage for Horse Owners

A calm, practical introduction to horse massage, live with Sue Palmer, The Horse Physio, helping you understand your horse through touch.

What if your horse could feel even 1% better?

Listening Through Your Hands: Introducing Horse Massage for Horse Owners

Most horse owners care deeply about their horse’s comfort and wellbeing, but it can be difficult to know what your horse is really feeling.

The body often whispers before it shouts. Small areas of tension or soreness often develop gradually, and by the time a problem becomes obvious it may already have been affecting the horse for some time.

Learning to use your hands in a thoughtful way can help you notice small changes earlier.

In this live online masterclass, Sue Palmer — ACPAT and RAMP Registered Chartered Physiotherapist and author of Horse Massage for Horse Owners— will introduce a simple, safe approach to horse massage that owners can use to better understand their horse’s body.

Rather than focusing on lots of complicated techniques, this session explores something much more valuable: how to begin listening through your hands.

During the masterclass, Sue will demonstrate one gentle massage technique called effleurage, which can be used on the horse’s back to help develop awareness through touch.

By the end of the session you will understand:

• why regular hands-on contact with your horse matters
• how gentle touch can help you recognise what is normal for your horse
• a simple massage technique you can begin using safely
• what to notice when you place your hands on your horse

This session is designed specifically for horse owners who would like to feel more confident understanding their horse’s comfort and wellbeing.

You do not need any previous massage experience.

Massage always sits alongside the care provided by your horse’s professional team — including your vet, physiotherapist, farrier and saddle fitter — but learning how to place your hands on your horse thoughtfully can be an incredibly valuable starting point.

If you enjoy the session and would like to learn more, Sue will also explain how you can continue developing your skills inside her online course Horse Massage for Horse Owners.

Who this session is for

This training is for you if you’re someone who genuinely cares about your horse and wants to support their comfort and wellbeing as best you can.

Perhaps you already spend time grooming your horse and you enjoy that time together, but you sometimes wonder whether there’s more you could be doing to understand what your horse is feeling.

Or maybe you’ve heard people talk about massage and you like the idea of it, but you’re not quite sure where to start or whether you’d be doing it correctly.

It might also be that you’ve noticed small changes in your horse from time to time — perhaps a little sensitivity when grooming, or a reaction somewhere that you weren’t expecting — and you’d like to feel more confident about what you’re noticing.

Really, this session is for owners who want to be more hands-on with their horses in a thoughtful way.

Not because you’re trying to replace your vet or your physio — that’s absolutely not the aim — but because you want to develop a better understanding of your horse’s body and what they might be telling you.

Massage can be a really helpful way to start doing that.

It’s a way of learning to listen through your hands.

What this session is not

This session is not a professional training in equine massage. Instead, it is a gentle introduction designed to help horse owners begin understanding their horse’s comfort through their hands. The technique demonstrated is simple and safe for owners to use with their own horse. For those who would like to explore the subject in greater depth, Sue will explain the further learning options available.

What people are saying

"Knowledgeable, kind, empathetic and caring. Everything a horse and their human could want." Shy Lowen Horse and Pony Sanctuary

"Sue is highly skilled and experienced. She listens carefully to the owners' concerns for their horse and then through a process of precise hands-on assessment she pinpoints the horse's areas of concern from head to tail. With skill, knowledge, empathy and intuition Sue works on the horses to free up areas of tightness and create a free flow of energy and movement along their spine, which promotes further healing. Watching Sue work is a revelation. We could see the change in our very stiff and bad tempered thoroughbred as Sue worked on her and listened to her pain. The relief both physical and mental, in our horse, was incredible" Nicky, Midlands

"Sue is very professional, super knowledgeable and really supportive. She has worked with my Welsh D stallion a number of times now and he has made some great progress. I have felt reassured when we changed saddles and her advice has been invaluable. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her services." Gillian, Worcestershire

"Sue is one of the best in her field and has supported my whole herd for many years now. Behaviorally as well as regular physiotherapy. She goes above and beyond at every session. Every time we have a ‘crisis’ she picks us all up emotionally as well as physically. She knows what my horses need and delivers above & beyond without question." Mia, Derbyshire

"Sue is a fantastically experienced, knowledgeable and skilful physiotherapist. I was incredibly lucky to be able to spend a couple of days shadowing her during the last year of my vet physio degree. Her incredible passion for educating horse owners to help horses not just within her local community but across the entirety of the UK and around the world is seen in her books, dvds, courses and more." Abi, Berkshire

Join the Live Session

If you would like to begin understanding your horse in a new way — through the quiet information available beneath your hands — you are warmly invited to join this live online session. If you are unable to attend live, a recording will be available to everyone who registers and will be available to watch for 72 hours.