My parents raised horses long before I was born so my experience with them started at a very young age. I began riding at the age of three years old and had a strong love for horses even then. My Mother recalls a story of when it was raining one day and she could not find me in the house so she went outside and found me in the pasture with my pony, Thunder. She noticed I had some paper towels in my hand and when she asked me what I was doing I told her Thunder was wet and I was wiping the rain off of her with the paper towels.

At the age of eleven, I was given a four month old filly I named, Tika, to raise and train. I showed extensively at the local saddle club shows and fairs and if we were not at a show it was a parade or a weekend trail ride.

By my fifteenth birthday, my father had managed to find me jobs training horses for other people. I worked with everything from teaching a shetland pony that it was not okay to rear like his owner taught him to training horses to ride. This gave me a great deal of experience at a young age about adjusting to each individual horses needs.I grew up riding western and showed in everything from showmanship at halter to the game classes like barrels and pole weaving.

I started taking hunter/jumper lessons in 1999 and have now begun dressage lessons with my Appaloosa/ TB mare, Majestic. This has benefited me as a massage therapist because I have a better understanding of the physical demands on a variety of disciplines. Horses have always been a huge part of my life and I could not imagine them not being in it.

Why did I decide to become a Certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist?

I do a lot of trail riding with my family. When I ride with my sister, Kelli, her mare would always stop on the trail and itch underneath the saddle. She would do this constantly during the ride. Kelli tried everything from riding in different saddles ( western and english ), trying different saddle pads to no saddle at all and she would continue to itch.

Her mare also would have lumps located along her back ( Longissimus Dorsi muscle ) afterwards. We happened to be on a M.T.R.A ( Minnesota Trail Riders Association ) ride when, after talking with the person she purchased her main saddle from,she suggested having an Equine Chiropractor take a look. There happened to be one on the ride so he came over and worked on my sister’s mare for about 15 minutes. He informed my sister that her mare was having muscle spasms which was causing her to want to itch and stretch the area in order to relieve the discomfort.

We rode with the group about 10 minutes after the chiropractor worked on her mare and not one time did the mare stop to itch. This is what spiked my interest to learn equine massage. Although he made chiropractic adjustments, which is separate from massage, he still implemented some of the massage techniques to help the mare.

So I did a lot of research to learn more about equine massage and what courses are available and have now started my business as an Equine Sports Massage Therapist.

Keri Wesley, CESMT II