14/03/2026
I’m incredibly grateful I had the opportunity to learn from Jo-Ann Wilson and for her ongoing support. I’m also thankful for the opportunity to share a little about my work in this article for The Plaid Horse. Thank you, Bailey Smith Photography, for the amazing images.
As I ease down the drive to arrive at my morning appointments, the sound of gravel crunching softly beneath my tires drifts through me and seems to settle gently in my ears, Tricia Axtell writes.
I take a sip of coffee as I watch the sun coming up over the large spruce trees lining the pasture. I take a minute to consider gratitude for what I get to do every day, equine massage. It’s truly been a very natural fit for me. I have ridden horses since the age of five. Spending time with them is what truly makes my heart sing.
“Goldman Sox”, I say to myself as I glance at my notes for the morning. I’ve not yet worked on this horse, but I have stopped by his stall to say hello on past work trips to this farm. One thing I notice as an equine massage therapist, even though horses are stalled separately, they are often very aware of one another~and of me. On many occasions, I have had my hand resting gently on a point, softly encouraging the tissue fibers to let go. I’ve looked around and seen horses in surrounding stalls looking on, softly yawning, licking, chewing, dozing off in their stalls. Sox was one of those horses.
My notes from the owner read, “He is very sluggish. I have a lot of trouble keeping him in front of my leg, and he bulges into my left leg. Lead changes have always been difficult for him. He really struggles right to left.”
“It could be his back,” I think to myself. The issues relayed by Sox’s owner put the longissimus dorsi and longissimus costarum muscles at the top of my list of things to investigate. I have taken several certification courses over the years, attended many workshops and clinics, and also spent 500 hours in human massage school. I was most fortunate, however, to learn Sportsmassage from Jo-Ann Wilson. Her course is a deep dive into biomechanics and performance issues. A long time friend and partner of the late Jack Meagher, Jo-Ann and Jack served multiple United States Equestrian Teams at numerous Olympic, Pan Am, and World Games as this work truly has a very profound impact on horses.
I stop in front of Sox’s stall and he greets me with a nicker. I ask one of the grooms to lead him from the stall and walk him down the barn aisle, turning left then right. My eyes comb over his body, top to bottom, left to right. I notice the right hind positioned higher than the left. I notice a bit of a lag in the motion when he steps under with the left hind. I make notes of areas I where I need to focus my work. The groom and Sox turn and come back to me. I look directly at the hard, compressed longissimus dorsi muscle.
“A tight muscle will function, but it will resist the motion being asked of it, and performance will be compromised.” Jo-Ann Wilson’s words came to mind once again. I learned from her that chronic muscle tension actually affects the position of the muscle fibers leading to reduced circulation within the muscles. She is one of the only therapists to have performed true scientific research incorporating ultrasound technology before and after manual therapy. The work is rooted in science.
It is important to understand a bit about how muscles work. Skeletal muscles, or action muscles, are positioned along the bones of the skeleton. Skeletal muscles have at least two endpoints, origin (attached to the more stable bone) and insertion (attached to the more movable bone). When the nervous system cues a muscle contraction, the muscle contracts and shortens. The muscle pulls at the bone, near the insertion site. Voila! We have movement!
📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/03/19/walking-among-the-horses-a-day-in-the-life-of-an-equine-massage-therapist/
📸 © Bailey Smith Photography
