Shay.Tactile.Therapy

What is the ASIS?
The ASIS (anterior superior iliac spine) is a bony landmark at the front of your pelvis that helps guide assessment.

In this case, the left ASIS was sitting lower, suggesting the left side of the pelvis was positioned more anteriorly.

A Muscle Energy Technique (MET) uses your own muscle contractions against gentle resistance to influence muscle activity and joint motion. Following the technique, I reassessed and the ASIS landmarks were sitting more level.

How much has pain taken from 🫵?

More than it ever should have.

Through personalised treatment including soft tissue therapy, joint mobilisation, cupping and taping, let’s take the first step together.

📍 1/16 Collins Place, Kilsyth, VIC
📩 Message me and let’s chat about how I can help, or book via the link in my bio

DON’T NORMALISE SORENESS 🐴

Equine myotherapy is for more than just injuries. If your horse is showing muscle tension, sensitivity, stiffness, changes in movement, discomfort or changes in behaviour, myotherapy can help relieve tension and support better movement and comfort.

Your horse doesn’t need to be injured to benefit from bodywork.

Comment or DM to get in touch and start their journey to feeling their best 🫶

What’s happening in this video?

As I worked through this horse’s body and reached his lumbar region, he became increasingly guarded, kicking, tensing and avoiding my touch despite adjustments to my pressure and technique.

Rather than pushing through, I chose to stop.

We took a short walk to reset before trying again. He was still telling me he was uncomfortable, guarding before I’d even touched him.

So I stepped away completely and gave him the space he seemed to need.

This footage was taken during those two minutes.

When I returned to the treatment, his guarding had softened, his head lowered, and he was much more accepting of my touch.

This horse has recently had X-rays showing suspected kissing spine around T12. But like many horses, the body doesn’t function as one isolated area. Compensation, muscle guarding and discomfort can develop throughout the body, which is why my treatment never stops at the diagnosis.

What I found particularly interesting was that his biggest protective response wasn’t around T12, it was much lower through his lumbar region.

That tells me this horse needs more than hands-on treatment alone.

His rehabilitation plan will focus on improving the strength and function of the entire system through progressive groundwork, pole exercises, core engagement, thoracic sling development, topline strengthening and hindquarter activation, helping his body move more efficiently and better support the affected area.

My goal isn’t simply to massage where a horse looks sore.

It’s to understand why that area is working so hard in the first place.

Every session gives me more information about how the horse is coping, compensating and responding, allowing me to adapt his rehabilitation plan as he progresses.

This week has given me something I haven’t had in a long time… time to reflect.

A few years ago, I started the journey of building this business. This year is the first year where it has all started to come together.

What people don’t always see is that this business wasn’t built in six months. It was built on years of learning, making mistakes, studying, growing up, and slowly figuring out who I wanted to become. When I started, I thought I was just learning about horses. Instead, I was learning how to build a business, how to communicate, how to back myself, and how to take responsibility for every decision I make.

I’ve never walked into a clinic and been told how to treat a client. Everything you see has been built from the ground up. Every treatment, every report, every social media post, every late night wondering if I’m good enough, every course I’ve invested in… it’s all been part of building something I’m truly proud of.

If I’m honest, if I’d known how hard it would be, I probably would have been too scared to start. But that’s exactly why I’m so grateful that I didn’t know, because everything worthwhile has existed just outside my comfort zone.

I’m still studying. I’m still learning. I’m still discovering where my knowledge can improve. But one thing that has never changed is how much I love what I do.

People always say, “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I don’t think that’s true. When you love something, you’ll probably work harder than you ever have, but you’ll wake up every day believing it’s worth it.

This slower week reminded me to stop chasing the next goal for just a moment and appreciate what I’ve already built. So if there’s something you’ve been putting off because it feels scary, take the first step.

The life I’ve always wanted didn’t appear when everything became easy. It started appearing the moment I became willing to step into things that felt uncomfortable.

Your horse’s back shouldn’t feel like concrete.

The muscles along the spine should have a degree of softness and elasticity, they’re designed to contract and relax as the horse moves.

When the back feels rock hard, it often reflects increased muscle tone and guarding. This can reduce the spine’s ability to move freely, making it more difficult for the horse to lift through their back, engage their core and move efficiently under saddle.

The spine acts as the bridge between the forehand and hindquarters, transferring forces through the body with every stride. When movement through this region becomes restricted, other areas of the body often have to compensate.

The important thing is that a tight back is rarely just a back problem. Tension may be influenced by compensation elsewhere in the body, workload, saddle fit, movement patterns, hoof balance, or other factors.

That’s why assessment is so important.

This is exactly what my work is all about, helping horses feel softer, move more comfortably, and identifying why those muscles have become overloaded in the first place. By addressing the underlying cause, we can support both comfort and performance.

If this sounds like your horse, feel free to reach out.

The biggest mistake I see performance horse owners make…

…is treating recovery as an afterthought instead of part of their horse’s management.

Every training session places stress on the body. Muscles develop microscopic damage. Tendons and fascia absorb load. The nervous system works constantly to coordinate movement, balance, posture and focus.

Competition adds even more. Travel. Unfamiliar environments. High-intensity work. Mental concentration. Changes in routine. These all place demands on the horse’s body.

The body is designed to adapt to stress, but only if it’s given the opportunity to recover.

That’s why management matters.

Good nutrition, turnout, social interaction, rest and routine all create the environment the body needs to recover.

Massage and therapies such as myotherapy, physiotherapy and chiropractic care are another important part of that management. They don’t replace training, they help the body recover from it.

By supporting both the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, they help the horse adapt to the workload we’re asking of them instead of simply accumulating fatigue.

The goal isn’t to wait until your horse is sore. It’s to support recovery before small problems become bigger ones.

Recovery isn’t separate from performance.

Recovery is part of performance.