Do you know folks who show or race horses? Equine massage therapy school can teach you how to massage horses. Horse owners are very proud and protective of their prize-winning animals. Nothing is too good for them! If they are treated well, they could bring hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars to their owners.

There are several schools and websites for additional information on this subject.

If you love horses, perhaps you would like to enroll in school to learn horse massage. You could become a massage therapist for race horses or even for the United States Olympic equestrian team. Just think, you could be in China right now, massaging your very important four-legged client! (August 2008)

Thoroughbred horses are worth a lot of money. Their earning potential climbs when they are properly cared for. Massage therapy can help to make these animals perform better.

Massage to a racehorse is much like sports massage to a human athlete. It helps to stretch muscles, making them easier to move while racing. This makes the horse run faster. The ability to run faster translates into Ka-Ching! for the horse's owner.

In the massage school, you will learn all of the latest and greatest techniques to help horses become winners. In addition to learning massage techniques, many of which are similar to human massage techniques, you will learn about the anatomy and physiology of horses.

Horse massage therapy is a necessary tool if you work with or own race horses. It comes in handy to know how the muscles of horses work so you know which muscles to massage prior to a race.

It is important to know which way the fibers of each muscle run so you know how to properly massage the horse.

Equine massage will keep the horse in good form, in tip-top shape for every race. Each day, before and after a workout, the horse's muscles should be worked on. Human athletes, especially high paid ones, receive sports massage everyday before and after workouts while they are in training. Horses benefit in the same way as human athletes.

Horses who are massaged before and after each workout will perform better out on the track. Their muscles are stretched and limber for maximum running performance. Their blood circulation is increased. This allows them to go faster, which in turn gives them the potential to earn more, trotting all the way to the bank. Horses who are massaged often have better posture which is what is needed for show horses to win the prize.

Several years ago, while I lived in El Paso, my minister owned show horses. This minister pastored a large church in town and lived on the west side, just outside the city limits. This enabled him to have his horses on his property. They were beautiful animals. The house was incredible, too. We are talking big money, much more than the church could pay him. How did he do it? His horses!

He had his own horse trainer who worked the horses out each day. Along with grooming and feeding the animals, he also performed horse massage on them each day. The minister gave them the best of equine care and they won at horse shows all over the state of Texas, bringing in more money each year than the big church paid him.

Equine massage therapy schools are training qualified horse massage therapists to work with race and show horses. If you love horses and would love to give up your day job to work with them everyday, perhaps this is the career for you.

You can Google "equine massage therapy schools" and find the locations of schools that may be near you. If they are close by, you can live at home and attend classes. For others, you may have to make a temporary move while you attend school. This can be inconvenient but massage therapy students do this across the country.

When I attended massage therapy school in Texas, one of my classmates made a temporary move from Alaska because she felt the massage programs in Texas would give her the best possible education. She won the prize for traveling the farthest. She rented an apartment right next to the school and had a month-to-month lease on it.

Visit their websites to see how long the classes will take and how much they will cost you. Find out if they offer job placement services once you are finished with school. If you own horses, you can save money by massaging your own horses instead of paying someone else to perform this valuable service.

See if the school qualifies for financial aid. Another important thing to find out is if they offer a payment plan. Some schools do. Others expect you to pay the entire tuition amount up front.

You can check out more information about horse massage schools by going to these websites:

www.amtil.com

www.iaath.com

www.iaamb.org

I would like to add that the above 3 links are here for the convenience of my readers. I do not profit in any way from these websites, nor am I affiliated with them.

Amtil.com is the site of AMTIL, Inc.

Iaath.com is the site for The International Alliance of Animal Therapy and Healing.

Iaamb.org is the site for The International Association of Animal Massage and Bodywork.