How can massage and tail pulls help your horse stop rubbing its tail?
I am sort of a nerd when massaging horses, I tend to spend a good 10-15 minutes massaging the tail and surrounding muscles, performing range of motion exercises and doing tail pulls. I have found that this routine has helped some of my client’s horse’s stop rubbing their tails. They have tried everything to make the horse stop and the one thing that has worked is me and my nerdy tail massaging and pulling ways. The question is why and does this study “Effect of Caudal Traction on Mechanical Nociceptive Thresholds of Epaxial and Pelvic Musculature on a Group of Horses With Signs of Back Pain” give us a clue?
The horse has approximately 20 coccygeal vertebrae ( bones in their tails), their spinal cord stops at the first sacral vertebrae but the nerves continue to run down into the tail. In this study researchers demonstrate an increase in back pain tolerance in study participants by a range 52-83%. That is a pretty striking number if you think about it. Simply doing a series of exercises on your horse could reduce their feeling of pain by as much as 80%.
The study found that the greatest relief was found in the thoracic region “The increase in the MNT seen in the thoracic region in this study implies a tail pull has a greater effect on muscular and/or fascial tissues (as opposed to joints) in the horse, hence the greater response in the thoracic region”.
So it would stand to reason that massaging the tail muscles and fascia along with tail pulls could be the reason the client horses stopped rubbing their tails. What if the rubbing is a sign of pain in the muscles that control the tail movements along with the possible involvement of the hamstring and back muscles?
If you have tried everything to stop tail rubbing maybe the issue isn’t the tail but the muscles surrounding the tail. I’d be happy to use my nerdy tail massaging ways on your horse, just reach out!