Throughout my childhood, I played a variety of sports. Basketball, tennis, volleyball, hockey, softball, cross country...all of those sports vary in different ways, but one important ritual they all had in common was a pre-stretch before every activity. Naturally, in horseback riding I followed the same regiment of stretches before I got on my horse. However, it wasn't until I fully committed all my time into horse showing that I had the realization that my horse needed the same warm up as I did.

For years now I have been stretching my horses, lunging, and doing a light rub down of the muscles, but it wasn't until this past summer I learned I was still missing a key to performance success.

Let's start with the story. One day I was walking out to the barn to ride my mare, Annabelle. Nothing too out of the ordinary, regular grooming, singing to the radio in the barn, refilling water buckets, that is until I put the saddle on. I swung it over the top of her and when the saddle dropped onto her back she reached around and nipped at my leg. Annoyed with her behavior I tied her up in the stall and swore to no treats after her work out!

Next, I went along normally humming to the radio and began to cinch up the girth...to my surprise, teeth bore, Annabelle took a hold of a slat on her stall door and began biting and pulling it. I was very confused. Never has she been so aggressive toward being saddled. I scolded her and went on my way.

Our routine is pretty regular, I stretch, then I stretch her, I lunge her, I work her for about a half an hour, I walk her to a normal breathing rate (usually practicing showmanship). Following that, I will hose her down, rub linament (Icy Hot for horses) and wrap her legs. Little did I know that this was not the best idea, which we will discuss at the end.

Learn how to take your horse's vitals here.

I fancy myself as a pretty well-educated horse owner. I was born into the horse world. I did 4-H for 10 years, I competed with Lake County's Horse Bowl, Hippology and Judging teams and did well. I read magazines often, articles entailing horse knowledge, but never did I run across an article regarding tight muscles.

You see, after that weird day where my horse became Satan at saddling time, I began to do research. I began to second guess my knowledge. Was my saddle fitting properly? Was my cinch too long? Did I hit a nerve? Or was she just being a b----? That certainly was possibility.

For weeks the same attitude would come up when I would saddle Annabelle. I talked to my vet and he said she might have some ulcers, but after a look, there were none.

I was stumped, so I decided to ride more often, work the attitude out of her and though it made her tired and calm, it never helped with her cinching.

So as I am filling water buckets, humming to the radio and scrolling through Facebook, I see an add for horse therapy and deep tissue massages. I'm not going to lie, I scrolled past it and scoffed to myself. "That probably costs an arm and a leg!" "Say goodbye to your college tuition." I kept scrolling through Facebook, water bucket now overflowing when Annabelle suddenly laid down. Now as most horse owners know horses are kinda private about laying down. It typically happens when its dark and super quiet in the barn. But this was 11 a.m., smack in the middle of the day and my horse decides she wants to nap?!

I rolled my eyes at her and then began to walk to the next stall for the next bucket. OH CRAP OW OW OW, I got a nasty Charlie Horse! In my head, I thought, "Must've been from posting, I haven't ridden English in a few weeks." And just like that the sirens, red flags and horns sounded. Annabelle isn't napping, she's sore! So I scrolled upward on Facebook, liked the Emerald Equine Massage Page and texted Bri to schedule my appointment.

I feel almost embarrassed to be writing my article on being a "bad mama," but within the past two years, my horse show attendance has increased. I have always been a horse kid, but not so much a "world-class showman." I gave up all the other sports to put more time into my mare and I didn't increase slow enough. I also didn't increase the muscle stretches and movement. Yes, I stretched, but never to a full horse stride, I never stretched the back legs. And yes, I rubbed her back with linament, but never ran my nails down her lumbar, or shoved my elbow into her shoulder muscles. Equine Sports Massage Therapy is the therapeutic application of hands-on massage. The purpose of increasing circulation, relaxing muscle spasms, relieving tension, enhancing muscle tone and increasing range of motion in high-performance horses. It is not a scam for someone to reach into your bank account.

As Bri increased pressure, Annabelle relaxed further and further. Just in one session, I found that Annabelle was more fluid in her gaits, and LESS CINCHY, and back to winning the blues! Bri found many muscles spasms where her girth was laying. Which is like having a knot on your shoulder and having to carry a backpack full of bricks.

Annabelle had a lot of tension, which could stem from stress from moving to my barn after the sale, lack of muscle challenges and being overworked. Never did I mistreat my animal or not properly take care of her. But in this lesson I learned how jumping to the "Big Boy" game of horse showing, like trailer-ing weekly and training daily, can be a huge transition to a horse not used to it!

I now laugh at myself and at my ignorance over the situation. All those years in sports and this never clicked??? I stretch my horse routinely, but not the same routine. Horses are very much like humans. Imagine going on a three mile run the same route every day for three years. Then on top of that doing the same work outs and the same cool downs. Not only does this become boring, but the muscles also memorize that pattern and movement and the stretch no longer works. It is key to change up everything at least every other day to ensure your horse is actually feeling the warm up. I did the same stretches every time I rode, thus why I actually got a Charlie Horse in my thigh and why Annabelle laid down and said, "NO MORE!"

I'm writing this to serve a lesson for the people who pull their horse from a stall, all the way up to the best of the best trainers in the world. Maybe you already knew this information, maybe you had no idea or maybe you are like me and are saying, "Yea I should've put two and two together." Either way, it is never too late to start a therapeutic process for your four-legged friend, and even yourself. Get a deep tissue massage (I did) and it will then help you to see why it is so imperative the horse's muscles be taken care of too. Plus I'd rather my tendon be sprained rather than hers!

This has to lead me to also look into chiropractic and acupuncture work for all of my horses as well!