A little tight? Nebraska could end horse massage licensing

There are plenty of options for people looking for a massage in Nebraska, but if you’re a horse, you’re out of luck.

Nebraska doesn’t have a single licensed equine massage therapist, and lawmakers who recently chipped away at regulations governing various other professions blame an expensive and rigorous process that even includes the prospect of jail time for violators.

“It flies in the face of reason that you need that much more education just to massage a horse,” said Karen Hough, a rural Nebraskan who is unable to massage horses because of the regulations.

Horse massage sounds quirky, but it’s a common practice in much of the country for highperformance horses, helping to increase their range of motion and relieve tension.

Under the measure being debated this week in the Legislature, Nebraska would join 13 other states that don’t require licenses for massaging a horse. Most of the others don’t have the per capita horse count of Nebraska, where there are an estimated 150,000 horses—about one for every 12 citizens.

While horse massage is the current focus in Nebraska, it’s part of a larger national trend— particularly in Republicancontrolled states—to reduce barriers to licensing, said Suzanne Hultin from the National Council of State Legislatures. In the 1950s, about one job out of 20 in the U.S. required a license. Today, around one out of every four professions is licensed, she said. Five states now don’t even require licenses to massage humans.

Nebraska has about 200 professions that require state licenses, ranging from potato shippers and athletic trainers to elevator repair technicians and doctors. On average, each state has about 90 licensed professions. The horse massage bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Mike Groene, is part of a multi-year bipartisan effort to reduce licensing requirements across a range of professions.

Obtaining an equine massage therapist license in Nebraska requires a veterinarian degree or completion of 1,000 hours of classes to become a licensed human massage therapist and an additional 150 class hours to receive an animal therapist license.