STRATEGIC THERAPY
Massage therapist keeps horses competing at their best
EDITOR’S NOTE: It takes hundreds of workers each live race meet to ensure race days run smoothly. This is the next in a series of articles highlighting occupations surrounding the sport of thoroughbred racing, and how they work together to make each meet a success.
Thoroughbreds, like any athlete, often need extra care to soothe their sore muscles before and after racing and Cammy Decker, licensed massage therapist specializing in equine muscle therapy, takes pride in helping those horses “bounce back.”
“Horses are actually kind of a lot like humans in their anatomy; there’s just a lot more of it,” Decker said. “A horse usually will tell me if there is a sore spot while working down certain areas. Like right now I can tell the horse’s back. There’s times where the horse will tell me if they’re sore and they’ll react, more so in other places. There’s different pressure points, a lot of back soreness sometimes from the saddle.”
Decker said she grew up on a farm with horses, but has only been working with horses in this capacity for about three years after working alongside her mentor in the Ohio State University athletic department.
“He also worked on horses,” she said. “I knew I wanted to ultimately work on horses the first stall I stepped into. My passion grew with each horse I worked on, each horse I helped fix whether that be from injury or just needing a simple ‘tune up.’
“I knew I wanted to start my own business helping horses become better athletes. Each horse is strategically done, every horse is different, much like humans. That’s where I came up with Strategic Muscle Therapy. It’s not just another massage, each move I make is strategically done.”
Decker said she calls it muscle therapy because it’s a therapeutic approach to sports medicine.
“Even when I work on humans, I call everything strategic muscle therapy because it’s all strategically done. Each horse, each human is different.
“You can see the results in their eyes — the end result. When I can fix a problem that (trainers) think can’t be fixed or sometimes the vet can’t even figure it out, that’s my favorite because it is
very rewarding to see a horse bounce back from just a muscle problem.”
When the horses get “antsy,” Decker said that usually indicates a release of the muscles and a problem or injury is on the path to healing.
“It’s actually kind of cool, I work a lot on top (muscles) and they’ll actually release all the way down. Sometimes working from top to bottom, the muscles will actually release for me.
“And it’s kind of cool because I’ve actually gained horses from working on the owner, or vice versa. Finding those releases, when they take a deep breath or start moving, sometimes (the horse) will turn around and look at me like, ‘What’s going on?’”
The therapy is not just for the horse, but for Decker, as well.
“Horses are very therapeutic and they’re very much energy animals, and they’re very good for our souls,” she said. “I give them therapy but they give us therapy, as well.
“They are very good for us, and we take care of them like we would ourselves or even our kids really. I don’t have children so I call these my ‘fur babies,’ and they are. I take care of them and I get the therapy side of it.”
Decker may work with up to eight horses in a day on the back side of the race track, and that can change at any time as injuries are unpredictable. But she said she stays flexible when working with her clients.
“Today I just have one, but tomorrow I’ll have four. Sometimes I’ll have eight a day,” she said. “It all depends, like I had two trainers text me and say, ‘I need you over here, this horse needs some therapy.’ So it all changes. I just had someone from Kentucky text me. I’d say I average four or five (horses) a day. Most of the time I come in after training. A lot of times I have to wait on trainers, some like it early, some like it midmorning.”
Working with these athletes has made her a fan of the sport, she said.
“When I see a horse run or I see things, I get to come in and help them recover,” she said. “I get to help my patient, my client. It’s like any athlete. I work on Ohio State players, Green Bay (Packers) football players. Athletes get sore and it makes me appreciate what they’re doing when I get to help them recover. It makes you appreciate that they’re really out there working their butts off.
“It’s their sport and the horses love running, they love being out there. It’s their heart. I get to help them achieve their goals. You have your trainer, but I’m also right here on the sidelines.”
Having trainers approach her on short notice asking her to help their horses brings her satisfaction in the work she is doing.
“It actually makes me super happy because it makes me realize I’m doing a good job and it’s noticed,” she said. “That’s not a pat on my back, that’s just that I love what I do and I see the results in it.”