Holistic therapist finds horse sense helps in healing

By Lia Steakley
Yakima Herald-Republic

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About a month ago, the 13-year-old quarter horse tripped and fell while competing in a Yakima horse show. Shortly after the event, Rusty's owner called Prosser therapist Leeanna Whisperinghorse to see if massage could curb the horse's coordination problems.

Rusty suffers from equine protozoa myeloencephalitis, a disease contracted from contaminated food or water that affects a horse's central nervous system. After just two sessions with Whisperinghorse, Rusty's owner says the therapy is working.

"The massage seemed to help a little bit," says Carly Kearney, who has shown Rusty in horse competitions for about six years. "[Therapy] is one of the options that I had. I thought it was worth a shot."

The basic philosophies behind therapeutic massage for humans and animals are similar. Massage, ranging from light touch to deep tissue, boosts the immune system and central nervous system. Massage stimulates recovery of injuries by increasing circulation, relaxing muscle spasms or tension and increasing range of motion, among other benefits.

Massage and therapy techniques used to heal professional athletes' injuries or provide relief for elderly, arthritic people are also applicable to treat high-performance animals such as Rusty, or older animals with joint problems.

"Rehabilitating people and rehabilitating animals, [such as] horses, are very similar processes," says Whisperinghorse.

In the back yard of Kearney's home near Kennewick, Whisperinghorse strokes Rusty's body, briefly stopping at certain spots and pressing deeply with her fingertips to release tight muscles.

By touching and feeling Rusty's body with her hands, she can assess differences in the horse's muscular structure, such as irritated muscles. Then, using her hands, she applies pressure or rubs the area to alleviate tension.

Whisperinghorse, a registered counselor and licensed massage therapist, graduated from The Evergreen State College, where she studied holistic therapies, which aim to treat the physical and emotional components of the body together through movement and massage.

She initially started working as a masseuse at Seattle health clubs, but a bike accident in January 1987 propelled her onto a different path.
 
"It was a mild accident, but it had a big effect," says Whisperinghorse.

While riding her bike, Whisperinghorse approached a crosswalk where a bus was stopped. Although she made eye contact with the driver as she proceeded across the street, the bus accelerated into her left side, she says. The crash left her with a broken arm and several minor injuries.

Suddenly, the therapist became the patient.

Whisperinghorse says the rehabilitation increased her awareness of where she held emotional and physical trauma in her body, which helped her understand how other people store painful experiences in their bodies.

After a year, her broken arm had healed and Whisperinghorse took her career in a new direction.

"I always wanted to work with animals. I always thought I would be raising or training horses," she says.

As a youth, Whisperinghorse attended horse camps and dreamed of being a jockey. But her 5-foot-8-inch frame kept her out of the racing saddle. Before attending The Evergreen State College, she worked at Arabian-horse ranches and continued working on similar farms while in college.

Looking for a way to merge her massage-therapy skills with a career working with animals, Whisperinghorse pursued an animal massage license.

A few years ago, she completed training in small-animal massage from Port Townsend School of Massage and large-animal massage from Equinology, a California school that offers courses on horse health care.

Mostly working on older animals with arthritis or show animals such as Rusty, Whisperinghorse says the first therapy sessions often involve a little guesswork. Although animals use physical indicators such as dropping their heads, sighing, relaxing hind legs or chewing, they can't verbalize about their areas of pain, and Whisperinghorse is left to read the signs.

Looking to combine the emotional and intuitive component of working with horses into human clients' healing, Whisperinghorse earned certifications from the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and Equine Growth and Learning Association, and started offering horse-assisted therapy.

In horse-assisted therapy, Whisperinghorse uses horsemanship skills to engage people in talking about or understanding emotional situations. For example, she may have clients ride a horse around an arena or groom a horse while they talk about their lives. Often, he says, when the person starts avoiding an uncomfortable topic or question, the horse will change its behavior, indicating an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.

"Because of their sensitivity to human emotion and body language, animals, especially horses, amplify what we are feeling and what we are suppressing," says Whisperinghorse

A year ago, Whisperinghorse and her husband, Dan, moved to a small farm on North River Road in Prosser. There, she offers a range of services, from massage for humans and animals to horse-assisted therapy.