How to loosen off tight muscles?

[Damnation]

My mare has tight muscles behind the saddle, causing cold backed behaviour, especially in colder weather.
She seems to "clam up" and is stiff behind when being worked.
She has been lame behind the past 3 weeks due to a mixture of what I think is the muscle tension and an abcess. I have been advised by a reiki lady (Vets are useless).. to lunge for a while then work her through it slowly. When I am actually riding again is there any exercises I can do in walk and trot to get her to ease the muscles off in the long run?
Izzi

 

[FestiveSpirit]

Get a decent physio to see her

Bob had exactly that, and has a few treatments by a good physio, he now does not have any tension in his back at all

Physio can also advise on exercises you can do - I was going to tell you what I used to do with Bob but am worried that they might not be appropriate for P

 

[Damnation]

Thank you Splotchy

The thing is I had a well reccommended physio see her in March after she rocket launched me off the side door twice and she said she was tense behind the saddle. All she said was to keep riding her..

 

[alwaysbroke]

Equine massage therapist? used one in the past with very good results

 

[Arabelle]

My mare had a tight muscle behind the saddle. I had her physio and saddler out and I worked on her myself and she is 100% now.

Basically, her muscle was tensing up, so it felt hard to the touch. You need to work the tension out very gradually, so the muscle softens. I did this 2 or 3 times a day, as initally the muscle would just tighten again, but it softened off completely in less than a week.

I sometimes used a hot water bottle on the area before massage. As it loosens, you can massage firmer and deeper, but back off if you feel any tension returning.

A good equine physio should show you what to do and then you can carry on yourself.
Probably a good idea to get the saddle checked as well, if you haven't already.
A

 

[FestiveSpirit]

[ QUOTE ]
Thank you Splotchy

The thing is I had a well reccommended physio see her in March after she rocket launched me off the side door twice and she said she was tense behind the saddle. All she said was to keep riding her..

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh

Hmmmm well then..... my physio suggested massaging the hind quarter muscles before riding and doing carrot stretches every day, it did seem to work