Answer

By Your Horse

Horse Answers editor Kate Large replies:

Shiatsu is a healing bodywork therapy based on touch, and it means ‘finger pressure’. It combines the benefits of both massage and acupuncture, but uses hand pressure rather than needles.
Central to shiatsu is the idea that life-force, or ‘chi,’ flows through the horse’s body along a series of channels called meridians. There are 12 of these meridians on each side of the body, and if the chi gets blocked along these channels – by illness or injury – it’s unable to flow properly.
There are also five ‘elements’ in shiatsu, each with their own qualities and characteristics, and an imbalance in one will have a knock-on effect on the others.
The elements and the areas they govern are:
● Wood – the liver and gall bladder meridians.
● Fire – the heart, small intestine, heart protector and ‘triple heater’ meridians.
● Earth – the stomach and spleen meridians.
● Metal – the lung and large intestine meridians.
● Water – kidney and bladder meridians.
The website of the Equine Shiatsu Association is at www.equineshiatsu.org, and you can find a directory of practitioners.