For the love of horses
WEST SUNBURY — The first word 22-year-old Jennifer Plechar of West Sunbury uttered was “horses,” she said.
Plechar said horses are her life, and she can now say horses are her livelihood as well because she is a certified equine massage therapist.
“It is designed for horses who are athletic, like show horses and racehorses,” said Plechar as she carefully massaged Betsy, her chestnut brown quarter horse.
As she demonstrated, she explained she starts at top of a horse's head, follows the line of muscles and uses a series of hand techniques to work out the pressure points or knots.
“It takes a lot of pressure to get the knots out,” she said as she pushed her fingertips down Betsy's neck. “It's kind of like a speed bump. They will be tense at first … they're real resistant in the first quarter, but after they feel better, they relax.”
Plechar cautiously worked out Betsy's neck, withers, back, hips and finally pulled gently but firmly on her tail.
“There is a bone in there,” she explained.
“If the back hip or spine is out, you need a chiropractor, but they need me afterward as a preventive measure,” Plechar said.
After evaluating the horse and working out its knots, Plechar initiates a series of stretches with the animal, pulling its leg up and back, then forward.
Plechar doesn't seem nervous with the 1,100- pound horse.
“I had a Clydesdale once and thought I was gonna fall over. You have to learn how to read them,” said Plechar.
She began learning how to understand horses at age 4 when she started riding and showing them, and her knowledge and love of horses continued while caring for her family's three horses and later the 13 that they board.
But she became an expert after studying biology at Slippery Rock University for two years and attending 70 hours of hands-on training in the equissage certificate program in equine massage therapy at the Equissage facility in Round Hill, Va.Her instructor, Mary Shreiber, developed the technique of equine massage.“My dream is to massage every horse in the world,” said Shreiber.Equissage was started in 1989, and today has graduated 20,000 equine massage sports technicians from every state and 19 countries.Plechar chose a dual certification program for equine and canine massage.“I've done racehorses, show horses, miniatures to Clydesdales … I went up to the race horse barn in Butler and had three clients in one day.”Laurel Johnson of Chicora, this year's 20-year-old North Washington Rodeo Queen, takes her horse to Plechar.Plechar worked on Johnson's palomino quarter horse when Johnson was trying to qualify for a state horse show.Johnson said, “He's my jumping horse. He's been jumping his whole life.“A lot of people don't realize that they are athletes and they get sore like humans. They (jumpers) get sore on the front end, their front shoulders from landing, or they throw their back out,” Johnson said.Plechar takes an hour to massage a horse from head to tail.Most horses may only require one session, while more athletic horses may have therapy once a month.Event horses may have therapy five times in three months, she said.For Plechar, it all started five years ago when her horse fell during a barrel race.“Her back was really sore. I had a therapist come out and after that she was so much better. I could ride her again,” she said.She then decided that she also wanted to be a therapist. But her ambition doesn't stop there.“I want to be a chiropractor or equine dentist,” she said.A chiropractic program would take four years of college, while dentistry would take only a couple of months, she said. Whatever she chooses, horses are definitely in her future.
