My story:
The love I had for one quirky, sensitive chestnut thoroughbred forever changed my life, and the lives of thousands of other equestrians. His name was Westley.
When I met Westley, I was a (quirky, sensitive) seventeen year old who wanted to fly up the levels of eventing. At the time, I fell in love with his puppy dog personality and incredible scope over fences, but I had no idea the many, many failures we would face together. If you had told me that, after meeting him, he would become the exact opposite of what I wanted: he’d dump me time and time again, become sour to jump, and so spooky, he’d give me multiple concussions; but ultimately would lead to me upend my life to move across the country, and start a business that has allowed me to help thousands of equestrians and their horses - I probably wouldn’t have believed you. Now, looking back, I’m thankful Westley didn’t listen to my plans, and set us both on a path for something much greater.
Safe to say, the story of my brand started in a time of uncertainty in my life. Westley & I had been having issues for the better part of a year. He had never been easy over fences, then a particularly bad crash over a jump that left me with a serious concussion, temporary memory loss and Westley with even deeper-seeded emotional and behavioral issues. We got eliminated at every event we entered and it got to a point where the overwhelming feedback I was getting from professionals around me was to sell him, write him off as a lost cause or even put him down because he seemed broken and unpredictable beyond repair.
Well, I wasn't ready to give up on him yet.
Instead, I dropped out of college, moved from rural Iowa to horse-centric Unionville, Pennsylvania, and started working for a 5* eventer, Allie Sacksen. This opportunity felt like my last chance to fix Westley with the help of a seasoned professional while keeping both Westley and I afloat financially. I was going to make it work.
So Allie and I formulated a plan:
She would school him to boost his confidence, she would school me on different horses to boost my confidence, we’d school together to get back on the same page, and we’d drop down a level and get our feet under us before moving back up. It sounded perfect, and I was excited to get started, but before we wrapped up, Allie had one last part of the plan to cement.
“If he isn’t better in six months, which will be by the end of our Aiken season, he’s done eventing.” she said.
“Really? Why? What if he just needs more time?”
“There’s always more time, one more thing to try, one more stone to turn over in their training” she responded. “But at a certain point, you have to give up. You have to realize they just don’t want to do it, and move on. Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself crazy. Give yourself an end date now, so you don’t spend years slamming a square peg into a round hole.”
I agreed, thinking there was no way it would get to that point. I was working with an incredibly talented trainer, I had a wonderful horse, and I was totally committed to him. This has to work. I repeated to myself.
It didn’t.
In the last event of the season in Aiken, Westley and I got eliminated at the second fence on cross country. It was a stupid log. We had schooled bigger and scarier things many times. Coming off the course, I saw Allie and said, “I just think we need to school cross country more often! Maybe once a week. If we had schooled more -”
“Nope. This is it. He’s done, Maija. This is what we talked about.”
I deflated. I felt like I had failed Westley, and a part of me I’m not proud of felt failed by him. I loved him to death, but was so frustrated by the constant ups and downs of our relationship. Walking back to the trailer after that final elimination, I completely lost faith in my horse.
We returned to Pennsylvania totally lost. I didn’t know what the next move was with him, but I knew we needed a change. I had been throwing darts at the wall: injections, different saddles, and a new (wonderful) trainer,but none of it made a difference to my horse. I couldn’t get on the same page with him, and it showed. He was grumpy to groom, bit at me constantly when I tacked him, and constantly bucked and bolted under saddle. While he was incredibly athletic, I couldn’t get him over a small cross rail. I knew I had an amazing horse, but I couldn’t figure out how to help him, and neither could any of the wonderful professionals that were on our team.
At the same time, I needed to figure out how I was going to support myself long term because being a groom wasn’t going to cut it forever.
Years prior, I had connected with an amazing equine bodyworker who helped Westley immensely, and it occurred to me that I may be able to learn how to massage horses and help him like she did. She directed me to an equine massage online course, which didn’t work out, so I decided to try human massage therapy and enrolled in a local massage academy. As I went through the program, I started to apply the human techniques to Westley. I studied equine anatomy, and every day after school, I would take what I learned and try to figure out how to palpate, massage, and stretch him. Westley was my teacher and gave me constant feedback into what did and didn’t work.
Then, one day, I realized that my formerly sour Westley had begun to blossom.
While I learned to massage Westley, I took a step back from the riding part of our relationship and focused on something that made him feel good. He went from being grouchy to even run a brush over, to sweet and snuggly. Instead of running from me in the field, he’d approach me when I went to catch him. Under saddle, he felt incredibly fluid to ride and softer through his back.
With his new found freedom through his body, we decided to switch disciplines and flew up the levels of dressage together. In one season, we had moved up from first to third level, something that takes most partners many years to achieve. I totally owe all our success to the time I took massaging him. Not only did he feel better in his body, but we were able to reset our relationship. Westley turned into my best friend, and I was his. We were so in tune with each other, judges and trainers both commented that they could tell how bonded we were just from the way our rides looked, which was a far cry from the pair who’d gotten eliminated at event after event.
I realized that massage could totally change a horse for the better, and in my heart I knew that helping horses was my calling. When I graduated human massage school and became licensed, I continued my education working with an equine myofascial release specialist, human chiropractor, and taking classes. Then I launched my business, Freely Forward Bodywork, in November of 2020.
I was fortunate to experience almost immediate success in my business and was booked out with equine massage clients. It was incredibly rewarding to see horses just like Westley, who wanted to be good but struggled in their body, flourish after regular massage sessions. I loved getting to know riders and work on a team with vets, farriers, and trainers to help these horses thrive.
But very quickly, something became clear to me. As much as I loved working on horses every day, there was a limit to how many horses I could help with just my two hands. I thought about where I’d been five years ago: in rural Iowa, without access to a bodyworker, saddle fitter, or much equestrian education, with a horse who desperately needed me to become a better horsewoman and learn how to actually listen to what he was trying to tell me. I remembered checking out books at the local library on training, massage, anatomy, anything I could think of to help Westley. It dawned on me that I could serve many, many more horses and their riders if I started to teach. So I did.
I posted my first few videos on Facebook, giving simple tips and tricks I had learned as a massage therapist. One of those very first videos picked up, and I started receiving messages from all over the world.
“I’m in Iceland! Can you come work on my horse?”
“I’m in Kenya, and we don’t have a vet nearby; is there a way I can help my horse feel better after I ride?”
“I’m in Sweden, and we don’t have an equine bodyworker where I live. Can you teach me how to make my horse’s back feel better?”
I suddenly understood that it wasn’t that horse owners didn’t want to help their horses feel their best; it was that they didn’t know how.
From that moment on, it became my mission to help as many horses as possible by empowering equestrians through education. I knew to do this, I needed a platform to get the word out and provide quality educational resources at an accessible price point. I came up with the concept of Equine Massage 101, an online course that would teach horse owners to be their horse’s personal massage therapist. I planned to launch it in June of 2022 and build my social media presence alongside the course to promote it. I remember specifically writing out how I would build the course, and estimating that it would take me about a week. I laugh at that looking back now, as building Equine Massage 101 was one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done, especially because I started it with zero video editing, teaching, or course creation experience! Luckily, I had two wonderful friends who helped me record and edit, and with my iPhone and a $20 mic from Amazon, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, I launched that June.
I had a few students sign up right away, which absolutely elated me. My social media presence had slowly started to pick up pace as I taught myself the ins and outs of content creation and social media. Because I didn’t have a lot of extra money at the time, I mostly relied on free podcasts, books, and tips I saw online. There was a lot of trial and error, but I kept my head down and focused on my mission of helping horses through empowering equestrians, and put as much thoughtful, useful information as I could on my pages.
Within a couple of months, I had hit 10,000 followers on TikTok. I was shocked, and continued to create videos promoting Equine Massage 101, and more and more students joined my course. It was incredibly gratifying to start to get positive feedback from them: that they loved the way I taught, that their horse loved the techniques, that they felt inspired to pursue a career in equine massage after completing the course. Then, something incredible happened. I had two videos go massively viral, hitting over 3 million views, and my follower count skyrocketed within weeks.As I put out more and more videos, I got tons of questions and comments from my new followers, and really enjoyed getting to teach them.
Since then, I have gained over 1,000 students in my online courses. Following the success of Equine Massage 101, I’ve added more online courses to suit different equestrians and their horse’s needs, including mini courses that are easy and quick to go through, and deeper dive masterclasses on the sensitive TMJ area and saddle fitting. I have gotten to hear countless stories from my students of how learning equine massage has helped their horses overcome body pain and performance issues and strengthened their bond in the process. I’ve stayed true to my mission of helping horses by educating riders, continuing to provide as much free education on my social media as possible, and I have been rewarded with an incredible community of over 150,000 equestrians across my platforms.
It has truly been, and continues to be, an honor to teach horse owners how to help their horses become the best versions of themselves. Recently, a message from one of the members of my community truly touched me. She enrolled in one of my courses and taught the technique to her six-year-old son. He used it on their family horse, and she sent me pictures of a sweet, relaxed senior pony enjoying time with his kid, who looked quietly focused on his friend. While my priority has always been the horse first, I believe that the act of caring for these special animals is just as restorative and joyful to us as it is to them. While I’d originally sought out equine massage to help horses, I’ve come to realize the impact it has on horses and humans alike. The added dimension of making a difference in horse people’s lives has further fulfilled me and made my career that much more special. Getting to be a part of the sacred journey between a horse and their caretaker is truly a privilege.
I look back to the day I almost gave up on Westley, who has since passed, and I understand that by listening to my horse and being willing to change my approach, I was able to embrace the path that was meant for us. Every failure I faced with him is now a measure of how far we were able to come together and how much I was able to learn from them.
I am thankful for those struggles, because I know now that my purpose is to help other horse lovers who face the same challenges. I look forward to continuing to educate equestrians and hope to make a better world for horses: one that encourages us to look beyond competition results as a measure of success, one that allows us to have a reciprocal relationship with horses who give so much and ask for so little in return, and one that empowers us all to learn from and support each other on our unique journeys with our horses.
