Tapotement (sometimes called percussion) is used in Equine Therapy at the end of a session to help stimulate and wake up the horse. Or it can be used during a session to increase circulation.

Tapotement can be light or heavy. The lighter the movement, the quicker it usually is. The heavier the movement, the slower it usually is. This is due in part because the heavier tapotement needs to go deeper into the horse's muscles.

In Equine Sports Massage Therapy, tapotement is used to warm up the horse's muscles prior to exercise.

In my therapy business, I use it to help loosen up "stubborn" muscle groups, especially in the hind end. This is because the horse's hind end muscle groups are very large. It is hard to get deep enough sometimes and heavy tapotements can be used to loosen up the muscles. Kind of like the ripple in a pond effect. (I will demonstrate this in a video - that I should get to once the weather gets better).






Tapotement comes in many varieties.


Clapping:





Cupping:






Hacking:

Hacking is done with the pinky side of your hand. Keep your fingers and wrists loose and alternate your hands. Hacking penetrates fairly deep into a muscle and can be used on large muscle groups.





Beating:




Pounding:



As you can see, there are lots of ways to apply Tapotement. Once again, you need to be very careful to only use tapotement on large muscle areas. Avoid bony areas. And you also need to be sure not to apply tapotement over the kidney area of your horse.




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