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DAN’S PAPERS
FINAL WEEKEND
HAMPTON CLASSIC
at the Classic promises to be a good one!
August 31, 2012 Page 113 CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Plan your final weekend at the Horse Show
Horse Masseuse Comes to the Classic
W
e all love a wonderful spa treatment with its luxurious pampering – especially a good, deep massage to send all that soreness and tension packing. And Glory, an athletic young lady competing at the Hampton Classic, is no different. Well, actually, Glory is a little bit different from the kind of customers you and I might see at the spa. Glory happens to be a pony. Her official show name is “All The Glory,� and she’s 12 years old and a little more than 12 hands high. Because she is talented enough to jump in such a major horse show, she gets sore like any other athlete. “Horses are very responsive to massage, and they are very sensitive,� said Linda Umla, who is one of the licensed masseuses working at the Hampton Classic this week. Like many others, Umla works on both people and horses. Watching Glory get her rub-down, you might say “responsive� is a gargantuan understatement. At Umla’s approach, the little white mare is a bit wary. And why not? She’s just been unloaded from a van coming from Old Salem and been led to a strange metal stall in a tent with people and trucks and cars whizzing by over on the road. She has a new neighbor she’s frankly not crazy about – some nosy guy with a white blaze on his face who is always peeking at her over the stall bars. And then a strange lady steps into her little sanctuary. Glory backs off a bit. Umla simultaneously sizes up her client. She has
likes or needs a massage and how never forgotten the horribly painful deep it can be. She can also gauge bite she got a few years ago that whether the horse will try to see what forced her to leave work for the day. she tastes like or how far she would “I’m all about my own safety first,� fly with a well-executed kick. “Then, I she said. have to set some boundaries.� “Ears forward, that’s a good sign,� Boundaries involve putting the Umla says, as she steps back. She horse’s halter on a lead line, making leans forward, putting her weight on sure it can’t move its head. “But the pony and presses her fingers into they’re more relaxed if they’re the long, muscular neck, starting at Linda Umla at work loose, and most of the time, that isn’t the top. Glory checks out Umla from the corner of her eye, but stands still. Ah, so this is necessary.� Umla also does horse acupuncture, which is a what I came to Bridgehampton for, she’s thinking. Soon, her eyes are half-closed. “She’s really jamming whole different area to explore. Sticking a needle into on this,� Umla says, now going for the mane, and a horse is, unsurprisingly, not done lightly. “Some are very reactive� – meaning those teeth and hooves squiggling it back and forth. When Umla gets to her shoulder, the pony’s again. “But horses have the same issues we people do, eyes close. Up comes the front left leg, and Glory is slightly off-balance because she’s so incredibly such as anger, worry, social issues and so forth, and relaxed. Has a horse fallen on Umla ever? She laughs. a trained acupuncturist will have insight into the sources,� she said. “Let me put it this way – not yet!� Umla has worked on people and horses since the Umla twists the hoof around, then gives a deep massage to the leg. When the masseuse gets to her mid 1980s. Horses have been a part of her life since stifle, Glory’s lips start to twitch. When her new best she rode in shows as a child, later became a mane friend pauses to pose for a picture, Glory turns her and tail-braider and a groom. Her clients have shown head back to give a look that seems to say “Hey, no all over the world – including Rebozo, who jumped in the London Olympics this summer. She can be fair stopping!� “I like them to pay attention to me,� Umla said, reached at hrholiveru@aol.com. Watch for Glory on Friday and Saturday in Small “Especially at the front end because I want to see Pony Hunters. Riding her will be Sophie Gochman, 9, how they respond.� That way, Umla can figure out where the animal of North Salem. Good luck, Sophie and Glory!
ROOFING SPECIALISTS
S. Saiter
By susan saiter
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