The 20-year-old could barely keep his eyes open while massage therapist Margaret Patten worked the muscles around his joints, sore from years of arthritis.

But this wasn’t any ordinary client for Ms. Patten. For starters, he was a horse.

For Ghost, a fleabitten gray, the massage was not intended to provide relief after a decade of toil in the fields. Rather it eased his painful arthritis caused by too much riding in his youth.

“This is the second time he’s gotten a massage,” said Marghee Welch, Ghost’s owner. “He had one last month and I really think it helped. He didn’t seem as stiff as he was before and the swelling in his leg went down.”

The fact Ghost is a horse didn’t stop him from relishing the hourlong massage.

“They like it just as much as people do,” Ms. Patten said, as she stood next to the horse in the stall of a barn in Rising Fawn, Ga.

Ms. Patten launched the business in July, calling it Hands Hounds and Hoofs.

Though Ghost is her first client, she said there is a need for massage services for horses and dogs in the Chattanooga area. She charges $75 an hour to massage the first horse and offers discounts for multiple horses. Also, she will travel just about anywhere within 100 miles of Chattanooga.

Ms. Patten, 27, traveled to Virginia in June to be certified as an Equine Sports Massage Therapist by Equissage, a business which was started in the late 1980s by Mary Schreiber.

Horse massage has been growing in popularity in recent years, but has been a part of the horse racing and showing circuits for decades, Ms. Patten said.

A woman in Maryland is suing two state agencies there after state officials told her Maryland law allows only veterinarians to perform services such as massage.

Dee Schreiber, who owns Equissage with his wife Mary, said that type of reaction by veterinarians is not uncommon. Laws preventing massage therapists from practicing on horses are unconstitutional, he said.

“It happens periodically where the vets feel that people involved in chiropractic or alternative therapies are taking their business,” he said.

Officials with both the Tennessee Department of Health and the Georgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine said anyone practicing equine massage must hold a license as a veterinarian. In Tennessee, practitioners could face disciplinary action if they practice massage on animals without a veterinary license.

But Ms. Patten plans to continue her massage practice.

During the five-day training program at Equissage, Ms. Patten learned the basic physiology of muscles, the location of major muscles and muscle groups. Her investment in the business was about $2,000, which included the cost of the training course and travel expenses, she said.

In addition to the massage business, Ms. Patten also works as a real estate agent, but has been looking for extra means of income.

“I’ve always been interested in horses,” she said.

She also is licensed as a massage therapist for people and works at a spa in downtown Chattanooga, and in her experience so far, horse massage is really not that different. And her equine clients get similar benefits.

“It’s just like human massage,” she said. “It will release endorphines, which are natural painkillers.”

Since horses are animals and can be unpredictable, Ms. Patten said that she and other students at Equissage learned to detect when a horse is agitated or when a certain touch is painful or uncomfortable.

She also is trained to always keep a hold on the horse throughout the massage. If a horse is more energetic, she asks the owner to hold the horse during the session. In the event that there is a problem, she carries insurance through the International Association of Animal Massage & Bodywork.

But Ms. Patten knew the docile Ghost would be just fine.

“It can be dangerous, but I didn’t worry about him at all,” she said.

Mrs. Welch smiled as she watched Ghost’s eyelids droop from relaxation during the rubdown.

“It’s enjoyable to watch him while he’s comfortable,” she said, describing the years of giving him analgesics that caused him to have stomach problems. “I know massage helps me.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.