Yearly Archives: 2024

The Horse Who Stopped Eating

alternative therapies, animal communication, bodywork, energy work, Equine Body Balance, equines, exercise, grief, healing, herd behavior, herd dynamics, horsemanship, horses, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, liberty rein, Ortho-Bionomy, rescue horses, riding, sacred spaces, Uncategorized

Horse health is such a broad topic, it cannot be limited to what we do in terms of providing hands-on bodywork, or diet or exercise. It also includes emotional, psychological and psychic health, activities to create communication and increase curiosity  and the way we ride.

In February, I conducted a Q&A session where one of the questions was about a horse who had stopped eating, and discussing what to do to get the horse eating again. The practitioner with the issue said the horse had just lost his owner and regular stablemates due to death. He had been moved to a new barn with new horses and people.

We were dealing with more than simple refusal to eat, though that can become complex in itself. We were dealing with a grief process. The answer to the question – what to do about a horse who stopped eating – took on another dimension, as the horse would need more emotional and psychic support in addition to basic dietary needs and bodywork to get the gut functioning properly.

The horse needed a bridge to his new life, where there are very good things available. He just can’t reach for them right now. A horse in this state can go unnoticed in traditional circumstances where people will focus on the lack of appetite but not think about or know how to address the grief.

What does this horse need? I ask myself.  He may shun connection, though bodywork, a simple laying on of hands, could be very helpful and give valuable information too. Grief makes the body tight and dry, flaky, unresponsive. To loosen up those areas – particularly around the heart – would help the horse feel better in himself, and lo and behold, he may eat.

Time spent just being with the horse can be invaluable. Maybe he can’t think of anything he wants to do, but you can do things for him. Show him things, talk to him, walk with him.

When we as humans are going through a grieving process, it’s sometimes hard to put one foot in front of the other. It’s hard to talk to others. Imagine what that’s like for the horse. He doesn’t even have the distractions of bills that need paying or job concerns. If he has been left alone with no companions, it can be even more devastating.

It’s really up to us to set the tone as the horse is not very resourced at this time. If the owner is also grieving, he or she can be honest about the sadness felt, but be careful to remain soft and in memory mode of the lost loved one.

Just being, one of the hardest things for us to do, is probably the best thing you can do. Some horses really enjoy you talking to them, keeping up a conversation, perhaps recounting stories about the departed ones, if you knew the family. Some just want you there, grooming, taking care and talking about their specialness perhaps, bring them back into their bodies. Setting up situations to engage a horse’s curiosity, providing comfort, will all help that horse come around. Walks together are immensely helpful, especially if there are other animals in the neighborhood to visit.

Think in terms of what we all are as mammals – gut, brain, heart, and not necessarily in that order. There are more nerve cells in the gut than anywhere other than the brain. The nerve cells of the gut are part of the enteric nervous system, a separate nervous system that sends messages to the brain. It plays an important role in the emotional health in all of us.

Make sure the horse has companions. Not all horses grieve the same way. Some are sad but they are more able to go through their days as they have a more developed understanding of their stablemate or owners’ passing. That understanding can be supportive to the grieving horse.

This is why we look further than digestion and learn the rest of the story, or as much as we can. Sometimes the horse not eating can be a simple dietary change and sometimes it requires more research. Your ability to just be and bring out the presence in the horse will be key.

We are accustomed to extending condolences to bereaved human families. Grief is part of life, not a postscript, tacked on as “oh by the way, this person or horse lost his family.” It is the beginning, the jumping off place, for all else to happen going forward. It may feel that nothing is happening or changing for awhile, but gradually it will.

No Pain – Lots of Gain!

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We hear a lot about fear-based horse training. We don’t hear much about how bodywork can raise a horse’s fear threshold if done without regard to his/her feelings.

It’s very common for horses to be afraid of bodywork, especially if they have received fear-based training or a number of unpleasant veterinary procedures. Of course, veterinary procedures and surgeries are often non-negotiable. When I have a procedure personally, I can only imagine what that feels like to the horse who doesn’t understand why it’s being done to him or her.

The number of horses who have huge built in resistance is astronomical, and also some of those horses have shut down emotionally to be able to tolerate what has been done to them. Just look at the overflowing horse shelters. A huge number of these horses have arrived at the shelter abused, malnourished and neglected. Many come in afraid of the farrier, the vet, being caught, needles, lifting their hooves, being ridden – the list is endless. They may be in a lot of pain as well. They have an elaborate network of resistances holding them together, yet they are fragile, reactive or shut down, stuck in their flight/fright/freeze mode. In order to receive basic veterinary and farrier care, some may need to be sedated.

The inquiry phase of bodywork.

If you come to one of those horses with intrusive bodywork techniques, and that horse isn’t happy to see you, don’t take it personally. I see many of these horses who are overly cautious about what I might do to them. How do I work with them, relax them? First of all, I work on being as unthreatening as I possibly can be. And I don’t mean acting like I’m unthreatening, I mean really being unthreatening. I check in with myself – where are my resistances? Where might a horse pick up something that makes them nervous? I make sure I’m centered, that I’m not distracted, that I am just being. I have had a lot of practice doing this, but I think it’s practice worth investing in. Just be, chat with the horse a little. Lay your hand in front of the withers and talk softly. You may need to touch sore spots just to get information, but that part can wait until the horse is more relaxed.

As horse people, we can make countless decisions for our horses. One decision we can make is to hire only people who will treat our horse kindly. Of course, we need to have vets doing things that are unpleasant, as those procedures are designed to save lives. Vets are fundamentally kind, in my opinion. They are not the subject of this article.

If your horse is continually miserable or reactive during a visit from any practitioner, it may be worthwhile to re-evaluate that professional relationship.

If it takes me half a session to get a horse relaxed enough to accept and absorb the work I’m doing, I want to look at the whole picture. Is the horse in a lot of pain? What is the horse’s trauma history? Who else works with this horse and how?

Some horses have received so much abuse that they need a lot of work emotionally and psychically. They may be in their forever home, but their trauma is very deep rooted and challenging to change. Hopefully, owners will invest in this rehabilitative process. Some horses may be enduring ongoing veterinary treatments that are stressing them out.

I worked consistently with a horse who would get better after the session but the next week, would be angry and upset again. I learned later that she was being abused by a trainer in the time in between. It is similar  to when a child is being continually abused in the home, and gets better with various programs offered at school. But the child can’t move forward in development and remains in a holding pattern because the parental abuse brings the child right back to the origin of the problem, reinforcing it as other positive influences are trying to heal it. This is the agony of all child protective services as well.

I cannot move forward with the healing work if the animal is going to go back into the abusive situation.

Sometimes I find that the owner isn’t aware of what other professionals are doing with their horses.

Finding the right professionals requires moving out of our comfort zone sometimes, where we are not expecting pain to be part of the healing process unless it is a veterinary procedure. Humans are accustomed to expecting pain – even exercise programs are designed around the “no pain – no gain” principle. When bodybuilders come for a human bodywork session, very often they want to push against me with brute force when I ask for an isometric exercise. I will then ask them to just “think it.” This can be a new concept to those who are accustomed to leaving the gym like limp noodles.

There is a time and place for everything. The work at the gym is exercise. I break it down this way – bodywork, stretching and then exercise. The bodywork should prepare or rehabilitate the body without expecting anything of it and allow it to self-correct. The stretching keeps muscles and fascia supple so the body doesn’t seize up when it gets to the exercise part. The exercise keeps the body moving, encourages circulation and therefore nourishes the blood supply and all the organs, soft tissue and structure. It’s best to have all three, but if the body is injured and can’t exercise, then the other two must be employed before we can expect more from the body. We must give the body the right information to set it on its path for healing.

If the bodywork is too vigorous and sets the individual back, then it will take days to recover from it. Many people don’t know if the bodywork their animal is receiving is doing any good, but they keep paying for it because others at the barn are using the same person. It’s a routine, sort of like getting the teeth floated, vaccinations or using the same trainer. In their minds, if they continue to do it, they are doing a good thing for their horse. Or there is peer pressure and they may be afraid to change. Important information about healthy options needs to be made available.

Bodywork that causes beings to go into recoil and not want to engage is not allowing the body to find its own self-corrective response. Why is this important? Because when we engage the self-corrective response, ask the body which way it likes to go, what’s its preference, it comes forward and there is life and change in its response. Otherwise, the body is not a participant. It’s plain and simple. The body is being “done to” rather than engaged with.

A lot of people think of bodywork as a “spa” treatment only, unaware of the vast therapeutic benefits of a good session. A session should encompass mental and spirit well-being as well as deep musculoskeletal, fascia and visceral. I say “spirit” well-being instead of spiritual because I don’t mean it to be a religious experience, I mean that we are working with the very unique, individual spirit of the animal, on a level it can absorb and embrace.

Fortunately, awareness of animals’ voices is increasing. There are fewer people thumping on horses without regard to how they are receiving therapeutic work and more people eager to take the time to really be with the horse for however short time they have to make a difference. Without burning bridges, it’s up to us to build a team of worthwhile professionals who reflect the goals we have for our equines.

What changes should you look for in your horse during or after a bodywork session?

Certified Equine Body Balance Practitioner Kelly Reed works intuitively and gently to achieve full relaxation and engagement.

• In most cases, the horse should have better flexibility after the session, the tissue moving under the skin fluidly, topline relaxed.
• The limbs and joints should move better, and in cases of lameness, the horse should stride better if not be free of signs of lameness. These are individual cases.
• The horse should have improved respiration.
• Any horse should have a softer or brighter look in his/her eye and be less worried, if he/she was a worried one before. The horse should be more engaged.
• A horse who is immobile due to stall rest or laminitis will have some tissue changes and perhaps improvement in small movement.
• Organic changes will also result in relaxation, dropping of tension, better overall movement; in some cases, better digestion, greater energy.

Emerge from the Winter Doldrums with Equines

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Over the winter, I feel challenged to provide quality time with my horses. I want to make sure they don’t get bored and prone to injury. I also want to maintain my connection with them.

Recently the question arose about how to provide “behavioral enrichment” for a mare who was recovering from recent illness. The ideas presented here are good for that situation as well as for navigating the uncertainty of winter weather and footing. Horses don’t know how long we spend with them, they only remember the time spent and can think on it when we’re not there. If you notice, if you spend time with them for half an hour, the next day they are generally more interested in you and what you might have to offer.

What you can offer will depend on where you live, your energy levels and what you have to deal with weather-wise in your location.

The person who asked about behavioral enrichment realized she had to get very creative. Yes! Exactly right! There are liberty exercises that can be done in muddy footing, which she and her mare had remembered from classes they took with me.

In this case, I also suggest bodywork as maintenance recovering from any injury or illness.

At our place, we put down shavings to create a small space to do groundwork and ride, and have horses who are not so fresh after all the bad weather. The footing is good for walking and trotting a small circle, in-hand work, or lateral work along the fence on good days. If there is any pattern at all during winter, it is snow plus cold, then sun and mud then a couple of days of dry ground so you can work.

A gelding I worked with years ago was going through a patch of being unridden and the owner was wondering what to do with him because he had become dull and uninterested in activity. We worked with playing the drum which perked him up. He loved the deep sound of it. This of course, did not work all the time, as he wanted to know, what next? But it piqued his curiosity so that he could go on to other liberty activities and groundwork, connecting more fully with his owner.

On a deeper level, making a sensory connection with horses is something we can do while standing in mud up to our eyeballs. We can sit on a feed trough and consider the horse’s world – the sights, smells and sounds of the barn, the chatter of ravens, the feel and smell of the cold air that may prickle against our faces. Horses are sensory beings, so this type of connection is truly valued by them as they live with this world 24/7. It may contrast to our constant doing, but it puts us in alignment with horses. It brings us into ourselves and who we truly are.

I have always been a “lick and a promise” type groomer, but recently I have noticed how much my horses enjoy being groomed. And I enjoy talking to them while grooming, and seeing the mud come off, even for a short time!

This type of engagement carries over, increases our mutual enjoyment of one another, so that when we actual do “work” again, there is more curiosity, engagement, a feeling of anticipation of what is to come.

Working with the Tail

alternative therapies, bodywork, Equine Body Balance, equines, exercise, healing, horses, Ortho-Bionomy, Uncategorized

When there is tightness or restriction in the spine, often it’s helpful to work with the tail. In Equine Body Balance, we have a few ways of working with it.

The horse’s tail is a continuation of the spinal column. The horse’s spine includes the entire “axial skeletal” framework: from the skull along the vertebrae, and the attachment to the pelvis, all the way to the tail, which includes the coccygeal vertebrae from caudal end of the sacrum to the tailhead down (15-20 coccygeal vertebrae). It contains the nervous system continuation of the brain, the spinal cord.

We are working with the availability of the tail, making sure it is always flexible and willing and there is no yanking or pulling involved.

The horse in the following video was very laminitic at the time and could not move much at all. Movement is life to horses. The work done with the tail and ribcage was designed to bring more comfort in the body so he could move more. While most of the attention is focused on the feet of the laminitic horse, the entire body of the horse is struggling to deal with the pain and making compensations. Fear of not being able to move is also a part of the equation. If we can bring even slight movement into the body, the animal will feel better.

The techniques offered here are also helpful during the cold weather for horses who are confined or unable to move much because of icy or muddy footing. They can also help liven up the tail for horses who wear blankets.

Horses Don’t Know It’s Christmas

alternative therapies, animal communication, bodywork, Equine Body Balance, equines, healing, herd behavior, herd dynamics, horsemanship, horses, Uncategorized

Or maybe they do. Maybe they know that it’s a quiet time, that people may be more aware of their hearts, hold each other, eat special food and celebrate. It is not just Christmas but any manmade holiday.

My vet Dr. Larry Nolen said this when he came out Christmas Day to see my horse Patches. I knew Patches was dying, and I knew that it didn’t matter what day it was, how many people I needed to disturb to help him, it was his time. He was just a month shy of his 27th birthday. I never dreamed he would live as long as he did, given various health challenges, but he did. He was amazing.

We were surrounded by wonderful supportive ones. Dying for horses requires knowing where to put the horse down in order to easily access the body, calling the person who is going to pick up the body, making decisions as to cremation or burial, etc. The person facing the loss of their horse is not always prepared. But those that needed to be there for us – the vet, the livestock removal person, friends, were all summoned and ready.

I didn’t start out to talk about this because it’s usually the part no one wants to think or talk about. We usually want to consider the release of pain for the beloved horse because that’s highly important, and we want to envision a place in the afterlife our animal can go to where there are friends, they are free from pain and able to run in green pastures as they did as foals.

Interwoven with these painful realities were the stories told, of the Patches other people knew. Before I knew him: Patches the ribbon-winning show horse, Patches the therapeutic riding horse who lost his job because at some point he became uncomfortable in his body and needed to transition to another life. He was my granddaughter, Ariana’s, horse. These are stories that talk about accomplishments that people mostly identify with. The horse’s worth. Our friends recalled stories of him – how he would free lunge around the horse I was lunging, how he loved a good party. How he danced with a plastic barrel – he leapt in the air and pushed the barrel with his nose, and loved liberty dancing. He had a great sense of humor.

In the last few weeks of his life, Patches and his stablemate, Barroco, became close friends. They would eat from the same hay bag or pile of hay. They would eat leaves together quietly. Barroco was the perfect companion for him, because he didn’t push Patches as his other stablemates had always done. Patches was always low horse in any herd, and it was difficult for him to gain the self-esteem he deserved. He usually caved to pressure.

Patches and Barroco pushed each other gently, but mostly just hung out together. The soft flow of their time together had a rhythm and pace that seemed to quiet the high-strung Barroco. Patches was naturally a quiet horse so I felt that was what was happening – Patches was quieting Barroco’s nervous system.

But after Patches passed on Christmas Day, I realized more was going on there. Patches was also teaching Barroco things that he knew, preparing him for the next stage of his life. He was passing on the torch – valuable information.

Patches has always been very tuned into the universe as all horses are but differently. Walking with him I could sense the earth, stones, birds, planets. He was a very deep horse but also very soft and kind. As he aged and was no longer ridden, I saw more of this in him, I saw him more clearly, the prism of his thinking that crossed continents, felt the world beyond his corrals, the drumbeat of horses’ hooves running across plains somewhere, the rhythm of days that we humans are often too busy to notice.

I feel so much more than the loss of my dear friend and partner, Patches. In the days since his passing, I have moved from shock to grief to relief to loss, mixed with the necessary arrangements made, to gratitude for the many years I have been blessed with to know and love Patches, to explore his world with him. He, perhaps more than any horse, encourages me to look forward to the next chapter, and what comes from him into that next chapter, so that I will always feel his presence everywhere and in the horses who come after him.

I’m also so grateful for the students and teachers who came and worked with Patches, those who took care of him, who I’m know extended his quality of life with their special attention to him. I know he feels the same.

With each animal, there is always a thread that holds you to them, that helps guide you. That is what the love you built on earth does, binds you together eternally. In that I find comfort, as daily now I feel him in his new iteration, weightless and free of his earthly body.