Category Archives: Ortho-Bionomy

The Horse Who Stopped Eating

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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.

Working with the Tail

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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.

Words Make a Difference

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When I lived in New York City in another lifetime, I always wondered what it would be like to be a cab driver and hear all these personal conversations.

I think of horses having to hear all our conversations. Many times I think humans don’t realize the importance of their words, their stories, the emotional impact behind what falls out of their mouths.

This has come back to me recently with my young mare, Red. I get the distinct feeling that she doesn’t want to be referred to as a “rescue,” so I will refer to her as my young, adopted mare whom I got from a loving sanctuary. She has had a hard life packed into a short period of time and no one needs to hear that story over and over again.

Imagine if I was introducing you, my friend or colleague, and I said, “This is my friend Lucy. She was in a foster home; her father beat her and she nearly drowned when she was two years old.” Rather than, “I’d like you to meet Lucy, she’s a gifted painter and beautiful rider.”

We would like to be introduced in the best light possible. I say things that are true about Red and any horse that I know, if I know enough about them to comment. I say, she is the bravest, most courageous mare I have ever known, beautifully willing and enthusiastic. (If anyone will give me that much airtime!) And it is all true.

Recently, the true characters of some people have come forward for me with regard to her, and while some of these – even professionals – have been around for some time and well regarded, I have felt disappointed by their response and lack of respect for my horse and for others. They may not talk disrespectfully about all horses but if they do that about just one, it’s in their hearts.

A lot of this arises out of fear, as horses who have been mistreated in the past may respond in a flight/fright mode. Some horses really aren’t safe to be around. We don’t know what they might do. I understand that, and it may mean not working with that animal or minimizing contact. In all these situations, it’s important to recognize our fear of the horse who doesn’t do exactly what we want or might exhibit some unwanted behavior. Recognize what the animal is able to offer and start from there. The horse may behave very well with its owner but have trouble with strangers, and it takes awhile to overcome what abuse may have taken place at the hands of strangers.

Also, people who call horses unflattering names are not doing horses any favors. It’s fine to call them little gentle pet names like goofballs, which I’m fond of calling my geldings, but not mean names. The horse takes it all in. My sense is that they have heard the bad name before in a much less pleasant setting and it brings back memories. I’ve noticed my mare Red has a sensitivity to certain names and I expect that she’s heard those mean names before.

Even a story of another horse’s trouble can upset a horse. And I know this sounds crazy to some, but the horse feels it and the horse can see it in pictures. The horse may convey those pictures to me. My horses do that, and some client horses do too.

I used to go into this whole thing about relaying stories about how someone mistreated a horse and how awful that was, but the horse doesn’t want to attach itself to that story anymore. It wants the new beginning it’s been offered, the new richness of love and respect. If I need to discuss background with an owner, I will try to minimize the story, have them fill out a form beforehand, or talk about it away from the horse. Ultimately, the horse’s demeanor and body will tell the most important parts of the story.

We have more rescues and horses who may have come on hard times after being worked really hard, won their owners money or other kudos, than ever before. Horse shelters and kill pens are overflowing. And so many horses have lives the equivalent of going from one home to another, as in a foster care situation, or worse, knowing they are one step away from slaughter. This is hardly good for their self-esteem.

With that said, there are some horses who want to be the subject of the story, and enjoy hearing how they were rescued or how they got well after being ill for a long time. Usually it’s an older horse that feels proud of what he or she has accomplished. I have one like that – I can talk about his story and he is very pleased to have people know about him. But I talk about it in a way that shows how proud I am of his accomplishments and that helps people know him better and admire him.

For the hour or hours that I’m entrusted with a horse’s care,  I bring my best to them, and I want to acknowledge their gifts, their personality, who they really are. That’s the beginning of any session we share. I can’t bring them all home with me, but that time we share is a healing time just for them and their owners. I want it to integrate into their daily lives as a positive change.

Bottom line: horses are in our care, and if we bring them our joy at seeing them, remarking on something really cool or positive about them each day, their nervous systems will surely relax and seek to connect.

Rehabbing and Getting Ready for Spring

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Years ago, when I was riding endurance, many rider/horse teams would head to El Paso during the winter months to ride. Horses had not had much riding time in the colder climates so one had to be careful as they traveled in the deep desert sand. Often the injuries that went unnoticed from the winter riding would appear in the spring.

Horses not working can also have injuries during the spring. Perhaps over the winter the horse has had a pasture injury or slipped in the mud, or been started back to work too vigorously.

In the wild it is said that horses will travel about 20-25 miles per day, seeking forage and water. It’s hard for us to duplicate that for the domestic horse unless we have a very large pasture. Even so, domestic horses are provided with food and water, so they may have space but not the motivation of a wild horse. In the Southwest U.S., while we have a lot of open land, very little of that space is large pasture for horses. Mostly they live in dirt lots or stalls.

It’s important to choose a regimen that will work well for the horse you’re working with, taking into account his/her abilities and the amount of time off the horse has had. Since I work with rehabilitating horses, I am gauging what they are physically and emotionally capable of doing and choosing activities accordingly.

The exercise of being able to move around freely is different than the measured, focused exercise we ask of a horse in daily work. Both are very important.

Here are some tips:

Walking on different types of terrain for horses who can manage it is vital.

Evaluate that the horse is okay with the level of movement we are asking of them. I recommend supporting them with bodywork where needed. If they have trouble lifting their legs or have sore feet, we begin with walks on soft flat ground, then add thin ground poles as they get stronger. We can also use a row of traffic cones and weave in and out of them.

The other day I was working with a non-ridden mare who has been really fussy about being touched. I know she has arthritis and is sometimes uncomfortable in her body. I tried some Ortho-Bionomy “post-techniques” with her – techniques where I engage her in an activity that also helps her posture and loosening her spine. She began to move with more purpose. Then we walked and found an area with railroad ties for her to step over. She became very animated and enjoyed the whole idea of stepping over something in a rhythmic fashion. I was able to touch and work with her everywhere I needed to in this session because of this approach.

I retired my current senior Patches at age 23 from riding, as he showed he wasn’t

comfortable being ridden anymore. He’s now 26. He enjoys walks and arena activities. He is also teaching our young mare Red to be more curious than she already is. I think this is an excellent way for him to spend his golden years.

The types of exercises and techniques I use with him are useful for all aged horses but especially those with arthritis, in rehab or even young horses starting out. You don’t need a bunch of expensive machines or a swimming pool to do this, though of course those items would be nice. All you really need is a nice area to take walks, and a space to set up some cones and ground poles. A big inflatable ball interests some horses as well. Patches enjoys pushing plastic barrels around.

It’s important to remember that a little bit goes a long way. These are not “strength exercises.” These are “toning” and “stretching exercises” that support the natural rhythm and movement of the body. The horse gains strength from them without the lifting weights approach. If the stretching leads to more aerobic and anaerobic activities naturally, without strain or injury, then it will be the right way to go for that animal.

In rehab, sometimes there is a great move forward, then a few steps backward, sometimes a plateau, just like when we humans are recovering from an injury. It’s impossible to keep pushing forward at one steady pace when the body is changing, readjusting, becoming stronger in some areas more quickly while other areas may lag behind or may appear as not on board with the program.

For horses getting back to work after a lay-off or hard winter, ride at the walk and gradually move up to a trot or canter. Lunging is also useful and can show you if the horse has any unevenness of stride that you need to be aware of for ridden work.

Ground poles and cones also lighten up arena work for these horses and allow some variety.

When working with a young performance gelding lately, while he has been ridden and cross-trained all winter, still, the shifting cold-to-warm weather ups and downs can cause muscles to tighten after his workouts. Since he’s very supple otherwise, he doesn’t need the slow spring start but rather, bodywork to maintain suppleness as he continues to train and meet new challenges.

An obstacle course is another fun thing to do with horses at all levels. You can take each horse through it, tailoring the obstacles to their individual abilities.

Liberty work is excellent for engaging with horses so they can be exercised without tack and build a stronger bond.

Above all, provide variety.  Some horses require more variety than others.

A horse who comes to the gate with anticipation is a lot more fun than one who runs away and doesn’t want to be caught. I want to see that cute face looking at me with curiosity, “Hi, so what are we doing today?”

 

Horses Can Have Scoliosis Too

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One of the pain areas that is very common in horses is the spine. And one of the most common things that people want to do is begin an exercise regimen for the equine with back pain.

Generally, back pain affects the entire body. If you have ever experienced back pain, it can have a debilitating affect on your activity, from walking to sitting, standing and even lying down. If someone wants to make you do exercises if you’re in excruciating pain, that can be the worst thing for you.

And, people are not the only ones who can have scoliosis, or, a condition where the spine is curved sideways. The horse can also have a kissing spine, sciatica, hunter’s bump, and many other conditions.

Looking down the spine to the tail – a mare with scoliosis.

Unfortunately, horses are not often in the position to say no to what we prescribe for them. They will resist in other ways – refusal to move, bucking, rearing, biting, which also may hurt them. But their intention is to get you to stop what you’re doing, or making them do.

At this point in the process, if I come to work with a horse with back pain, I want all exercises stopped until we can evaluate what is going on. I will do a full evaluation of the spine and legs, shoulders and ribcage, to see what parts of the body are being influenced. One area of the spine can be demonstrating, either visually or through palpation, a pain area, while another area of the spine is less mobile and can be the primary culprit. We just don’t know until we check it out.

Next, once the horse is moving more fluidly, which may take one to five or so sessions, always depending upon the degree of severity which doesn’t always reveal itself immediately, we can add some very simple exercises that are called in Ortho-Bionomy, “post-techniques,” to strengthen the spine and extremities while the horse is receiving bodywork.

Working with back pain is not a one-shot fix. It took awhile for the condition to develop, unless it’s an acute injury. Usually if the spine is pushed into what we may perceive as its “right” position by an assertive modality, it will relax back into the posture that it knows well. When my mother used to push my shoulders back because she didn’t like my hunched posture, it didn’t make it easier for me to keep my shoulders back. And what she didn’t know was, shoulders jammed back wasn’t really a healthy posture. Posture needed to come from within, not be forced from without. I needed to learn how to breathe more fully, and open up my sternum and ribcage, and get to know my body.

Side view of horse with lordosis, dropped thoracics ( swayback ).

If we work with what is, where the spine is at the moment of contact, and support that, it will feel “met” and be able to make more lasting changes. Regular maintenance is vital in order to maintain the spine and remind it of what felt good, remind it that it has its own intelligence and eventually, once the big pain is not so present, it can even self-correct. After that self-correction phase, the bodywork sessions can go deeper, address layers  that are possibly causing the more obvious problems to keep reoccurring.

Top view of the same horse shown with lordosis (swayback) above.

The types of treatments that are imposed from the outside such as injections and surgeries are expensive and may work to alleviate the problem immediately, but they do nothing to support the spine and extremities from within. The owner is often happy because they have done what was prescribed and have high hopes for a positive outcome.  And sometimes the treatment is useful for interrupting a chronic pain cycle. Owners also may be able to ride their horse for awhile which makes them happy, because having a horse standing around not able to participate in the season’s activities makes riders crazy.

Owners may opt to do the injections as well as do the bodywork, which can be useful, because then the body is being met as well as getting the pain addressed immediately.

Then the business of the exercises – not all exercises that are commonly recommended are going to be a good fit for every horse.

  • Lunging, for example, can exacerbate a fracture if you don’t know the horse has one. Trying to lunge a horse who is in too much pain to move on a circle is not a good idea.
  • Riding on a twenty-meter circle is not a good idea if the horse has trouble disengaging his hinds and has a lot of pelvic or sacral pain.
  • The round pen may not be good for the same reasons – any lameness on any leg or limb.
  • Going over obstacles may be too much for some horses.

If I don’t have a diagnosis, I will walk straight lines with a horse where he’s comfortable doing so. I may add ground poles at ground level once I feel he/she can lift legs comfortably.

In humans, the problem with spinal surgeries is that you may repair one part of the spine, but it will weaken the entire spinal chain and chances are, you will have problems with another part of your spine later on. If you can avoid surgeries, do so and opt for bodywork, physical therapy or what works for you. If you have no other choice but surgery, then of course, go for it.

With horses, the same is true. The active life of the horse will decrease with age anyway, so owners may think if I do this surgery today then I can ride for x number of years before the repercussions come, or maybe they don’t even know there are repercussions in the rest of the spine. It’s definitely a personal decision.

I have worked with many working horses on their back pain and been very successful restoring them to varying levels of their work life with rest, consistent techniques and then the post-technique exercises. The fascia must be able to made more flexible so that it can support the structure. And fascia doesn’t just enclose muscles, it is the supporting envelope for all other systems except the digestive and respiratory systems.

It takes a commitment on the part of the owner, and I believe most owners are very committed to wanting the best for their horses. It’s hard to figure out what the “best” is sometimes, as there are so many options.

Owners can also learn a number of very powerful, gentle techniques to support their horses, which ultimately empowers them to not need as many therapeutic visits.

Horses also appreciate the relationship aspect of bodywork. They are used to being “done to,” as you may feel when you’ve had to have a number of invasive medical procedures done. They have shoes nailed on (in some cases), dewormers and medicines applied, injections and procedures done where needed. Having someone work on them just for them, listening to them, can make an enormous difference in the way they feel about their relationship with their humans.

As an owner and bodyworker, I don’t always know what’s best. But I do know that maintaining equines with bodywork gives them a big headstart, supports the system before and after injury, makes them less injury prone over all (notwithstanding poor riding, weight, saddle fit and overriding).

The less invasive and the more relational we can be with horse care, the better for our animals’ health, longevity and well being, and also for our pocketbooks.

A two-day weekend course related to this topic will be offered in Santa Fe, New Mexico May 20-21st, 2023 entitled Introduction to the Equine Spine.

Introduction to the Equine Spine | 2-Day LIVE Workshop | May 20-21, 2023 | Santa Fe, New Mexico – Susan Smith. A framework for healing—horse and human (susansmithsantafe.com)

 

A Message for the New Year

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Jazzie and Red together.

In October we lost my mare Jazzie, who was just shy of her 19th birthday. It has been emotionally tough to live without her huge presence in our lives. She is irreplaceable, and yet I draw some comfort knowing she is watching over us and will continue to be a powerful influence.

I adopted a young grade Arabian mare, whom I named Red (or she named herself), four years old. She came from a wonderful rehab and rescue center in Santa Fe, which provided a loving respite from previous traumatic  experiences.

Red isn’t a replacement, she is her own horse. She is young and curious about everything, and especially her interactions with humans and her training. She loves her training. What I’m seeing in her is that everything is an adventure. While her first years were fraught with uncertainty, fear and mistreatment, when she didn’t want anyone to catch or touch her, she has now landed somewhere where everyone listens to her and she wants to listen.

The loss of Jazzie and the introduction of Red are changing my teaching. I relied so heavily on Jazzie’s intelligence in terms of teaching; her sixth sense as far as knowing what a student needed to know, or even what was needed in a teaching video. Now I seek to find out what innate intelligence is available in the new herd. I come into awareness of their changing relationships, and how they relied on each other for certain strengths and roles. They have reorganized since Jazzie’s passing. They make it work.

The new configuration.

This experience with Red is also showing me the interface between training and bodywork. I can see that when Red doesn’t respond to something I want her to do, it has been when she has felt unable to do it. She has either frozen in place or felt her body imbalance stick her somewhere that makes it impossible to turn or lower her head, or turn to the right.

It has been a learning process for me, asking questions, where is she stuck, where is the brace in her body? And then going in and softening, loosening, however that looks. Some days have been all about that, softening, finding the connection in the body so it could ease its defensive posture. How many defensive postures could a young mare hold?

Red has come to the place where she can position her body where she wants me to work. This is something I love to see in horses I work with, as it demonstrates a recognition of what I can offer and their connection to it, at the same time, recognizing that they can use the stimulus given and self-correct.

Primarily with everything we’re doing, it takes the time it takes. If the resistance isn’t removed then there is nowhere to go, there is no pushing through it to the other side. If there is no physical resistance there may sometimes be emotional resistance because an avoidance habit was formed in the past or she was taught something that wasn’t useful. I need to manage my energy so as not fall into Red’s stuff, ask in the right way, to remind her of what she is capable of.

This is not a horse that you would put the traditional “30 days” on and then think all was good to go. Probably that doesn’t work for 99% of the horses out there, but given economics and the way people perceive training and horses, it’s a norm, though not a very sustainable one.

I’m seeing more bridges between bodywork and training. We work with the nervous system in each of these practices, if we do it right. Where the horse is excitable (flight/fright), we calm it. Where it is too sluggish (rest/relaxation), we enliven it.  With good work on the nervous system, a horse can usually self-regulate and not immediately go into high alert and react over everything.

I have been fortunate enough to have a few “horses of a lifetime,” not just one. Each one has different gifts and teaches me something new. When they feel comfortable in their home, they feel heard and seen, then they will show their gifts. Many horses go through life without showing their true gifts to people, because there are many people who won’t see the gifts even if hit in the face with them. Horses don’t “throw pearls before swine,” as the saying goes. Some of mine have been horses of a lifetime in spite of me and my agendas at the time. I listen better now. I’m not so driven.

What is the purpose of this message, you might ask? Is it about the new horse, mourning the loss of a deceased horse, training or bodywork?

It’s about everything. It’s about the changes that we make to accommodate the new, while mourning the loss of the old. It’s about the evolution of body and training, and how training is absorbed and perceived by each individual being.

I’m reminded of how Jazzie would raised her leg and made sure a student was holding it correctly and compressing into the perfect place that would initiate change for her. I will remember how she positioned herself so that the student or I would get the hint of where to work next. And her incredible intuition with bodywork in the saddle comes to me each time I climb in the saddle, creating a valuable change for both horse and rider.

Jazzie was very good at what she did; she was patient and impatient simultaneously, and perhaps so because on some level, she knew she didn’t have a long time on this earth. Humans needed to get it right quickly. Such a well-adjusted, sensible mare was valuable for those who were less well-adjusted and sensible and pure joy for everyone else.

I work with performance horses, race horses, horses in training, geriatric horses, injured horses, traumatized horses, pregnant mares and newborn foals, horses who are getting ready to pass from this world and those passed.  I work with the people who love them. They are all on different paths, at their own tempos.

With the dawning of the new year, I feel a shift in the work I do. I may work with deepening the links between people and horses, or bodywork as a more integral support for training. Very often what isn’t working for a horse isn’t working for the people either.

My wish is that you will deepen your experience in 2023, either on your own, in practice, with or without horses, or in classes. Whatever moves you. This quiet, cold time of winter (and not for those in the southern hemisphere, of course!) is open to introspection and weaving together a new beginning, not a replacement for what was, but a lengthening of “being” into the coming months.

Meditation for a New Year

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As I have received so many Happy New Year messages from so many, I feel compelled to write one too. There is an eagerness, a hopefulness that this year will be better than the last. New year’s resolutions are made and discarded at the first temptation to do otherwise. Perhaps because they put more expectations on us.

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,

Whispering ‘it will be happier’.” Alfred Lord Tennyson

So maybe we talk about something else – how it’s possible to reach out to people and animals across the planet, not just in our backyard? That while in some parts of the world you might be snowed in or otherwise unable to go minister to somebody who needs it, you can send a message. Not just ‘I’m thinking of you, hearts and prayers,’ but a message from my heart to yours.  They may live five thousand miles away. Or if the body is not responding well at all, how about just sitting with the person or animal, being with them? If you can’t sit still for whatever reason, do something.

One morning recently I could not take care of someone’s animal physically, and so I decided to make bread. I decided then to make the bread in honor of that animal, and lo and behold the animal got up and started moving. In a way, taking the pressure off, just doing stuff, may have made a difference.

The message sent does not carry any baggage; it’s not a pushing or moving of energy, it’s  just an inquiry, or a sitting with a situation, not influencing a particular outcome.

With one animal I worked with at distance over the holidays, at first she couldn’t bear my making contact. I said in that case, I’ll just be over here, and sit with you but not too close. After that, she began to inch closer and began to share herself. It was completely her decision.

How do we work without expectation to embody a sense of well-being in ourselves and others?

A way to begin this may be as follows:

Hold a meditation for the new year. I strongly suggest getting comfortable, with a cup of your favorite tea or coffee.

Begin with the body, your body and include your animal bodies. Begin with the space between the big and next toe and just hold it and see what you feel. Do you feel a connection to another part of you? Does it hold a memory? If so, just remember that but move on to another part – the lower leg, the knee, the hips, the buttocks. Some of these areas may hold a memory of pain, a surgery, a fall. If you feel you’re getting plugged up there for some reason, or the body doesn’t want you there, leave it and move on up the body. If you’re working with an animal at the same time, the animal may have areas it feels at the same time as you, or different ones that pull at you, areas it wants to avoid or becomes sad with upon contact.

So acknowledge those sensitive areas and move on. Move on to the midsection, remember you pass through various chakras at the same time, where different energies are held. You don’t have to identify those now, you can simply know that you have a root chakra, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown. At any one of those places along the midline and the band surrounding it laterally on both sides (heart will include shoulders, for example), you may hold energies of either good or bad things. Just the recognition may bring a certain peace. If it doesn’t, move on to a new location.

You can hold your hands upturned at your sides and feel warmth grow in your hands. These are the hands that can touch or simply hold energy for others, and for yourself.

Moving up through the heart area – what do you feel? During this colder season, sometimes the chest area becomes compressed, warding off cold, and the heart becomes squashed in there. It needs room to feel everything it can feel.

Then move further up to the throat, the third eye above your eyebrows, and crown at the center of the top of your head.

Check now and see what parts of you feel lit up, alive. Which are they? Connect one of them to an area that doesn’t feel so alive or is in pain or emotional turmoil, and see what happens.

Sometimes just gently cupping the face area can relax the tension collected by frowns, tense jaws, concentration, worries. Once recognized, you may move to a place of seeing differently, quietly, letting peace drape around you like a soft blanket.

To come out of the meditation when ready, retrace your journey from head to feet, slowly, checking in with each area. See how it feels. Is there still tension or disturbance there or has it gone? Is a painful place less troubled? Does another area call you? Check with your animals as you retrace the journey with them.

In this small meditation, your body and/or your animal’s body gets to have a voice. It is given space to move and decide, or not.

This is what I want for my new year – to enter a realm of possibility for healing without a list of expectations.

 

A Healing Journey is an Historic Journey

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A healing journey is specific, non-specific, historic, full of layers and wondrous avenues of enlightenment. The layers that developed first – en utero, at birth – will be deepest in the body, and the last ones to heal. Perhaps we can go farther back than that – generations that will heal last, if at all in this lifetime. The healing journey is one of seeking to unravel those layers in the body’s time, as it has a time of its own. Seeking self-correction.

With minor injuries  the person or animal may not need veterinary or therapeutic care at all, it will deal with it on its own. If one needs to see a bodyworker, then one or two sessions will suffice at getting the body back on track.

When I talk about injury, that injury could be internal or external, it could be musculoskeletal, visceral, neurological, circulatory, emotional, psychological, psychic…

Rehab is a process. Perhaps the person doesn’t want to get started because he or she has developed a system of compensation that holds together pretty well. This new wrinkle in health is an annoyance, something to be flicked away like a fly.

The body is constantly making adaptations. Every time the body gets injured or diseased it launches a response to compensate so that it can keep on trucking.

When the injury is repetitive, and comes from a major event or series of major events, then the symptoms are going to remain or morph. The horse whose hind end keeps dropping out from under him in work, for example, will require regular maintenance. The person who has had a traumatic shoulder injury may need support after physical therapy has ended. Bodies with a number of compensations and lacking vitality are of course going to have more trouble and possibly be more prone to re-injury, so the added support will be paramount in their healing.

Unfortunately for all concerned, the longer the injury exists and the larger in magnitude it is, including repetitive injury, it will create a linked compensation pattern throughout the entire body.

Horses demonstrate to us repetitive stress in so many ways. They are subjected to repetitive activities – training, carrying people with unaddressed repetitive stress and compensatory patterns, saddles, bridles, other tack, trailering, abuse, repetitive behaviors.

Fascia is a huge component to the musculo-skeletal system as it adapts and compensates for injury.  Ortho-Bionomy can address fascial challenges, not just what is called “myofascial” work. Fascia envelops every bodily structure, not just skeleton and muscles. Soft tissue – fascia, muscle, tendons and ligaments will change quickly when injured but can take much longer to recover. The bones, the organs protected by bones and other tissues are also connected and need help.

Untouched, repetitive stress patterns deepen in the tissues and muscles will reduce in size as well as increase in size. You can see this in horses very clearly in the gluteal muscles – where one part of the gluteal structure will be flaccid and another will be rock hard. Or, in the hamstrings, where the hamstrings are rigid and restricting the hocks and stifles while the gluteals will be flaccid, almost unresponsive. At this point the joints, ligaments and tendons are being pulled unevenly by muscles. All this can cause pain in hocks, stifles, ligaments, and create spinal and hoof problems.

Without care, the bones will begin to compensate for the pulls and slacks in the whole system. It is a tensegrity system, where tension in one area creates slack in another, and everything is off balance. The bones may develop arthritic changes as a result – all the way through the horse – jaw, poll, neck, spine, hocks – though the original insult may have begun somewhere in the hindquarter. Once degeneration occurs in the bone then the opportunity to rehabilitate is lessened.

This gives us an idea of rehabilitation – it isn’t an overnight process in these cases. It needs to take place slowly, addressing each layer as an individual, peeling them back as the body is able to address them.

Supporting exercises can be huge for the body that has been stuck in one posture for what seems like forever.  The exercise will be gentle, appropriate to the body’s ability to respond and use the movement to its advantage. Most likely the recipe will not include belly lifts, tail pulls or for humans, crunches or push-ups. Ground poles, conscious walking exercise, straight lines in some cases, a little hill work maybe, also looking at what’s available in the horse’s environment to help him or her recover. For humans, light stretching and body awareness.

My primary vision is to “meet the body where it is,” where that is in space and time, and address what it is willing and able  to show at any given time. This way, the body is able to take the new stimulus and create wondrous avenues of enlightenment – from the place we’re working to include somewhere else in the body.

We move away from the looking at what’s wrong – it’s this or it’s that, because while surely it is those things, the compensation is coming from a lot of places and the body wants to be addressed as a whole. Not only will it show its compensation, it will show its strengths – where it can move and where it is light and receptive.

For me, this is where I begin – the most receptive, enlightened part of the being.

 

Reach Out and Don’t Touch Someone

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We are all in this together, and yet we are to remain apart. There is stress about social distancing, our new norm, worldwide. Why is that? We can reach out and call people, thankfully we also have social media, but I still hear from friends, colleagues and clients that they feel isolated.

As a bodyworker for people and horses and the occasional dog, I feel it intensely. Ortho-Bionomy is a form of bodywork that is not just a spa treatment that you receive when you get a gift certificate and you feel better for a couple of days and forget about it. Ortho-Bionomy is transformative, it deepens your own body’s understanding of itself, it reaches inward and brings health and balance to all your systems. Each level of the body – bone, muscle, sinew – each system – circulatory, lymph, visceral – is affected by an Ortho-Bionomy session. It invites the body to come meet itself and have a conversation. And that conversation can continue on long after the session is over, well into the next week or months, depending upon your body’s ability to correct itself and stay corrected.

The possibility of a “conversation with a body” was the hook for me when I was first finding out about bodywork modalities. What is that like? Is that possible? I wondered. Years later, I realize my body seeks that. If I cannot afford the time or money to get a session, then I feel the need. I gravitate towards self-care, and other exercises of course. They are immensely helpful.

I will talk about the importance of touch. What I learned recently is that the skin and brain are developed from the exact same primitive cells. So you could say the skin is the outer surface of the brain, or view the brain as the deepest layer of the skin. When you think of it this way, it is no wonder that we are troubled by the lack of human physical contact. There is much more about this but this is food for thought. With animals we have the fur factor – fur closely attached to skin.

According to the anatomy book, Job’s Body, by Deane Juhan, studies done by Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1915 in orphanages revealed the infant mortality rate within one year of admission was 99%. This led to further studies of all orphanages, finding that they were severely understaffed and consequently the infants lacked human cuddling. There was only enough time, to clean, feed and take care of their basic needs. Once more staff were added in a major overhaul of the system, the children received much needed cuddling, and they thrived in all ways. Great increases in energy, height, weight and mental well-being were seen – and the death rate decreased exponentially.

So when we must deprive ourselves, even as adults, of this very primal need for touch communication, where do we go next? When we’re advised to curtail all “non-essential” activities, I and my clients don’t consider Ortho-Bionomy non-essential. But since it is not an essential such as going to the grocery store (far more dangerous!), we comply with the rules that are intended to save our lives.

As a bodyworker, working on any body is never a one-way conversation. I’m not just doing techniques to or on someone. I’m asking questions, the body or being is speaking back to me in numerous ways. It’s not always something I can verbalize.

Today we are dealing with a deadly virus that is shaping the social structure of our lives. We must not touch, except those in your own household, period. Stay a safe distance away.

Fortunately, Ortho-Bionomy has a number of “phases,” unlike some modalities where the only option is touch. I can take the conversation off the body and have that conversation a little farther away, over the phone maybe, or in space, because the conversation has an energetic quality. I know some people are scared off by the mention of “energy,” but we are all energy, everything possesses energy. So it really isn’t frightening. It might seem frightening to imagine someone tinkering around with your energy.

But that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s the energy of the conversation that can remain alive without the physical touch, without any force or intrusion into the person or animal’s consciousness. I can work with the body without the body being anywhere nearby. It’s a part of Ortho-Bionomy and it is only done with consent of the individual.

There is a collective consciousness right now that has everyone on edge, trying to find balance but getting knocked off balance daily, in some cases hourly, by some new grisly news report. Is that collective consciousness something you can see or is it something you feel? Think about it. It’s all energetic, rippling through the global community.

Horses have a herd mentality. Part of that is communicating without touching – flattening their ears or moving toward another horse  across the pasture to get them to move, just twitching an ear in some cases. I only wish I had ears that talented. They also communicate with other species like birds. They can keep each other healthy and safe by moving the least among them. Their finely tuned energetic sense of what they need to have happen means everything.

Before the pandemic took such a tight hold of us, (just a couple of weeks ago, perhaps?) I did an Energetic Healing Communication session with a dog who was limping. She had been expecting the session. The owner asked that I take her own injured finger into consideration too if I had time. I worked with the areas the owner had said she felt the dog needed work. I felt the session was very concrete, meaning very mechanical for her, but that was what she was asking for. She even became impatient with me at times.

Then she said: “guarding causes you to lock out, then fear, then lose the ability to take in good things.”

This was very huge, not only for the dog but for the owner, and for me. We are all guarded right now. We have to be but we will be wise to remember what that does to our nervous system. It makes us less able to notice or receive good things.

And then, the dog wove her owner’s physical injury into her own healing. I worked with the area between the nails of the paws. The owner reported her finger feeling 75% better. The dog ended her session on her own, satisfied, and went to lie down and rest.

That will probably never happen again in exactly that way or even close to it. That is the beauty of Ortho-Bionomy bodywork. It is special, it is for you personally, or for you and your dog or horse or cat and it is tailored to your needs. It is not a panacea, a pill or a blanket solution.

So, while this may sound farfetched to some and right at home to others, I will leave you with this: we need communication. We need the conversation, and if it isn’t physical, then energetic. We communicate in some different ways than horses or dogs. We have the higher intellect, or so I’m told.

Yet, we aren’t as good at taking care of ourselves energetically as animals are. We have to be conscious of making sure to keep ourselves open to good things, like the wise dog said, while we are in these oppressive times.

So reach out and don’t touch someone, but do  – energetically – across time and hold space for them and their healing. In that small way, I hope we can make a significant difference.

P.S. You may touch your horse, dog or cat!