Whether human or accident caused, a horse doesn’t need to remain triggered by trauma forever. We may never know the entire story of why a horse is holding trauma in his/her body, but we can work with the symptoms that present themselves through careful observation, palpation and specific Ortho-Bionomy(R) techniques.

Even if a horse shows no obvious trauma, owners and horse professionals will benefit from taking this class and learning bodywork techniques to help support their horse’s overall health.

We will begin with the way the horse presents, what she is capable of, to begin the process of unraveling the mystery of what tension the body is holding.

We will work with the self-corrective response in the horse to diminish flight/fright reflex, employ healthy reflexive response, restore natural rhythms, change respiration, empower movement without fear, and much more.

We will work with specific trauma responses both acute and chronic. Affected areas may include:

• Head and neck
• Cervicothoracic
• Ribcage
• Thoracolumbar
• Lumbosacral
• Sacroiliac
• Limbs

We will focus on:

1. Healing with the Story –In this we will work with the story and the way it is manifesting itself in the body, and what the body wants to reveal and work holistically.
2. Stages of Trauma and Levels of Healing We will work with the various stages of trauma and how we might engage the horse in healing. Those behaviors that we might identify with humans are also present in the horse.Hyperarousal presentations such as fear, anxiety, rage, mania and hypo-arousal such as depression, exhaustion, dissociation, collapse and shut down all happen to the horse too.  We may see these responses: faint, fight, flight, freeze, cower or collapse or some other response that indicates trauma.“I feel that the study of wild animal behavior is essential to the understanding and healing of human trauma. The involuntary and instinctual portions of the human brain and nervous system are virtually identical to those of other mammals and even reptiles.” – Dr. Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger. We will work with quieting the sympathetic nervous system in the horse in gentle non-force techniques and recognize we are working through layers.
3. Holding and Giving Space –We will work with holding and giving space for horses. Holding space is a technique used for humans as a way to make room for change to occur in a healthy and functional way. At the very least, holding space allows the person to relax and feel they have a place to do so, even in the midst of chaos.
4. Feeling it in the Bones – Physical, Psychic, Emotional Injuries –You hear this expression but what does it mean? We feel things and horses feel things that go bone-deep. Bone is the most ancient the hardest of our tissue structures and  It holds memories, pain, psychic happenings, emotional injuries as well as physical.

Techniques may include:

• Basic Equine Ortho-Bionomy techniques
• Identifying patterns
• Visualizations
• Reinforcing equine rhythms
• Breath work in the ribs and diaphragm
• Trauma in the anatomy
• Increasing conscious awareness in the practitioner
• Disengaging the practitioner from the trauma response

Students earn 16 CEs for Ortho-Bionomy and some other modalities. NCBTMB Approved Provider #100176.

Early Bird Deadline May 2nd. Santa Fe  location TBA.