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My Path to Practice
My Path to Practice
I signed up with Angel's Animals in the summer of 2021, during the COVID lockdown. Though I have met bodyworkers who work on horses without a certificate, and my instinct tends to be pretty solid, I wanted to provide my clients with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that I have taken this very seriously and have made commitments of both money and time (considerable on both parts) in embarking on this journey.
Because I am a curious person, I will continue to learn and take courses and attend clinics to grow as a horse person, and more specifically, a bodyworker. My goal is to incorporate the methods and tools that feel authenticate to me while meeting the goals and expectations of the equines and equestrians I serve.
I am not a farrier, acupuncturist, chiropractor, or vet, nor should my services take the place of such professionals. What I provide is in conjunction with these other professionals and should be viewed as such. I believe in a holistic approach to the wellbeing of your horse and I will play my role while supporting those with the same goals in mind: healthier, happier horses.
Because I am a full-time teacher, preparation for anything I embark upon is important to me. As an artist, for me observation is the foundation of understanding. I bring both of these aspects of who I am to bodywork in that I observe the animals I am working with carefully and study those issues about which I may have less familiarity. Additionally, because I believe in learning as a lifelong practice, you can rest assured that I am staying current when it comes to methodologies and practices in equine bodywork. I am intuitive, but I am also inquisitive, so I will always be a seeker of more knowledge.
Core Strength, Lameness & the
Core Strength, Lameness & the
Importance of Suppleness
Importance of Suppleness
Many times horses that show lameness or a lack of balance (falling in, "bulging" on a turn, and a host of other "faults") are communicating that there is a physical issue. Additionally, issues with the legs can be associated with a lack of proper strength of the core, muscle issues with the back, or an injury to what seems like an unrelated region of the body.
In the book Core Conditioning for Horses (Cocozza, 2019), the author references Grace Fairburn, a British equine locomotion specialist:
"When doing postmortems on horses, it was found they consistently had asymmetry of the multifidus core muscle. Most alarmingly, the study highlighted the under-diagnosis of back pain in athletic horses; when seven were examined, six had severe pathology."
In this same book (totally worth a read!), Dr. Sarah Le Jeune, professor of equine sports medicine in Belgium, is quoted:
"What we know is that pain inhibits normal muscular activation [in the horse] and can actually lead to inactivation of normal muscular pathways. Pain can result from actual injury, excess tension or from imbalanced muscular development."
Horses that are ridden either by an unbalanced rider or perhaps one that is experiencing discomfort in their back will tense up through the longissimus dorsi (see image above); these are the two bilaterally placed muscles that run along the length of the horse from deep in the horse's neck and terminating in the pelvis area. This results in hollowing the back, and creates an inability to bend. This results in a whole host of issues as the horse is asked to do more. The legs will compensate in an effort to do what is asked of the horse. This domino effect can make diagnosis of specific lameness challenging at best.
In addition to the bodywork I will complete with your horse, from basic massage and myofascial release to cold laser and other assisted therapies, my suggestions will include general and specific warm-up/yoga-like exercises to improve your horse's suppleness and movement. It is important that we assist our equine athletes with such exercises in concert with proper diet and nutrition, farrier work, veterinary care, and more. These exercises are your way of making my services less necessary (or at least less frequent!). My goal is not to make you and your horse more reliant on me, but quite the contrary!
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