Horsynergy

02/18/2025

Full itinerary for the Deconstructing Liberty Clinic! Join us in Richards, Texas April 4th-6th.

https://facebook.com/events/s/deconstructing-liberty-clinic-/1072765774139291/

01/30/2025

Our Deconstructing Liberty clinic was rescheduled to April 4-6th in Richards, TX. This collaboration with Katherine Lowry and Steven Moss is something you won’t want to miss!

This clinic aims to break down liberty work into its physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual components. Participants will learn how to balance each area and bring harmony to their liberty work. We will be examining what role posture, body language, and personal awareness play, as well as discussing how to prepare a horse physically for common maneuvers performed at liberty, how working with the nervous system can improve mental connection, and strategies for supporting ourselves and our horses when miscommunications happen. The clinic will be a mixture of theory, practical applications and 1:1 coached sessions, interactive group exercises, and demos.

💫 PHYSICAL: is the horse physically prepared for the job and how can we better prepare them for it? Is the handler aware of and in control of their own body and comfortable with the equipment?

💫MENTAL: does the horse understand the questions being asked? Is the handler clear in their intentions?

💫EMOTIONAL: how does the horse feel about the request? Is the handler congruent in how they are feeling on the inside with how they are presenting themselves?

💫SPIRITUAL: does the connection between horse and handler allow for an easy exchange of thoughts and ideas?

Participants receive the following:
🔹access to all lectures, demos and group exercises
🔹1:1 coached session with an advanced liberty horse
🔹1:1 coached session with their personal horse
🔹a bodywork session for their personal horse followed by another coached 1:1 session
🔹journal prompts
🔹list of resources for continued learning
🔹PLUS submit a follow up video for feedback

Auditors are welcome!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/18iHqUM3wY/?mibextid=wwXIfr

10/14/2024

DIET MATTERS!

This is Hal, a super sweet, inquisitive Arabian gelding. He was diagnosed and treated for EPM. EPM affects every horse differently and for Hal it caused SIGNIFICANT muscle atrophy and ataxia. During and after treatment, his owner did a wonderful job supporting him nutritionally with spine and nerve supplements, magnesium, and vitamin E and he made huge improvements.

An environment change for Hal also meant a diet change from forage based to a commercial feed and within a month, his body condition declined to what you see in the top photo. He was getting plenty of calories and was well taken care of.

Many commercial feeds are packed with inflammatory ingredients which puts a lot of stress on a body already struggling with systemic inflammation. The bottom photo is just three weeks into being put back on a forage based diet with appropriate supplements. No bodywork or other interventions.

I think diet is one of the most overlooked aspects of equine health but it should be the foundation for preventative care and rehab alike.

Hal’s current diet:
• alfalfa pellets
• renew gold
• KIS trace minerals
• salt
• immubiome’s spine and nerve
• immubiome’s nerve boost
• magnesium from yucc’it up
• optimal E from yucc’it up
• MetaRx

10/08/2024

This is Dinar, a handsome straight Egyptian Arabian gelding who competes in Western dressage with his lovely owner.

He was here for the month of August because he was struggling with left bend and his ability to use his hind end.

He had a rib cage rotation that may have originated from an old bite injury on his left shoulder. It’s amazing what the body does to compensate. What served a good and protective purpose at the moment of injury, can often hinder optimal performance down the road.

That rotation contributed to an anterior pelvic tilt and an inability to lift and activate the thoracic sling resulting in a lot of muscular atrophy and tension.

Through nerve release techniques, craniosacral therapy, chiropractic adjustments, corrective trimming, diet change, and specific movement sequences, we were able to unravel a lot of the tension he was carrying and rebalance his body. Everything is connected which is why holistic care is so important.

His owner reported that he is so much softer and willing. I’m excited to see their continued development in the show ring! 🙏

09/06/2024

If anyone is interested in learning more about craniosacral therapy, I highly recommend Amy’s workshops. They are packed with information, students get plenty of hands on time practicing the techniques and Amy has a wonderful, easy to follow teaching style.

09/04/2024

It is such a privilege to be collaborating with Katherine Lowry and Steven Moss for this clinic happening December 6-8th at my facility in Richards, TX! We will be breaking down liberty work into its foundational components and examining what it means to engage with horses at liberty beyond maneuvers.

Topics will include:
• strategies for building trust, understanding leadership, differences between training, fitness, and development, and equipment use.
• human posture as a means for communication, training our eye to see the limitations of our horse’s posture (as seen from the BTMM™ lens) to perform maneuvers, breath work and grounding exercises.
• emotional awareness, personal accountability, and rewriting the narrative to improve the connection with our horses.

Join us to learn how to bring emotional, physical and spiritual alignment to liberty work. Spaces are limited!

Please fill out the form if you are interested in auditing. For a participant spot, contact me directly.

https://forms.gle/aU9WnfiZVfEQccVX7

07/14/2024

Faheed is a lovely Arabian gelding who was here for a wellness intensive.

The two week wellness intensives can jumpstart the horse’s wellness journey. The application of multiple complementing modalities and supportive movement help restore balance to the mind and body.

Nerve release techniques, craniosacral therapy, and chiropractic adjustments work synergistically to release compression and increase range of motion. Following this with movement reeducation helps solidify the changes.

At the end of the two weeks, all findings are reviewed and owners are sent home with a custom plan for continued development.

07/09/2024

Miss Ciela, a beautiful OTTB mare.

When she arrived she was reactive, compressed, unable to emotionally regulate and a classic leg mover meaning she locked her back creating short, choppy strides.

For the 6 months she was here, we worked on decompressing her body, developing the muscles required to balance and support a rider, and overhauled her feed program.

She struggled with hormonal imbalances and systemic inflammation. Making the switch to a forage based feed program, adding herb blends from Equine Natural Care to support liver detox and hormone balance plus Meta Rx, made by Dr. DePaolo, to support gut health and counteract chronic inflammation made a huge difference for her.

Craniosacral therapy, nerve release, chiropractic adjustments and postural exercises helped her feel comfortable in her body. She became much more relaxed and was able to recover quickly and easily instead of dramatic spooking and her movement became more fluid.

When horses feel safe, comfortable and balanced in their bodies, many of the behavior issues melt away.

07/02/2024

Ruby, a young Hanoverian mare, was here for two months for a refresher after some time off.

She had trouble focusing so we started with emotional regulation before implementing some nerve release techniques to help her body unwind. She had a lot of compression around her poll, shoulders and lumbar spine.

We followed that with neuro fascial conditioning and rib entrapment techniques to address the rotation and asymmetries in the ribcage.

Next we introduced SureFoot pads to help with proprioception, turning on the stabilizing muscles and teaching her to push into the ground.

Under saddle, we worked on taking correct lateral flexion into neck extension keeping an open throat latch and started to separate the concepts of bend and direction. She had a habit of simply following her nose and overweighting the inside shoulder in the process.

She made lovely changes while she was here. Her body became softer, longer and her anxiety subsided. Mental and physical balance are inextricably connected.

09/15/2023

Everything is connected 💫

This is Genuine, a 6 year old quarter horse gelding. He is a great example of the positive changes that are possible with a holistic approach and wellness team.

During the 6 weeks he was here, his diet was changed to forage based with a trace mineral supplement and he received weekly PEMF treatments. My sessions with him centered around nerve release as well as in hand and ridden sessions focusing on functional movement, healthy posture and relaxation. He also received chiropractic adjustments from Meagan Svec Anders DC with All 4 Chiropractic and Cranial Sacral Therapy from Amy Williams with Peak Performance and Wellness Solutions.

Training, development, nutrition and bodywork modalities all have value on their own but a team of aligned professionals working towards a common goal (a happy, healthy horse) is invaluable. 🙏

04/22/2023

If you're in east Texas, I highly recommend reaching out to Amy of Peak Performance and Wellness Solutions. She is very knowledgeable, patient and the horses respond beautifully to her energy.

Thank you Amy! It was a pleasure meeting you and having you out!
All of the horses really enjoyed their bodywork sessions. 💙

02/14/2023

“All good training will be a byproduct of wellness- but I don’t want to make one get on the trailer, or go down the trail, or carry a saddle, if the ingredients aren’t there. It feels too bad to package a horse up and send them on down the road, and it feels too good to make a horses body beautiful and mind buttery soft.” 💯👏👏👏

There are some horses I had for training in the past that haunt me- horses I know I didn’t help, who struggled through the pipeline of training.

The problem with training is that the client brings you a horse for the desired outcome, money is exchanged, and then the clock starts ticking. At first you think, no problem, hundreds of horses have been successfully started in that timeline under my program.

But you get one who you start to suspect isn’t doing well- and you start to scratch under the surface and find the lid is tightly sealed on the box to their well-being, and when you open it, you will disassemble a packaged up picture. The horse will look worse, and the journey is much longer to their well-being than anyone expected. It isn’t fair to even train this one- they have a hundred unmet needs, and it’s going to be a long, expensive process.

The horses that haunt me woke me up to the fact that training them doesn’t work. You can’t train away pain, or a disregulated nervous system, or a tangled history of misunderstanding and fear. These horses are responsible for the path I’ve taken in life, and awakened my passion toward postural health and classical work.

This is why I am no longer training horses. Some training will happen, but I don’t take training horses to teach specific things, except wellness. All good training will be a byproduct of wellness- but I don’t want to make one get on the trailer, or go down the trail, or carry a saddle, if the ingredients aren’t there. It feels too bad to package a horse up and send them on down the road, and it feels too good to make a horses body beautiful and mind buttery soft.

My new offering for horses is a therapeutic package, offering in hand work, riding for wellness, a customized feed program, trunout and socialization, body work and other therapies, and trimming. I have access to some of the best vets, dentists, hoof care practitioners, body workers and postural experts to consult and collaborate with.

In the process he will learn to lead, tie, ride and many other skills, but this time with the necessary resources to feel well doing it.

I know this will benefit you and your horse far beyond teaching him any tricks.

01/25/2023

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