Bodywork

Doing bodywork with our horses helps them to be calm, have less pain, and be less frightened. Bodywork can be grooming, stretching, rubbing muscles, engaging with meridian points, and chiropractic. The bodywork I like to practice is the Masterson’s Method. It is a way of engaging the nervous system in the horse in such a way that the horse does the real work by going from tension to relaxation in various parts of the body. Masterson’s is interactive. The trainers place their hands lightly over a meridian spot on the horses body, hovers when there is resistance or tension, then releases as the horse shows signs of relaxation such as chewing, yawning, one back leg lifted, head shaking, body stretching, etc.

Bodywork to Yielding: It has been demonstrated extensively that after bodywork horses are calmer, in less pain, and more yielding. Masterson’s Method is excellent at teaching trainers how to yield to the horse to teach the horse how to yield to the trainer.