Reading, and feeling, responses helps you determine where and how long to work, allowing your horse to release that stress — kind of a, “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” relationship! When done properly, this can be applied to stress in the connective tissue of joints at key junctions deep in the body that take a beating in work and performance.
By using the correct techniques, and knowing the responses to look for, you are able to get a release of accumulated stress that affects mobility, comfort, attitude, training and performance. Muscular and structural balance, and natural alignment are restored, and your horse can respond to your training without stiffness and pain.
The Masterson Method™
Part 1: Feel and Response
and How to Use It
Stimulus and Response. When given correctly, the horse responds correctly to the stimulus of touch, or feel. For many horse men and women, feel and response are the basis of their horses' handling and training.
This same sense of feel or touch, and more importantly response, is used in the Masterson Method™ of Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork™. This method uses specific responses from the horse to your touch that allow the horse to guide you to areas of stress and strain in his body.
In instruction, we use four basic
steps: Search • Response • Stay • Release
Part 2: Key Areas
That Affect Performance
The Masterson Method™ of Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork™ releases accumulated stress in the connective tissues of key junctions of the horse’s body that most affect his ability to move freely, such as the poll, neck and shoulders, lower back and sacro-iliac. These are junctions most commonly pulled out of alignment or balance in working horses. Find out more on this on the About Your Horse page.
This is a results-oriented technique, focusing on results both during the process, and in performance afterward.
History and Modalities
Jim travels the country and the world working on performance horses from Grand Prix show jumpers to International Endurance horses to top level Western horses, and has integrated what he has learned from working on performance horses of many disciplines to develop a technique that, he explains:
“.....uses manipulation, position release, neuromuscular release, acupressure, stretching and flexing, and most importantly, touch and response from the horse to get a release of stress and return of full range of motion to muscles and joints, especially poll, neck and shoulders, lower back and sacro-iliac. A lot of big words for making your horse go better, but the most important thing to be learned in this method, is in how to use touch, and the response of the horse to get these releases.
“And the happy by-product of using this method is in opening a new level of communication, interaction, and trust between you and your horse.”
To find out about Jim’s travel schedule, individual work or Seminars, click on the Calendar page. If you would like to contact Jim directly,
please use the Contact Us page.
”We are working on a ‘Click here to instantly
make your horse go better’. It may take
awhile, but check back. In the meantime;
enjoy working on your horse.” —Jim