About Your Horse

Its amazing that an animal so instinctually programmed for survival — to flee at the first sign of danger — with patience and proper training will do almost anything asked of it.

And once it learns, the horse will keep giving to the best of his ability — even to the point of lameness.

Normally, we don’t see the cumulative effects work has on his body, and his mind, until we notice a difference in:

• movement
• attitude
  or
• he goes lame

Some of the key signs of accumulated physical stress in his body, before lameness, are:

• head shyness, sensitivity to touch at the poll or ears (important)
• stiffness in flexion, extension, bending, or turning
• pulling to one side
• uneven-ness gait

Using the Masterson Method™ of Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork, the horse talks to us. He tells us where tension is stored, how much is being released, and best of all, he participates in the release!

Once this interaction of neuro-muscular touch and response (communication) is established, it is possible to get deep releases in the connective tissues of key joints and junctions in the body that it would otherwise be difficult for your horse to allow. His body lets go of its mechanism for protecting itself and releases stress that he would not otherwise release on his own. These key points are areas that are commonly pulled out of alignment in work and performance. The mental effects, once this tension is gone, especially in the most common and important area, the poll area, can be astounding!

Poll, atlas, axis area
#1 area for the accumulation of stress from:

• front end pain
• prolonged flexion of neck and poll
• pulling back against a fixed halter
• mental stress

Neck and shoulders
Pain accumulates in the connective tissues of the vertebrae and muscles of the neck and withers, the scapula, and the sternum from:

• any type of front foot pain, especially in work
• compensation from pain in either the poll, or the other direction - the hind end
• less common but possible, direct trauma to the shoulder

Lower back, sacroiliac and sacrum
Among other things, pain in the lower back can come from:

• twisting motion due to weakness or pain in either hind leg or foreleg
• compensating for an imbalance in muscle strength, over time, elsewhere in the body (same as in humans!)
• saddle issues

The Masterson Method™ of Equine Integrated Performance
Bodywork™ focuses on key areas that affect performance, but the
techniques apply to any muscular, neuro-muscular, or musculoskeletal
complex on the horse.