Equuheart Integrated Bodywork

12/15/2025

Weaving Masterson Method ideology - staying below survival brace to find range of motion...

With

Academic/ classical principals- teaching the horse how to speak our language (aids) in a low stress environment.

My first time doing anything other than bodywork with this horse, possibly his first time wearing a cavesson.

I am introducing the direct rein aid which looks for lateral poll flexion.

"First you teach them the individual letters, then words, then they can communicate in sentences"

Because once you work with a horse in lightness, there's really no going back.

12/09/2025

Kamloops!

The good news: I'm home for all of January
The bad news: it's January 🥶

Weather permitting equine bodywork treatments.
Saddle fittings
Camp!

equuheart@gmail.com

12/03/2025

When’s the last time you put your saddle on your horse without any pads and just took a look?

When’s the last time you flipped your saddle over and ran your hands down each panel to feel for lumps and bumps?

Your saddle needs to be regularly inspected. I cannot stress this enough.

As someone who formally kept a sheepskin half pad permanently attached to her jump saddle and NEVER looked at anything- don’t do what I did. Your horse will pay the price, mine did.

No idea what to look for or how to look at it? Message me! Or your rep.

Happy riding 🐎

12/01/2025

🥱 Not all yawns are created equal

Here's what I look for and why it matters:

- Lower jaw opening to it's full expression
-Lower jaw swinging to the left
-Lower jaw swinging to the right
-Tongue extension
-Third eyelid
-Ears moving

Jaw/ TMJ/ tongue mobility can tell me a great deal about how that horse perceives gravitational forces.

Can she only yawn half way?
Is there an audible clunk out of the jaw?
Does she only yawn rolling her lower jaw left or right?
Does she almost yawn but then suck the tongue back and chew on it?

The entire body is at the mercy of how the horse's brain perceives its horizon.

If its perception is skewed, the body orients itself to the brain's concept of gravity.

So, the yawn actually provides me incredible Intel.

Thanks to Star for showing us all the points of the yawn! ⭐

11/28/2025

Body tension is created in the brain. There is no cell in soft tissue capable of memory. The body (and its pain signals) is at the mercy of the brain.

These are just the facts.

Staying below the survival brace to re introduce range of motion in an otherwise chronically tight junction is the bread and butter of my practice.

The biggest difference between an equine therapist and a human therapist is that horses dosn't consent to the therapy.

I must gain trust and avoid breaching pain thresholds. The horse doesnt know short term pain = long term betterment from the 60-90 minutes I'm there.

I get in and get out while the horse is relaxed and regulated. I find a better range of motion than I did a moment before (on a good day) and move on from there.

11/25/2025

Camp Equuheart?
A dream of mine in the making.

I was so fortunate to get to spend 3 consecutive days with a regular client horse while his mom enjoyed a holiday away.

One bodywork treatment is better than nothing for all horses. But it rarely feels like enough and I am always wanting to evaluate how it affects movement.

I was able to take a deep dive into addressing nervous system regulation, movement patterns, postural patterns and neuromuscular DISconnections.

Combining tension release therapy, liberty, longeing and basic in hand patterns to help the mind and body re-establish connection and expression!

All things I have learned, practiced and obsessed over the last 5 years culminated in a buffet of consecutive daily sessions.

Thank you to his wonderful owner for the time.
If anyone is Interested in learning more about "Camp"
Please email equuheart@gmail.com

11/16/2025

I love absolutely everything about this conversation. If you have time, watch in its entirety.

Philippe Karl, renowned rider and teacher of French classical riding, shares his passionate critiques of modern dressage riding, and discusses how we can tra...

11/14/2025

"Chronic repetitive forces + imbalance over time leads to lameness."
-Dr. Gellman

We must be on the lookout for distorted structures:
Teeth
Feet
CervIcal spine
Pelvis

If structures are distorted, the horse will continue to struggle no matter how great the functional input is.

Functional input:
Nutrition
Saddlefit
Bodywork
Training
Shoeing

Imbalance isn't to be confused with asymmetry. (The visceral system is asymmetrical in nature).
But there is a line.

Have you given your horse a once over to check for imbalances lately?

Here's what I look at:

The bite line
Heels/ hooves
Knees
Chestnuts
Pectoral whirls
Sternum alignment
Nostril/ eye balance
Shoulders
Tuber sacrales
Ischium alignment
Rectal/vulva balance.

Pictures above represent red flag asymmetry and imbalance.

Comment questions or observations!

11/11/2025

Toasty warm Bemer blanket + Masterson Method tension release therapy session.....

I've been away for quite a while, looking forward to seeing my regulars this November. Please touch base for a spot before Christmas 🎄

09/30/2025

Lateral Cervical Flexions

Only with longitudinal flexion can we achieve good lateral ROM

And it's only with a great deal of relaxation that any horse can achieve longitudinal flexion.

Nervous system regulation matters in bodywork.

You won't catch me treating a horse in cross ties.

I'll be out in their field, in their paddock, wherever they feel safe enough to let go....

09/27/2025

I haven't met a horse that doesn't love gentle rib attention ✨

09/25/2025

This! I have been forming a post in my head for weeks about this exact topic.
A horse ripping around a field does not equal a horse sound for riding. Dr. Shelley explains...

Why Galloping in the Paddock Doesn’t Mean Your Horse Is Fine

People see a horse bucking, galloping, and tearing around the paddock and think: “Well, clearly he’s fine! Look at him go!”

Nope. Wrong. The wrongest wrong assumption.

Here’s why:

1️⃣Choice vs control. Out in the paddock, the horse decides how to move. They buck, twist, gallop, and it’s all on their own terms. But strap on a saddle, pin them in a frame, demand a perfect circle - and suddenly they have no choice in posture, gait, or line. If something’s not right in their body, that lack of control turns discomfort into stress.

2️⃣Adrenaline is nature’s painkiller. Excitement and speed mask pain. A horse fizzing with adrenaline can look like fabulousness while quietly carrying a significant injury or soundness issue.

So please, never assume that a horse running around means they’re “fine.” My own horse - pictured on the left - had sesamoiditis, an inflammatory condition in the small bones of his fetlock. Less than a year after that photo, I had to say goodbye. That day he ran like the wind because he was excited to see his best mate, not because he was sound.

Adrenaline masks the truth - fast feet don’t mean sound legs.

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