Balanced Equine Energy with Shannon

12/23/2025

This bodywork journey has been fascinating. My dive into Equine Hanna Somatics, which is not technically bodywork, though it looks like it in many ways, has added another layer of 🤯 to my journey.

I'm a natural skeptic. I sat in my EHS class with many other skeptics. Part of our journey was to participate in our own Hanna Somatic relationship with our somas. Ryan Moschell, the teacher for the human portion, offered an early morning session as well as the "end-of-the-day" class session. I think every person in my class, even the deepest skeptics, walked out of that course with a new sense of the connection between their brains and their bodies, and with real relief from chronic pain -- back, hip, plantar fasciatis, you name it.

I was just coming out of a year that was almost the death of me. My neck was in so much pain I bought a new car with blind-side-alerts to stay safe. The back of my knee would go into massive excruciating spasms if I tried to kneel or squat, as well as just being so sore that I was hobbling around. Turns out I had (amongst other things) a Baker's Cyst. It's not fixable. PT helped strengthen the structures around it (and also helped my neck), but all the specialists told me the best I could hope for was to make the pain "bearable." And bearable it was, but it was still there. I couldn't lie on my back with my right leg straight without significant discomfort, and I still experienced some pain from kneeling or squatting. While my neck was better, I didn't have full range of motion and every morning I did gentle exercises to get it freed up again. But it was bearable, indeed, and I was grateful.

And then came the EHS course. It took multiple sessions of Ryan's targeted movements for humans, but even after the first one I sensed a change. By the end, those shooting "Baker's Cysts" pains were completely gone. I haven't had a muscle spasm since starting this journey this past summer. Now I wake and my neck feels fine.

It's hard to believe such gentle, tiny movements can have such a profound impact, but they do. It’s why I believe in Hanna Somatics for horses too. My toolkit for horses is growing, and I’m grateful.

12/13/2025

When I think back to the things I did in the past because I thought it was the right way, because people who "knew" more told me it was the thing to do, I feel shame. When I think of how I rode my Patzi (heart pony) I feel relief. He took care of me and we became quite the little team, but it's because we had a connection -- a connection that lasted from the day I first sat on him to long past the day I sold him. Getting him back for three weeks after he'd been at an abusive home for a year taught me that horses have much better memories than we give them credit for, and are way smarter. He knew me. He knew my horse box. He knew his stable where he'd lived with me. Some people say horses can't love people. I know he did and I know science is catching up to what I figured out as a child.

I'm far from perfect. I make mistakes still. I feel frustration when I'm not sure of the next step. But time after time after time horses have shown me that if you listen, they will communicate, and they will thank you.

The article below needs to go viral. EVERYONE with horses needs to read it. The one thing I slightly disagree with is her contention that we don't need horses anymore. We don't need them to do our hard physical work, it's true. But we need them to find our humanity, we need them to heal from trauma, we need them to open our hearts to the beautiful energy in the world, and to the power of listening. We need them because they entrain our heart rates to theirs, which leads to relaxation, to peace, to awareness of the interconnectedness between all things. And unless we change the way we interact with them at the highest levels down to the backyard horse, we will lose our rights to interact at all.

Choose to listen. Choose empathy. Choose love. If we don't, we are likely choosing a future without horses.

Send a message to learn more

12/07/2025

Here's a little quiz for you. This video of Lexi shows a clip of her moving before doing Equine Hanna Somatics with her, and one of her moving afterwards. I'm not going to tell you which is the before and which the after. What do you see? Which side do you think is the before and which the after?

YouTube link is in the comments, as the picture below is not clickable.

Note that when I made the split screen, I messed up and put the before on the left, the after on the right. If you slow the video down a bit you can see the ...

11/30/2025

I'm at the beginning of my journey in terms of learning about hoof trim, and like all things horse, there are controversies where different sides endorse what appear to be very different approaches. I've been reading, staring at hooves, trying to put together what I know about bodies with what I know about hooves. When a friend reposted this article about the foot of the horse in art across the generations, I thought about my own childhood horses in Ireland -- solid, sound ponies and a 7/8th bred mares. I went looking looking for pictures and found a couple that showed my mare's hooves -- and indeed they had heels. I'll post them in the comments. In the meantime, this article is a worthwhile read, and food for thought.

Send a message to learn more

11/30/2025

I'm a bit late to the Thanksgiving party because I was having too much fun on the day itself with family and friends, plus I've been battling a wee bit of a cold that has slowed me down a bit, but today I take a moment to thank my clients and my client horses, all those who have put their trust in me from the beginning.

Friends early on spoke words of support, gave of their time, talent and treasure to encourage me to study formally what I had been doing for fun and because I loved how horses responded. When I signed up at the Northwest School of Animal Massage, I didn't know what lay ahead of me. I just knew that equine massage had made my precious Lexi feel and move better, and that I wanted to help my beloved Sadonis. I also knew I faced a national board exam that terrified me, as well as the challenges of studying and gathering case studies while working full time.

That whole time, friends and people who became friends gave me what I needed to keep going, speaking words of encouragement, sending me texts about how their horses felt so much happier after a session, asking me questions that pushed me to dig deeper and explore further. My wonderful friends on Vashon Island gave me a safe and comfortable place to stay with gourmet meals included every time I came to the school for practicum experiences. The spirit of Sadonis buoyed me so that I was able to dive into the board exam and pass -- despite my exam phobia.

Since then I have experienced even more support, more homes opened to me, more love and kindness and joy in the work. My clients are the best. They care deeply for their equine partners, and bring me so much joy when we get to connect during a session. With their help I continue the journey of learning, adding more tools to my toolbelt. And each horse teaches me in new ways. Today, as I was putting Eason's ScootBoots back on, relieved that in this muddy weather her feet at least are holding up, I felt her giving me gentle love nibbles on my back, sweet reminders that she appreciates my help, and I thought of how lucky I am to have this chance to help horses, who have given us so much for so long across the span of centuries, and who give us their strength and spirit and heart every day.

Thankful for my incredible supportive friends near and far 🥰, for my amazing clients who love their horses 😊, and for each and every one of my client horses who teach me how to be a better equine bodyworker, communicator and friend with every encounter 🥹 💜.

10/28/2025

My latest learning adventure was sparked years ago, and then picked up again this last summer.

Many years ago I had a Feldenkreis session at a Wendy Murdoch clinic, and it stayed with me. The practitioner had me take a quick walk after she'd done her gentle work on my right side, and the difference in feel between the right and the left side was truly mind-blowing. After she finished the other side, I felt like I was floating. So 25 years later or so, when I found out about a modality for horses that had grown out of the Feldenkreis technique, I was intrigued.
And now I'm a Level One certified student educator of Equine Hanna Somatics® -- and can even help humans with basic moves for themselves!

Message me if you're interested in sessions! ☘️🐎

Horses of Washington state - help us welcome Shannon Hopkins to our EHS Educator community. Shannon has completed her Module 1 professional training and assessment, and is now an official Level 1 EHSE!

You can connect with Shannon, or find any of our other student or certified EHS professionals to work with you and your horse in-person or remotely, in our online practitioner directory.

10/28/2025

I've seen some fascinating results with equine Hanna Somatics, including a lovely change in the little Arab mare I worked with during my live experience at Alissa Mayer's farm. The mare appeared to have fibrotic myopathy, but the typical "goose stepping" walk with the slapping down of the foot was instead co-contractions developed during the course of a nasty skin infection that caused cellulitis in her hind legs. She had been treated for the skin condition and swelling, which was almost gone, but the goose stepping walk remained. Three days of Hanna Somatics led to the change you see in the video below. What you don't see here, because we didn't capture it on video, was that she went from a horse who didn't want to move to one who trotted to catch up to me as I was walking and who matched my steps with verve and joy. Her eye had completely changed, and she spent the rest of day three nickering to me whenever I walked by. 🥹

See comments for video.

08/06/2025

Frogs should NOT have cracks. That deep central sulcus? That's a harbor for bacteria and fungus and other junk that leads to infection. I've seen so many horses with deep-seated central sulcus thrush and owners who have no idea that their horses' caudal heel pain or stumbling might be caused by an infection in that central sulcus.
Many horses don't have strong, healthy hooves. Many have soles that are crusty and broken up. The frogs have deep cracks and flaps that harbor nasty microbes -- as well as being contracted with flattened heel bulbs. The horses land toe first to avoid pain, and that worsens the cycle because landing solidly on a robust digital cushion and well developed frog increases blood flow which contributes to hoof health.
One of the most interesting aspects of working with my rehab horse Eason is the partnership between Jamie Lyn Robbins, who trims her, and me. Jamie is rehabbing Eason's feet as I'm rehabbing her body. It's been fascinating looking at the changes in Eason's hooves over time. She was lame when she came to me in August last year, with a hock rotation so severe her left pastern would almost go to the ground. With careful trimming and bodywork and slow groundwork, she began to move better, but it took putting composite shoes on her front feet for her to be able to feel more normal. By January I was seeing positive changes, but then the ice melted and everything turned to mud and during the four days when I was gone to a dissection she went from walking and trotting and beginning to be able to canter to the left on the line to totally lame again. It turned out that not only had her heels collapsed from the wet, but she had abscesses in both her right hind and her right fore. That girl is TOUGH -- incredible at masking pain.
I pulled her shoes and did my best to treat the abscesses in horrific conditions. Jamie couldn't make it up for a month, and I tried every kind of hoofboot the local shop had available, but her hooves were so distorted nothing worked.
By March she was starting to feel better in her body but her mind was out of control. Her pen was too small for her speed-loving Thoroughbred body and she was miserable without the space to move all day. It took me a couple of months to convince the farm owner to allow me to create a track system for her, but once I got the go ahead I bought posts, tape and a solar electric fence charger and set up my primitive track with slow feed hay nets at two different locations. Her mood brightened the moment she had space to move. I'd been about two days away from hauling her back to Jamie's because I couldn't bear how unhappy she was -- so the farm owner's final "yes" was a relief to both Eason and me!
Since getting access to the track in June, Eason has been doing better overall. Three trims ago, we replaced the front shoes despite a temper tantrum on Eason's part when Jamie went to slip on the left fore. Jamie let me know to pull the shoes if Eason looked like she wasn't doing well with them -- given her extreme reaction to having it put on. So I pulled them two days later and she was surprisingly sound without them. I ordered custom ScootBoots right away and have been using them for our work sessions and lane walks.
I've been treating her central sulcus thrush forever, and it's finally starting to go away. Having her barefoot helps a lot. Her retained sole was finally separating and yesterday I watched Jamie pull away the folded over bar on her right fore and bring back the toe on her left fore. The difference in the look of her feet is incredible. I wish I had taken a picture! (I will get one.)
Even so, her hooves are a long way from looking like the hoof of a client horse I saw a week ago. I asked if I could take a picture because it illustrated a healthy hoof -- smooth, strong, with (almost) a dimple in the frog. My client, who mostly does her own trimming, has been rehabbing her horse's hooves for a full year after a terrible case of thrush, and anticipates another three years for the hoof capsule to grow out and the hoof to be properly aligned with the bony column of her pastern. She still needs to work on bringing the heels back, she says, and that line in her frog will be gone with the next trim.
Which hoof looks healthier to you?
Oh, and Eason has been doing so well on her trips out and her walks down the lane and along the busy road by herself that I am signing her up for a clinic (just groundwork at this point) in a couple of weeks! 🎉

07/14/2025

The following article on the connection between the Colombian "Guardians Del Mar" (Guardians of the Sea) and their community and environment is beautiful. We need more people who see those connections between what we do and how it impacts our environment, including other beings. In addition it touches on something important in my equine massage work, the potential for significant and meaningful communication between horses and their guardians.

One trained Guardian Del Mar, Luis Antonio “Toño” Lloreda, recounts his experience freeing a whale from an abandoned fishing net: “'To connect with the whale, I used what we call intuitive interspecies communication,' says Lloreda, explaining that this involves non-verbal, energetic communication. 'I asked the mother for permission – energetically.'”

A friend sent me the article, asking if this is what I do when I communicate with animals, and the answer was "Absolutely!"

I've just spent a weekend in Bend, Oregon, working with 11 very different horses and their wonderful guardians. Time after time, I stood with the owners while I waited for each horse to approach. The owners would tell me a little about their equine friends, and I would explain how I work with horses, and in that time, I would be sending energy to each horse, letting him or her know I'm there to help, that I will not push past boundaries, that I will ask before doing. And the horses would come up -- worried horses, anxious horses, horses coming back from injury and difficult rehabs -- and I would start my healing work.

Often the guardians wanted information on how to do what I was doing, and I would share what works for me, and I would watch in joy as owners slowed down and breathed and grounded themselves, and their horses dropped their heads and nuzzled them, or blew softly in their nostrils, or turned and requested touch in a certain area. I watched as owners held up hands to feel their horse's energy, then felt the energy soften and invite them in for touch. I watched the horses release, their eyes softening, their breath changing. "Visualize what you're planning to do," I told the owners. "Watch the horse's reaction. Is he positioning himself so you can do what you want to do? Is he blocking you? If he's blocking you, don't do it."

A block doesn't always mean "no." Sometimes it means "not yet." Learning the nuances of what the horse is communicating takes close observation, deep breathing, slowing waaaaaayyy down. But it's worth it. It changes the relationship profoundly.

In one case, I was slated to work with three horses in one larger herd. We went into the shared space. "Which horse do you want to start with?" my owner asked.

"Let's let the horses decide," I said. Her mare came up first, a horse I had not personally worked with before (except during a remote session where I talked my client through what to do to help her), so we started with her. Once we had finished, one of the geldings came up, so he was next (and what a transformation from last time!). And then came time for the last gelding, who had walked away as soon as he saw the halter in her hand. We walked up to him. He stood with his back to us. I waited at a small distance, breathing and grounding myself. He thought for a moment, slow blinked, then turned, came to us, and dropped his head in the halter. (Usually I work without halters, but because of the relatively small size of the space and the six horses present, it was easier to halter and move away to a different spot. I maintain my rule that the horse can always walk away if they need to, and often the lead line ends up draped over the horse's body and I don't need to use it to guide the horse at all.)

At another place, a mare I was working with had some profound changes in her breathing and went into deep processing after I had worked with her right fore. Then she walked away. I knew she needed visceral therapy on her ovaries and help with her TMJ, but she went into a completely different pen, rubbed her neck on the stall door, then stood with her head in the stall and her back to us. We waited for a bit, then I asked if I could start with the owner's second mare while her first horse processed. I also let her know the mare might be finished for the day, and if so, I wasn't going to push it.

The second mare was ready and waiting, so I worked with her. Again, she had some profound changes, then walked away before I could work with her poll, which I knew had tension still. I moved away to chat with the owner and her friend (who was also my friend, and who had arranged the trip). As I chatted, out came the first mare and positioned herself so I could work with her ovaries, then so I could work with her head. She had swelling behind her TMJ, and her nose and eyes started running as I worked, and then she took a huge shuddering breath and blew and sneezed a few times, before smelling my friend's hat with focused intensity, huge deep breaths that pulled air deep into her diaphragm and her belly.

I thanked her for the honor of being able to help her, as I always do, then moved away as the second mare returned for me to work with her head.

Some horses need a long time to process. Being willing and able to provide that processing time goes a long way in establishing trust. Being willing and able to work without any restraint tells each horse you trust them, and establishes their trust in you. When horses who fear strangers walk up and greet me, I know I'm on the right track, and the track I'm on is guided by what I am now going to call "interspecies energetic communication."

Next time you get an idea of what to do or where to go when you're with your beloved horse (or dog, or cat, or hamster or chicken 😆), ask yourself if that idea came from you, or if your beloved friend is energetically communicating with you. When I was working with horses in Ireland (or riding my ponies as a young teen), often I would get an idea to do something or go somewhere -- sometimes quite unorthodox. And off I'd go, with my partners-in-crime fully invested. On retrospect, I think it was their idea!

Horses can tell you whether or not they want fly masks or blankets or composite shoes (apologies, Eason, for my recent deafness in listening to your needs about that). Just ask. Then listen. And then one day you'll be gone a couple of days and your horse will see you from the far end of the track and come running, yelling for you, "Where have you been?!!!!! I've missed you?!!!!!"

And if that's already happening, congratulations. Your horse sees (and hears) you.

Abandoned fishing equipment haunts our oceans, killing coral, turtles, sharks and whales. But in Colombia’s Gulf of Tribugá, ‘guardians’ are on call to free entangled marine animals

07/09/2025

I am beyond grateful to have so many amazing clients in multiple locations -- from Issaquah to Bend, from Tri-Cities to Benton City and Ellensburg to Cle Elum. And that doesn't include all my clients in the Yakima area and my remote clients from way far away! Yesterday was a day in Benton City and the Tri-Cities area. I had a blast chatting with clients and watching their interactions with their beloved horses -- performance horses and rehab horses, young horses just starting their careers and older horses switching to a new life. From Tri-Cities to Issaquah, the horses, ponies, minis, mules and soon -- a donkey -- keep me on my toes and filled with joy that they have wonderful people who love and look after them -- true guardians.

I'm also grateful for a bodyworker network, others like me who love horses and whom I encounter at practicums and other events. Thank you in particular to Alexa Schmidt and her recent referrals!

Picture of Eason waiting to go out on her track.

06/19/2025

To feel safe, horses need freedom, forage, and friends. Without all three, their physical and emotional health is compromised. They are more likely to be anxious and spooky, to have ulcers, to develop vices.

Eason spent the late fall and winter in a small paddock with a run in. In some senses it seemed adequate. I've seen horses kept in smaller space. I've worked with horses who were kept in 12x12 looseboxes, with an hour a day being ridden, and maybe a Sunday out on pasture.

Know better... do better.

As winter dragged on, the mud getting deeper, the ice more hazardous, the days too short for full play sessions, Eason got more unhappy. In early January she was looking good, developing a topline, seeming contented. But by mid-January, long days filled with relentless rain and mud caused her heels to collapse. She developed abscesses and her topline vanished overnight.

She had all the forage she wanted -- teff and timothy and alfalfa hay in slow-feed hay nets in a tub in her shelter. She had a friend across the aisle, within sight, but not touchable. That's a better life than a lot of horses. But it wasn't enough.

By mid-March, I knew I had to do something. If I couldn't provide her with more room to move around, I wouldn't keep her. I would send her back to her lovely owner, Jamie, to her familiar herd and a much bigger space in which to live. Without a friend to mutually groom and freedom to move, her life was miserable. At that time, she was pacing, her ribs showing, her hair scruffy. She was anxious, bitey, unhappy. After several composite shoeing sessions where she had stood well, she had devolved to rearing, yanking her legs away, and thrashing around.

So I spoke to my friend Ewa, the owner of the barn where I keep Eason. Between Jamie and I, we managed to convince her of the value of track systems. Not all of us have 100 acres and a herd in which to let horses live socially appropriate, horse-happy lives, but we can put together something that allows for more freedom of movement, for time with equine buddies, for something that comes closer to what horses need for true welfare. A few hundred dollars later, a solar fence charger, electric tape and step-in posts have created a perfectly adequate track around the little pasture. Three or four slow feeder hay nets filled with teff and some timothy dot the track, hung from the outside fence posts. The horses can wander from net to net, get up a bit of a gallop if they want, and don't get trapped in corners.

And Eason is feeling happier! She gets a couple of hours a day on the pasture before Lulu, who's metabolic and can't have grass, gets to join her on the track for the rest of the day. At night, they come in to their little paddocks and Eason gets her flake of alfalfa along with more teff and timothy. Her coat is shining. Her muscles are developing nicely. Her topline is returning. And bonus, Lulu is losing weight and moving better.

Will this allow Eason to become sound enough for riding? I don't know. We went to the vet today to investigate her heats, as she's had to be on Regumate every spring for most of her life until I started doing visceral therapy with her almost two years ago. Everything looks good. The reproduction specialist vet said we can rule out sore ovaries or issues with her uterus. 🎉

So on we march, maybe towards ridden work, maybe not. But if not, I'm learning a lot from her.

Grateful I was able to make her life better, and for all she's teaching me.

06/04/2025

Years ago a little Anglo-Arab taught me that it's fun to do groundwork. He invited me to "drive" him without lines and we could walk, trot and canter, bend through poles, pop little cross-rails, halt square and back up, all as though I had physical lines on him. I loved it, but didn't appreciate the complexity and beauty of it because he made it so easy for me.

Years later I have a horse who is not rideable -- who may never be rideable. Eason, at 17, has had maybe 45 rides in her life, most at a trainer's, because of physical challenges plus a reactive personality. My journey with her started because I was an equine bodyworker and knew she would be an amazing teacher for me. I could see the challenges she would present, and I wanted to learn. And she has fulfilled that role in so many ways. She has made it crystal clear that "no foot, no horse" is a foundational saying that can't be ignored. She'll drop her topline overnight if her feet are out of balance, which they easily become because of her hi-lo syndrome. She has confirmed how ingrained habits of posture, grazing with one leg always forward, for example, create major asymmetries that ripple through the entire body. She has shown me that horses who can graze as they should be able to, in big spaces, walking one foot, then another, then another, can start to balance out those asymmetries. But most horses don't have that opportunity these days. They stand, eating from hay racks or nets, or piles on the ground, often with their dominant leg forward and the other far back.

Eason spent two months on a farm with a huge rolling field and a pasture mate. Being able to watch her graze freely let me see how natural movement for a horse helps build their bodies effectively. Unfortunately she couldn't stay there, and her new place constrained her to a stall with a small paddock all winter. When the weather improved, we created a primitive track system with electric tape around the perimeter of the small grazing fields, and she now has access to that track during the day, which has improved her outlook. One slow-feeder hay net is hung at the far end, and another is tethered in an old water tub in her shelter. She walks back and forth between the two and can canter or briefly gallop if she wants to. Soon we'll introduce the other mare on the farm to the track, and they can be out together, which will help both of them.

Watching people ride is hard. Just a few years ago I dreamed of getting my bronze medal after the lovely Rosie danced well enough to get me my first and second level scores. I've imagined the joy of eventing again (low levels, of course). And I've audited a couple of clinics where the pull to be back in the saddle flared hard. But I know too much now about dysfunctional bodies and how horses as prey animals hide their pain. Until Eason has a topline that will let her carry a saddle and rider, and until she says, "Hop on. Let's go," I'm not going to ride her.

And that may or may not happen. So in the meantime we rehab with groundwork and I play with teaching her all sorts of fun things. She's not my Anglo-Arab yet, in the "invisible lines" department, but she's getting the idea and seems to think it's enjoyable. I love that even with the track system being in, she comes to the stall door when she sees me and waits for me to put on the halter.

See the comments for a link to the video I made of our ground driving without lines.