(This article is reprinted from the 2009 Journal of Structural Integration, the professional journal of the International Association of Structural Integration)

This article explores the process that horses go through when they receive a Structural Integration (SI) series as well as the perceptions that guide the practitioner’s progress. Included are assessments of and responses to the work by the horses’ owners who supplementarily provided descriptions of their progress. In it I explore the experience of working on beings who cannot verbalize the results personally but whose progress can be measured by those whose lives revolved around them. This examination supports the notion that SI work has clearly experienced cross species applications.

The cases:

1. Dat Hickory, four year old stud colt. 16 hands (5′ 4″ at top of spine) bay quarter horse who sustained multiple injuries to his hind end at one and two years of age.

2. Nick, ten year old gelding, 17 hands bay thoroughbred racehorse being retrained as an eventing horse. Possessed structural holding that limited his performance.

3. Q, four year old gelding. 17 hand pinto warmblood who suffered devastating injury at age three.

Writing case studies on horses is challenging. Case studies seek to generate relevant quantifiable data for evaluation with the intent to prove or disprove a hypothesis. I spent some time trying to contrive the means to quantify the efficacy of equine SI work. I thought about comparing scores earned by horses in competition, comparing pre SI scores to post SI scores, but the overabundance of variables during competition makes this unrealistic. I thought about measuring ROM and rejected this because, while it is quantifiable, it’s also subjective. Horses can be nervous creatures and they don’t always respond to new activities with alacrity. In fact they often balk and that would affect the beginning measurements and probably falsely improve the measurements post SI.

Finally I asked myself how I presently measure the effectiveness of the work. That led me to ask the following questions:
Does the series result in greater range of motion for the horses?
Do horses demonstrate greater athleticism and confidence after a series?
Do their competition scores go up?

All this is true, yet is is measurable in an objective manner? That last question was the one most challenging. In fact, I’m not sure it’s even important in the context of the measure of satisfaction they bring to the life of the client who provides the means for the sessions. Client satisfaction is filled with variables, completely subjective, yet is of utmost importance. With that said, I’d like to discuss my experience with three representative horses who’ve had the SI series.

During the series I am aware of shifts in tissue as we progress. Equally importantly, I watch and feel them sensing me as I work. As a prey animal, they have to tender their trust quite far to let me into their tissue as far as I need to work. The SI work is sometimes difficult at the outset as they assess what I am doing with them, yet it is also sincere and must also be gentle enough for them to accept. I come away from this pairing intimately knowing the stories of their lives and often adding a chapter to my own.

This work also nurtures connection, often making horses more open and responsive to people, creating something the owner didn’t know was possible. The horse and I both end the series knowing each other very well.

Case Study #1 DAT HICKORY

Dat Hickory was the first horse I ever worked with and was in great part responsible for me shifting my practice from human SI work to equine SI. He was a year old stud colt, son of DocÕs Hickory out of the famous Doc Bar. As cutting horses go, he was royalty but he needed to earn his chops in the cutting arena before he could fulfill his role as the center of his owner’s breeding farm. His future, however, was hampered by two injuries. The first he sustained as a yearling when he slipped and fell hard, damaging his hip. A year later he pulled up a metal post he’d been tied to. Spooked, he took off running with the heavy post dragging behind him, battering his hind legs and causing significant damage.

Horse people say it’s a mistake to put a green person and a green horse together, but it worked out well in our case. In fairness, Hickory was well trained, only young. Me, I was brand new to horses and too dumb to be afraid. We ended up teaching each other. He taught me how to deal with a waving hoof and how to keep from getting nipped. I taught him that his body could be strong and flexible and that he could depend on it again.

Before beginning his first session I palpated his entire body, gauging his reactions and what my hands told me. I found tension in his neck, hips, lumbar region and rear legs.

Note: I began the series with the intention of doing ten sessions but found the work was complete after the fifth session. This has held true for nearly all the horses IÕve work with so I adopted the five session series as the standard model for equine SI.

Session 1 (2/24)
I focused my work on his neck, back and intercostals. The ribs on his left side were very sensitive as was the lumbar region on the left and left stifle. I noticed that his right hoof was internally rotated and that his right hock wobbled at the walk. He did not trust me well enough yet to allow me to work inside his hind legs. I found that trust built session by session as he came to understand how the work was helping him. Session 2 (3/1)
I found more sensitivity in his right hip. I was able to release superficial muscles on all four legs inside and out. Upon checking I found no sensitivity in his left intercostals or left lumbars.

Session 3 (3/4)
During this session I focused on the sides of his body. I also got much deeper on his legs and found that the wobble in his right hock was due to a lack of alignment through that joint. I worked on the inside of his right femur and on the medial ligaments of that leg. These are very sensitive areas for a horse and work here was occasionally punctuated by him lifting his near hind hoof off the ground and slowly waving it at me. We had a working relationship at this point and it became clear to me that he wasn’t trying to kick me so much as showing his concern, making me aware that he was nervous about work in this part of his body. Each time he did this I spoke to him calmly and tapped his gaskin, then shifted the intensity or direction of my work to let him know I got the message.

Session 4 (3/13)
In this session I worked almost entirely on his hind end. I focused on the inside of his rear legs. Hickory’s trust level had come up quite a bit which allowed me to work very deeply. His most sensitive spot was just above and behind the stifle inside the left hind leg. I spread all the releasing tissue forward into his back and down his legs.

At the end of this session his owner and trainer stared at him for five minutes. Finally his owner said, “He’s got pants!” The muscles just above the gaskins had been fascially contracted since the injuries. Now the muscles were released and in full view. (Later she sent a long testimonial and several photos of his hind end showing off those pants.)

Session 5 (3/21)
Hickory’s trainer told me he’d been doing great the past week. He’d had a few days of strengthening work and was going very well. At this point I departed from the ten session protocol and decided we could wrap up the work in this session. I decided to reinforce his overall progress by working his spine and topline structure. I knew the SI work would allow the newly found strength from his hind end to flow freely forward all the way to his head. I worked his back, neck and head. He loved the neck work. I also worked all the muscles that would help his forelegs in their extension. We ended with connecting strokes to integrate him from tail to poll where the neck meets the skull.

Post series observations: I have fond memories of HIckory, a gorgeous horse who had a good idea how beautiful he was. I saw him five times for followup sessions in the years after his series but the most memorable was soon after his series when his owner invited me along for his first lesson with a cutting horse trainer.

Hickory’s owner sat astride him on one side of the arena. The trainer and his horse were on the opposite side of the arena with a buffalo calf in the middle. The purpose of the lesson was for Hickory to learn to keep the calf from reaching the arena walls but this was new to Hickory. He stuck out his nose and took a few tentative steps toward the calf, trying to figure out what kind of animal the calf was. The calf suddenly bolted and ran toward the arena wall.

What happened next happened very fast. Hickory reared up as the calf bolted, and in a flash he realized his quarry was escaping and suddenly knew what his purpose was. He spun a full 270 degrees and sped off after the calf. His owner somehow stayed aboard. The trainer’s jaw fell open for a split second before he, too, charged off after the calf.

Finally Hickory fulfilled the role he was born into.

Case Study #2: NICK

Nick’s owner had worked with him for several years training him as a three day eventing horse but he was never quite right. Eventing horses compete in a challenging schedule that includes precision dressage on day one, stadium jumping on the second day and cross-country jumping in a prescribed time limit on the third.

The owner’s main concern was when Nick cantered in a circle to the right, his shoulders went to the left and his hind end shifted to the right. Nick was athletic and, given the limitations of his structure, was doing his best but he hadn’t become the top level horse she hoped he could be.

Session 1 (11/29)
Nick was high strung but it showed only when I worked in his problem areas. He shifted slowly from side to side as I worked those places. I found most of his holding concentrated in his right ribcage. This kind of holding sets in over time and affects the movement of the latissimus dorsi and serratus thoracis. The tissue was dense and had a solidity behind his shoulder blade that made me think it had been settled there for at least four years. The other areas of concern were his left lumbar region, the base of his neck on the left and to a lesser degree on the right, and the whole length of his neck. Horses jammed through their barrels (trunk) like NIck was understandably often have stiff necks.

Nick hung on to these restrictions tenaciously. There was enough of a shift to let me know that more was possible but I couldn’t get a significant change in that first session. I felt that I could, however, gain some improvement in his condition if we did a five session series.

His owner was reticent at first, having had a lot of professionals work on him in the past and yet his problems persisted. She finally decided to get him a series saying, “I’ve tried everything else, I might as well try this.”

Session 2 (12/6)
I start sessions with minimal pressure and graduate to deeper work as the tissue unwraps and the horse’s trust level increases. Nick allowed only medium depth pressure in his most held areas which was still an improvement over the light work he allowed in the first session. His areas of concern were the same but he let me in just a bit farther. He was significantly calmer during this session.

Session 3 (12/20)
This is the session where his pattern of tension finally opened up. I got in much deeper behind his right shoulder and he showed me new areas of tension that arose in response to his pattern shifting. Curiously his right hip was tender as well as the inside of the same leg. Previously this had felt fine. Either he was using the muscles of this leg differently as his body changed or he strained it in the intervening two weeks. Both were possible but my intuition said it was more likely he was unwrapping layers and revealing underlying tensions that were covered by a compensatory pattern.

Session 4 (1/10)
Nick was a different horse in this session. The work of session 3 had given him the freedom to move in new ways but he didn’t yet know how. For years his body had been held in a pattern that didn’t allow his right foreleg to extend because it had been restricted by the band of connective tissue behind his right shoulder. Now that his shoulder moved better, his right fore hoof landed in unexpected places. For example, when he took a jump, he always landed with his right foreleg touching the ground first and his body slightly bent to the right. He organized himself to this style of landing but now he was no longer held in that pattern.

His owner said he was “jumping fences like a klutz.” He hadn’t known any way other than the old way to jump and that organization clearly wasn’t supporting him anymore. He had to learn how to move his forelegs in a more integrated manner. I worked very deeply on his right shoulder and at the base of his neck on the right. His pattern had clarified to a smaller amount of holding in this one area and we addressed it.

Session 5 (2/15)
Throughout the series Nick found the work to be easier as the work got progressively deeper. His areas of concern today were the right wither pocket above his shoulders, right ribs and right shoulder. The adhesions and tension worked out during the session and toward the end he received the work in a highly receptive state with his head dropped and closed eyes.

The significance of the equine SI series is helped by reading this summary by his owner, LInda Stuckenschneider:

“I bought Nick when he was four years old, fresh off the race track with the intention of making into an event horse. I spent the first year trail riding, getting him to calm down and learn to ride with other horses. I did a lot of lunge line work getting him to stretch to the bit. He had a muscle bulge on the bottom of his neck, carried his head very high and was hollow in the back. His left side was overdeveloped and his right side was so underdeveloped that when I rode on the right rein he felt like a totally different horse. I realized he was going to be a long term project.

“Despite years of constant practice in dressage and jumping his progress was slow. He was still noticeably asymmetrical and his right side had not developed fully. I took him to low-level horse trials and schooling dressage shows and the comments from judges were consistent, that he didn’t come through his topline and did not accept the bit. I had done everything I could think of — custom fitted saddles for both disciplines, equine dentistry, a double jointed snaffle, chiropractic and more. The chiropractic helped to a point but Nick still couldnÕt come through his back. In the saddle I felt like I was sitting on two inches of his spine.

“The chiropractor felt work beyond his scope was needed so he recommended the Equine Natural Movement Series. At first I was skeptical but after the first session my trainers and I noticed a little difference. After the second and third sessions there was a major difference. Nick rounded and accepted the bit. His back lifted up underneath the saddle. I didn’t feel like I was sitting on a balance beam anymore. One day I noticed his whole shoulder area moving and I had never seen that happen.

“Nick changed dramatically. At first he seemed apprehensive jumping with a new body but after the fourth and fifth session it was like a miracle had happened. I had a whole new horse. My dressage scores came up and his jumping improved. He now lifts his whole shoulder over the jumps, not just his knees. Months after the last session he continues to improve and get stronger.”

Case Study #3 Q

Every once in a great while I am privileged to meet a horse who has the rare combination of intelligence, generosity of spirit and charisma. Q is such a horse. Q was three years old when he was injured. HeÕd been running through the woods and speared himself with a broken tree limb that entered under his right shoulder blade.

When I met him a year later he pivoted his right lower shoulder around the upper shoulder as he walked. Despite the fact that his injury had healed, his body had organized itself to keep weight off his right shoulder. His right fore hoof was developing a lateral flare when he walked. Because this horse lived a few states away, we did the first three sessions over three days.

Session 1 (3/13)
The first session is about discovering what the horse’s internal landscape is, structurally as well as psychologically. Q was wounded. Badly. His will to overcome his condition was there but his confidence was hugely compromised. The image I got when I worked with him was of a horse caught in a massive spider web that wouldn’t let him free. He had a bright spirit but was tied down by his injury. I felt his frustration and sadness at having let his owner down and a bit of embarassment that he had made such a foolish mistake.

The stick had entered his shoulder above his sternum and passed downward transversely piercing the subscapularis muscle to a depth of twelve inches. In the past year he developed atrophy in his right shoulder especially toward the front. During his recovery he developed complicated restrictions high on the left hip, on the right medial hamstring, throughout the left side of his neck, the left side above the wither and right and left intercostals. At the end of the session the right medial hamstring reduced its hold, the ribs were freer and the right shoulder improved slightly but he continued to have significant holding in the left hip.

Session 2 (3/14)
I do my best to do this work as respectfully and gently as possible. I want the tissue to be encouraged to let go without me pushing him into pain. In Q’s case his injuries were such that his pressure tolerance around his right shoulder was very low. Though he fussed a lot in that area he never refused the work. The challenge with this session was to feel into the tissue, to see with my hands and all my senses the depth of work his shoulder could allow. A fair amount it turned out, probably attributable to the elasticity of his youthful tissue.

The one place I could not reach, however, was where he needed it the most, on the medial side of his right scapula. I used energy work there, seeing and feeling a fine-toothed comb aligning the connective tissue fibers vertically. For the rest of his body I used structural work to integrate each of his quadrants: each shoulder to the same side of his neck, foreleg and barrel and each hip to the hind leg, barrel and opposite hind.

He was still lame on the right front on the walk back to the pasture. I vividly saw his owner’s commitment to him, knowing it would have been so much easier for her to put him down or let him live out his life in a chronically injured capacity.

Session 3 (3/15)
I worked lightly with him today. HIs right should was slightly stiffer when I began work. He still fussed but always let me in as deeply as I asked. I focused on integrating his barrel to his limbs. Commonly horses who injure a limb will clamp their barrels down as they heal up. If the barrel holding continues after the injury has healed, it greatly impacts through the bones and ligaments of the legs as the force vectors hit the resistance of a held barrel. Freeing the barrel allows the force to flow through, reducing the wear and tear on the limbs. I did as much as Q could tolerate on his barrel. He didnÕt get much deep work. I finished with more energy work on his shoulder and with connecting strokes from his hocks to his poll.

Session 4 (4/10)
With a little over three weeks between session he was ready for the deep work. I reworked his barrel using my elbows to stretch the fascial sheets from each of his four corners to bring flexibility back to the barrel. I focused on his left hip, left wither and right pectoralis. His right shoulder freed up nicely in all the areas I could reach. Even the size of the holding under the right shoulder blade seem to shrink. I finished the session with more energy combing in his right subscapularis. He handled the work very well. After our session he went into his stall, laid down and closed his eyes for ten minutes, percolating.

Session 5 (6/21)
Q’s owner thought the flare in his right fore hoof was fading. I worked his right and left hind legs, right shoulder, right foreleg and left ribs with some topline work. These places still had tension during the first portion of the session so most of this session involved “ironing out wrinkles” in his fascia. Eventually the held area freed up except for the right shoulder. The holding in that area was, however, progressively reducing as the fascia regained its elasticity.

In session one the area of restriction was 12 inches long and 3 inches wide. In session 2 it was 10 inches long and 3 inches wide. In the fifth session it had reduced to 6 inches long and 3 inches wide, all of it under the right shoulder blade. I finished up with more energy combing. This session was noticeably pleasant for him.

Session 6 (7/7)
In the year between the fifth and sixth session, I trained a local practitioner who did a session with Q every three or four months. When I arrived I did a short evaluation and was surprised how good his tissue felt all over. He needed no work today. The holding under his right shoulder blade was minimal, about 3 inches x 2.5 inches long.

Q’s owner had watched me do energy work several times and I explained what I’d been doing. She was open to the idea of learning to do it herself so I talked her through my process as I did the energy work. She said sheÕd do more on him herself that afternoon and that completed the session.

The next day Q’s owner called and asked me to come over and have a look at him. When I arrived Q was running free in the arena showing off, whirling, spinning, doing an extended trot, moving with obvious joy and vitality. He did this for 20 minutes, then came over to me at the gate and stood nose to nose with me for five minutes. I got a clear sense of thanks from him. It was gratifying and also bittersweet because it was also a goodbye. We both knew my help was no longer required. My sense was that receiving this work from his owner made all the difference to him. We went back to the barn and I encouraged Q’s owner to perseve with it.

A few weeks the last session I got an email from her saying that Q developed abcesses that came out the bottom of three of his hooves, a real “healing crisis.” Some equine healthcare practitioners believe horses clear toxins from their bodies this way. Q healed quickly and following that his movement improved even more dramatically, enough that his owner is now, for the first time since his injury, planning on showing him again.

When we began his series I told his owner I didn’t know if we could bring him all the way back. I am convinced that the Structural Integration series gave Q the tools to move forward in his recovery. I’m equally convinced that Q’s perseverance and his owner’s love handled the rest.

Joseph Freeman graduated from the Hellerwork Structural Integration. He worked in a physical therapy clinic in the early 90s and In the mid-90s he serendipitously was asked to do a session on a client’s horse. He found the process so satisfying that he continued working with horses and over the next few years, developed a Structural Integration program called the Equine Natural Movement Series. He and his wife, Jacqueline, founded the school where this work is taught, The Equine Natural Movement School. Joseph lives on a biodynamic farm in southwest Washington.
Contact the school at (360) 687-8384

Structural Integration for Horses

Joseph Freeman, C.H.P

“Now watch!” Carol said as she brought her horse to a canter. She’d invited me out to the beach on a sunny, blustery June day to show me the crooked way her Hanoverian, Henry, moved in this gait.

The first three strides were choppy. The bay gelding’s pelvis was pulled forward on the right and his body angled in that direction. “See?” She said. “This is what he does.” It was hard to watch. Henry looked simply uncomfortable.

Carol called me about a month before this beach trip. She’d read my brochure and asked me to evaluate her horse. She hadn’t heard of Structural Integration for Horses (SI). Her veterinarian suggested she give it a try.

Carol cares deeply for her gelding and, over the years, has tried different methods to improve his performance. They all helped, some more than others, but ultimately, his canter remained crooked.

We met at the barn and I told her about myself. I am a Certified Hellerwork Structural Integration Practitioner. I worked in a clinical setting with people for many years and, as a favor to friends, I worked on their animals. Over time the remarkable results attained with the animals convinced me that my true calling was hands-on work with the animal kingdom.

I’ve been working with horses since 1995 and these generous creatures have taught me a lot. I have skilled hands, my work is well thought out and thorough. I have a deep love of horses and they enjoy working with me.

I explained to Carol that in my series of five sessions, each goes deeper than the last. The first session is about gaining Henry’s trust, freeing up his surface compensations and mapping out his core tension pattern.

As the work started, she told me he was a particular horse and that he didn’t take to everybody. She said that while he’s a great horse, his canter had been a problem for the longest time. I found him to be wary but accepting. After 10 minutes of work, Henry realized I wasn’t going to hurt him and settled in.

At the end of the session I’d discovered where Henry’s topline had been jammed up and could feel tension in both hips, both sides of his barrel, and the entire left side of his neck. Carol had several questions …

“How is the work done?” I begin by gaining the horse’s trust. I introduce myself and then do a “pat down” in which I palpate the horse all over and observe his reactions. I then gently lengthen out the surface musculature in the quadrant that concerns him the least.

I start in a non-threatening area because connective tissue in the body acts like plastic wrap. When you tie a knot in the corner of a sheet, it pulls from all over. Conversely, when you feed slack toward that knot, it loosens up.

By working in this manner I feed slack to his tight areas and partially free them up before I even work them. I keep my work within the horse’s tolerance limits. When he realizes that I won’t exceed his limits, he relaxes into the work. I imagine what each stroke feels like to the horse even as I deliver it and only give strokes that I myself would want to receive.

Finally, I address the pattern of tension in the horse’s body. I work on the whole body each session because muscles don’t tighten up singularly. They tighten up in groups.

These tension patterns tend to support the holding in a given area. If I only worked on the tight spot and ignored everything else, the tension pattern in the rest of the horse would cause that area to ratchet back down again. By working the whole body this effect is mitigated and the horse gets to keep the gains he receives.

“Do you work on the muscles?” I work on the connective tissue. This elastic substance surrounds each muscle like a sleeve and thickens at the ends to form tendons. These tendons attach to the bones. When the muscle fibers contract, the muscle pulls on the tendons, which move the bones.

These muscles work in pairs. The first one pulls the bone forward and the second pulls it back. When the first one is contracting, the second is extending. It is this interaction that allows a horse to move his leg back and forth.

Part of the function of connective tissue is to protect muscle fiber by preventing muscles from extending too far and becoming damaged. When falls, cuts and bruises happen, connective tissue shortens up to immobilize the injured area during healing and doesn’t always lengthen out again.

When muscles are held shorter, the limb they effect is prevented from extending as far, and other muscles that supplement that movement shorten up as well.

All this happens incrementally over time, often years. The end result is a pattern of subtle restrictions stemming from the wear and tear that is part of an active horse’s life.

Seven days after the first session I met Carol and Henry at the barn for his second. She said his overall movement was more fluid but his canter remained . . . funny.

As I began the work Henry’s eyes immediately softened and his lower lip went slack. He stayed that way throughout.

In this session I worked his whole body, muscle by muscle, addressing individual muscle tension, with special attention given to his neck and limbs. When we were done, the tension I’d found on his left side from the hips all the way to the poll was substantially reduced. The right side tension was gone.

Carol asked, “How will this help Henry?” I explained that the benefits come from evening the muscle tone from one side of the horse to the other. Most horses prefer one direction, they favor one lead or they bend better in a particular direction. Why? Because the tension pattern in their connective tissue makes those directions more comfortable for them.

If your horse prefers bending left, it may be that the tissue in his left barrel is held tighter than the same tissue on his right. When he goes right, he has to work harder, fighting the restricted tissue on his left side, whereas when he goes left he can relax into it.

By freeing up his left side and bringing it into balance with his right, he can bend to the right with the same facility that he bends left.

Freeing up the restrictions in your horse’s body allows him to access all the fluidity, grace and power that is available to him. It allows him to train from a place of muscle tone balance. He doesn’t have to drag the remnants of past injuries through each workout anymore. Progress is accelerated, frustration is abated, exhilaration is produced.

A week after session two, we did the third. Carol told me that Henry was moving better but the canter was not there yet. She was optimistic because of the improvements she’d seen in him, but was also reserved because she’d gotten her hopes up in the past and been let down.

In this session, the focus of the work was on integrating muscle groups. The tension was centered around his left shoulder and at the end of the session, it was greatly reduced.

During these sessions Carol asked, “How did Henry first get into that condition?”

Scar tissue, or tight connective tissue, forms to heal muscle tears or as a response to pain. The pain can be caused by any number of things, such as an abscessed hoof, an old kick bruise, or an ill-fitting saddle. The pain doesn’t have to be great, just enough to cause irritation.

Over time a muscle near the pain site will tighten up and compensation patterns form. Often the tension patterns remain long after the initial injury has healed. Sometimes the compensations become so invested in the tissues that they become issues in and of themselves.

Often as the sessions progress, the compensations peel away layer by layer until one tight spot remains. That muscle or that area is the cause of the tension pattern that developed.

As long as the pain persists, the horse will continue to respond to it until it’s resolved.

True healing cannot begin until the area at cause is addressed. Freeing up the compensations clears away the cobwebs and allows the source of the problems to be addressed. At this point we’ll also know if it would help to bring in another type of practitioner, like an equine chiropractor.

It was a few days after our third session that I visited the pair at the beach. I was still wincing at Henry’s first few canter strides when it happened. On Henry’s fourth step his back straightened out, his stride lengthened and he went even and true as if he’d gone that way all his life. Carol whooped with joy. They cantered beautifully down the beach for a quarter mile.

Two weeks later we did the fourth session. Carol was ecstatic. Henry was going very well and his canter was getting stronger every day. Henry looked confident and relaxed. His eyes sparkled.

This fourth session is designed to bring out the fluidity of his full body motion. I found less tension overall, but some holding in new places. Carol had some concern. I explained that this commonly happens with horses as they begin to use their bodies in new ways.

“Does it work for all horses?” I focus on dressage, hunter-jumpers and eventing horses because my work provides the flexibility and movement qualities that English riders seek. I work on horses who are in training because these horses are engaged in a consistent workout program. Their progress and flexibility are constantly measured.

Riders and trainers know when these horses are performing better on a ride-to-ride basis. Also, a good training program works hand in glove with SI because the horse quickly feels the increased flexibility in his body and strengthens it.

After completing a series, as a horse works into his new-found fluidity, that fluidity begins to work into him. At some point, with good riding and insightful care, he will begin progress toward muscle tone balance on his own steam.

Carol asked, “Does it hurt?” This kind of work can be uncomfortable if not done well. The first session is the one where all the restrictions and apprehensions are present. It has to be done with great respect and kindness. Horses know when they are being cared for and respond accordingly.

Recently I worked on a Jumper who pawed and tossed his head throughout the first session. As I worked, I felt all the tightness along his left side. In his second session he seemed to know my work was helping him and stood quietly. In the third session as I worked on the little tension remaining on his left side, he only pawed and tossed his head when I stopped. This is a normal reaction from a responsive horse.

The fifth and last session, which is designed to reinforce the positive changes, came a month later. In between, Carol and Henry had worked to build his strength.

Carol said Henry’s canter was strong. I found some spots that had tightened up due to his new, more even way of moving, but they freed up quickly. These new tensions would fade as he grew stronger.

Back at the beach, Carol and Henry returned from their quarter mile ride. She explained that this was the first time he had cantered straight in six years and she thanked me excitedly and profusely.

They turned and trotted down the beach, transitioning to a straight, even canter, both horse and rider with their heads up, thrilling to the power and freedom as the sand flowed by beneath them.

I watched as they slowly became a dot on the horizon. A satisfied peace came over me as I felt the joy of seeing a horse and rider moving together in harmony.

Equine Natural Movement Series: Pioneer
Class Offered At Bancroft School

It is fascinating to witness student Karen Miller perform Equine Natural Movement on my bay Thoroughbred, Chazz. It appears that through his nudging and motions he is guiding her to his most painful areas. When she finds that spot, he stretches his neck and exhales in complete relief as his eyelids droop closed.

What is Equine Natural Movement (ENM), why does it seem to work so well, and where can one go to learn the skill?

Ten students are preparing to graduate in November 2006 from the first Equine Natural Movement Series training taught at the Bancroft School of Massage in Worcester, Massachusetts. The three-module program, taught over the course of six months, is the first of its kind to be offered here on the East Coast. Theresa Gagnon, Director of Animal Programs, explains that “Bancroft is striving to be a leader in animal education programs that deal with large and small species.” By offering this program, they are successfully promoting a form of therapy that will benefit area equines.

Jane Lynds, one of the students currently enrolled in the program, decided to take the class as a career change and, more importantly, to help give horses a better quality of life. She is involved with Bay State Equine Rescue in Oakham, Massachusetts, where she has seen a number of neglected horses. She feels that “If in some small way I can help these horses to feel better, then that is worth more than any paycheck.”

What exactly is Equine Natural Movement? As explained by Training Director Jacqueline Freeman, “The Equine Natural Movement Series is an organized series of sessions designed to restore optimal natural postural balance, alignment, and functional ease by aligning and integrating the equine body in relationship to the force of gravity. The work is a hands-on somatic education process that teaches the horse to be more aware of how his structure is balanced and how the individual parts of his body relate to each other.”

She continues: “The results of a successful series are that the horse becomes more focused, has an increased range and fluidity of movement, a deeper neuromuscular clarity about where the different parts of his body are, and a more harmonious movement pattern.”

An equivalent to Equine Natural Movement for humans would be the alternative therapy named Structural Integration. In the SI family are schools that teach Rolfing, Hellerwork, Guild for SI, and Kinesis. The soft tissue techniques were originally developed by Ida Rolf, PhD, who began teaching the method in 1971. It is catching on as a viable treatment for recurrent muscle tension. In both Equine Natural Movement and Structural Integration, stress is relieved and bodies are balanced through manipulation of the elastic substance, or fascia, that surrounds muscle mass.

Joseph Freeman, Certified Structural Integration practitioner, teaches the three six-day classes at Bancroft in Worcester and other training facilities across the United States. He has dedicated his work to horses since 1994 and began successfully training equine practitioners in 1999. Joseph explains: “By sequentially unwrapping accumulated restrictions, the compromises a horse has developed in his body and movement fade. Chronic adhesions release their hold and freedom of movement emerges as the different layers of tissue glide effortlessly over one another.”

Classroom study includes anatomy, movement, horse psychology and wisdom, and business management. When students complete the course they receive certification to practice Equine Natural Movement.

In addition to classroom study, students practice hands-on body work training on equine subjects. Part of the certification procedure is to complete fifty sessions on ten to twenty-five horses. Students also work with five horses delivering a series of five 90 minute sessions spread over two months.

Session intervals can be adapted to suit the needs of the horse. Ms. Lynds noted that “each horse seems to be different. Some get into the work immediately, while others may take a half session before they settle into the work and others may take a second session before they finally relax and enjoy it. It is wonderful to see a horse that is totally relaxed, head hanging, lower lip drooling, and eyes closing. [At that point] you know that the horse is in a great and receptive frame of mind.” Work progresses to the sub structure levels only when the surface structures allow for deeper work.

All of the horses Karen Miller has worked on so far have shown some amount of positive change after the second session, if not sooner. If after two sessions improvement is not evident, the instructor suggests investigating a source of bone pain, an ill-fitting saddle or possible dental issues.

Maintenance visits are recommended after the completion of the first series. The horse’s agenda and issue determine how often follow up sessions should take place.

Ms. Miller excitedly expresses her thoughts on practicing Equine Natural Movement: “It seems like magic, but I know it’s not! I see results that don’t seem possible but I watch the changes happen in the horses– issues that riders and trainers have been working on improving for years.”

She reports that one horse can willingly and comfortably canter now, another horse trots by moving through his barrel and pushing from behind instead of his previous method of almost crawling forward, while another horse has discovered an extended walk that fellow horses have to work to keep up with. In Chazz, I have noticed a more relaxed horse with improved overall movement along with a softer eye. Since the eyes are the window to the soul, what can be better endorsement of whole body work than that?

For more information on future Equine Natural Movement Series courses, contact the school directly at 360-687-8384 www.EquineNaturalMovement.com

Equine Natural Movement:
Structural Integration for Horses

By Jacqueline Freeman

Formerly a Hellerwork SI faculty member, Jacqueline is now the Training Director at Joseph Freeman’s Equine Natural Movement School. She is also an award winning playwright. Read her stories about goodheartedness at www.FriendlyHaven.com

Joseph leans his body into his arms, smoothly lengthening tissue along the client’s hip to the thigh to the stifle and gaskin.

Stifle and gaskin? Joseph Freeman’s Equine Natural Movement (ENM) work is Structural Integration (SI) on horses.

A 1993 graduate of the Hellerwork SI training, Joseph spent the first few years of his career working on people. He found it rewarding but had a feeling that work was a stepping stone and that another future awaited him.

A Turning Point

One of his SI clients asked him to attend a course in Animal Communication given by Jeri Ryan, Ph.D. Dr. Ryan teaches people the internal visual and kinesthetic language of animals. The course changed Joseph’s relationship with animals. He felt the stirrings of a calling but didn’t know where to go with that feeling.

Later he attended a class given by Linda Tellington-Jones, the well known Feldenkrais® practitioner who pioneered perceptive somatic work with animals. Again he felt excitement about adapting his SI knowledge to work with animals.

As an experiment he started combining SI with information gleaned from other courses and books toward cats and dogs. They responded positively to his touch which encouraged him to move on to larger animals, horses. Hellerworker Mike McFarland had worked with race horses, so Joseph contacted him for guidance and ideas and Mike was generous in his support.

At the same time one of his clients, Feldenkrais practitioner Cara Landwehr from Enumclaw, WA, presented him with a request. Cara does holistic rehabilitative training with horses that have been emotionally and physically damaged. These horses have special problems and Cara was looking for a precise kind of help to treat them. She needed a sensitive person with animal rapport skills who understood equine movement and had a Structural Integration background. Certainly a tall order!

Cara asked Joseph if he’d try his hand with her horses. From the first moment he worked on her horses, he knew he’d found his calling.

Creating a Body of Work

Joseph helped Cara achieve the changes she needed with the horses and Cara encouraged him to pursue the work. He studied equine anatomy while Cara taught him equine movement.

In 1995, Joseph came up with the five basic SI sessions that sequentially unravel a horse’s fascial structure and bring the horse’s suspensory system of bones, muscles and connective tissue back into balance and alignment. He named the work Equine Movement (ENM). He describes his work saying …

“I work systematically with the fascial system, moving through the outer layers of superficial muscles, down to the deeper layers of fascia and intrinsic muscles, freeing up the planes throughout the horse’s structure. This allows a freedom of movement to emerge as the different layers begin to glide effortlessly over one another, bringing more potential energy and power to the muscles and rhythmic grace and smoothness to the horse’s gaits.

“Curiously , horses are not as invested in their body image as people. When horses feel freer movement, they readily adopt it. Even though horses are larger, the work seems to progress at a faster rate than human sessions. Coupled with an exercise program to support the structural changes, horses have steady improvement that lasts.”

The result is a five-session series with a designated purpose and specific body map for each section. Sessions 1-3 restore fuller mobility to each muscle. Sessions 3-5 integrate that mobility into the horse’s movement.

The Equine Natural Movement Series

First Session

Purpose: Build trust. Get to know the horse’s tension patterns.

Method: Release holding in surface musculature. Identify deep holding patterns that are the roadmap for a continuing series.

Second Session

Purpose: Give the horse a better sense of stability so he’s more secure in moving on and off the ground. Bring out the power available in the horse’s hind end.

Method: Emphasize vertical line integrity in standing. Free up tendons and musculature of all four legs. Free up superficial and midlevel fascial restrictions in shoulders, pelvis, lumbar and hip joints.

Third Session

Purpose: Integrate muscle groups that share movement functions.

Method: Begin to shift vertical line integration into horizontal plane. Work focuses on functional quadrants rather than individual muscles.

Fourth Session

Purpose: Bring out fluidity of whole body motion.

Method: Connect front and hind ends through the barrel. Emphasize horizontal line cohesiveness.

Fifth Session

Purpose: Reinforce changes after horse has practiced his discipline.

Method: Maintain flexibility of fascia while horse strengthens into an integrated movement pattern.

After a basic series, Joseph usually does two advanced ENM sessions over the next year.

Clients Talk

People love their horses and take their care very seriously. Like any other professional athletes, when they find something that works, word spreads quickly.

Joseph primarily works with performance horses to help them achieve their full potential in competitions. Dressage horses improve their precision, competition jumpers get additional height and power, and western horses increase speed and dexterity. With athletic horses of this caliber, even a small change means the difference between a third and a first place ribbon.

Sometimes the results can be quite startling. After ENM, a palomino owner put her horse in a performance show. Her horse, normally not a big winner, won an unprecedented 21 events, every event they entered. The ENM series was the only different thing they’d done and she was quick to praise its effectiveness.

Gwen Blake, US Equestrian Olympic Team member, describes ENM’s effect on her training horses saying, “Joseph worked on several dressage horses in our barn. I have seen a distinct difference in how they carry themselves and how they have a more relaxed, willing work attitude.”

Hunter-jumpers can be high strung and often temperamental, something Joseph attributes to discontinuity in an imperfect structure. Kathy and Rick Countryman are well-known hunter-jumper trainers at the Countryman Stables on Bainbridge Island, WA. They wrote about ENM saying, “Joseph has worked with a dozen of our hunter-jumpers. Consistently, horses that are ‘too hot’ calm down. They stop their habits of pulling and collect under themselves easier. The horses become supple and limber, move better, are more comfortable and jump with better form.”

ENM is also effective with horses who need help getting back into peak condition after a history of unresolved old injuries. AFA certified farrier, Lisa Dillon, has a quarter horse who had a chronic imbalance. She says, “After an injury my gelding had movement problems that required therapeutic shoeing. I didn’t think he’d ever be able to overcome this. After sessions with Joseph he’s become more relaxed and supple, developed a better stride and an overall better sense of well-being and attitude. He no longer requires special shoes either.”

On the far end of the scale are horses whose injuries have also affected them emotionally. Horse breeder, Kitty Mac, runs the Triple W Ranch in Ellensburg, WA. Kitty’s 4-year-old quarter horse suffered debilitating injuries after tangling himself in barbed wire a few years earlier. “Dat Hickory” had great bloodlines but due to his compromised movement was unable to compete and bring in the awards necessary to make him a highly desirable breeding stallion. Trainer Cara Landwehr worked with Hickory during his rehabilitation. She tells this story:

“As a result of his injuries, Hickory developed tight movement patterns to protect his hindquarters and compensate for painful muscles and tendons. Even after those injuries healed, Hickory initiated about 80% of his movement from his forehand rather than his hindquarters. He had tension and apprehension about being handled anywhere in a broad area around his lumbo-sacral junction and was unable to stand balanced on any three legs so handling his feet was difficult.

“Both stifle joints were weak and wobbly and tended to lock. He wouldn’t allow me to handle his tail for the first three weeks he was in my charge. He didn’t know where his hind end or his feet were. He’d stomp and kick in the trailer which told me he didn’t know how to stabilize himself and didn’t know precisely where his feet were so he felt unsafe there.

“Although kind-natured he was also reactive. While not a bad horse, he was prone to temper tantrums and dramatics and became easily unfocused. He had trouble learning new things and then remembering what he had learned. After the ENM sessions he made amazing progress in two major areas:

1. Bio-Mechanical: Once his muscles were no longer bound up, he was able to use them correctly. This cut a lot of time off his rehab program and enabled him to progress faster than I could have hoped. When he took a step, he used himself correctly so he got maximum benefit out of the gymnastic and strengthening exercises. He used to have trouble engaging and lacked energy. After the series he really discovered his engine! He became able to do better lateral and engagement work. For a trainer this is a HUGE payoff. A horse making faster and easier progress with minimum wear and tear is a win for everyone!
2. Spirit: As Hickory’s physical balance improved, so did his mental balance. I believe these two things go hand-in-hand. Releasing the locked tension in his body helped him relax and enjoy learning again instead of holding onto the old fears he had when he was in pain. After ENM he began to have TONS of energy and started moving in very athletic ways. His workability, self-control and manners all improved tremendously.”

Horses Teach Touch Skills

“Horses are great bodywork teachers,” Joseph says. “If you do a stroke without being in rapport, if it’s too fast or deep or something’s not quite right about it, they’ll give you immediate feedback with their mouths or feet.

“They force you to become aware of everything you’re doing. Whatever energy you bring to them, they reflect back to you. They won’t put up with deep bodywork that’s less than perfect so you really have to refine your quality of touch and presence. If you love them while you work they will give you the moon, but if your mind is elsewhere they’ll snap you right back to attention.”

Horses are quite perceptive once they understand what ENM can do. They can also be quite participatory. Rolex, a very intelligent Westphalian dressage horse, would let Joseph know where he needed work. Joseph was working on the horse’s shoulder once when Rolex turned his head, pulled his lips gently over his teeth and gently pressed them against Joseph’s shoulder. Rolex used Joseph’s shoulder to show where he needed attention. Joseph moved to the corresponding spot on Rolex and found it was indeed tighter than the surrounding area. When Joseph moved to the other side, Rolex did the same thing but in a different part of Joseph’s upper arm, again a place that Joseph moved to and found fascial restriction in.

Animals and Complementary Care

Attitudes about animals are changing and many people in the horse community are becoming more open to alternative modalities. Interest sparks when their horses suddenly become more adept and alert. After seeing the effects of ENM on their horses, owners often ask about getting structural work on themselves. Because his practice is full of horses, Joseph refers humans to SI “people practitioners.”

Occasionally an owner has noticed after the ENM sessions that the horse moved with balance and precision, but after being ridden, the horse backslid and reverted to old movement patterns. When not being ridden, the unbalanced pattern wasn’t there. These riders were alarmed when they suddenly realized their loyal horses were contorting their bodies to compensate for the riders’ unbalanced time in the saddle. Most of them quickly requested work on themselves so they wouldn’t cause any further harm to their beloved animals.

At the completion of a Structural Integration training, each practitioner is qualified to begin their SI practice. Most people take that knowledge and parlay it into a successful SI career but some people forage into the unknown by taking the work into specialized areas. Each time someone takes the work into a new arena, the field of knowledge expands for everyone.

Joseph’s deep love of animals has found a richly rewarding avenue of expression. The work he’s developed offers people new ways to create health for their horses as well as themselves.

He also feels a responsibility to educate people about being compassionate with their animals. Through the hands-on work he’s able to experience an interspecies communication few people are aware is available. His skilled hands, calm and patient manner and deep love for horses and other animals are important elements. But the most telling of all is that horses enjoy working with him.

Joseph and I went on vacation shortly after he started working with horses. We stopped by a local hunter-jumper show. No one was in the barn during show time but the horses were in their stalls. As we strolled through, a horse at the far end of the corridor leaned out of her stall and started whinnying, vigorously tossing her head up and down.

I asked if he knew that horse. Joseph peered down the long corridor with a nickering horse at the end of it and said he doubted any horse he worked with would be at a show so far away. The horse continued her excited display, whinnying in Joseph’s direction. Just then the mare’s owner came around the corner and said, “Oh, hello, Joseph. I see Sally remembers you!” ]]> http://equinenaturalmovement.com/postname/feed 0