The Equine Natural Movement School

Equine Natural Movement Faculty

Joseph Freeman, founder

Joseph is a creative, gifted practitioner who applied his work with humans to horses and in doing so, came up with a sequence of sessions that can provide a profound return to balance and flexibility for horses. Joseph is a certified Hellerwork Structural Integration™ practitioner who worked in a clinical setting with people for many years. As a favor to friends, he worked on their animals. Over time, the remarkable results he got convinced him that his true calling is horses.

After working in human Structural Integration, he created the Equine Natural Movement Series in 1995, began mentoring students in 1999 and training practitioners at his school in southwest Washington in 2001. He has taught and spoken about the Equine Natural Movement Series at professional schools and conferences across North America and Europe and been published in equine magazines and healthcare journals.

Joseph has skilled hands, a calm and patient manner and a deep love of animals. His work is well thought out and thorough. Most importantly, horses enjoy working with him.

Click here to learn more about the professional training.

Jacqueline Freeman

Jacqueline is the Training Director for the school so her fingers are in each part of the program. She is a former faculty trainer for Hellerwork Structural Integration. Prior to that she owned a holistic health center on Martha’s Vineyard, MA. She works on curriculum development, critiques student papers, teaches the business course, guides the independent study portion of each class, and orchestrates the continuing development of each student all the way to graduation and into their practices.

With great insight she sees the strengths of each student and works to bring out the best in them so they feel the joy of fulfilling their highest potential with this work. She is effervescently optimistic, thoroughly practical and deeply committed to honesty, ethics and passion.

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FACULTY

KAYSHA COMFORT

Kaysha runs the office with a buoyantly happy vibe that permeates all she does. She will likely be the first person you speak with at the school, and frequently throughout your time with us. Her background includes a dozen years as a 911 dispatcher and program coordinator. She listens well and is good at turning chaos into order. Kaysha is a devout animal lover. She has experience attending the school so she knows first hand the needs of students.

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CODI HAMBLIN 

Codi is an educator at heart and works both on the training team and with Jacqueline teaching Business Skills. Prior to her horse career, Codi devoted a decade to connecting people and nature through environmental journalism, news reporting, and eventually nonprofit work and environmental education. Codi credits her palomino Cajun as her pivoting influencer and one of her greatest teachers of intuition. 

Codi’s role as an Equine Natural Movement practitioner and faculty is her heart-work, weaving her analytical, educational and intuitive skills with the wellness of both horses and people. Working in this profession highlights the horses’ abilities as master teachers offering both students and clients opportunities to expand their experience and understanding of horses. 

As a professional Equine Natural Movement practitioner, she is most inspired working at the intersection of energy healing and manual therapy and exploring the profound results that occur. Equine Structural Integration as the foundation of her work, Codi integrates her training in energy work into her sessions that also include Reiki, Visionary Equine Craniosacral Therapy and Equine Acupressure. 

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SHANNON BROWN

Shannon is a gentle, intuitive and wise practitioner whom horses enjoy connecting with. She grew up competing and grooming in the Pacific Northwest on the hunter-jumper circuit. She fondly remembers galloping Bridle Trails State Park with friends, as wild and free as possible.

She has practiced the healing arts since 2002 and studied Oriental Medicine at Bastyr University, with further study of holistic modalities. She is fascinated with energy, anatomy, mindset work and the neuroplasticity of the nervous system and brain of both humans and horses. 

In practice Shannon combines Structural Integration with Energy work, Animal Communication, Visceral Therapy and Tensegrity Balancing Therapy. She values continuing her education to both deepen her understanding of the horse, and to share what she learns with her community. She has used her own struggles as a source of personal transformation, and often inspires those around her to do the same.

She encourages owners to slow down and build rewarding emotional relationships with their horses, prioritizing what makes horses happy, and building a satisfying connection for both horse and rider.

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JIM CULVER

Jim, as a kid, watched too many Westerns and dreamed of being a cowboy. He has had many experiences in the horse world. He rode in the Eastern world, horse packed through the mountains of Wyoming as a guide and teacher. He drove teams, started colts, studied dressage later in life, and enjoyed working as a farrier. In 2013, wanting to learn something completely different about horses, he trained as an Equine Natural Movement practitioner and has been using those skills ever since.

Jim says, “I love Equine Natural Movement for so many reasons. When I lay my hands on a horse for the first time, I wonder what 

I will find. How will the horse respond? I love the moment the horse starts to understand that they don’t need to perform, they can simply relax. I am only asking them to absorb the work and release tension. Their responses – yawning, licking and chewing, eyes going to half-mast, head dropping in relaxation – is SO rewarding. I feel sticky spots release and the horse becomes comfortable in their skin.

I also use the work in my other jobs of training and shoeing. When a horse isn’t doing a movement well, I see that it is not bad behavior or lack of intelligence, it’s simply structurally impossible for them to do that. The horse is not at fault. When I see or sense that, I have the tools to address it and, hopefully, bring them some relief  and allow them to comfortably do the thing I am asking them to do – flex at the poll, be supple in the ribs, have bend to their neck, bring a hind leg backwards or forwards when shoeing. This work is so valuable to ANYONE who does ANY kind of work with horses.

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ADJUNCT FACULTY

These graduates of our Teacher Training now mentor students in their areas. We believe in their abilities and are really happy they have moved up to Equine Natural Movement Faculty. Eventually our goal is to train them in teaching the entire training so we have more satellite schools around the land. They can teach the Level One class in a 2 or 3-day weekend format or the consecutive week-long format. Students schedule their training directly with these teachers on dates they mutually agree on. After the Level 1 with these teachers, students can take Level 2 and 3 at the main school.

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Kelly Snyder

Kelly Snyder has well-developed intuitive skills which she uses to understand her clients’ physical difficulties. She is a professional energy worker. She studied saddle fitting under world-renowned saddle fitter, Ron Friedson, founder of Pegasus Saddles. She is a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist certified in Neuromuscular Therapy and a trained life coach. Kelly continues to apprentice under life-long farrier, John Banks, who specializes in corrective trimming and shoeing. Her work is precise and transformative, focusing on the source, not the symptoms, while integrating the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual layers. Kelly lives near Asheville, NC where she resides with her husband, daughters, horses, dogs, cat and beloved pet boa constrictor, Aspen.

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Sara Cooper

Sara has achieved quite a few impressive credentials in her life. She’s an acupuncturist and experienced holistic practitioner which you’d think would be enough for an average person, but Sara’s also an award-winning screenplay writer with many televised shows to her credit. Sara’s love of horses drew her to this work and now she’s one of our first adjunct faculty members. Sara practices in Portland OR and travels extensively. Sara may be able to work your training into her calendar.

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Maggie Mittuch

Maggie is smart, enthusiastic, and has many years in the educational field. She’s an avid competitor with years of experience working with horses. Maggie graduated from our Equine Natural Movement Faculty training and had her first student training enrolled so fast the ink had hardly dried on her graduation certificate. Maggie’s love of horses shines through in her work and is an inspiration to her students. Maggie practices in Port Orchard, WA, and is often in the eventing winner’s circle with her horses.

Maggie says, “My work continues to evolve.  I’m having good results and I love the work.  The combination of working to develop them under saddle, and working to support them through bodywork has led to the most amazing physical, emotional and spiritual experience for me and for them and it spills over in to the rest of my life. I am in awe most every day. The horses induce you to be in the moment with them. It’s a lot like prayer. My young filly, Onyx (fractured skull as a weanling) is now magnificent under saddle.  We are having a blast. Monkey never ceases to amaze me with the breadth and depth of his heart and self belief.  He reminds me often that he really is a wild horse who is pretending to be tame so that he can live with me.”