4 Movement

05/18/2024

I urge all horse enthusiasts to read jec’s post and to listen to the podcast !!!!!

04/06/2024

This is very lovely thought for all beings to take in…..;-)

It's your light that lights the world ~ Rumi

03/29/2024

This is a fantastic and very generous post given by Jec Aristotle Ballou! Stifle issues are sadly extremely common for a myriad of reasons. Her exercises are simple and explanations are very clear! Read on so that you can Ride On!!!

Weak stifles can hinder even a horse with incredible talent. How do we go about helping horses with stifle dysfunction?

02/21/2024

Absolutely fantastic information from Shea Stewart- please read this slowly and take it in… think of what you can do when working over the horse’s face, around his ears and jawline - especially when using The Masterson Method, Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork Light to the Core techniques. I see changes in the position and softness in horse’s eyes often after working with them.
Shea is an absolute gift to all for sharing such incredible information.
🙏🐎💚

02/01/2024

This is simply really really fun to know!! Congratulations to Jim The Masterson Method, Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork and to Trafalgar Books!!!!!!!!!

So I’m gonna geek out a little here: 🤓 I might be one of the only people who looks at the copyright page of every book I open (well, I taught my son the habit, too), but in case you’ve never closed in on the little string of numbers at the bottom (the printer’s key or print line or print number line), it tells you how many times a book has been reprinted, usually in sequences of 10.

One of our goals at TSB is for all our books to become strong “backlist,” which means they sell well over the long term, rather than just right out of the gate, and we reprint them as long as we can. Well, we’re reprinting Jim Masterson’s BEYOND HORSE MASSAGE for the tenth time, 🥳🥳 which means we’ve had to reprint it almost once a year for every year since it was first released in 2011. Not bad for a “horse book” 😌🤩 We’re so proud to have been a part of Jim’s effort to bring his DIY form of bodywork to horse owners everywhere—horses are happier, more comfortable, and better connected to their people because of it. 🐎

Congrats to Jim and the whole Masterson Method team! ❤️🐴📕

01/20/2024

So on the heels of Jec’s post - I invite you to ask yourself “ what is a fixed position “? This concept is not exclusive to the use of taught side reins or draw reins or unforgiving hands. In the recent Dissection Course that I attended- the discussion of the importance of offering various feeding positions came up- the more that the housing that we offer mimics nature the better. Horses graze with head and neck down and they also browse with their heads at mid shoulder height and yes they also reach up to find the apple above their heads. If you feed from hay bags you can easily add a few hooks at alternate heights to better accommodate the horses natural varied postures. We can do so much more for them if we open our eyes and break away from the “ that’s the way it’s always been done” type of thinking. 💫🙏🐎💚

"If muscles which are primarily muscles designed for movement have to maintain continuous tension, they become inflamed. Blood and lymph circulation in their substance is impaired, and the muscle fibers cannot absorb the nutrients and oxygen which are necessary to their development in bulk and elasticity."
-- Udo Burger, 1959 The Way to Perfect Horsemanship

Consider these words from decades ago....why are we still holding horses in fixed postures for extended periods of time?? We cannot ignore physiology. We might be decades late, but let's put this vital wisdom in to play.

12/19/2023

This is an incredibly beautiful post… please take your time in a quiet comfortable place to read through it. I am holding my breath in hopes of taking a CS course with Equine Balance by Shea Stewart when she comes to California thanks Jane Kameny Brown next year. Shea is a spiritual gift in human form. 🙏💖💫