Masterson Method Clinic

There can be no doubt that I spend too much time late at night on social media or shopping online.  I have come to the conclusion more than once that I should cut myself off after 9 pm, because I have a tendency to think I need something or should comment on something that I really don't need or really shouldn't comment on.

Alas, I am a slow-learner, and so that is how I found myself discovering a reasonably local clinic on the Masterson Method of equine bodywork.  If you are unfamiliar with it, the method uses techniques that involve different levels of touch, manipulating different body parts in certain ways, and a little bit of actual massage to bring the horse awareness of tension in its body.  Once the horse has this awareness, it can often resolve the tension on its own using method of release like licking and chewing, yawning, stretching, and shaking the head or body.  This method is considered unique because it involves using the horse's own set of skills for releasing tension rather than doing something to the horse and sort of trying to force the release of tension.  That doesn't mean it is necessarily better than all other methods for all horses, but it makes it a much more user-friendly method for average horse people to learn.  And the more people that are focused on their horses and actively working with them to release any built-up tension, the better.

A therapeutic riding center in the area was planning to host a clinic on the method several weeks in the future, and announced the event on Facebook.  I was so excited, because I love using the Masterson Method and had been sort of wishing I could learn more advanced techniques without the commitment of a three- or five-day clinic in a different state.  And because I was so excited, I probably didn't think through what I was doing or ask questions about what the clinic would cover.  It is also possible that I didn't thoroughly read the registration materials; it is too late to say exactly what happened.

That is how I found myself at a therapeutic riding center this past weekend with high expectations of not only learning some tips on using the method, but also being able to practice on a horse and get some feedback.  It turns out that the clinic was really geared for people in the therapeutic riding or equine-assisted therapy world, and the presenter spent a lot of time talking about how to incorporate the method into income-driven activities as well as using it as therapy for people.  Not horses.  She did mention more than once that the horse was the most important part of the therapy process, but the information she presented really emphasized how to use the method as therapy for people with disabilities or even for corporate team-building exercises.

Here's the thing.  I know there is a lot of information out there about how helpful equine-assisted therapy is for kids (or adults) with disabilities.  On the one hand, I think that is wonderful.  How great is it that these kids can have a door opened for them!  On the other hand, I have seen case after case of therapy horses that are simply not given the resources they need to cope with the demands of their jobs.  They have to handle incredibly unbalanced riders over and over, sometimes for years or even over a decade, and no one else with good riding skills rides them between therapeutic sessions to help re-balance them.  They are handled by volunteers who don't necessarily have lots of expert and relevant horse experience.  They don't do strenuous work, so they are often out-of-shape and have a body condition that isn't healthy for them.  

If a human being was doing this type of work, I think everyone could agree that the person should have certain coping resources available to them, like counseling and gym memberships and hobbies and vacations and the opportunity to change careers if they felt burned out.  I'm sure that some organizations are aware of those needs for their horses and work hard to meet them.  But I'm equally positive that many organizations don't.  I've seen first hand what a single year of being a therapy horse can do to a horse that was previously fit and looking very good.  (Said horse developed very poor body condition and lost a ton of muscle and eventually became lame, was diagnosed with an unspecified neurological disease, and fell through a fence and over a retaining wall, thus breaking her pelvis and having to be euthanized on the spot.  Maybe that train wreck would have happened anyway, but I don't think so.  Therapy horses are paying a price when we use them for our benefit.)

So I was kind of horrified to discover that a technique originally intended to be primarily for the benefit of the horse was being used for corporate team-building exercises and a way to promote equine-assisted therapy.  (I absolutely understand that there are other points of view, but I went into that clinic blind and I guess I'm trying to process the information that I learned.)

The presenter did do a demonstration on the Bladder Meridian Technique, which is the technique that I have used for more years than I can remember.  (Seriously, if you never do any other bodywork with your horse, do the Bladder Meridian Technique.  It is so easy, my eight-year-old daughter can do it.  You can watch a video of how to do it here:

 

She also demonstrated a few other techniques, such as the Lateral Cervical Flexion (like one of the carrot stretches often recommended but in a more deliberate way that probably yields an improved benefit), the Scapula Release, the Withers Wiggle, a couple of hind end techniques, Lateral Rocking, and one technique I hadn't seen before that involved the cheek.  

After the demonstration, I was expecting to be able to practice on one of the horses from the center, mostly because I'd emailed the clinic organizer in advance and confirmed that I would be able to practice on said horse.  I even made an extra donation to the clinic as part of my registration because I appreciated the opportunity to practice without having to try to borrow someone's horse and bring it to the clinic.  (Donut is too young to handle an all-day clinic.)  As it turned out, what I got to do was hold someone else's horse while she practiced the technique.

And that was frustrating for a whole other reason than not getting to get some hands-on practice.  This poor mare had been natural-horsemanshipped to death.  When I met her, her nostrils were flared and she was breathing in quick, shallow breaths.  Her eyes were as wide as they could be and her ears were permanently stuck backwards.  She was screaming silently for help because every normal method of communication had been trained out of her.  And there was nothing I could do for her.  It was the longest damn hour of my life while I watched the owner be completely unaware of the mare's panic.  And when the instructor came over to watch the owner practice the technique, she either didn't notice or didn't care to mention it.

One of the things I did while I was holding the horse was tell the owner what I was seeing on the mare's face.  So if she was blinking, her lips were twitching, ears flicking, head twitching, etc., I would explain what I saw.  All of these things are signs that a horse has some tension in the area that the person doing the technique is going over.  This mare tried so very hard not to show tension in any way.  I could see her literally straining to hold her lids open, so she wouldn't even blink.  But sometimes, she couldn't hide her tension and she would start to blink.  She even had the ability to blink only one eye and not the other.  On the left side, she would sometimes only blink her right eye.  On the right side, sometimes she would only blink her left eye.  Without me at the head of the mare, the owner would have no way of knowing that.  I'm not sure what significance, if any, there was to that kind of blinking, but it was interesting to see.

The owner was able to get three releases of tension in the form of licking and chewing at a few points in the mare's body on the left side.  Once she moved to the right side, though, things got more interesting.  Instead of struggling to hide her responses, the mare immediately started pinning her ears and blinking rapidly instead of the slow blinking she'd done on the other side.  Within 2-3 seconds of the owner holding her hand over the area that elicited the reaction, the mare would start licking and chewing.  

It was at this point that the instructor came over and saw the pinned ears.  She immediately told the owner to stop, claiming the pinned ears meant the extremely light pressure that the owner was using was too much for the mare.  She said pinned ears where an extreme reaction and she said continuing to work would violate the mare's trust.  At that point, I tried to explain what I'd been seeing in terms of the differences in reactions between the two sides and the quickness of the licking and chewing that followed the ear pinning versus the interminable minutes that had ticked by on the other side while the owner tried to get the mare to release her tension.  But the instructor either didn't understand what I was trying to say or didn't care or didn't know and didn't want to admit it.  It was too bad, because I thought that was a lost opportunity to go more into depth.

After the interaction with the instructor, the owner felt uncomfortable doing much more with the mare because she got scared about the ear pinning.  (I've only owned one other mare in my life, but I had her for 15 years.  If I had backed off every time she'd pinned her ears, I would literally have gotten nothing done.  It's not that I think ear pinning should be ignored, but mares seem to use it much more frequently than geldings to communicate, and I don't think of it as a super high level reaction, although that probably depends on the mare and the circumstances.  In fact, in the case of this mare, who was so shut down and scared to express herself, I thought of it as a positive sign.  Here she was showing her feelings and staying with her for 2-3 seconds could bring her relief.)  If she had been mine, I would have continued to work through that right side with the ear pinning to see what happened.  And then I would have gone back to the left side to see if I could get more releases.  That mare had what looked like a lifetime of anxiety built up, and I really wished that she could have gotten more of a benefit from the bodywork while she was there.

I was initially tempted to consider this clinic a complete waste of my time, and I was kind of aggravated that I went when I could have been at home, with the house to myself.  I've had a very busy and stressful couple of weeks and really needed some down time.  But in retrospect, I don't think the clinic was a waste after all.  I learned something new about the horse world.  I'm not sure that I agree with it, but now I'm aware of it.  

I also saw first-hand what the damage can be from over-using natural horsemanship techniques.  I've seen Mark Rashid discuss it a little in one or two of his books, but I had never seen it in person.  I guess maybe I would rather have lived my life without seeing it, but now I know what it looks like.  I guess that is a good thing, although I don't know if I will ever be able to stop thinking about that poor mare and hoping that someday her life is better.

But the most important thing is that I learned to vet my clinics better.  I will probably only go to Masterson Method clinics that are done by Jim Masterson, rather than a certified person.  Everyone is free to interpret the techniques in their own way, and this particular instructor's interpretation didn't really match what I have watched Jim do.  I could be wrong, but I think he would have stayed working on that mare despite her pinned ears, and I don't think he would have dismissed my observations as irrelevant.  In fact, I expect he would have been able to provide some thoughts on exactly what was going on with that mare and offer deeper insight that would have been useful to know.  Now I'm just left with my own minimal experience to guide me and some theories.

All that said, I do encourage every single horse owner out there to learn more about the Masterson Method.  There are tons of YouTube videos as well as books and DVDs.  I think in-person instruction would be useful for several of the more advanced techniques, but there are many others that are easily learned by watching a video.  I have seen some pretty amazing results from using solely the Bladder Meridian technique.  I used to use it every single time after I rode Nimo for several weeks.  Combining it with a good conditioning program and schooling exercises yielded a much fitter and fluid horse in about five weeks.  

But the biggest benefit to me was that I learned to really become attuned to a horse's subtle communications.  All the time now, I see horses blinking and twitching their lips in response to things people are doing to them or around them.  Horses are constantly communicating and being aware that what I'm doing may be causing stress or discomfort is so helpful.  

I can also feel tension when I touch a horse now in a way that I couldn't before.  Even young Donut carries tension in her poll area and upper neck, so I use the Bladder Meridian Technique just in that area a couple of times a month to check how she is doing.  And when it comes to rehabbing an older horse like Star, the technique is a great way to see how she is progressing and what areas of her body are still having trouble.

So I'm hoping to continue to learn more about the method and start forcing myself to practice some of the other techniques.  I've kind of gotten complacent about it, and now I feel motivated to revisit the book and DVD that I have to pick out two or three more techniques to become comfortable with.

Do you do any bodywork for your horse?  Or hire a professional?  What results have you seen?