Big news! Two of my online courses are now approved by the National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure and Massage (NBCAAM) for continuing education hours!
The Kissing Spine Masterclass is approved for both skills and general hours
and
The Equine Dental Connection is approved for general hours
Read MoreI’ve heard it time and time again…
“That’s just their conformation”
“Once their back drops that’s just how it is”
“There’s nothing we can do”
I’ve heard it so many times that I started to believe it myself.
Read MoreI probably don’t say this enough…
But the truth is rehab is HARD.
Caregiver burden is real and it’s valid and it can destroy relationships if you don’t make sure to take care of yourself, too.
Your friends are going on a trail ride and you can’t go, so your social life suffers.
The changes are often small and slow, it’s hard to see and feel the progress to stay motivated.
Read MoreDIMINISHED INCLINATION and why it needs to be the first thing you check for if your horse has TMJ dysfunction.
This is a before and after from some top notch work from equine dentist Suzzi Peeler today.
We’ve been looking for a diminished inclination example to add to our online course The Equine Dental Connection and today was the day!
This guy was kept up to date on dentals, but unfortunately as sharp points were taken down, the normal angles of the molars were not restored by the practitioner.
Read MoreRecently someone took a before and after photo collage I shared of Malachi, a horse in my care for rehabilitation, and posted it in a Facebook conformation evaluation group. The poster was questioning my integrity, suggesting these results were not possible and the photos or the way I took them must have been manipulated to achieve the results I was claiming - and ultimately the comments got turned off…
That’s a normal thing nowadays but honestly it was disappointing because some nice discussions were starting to happen around the differences between conformation and posture and what is actually possible in rehabilitation.
Read MoreSo an interesting thing happened tonight.
Someone took my Malachi before and after from the other day and stuck it in a conformation group to talk about why my photos weren’t good comparisons and to express doubt about the truthfulness of my claims or how this could be possible.
The word used was “gimmicky”
Read MoreOther professionals may relate to this… sometimes in our lives the same issue keeps popping up over and over again in different horses.
It feels like we have common “themes” of diagnoses or lack-of-diagnoses at different times.
I’m not sure if it’s just because that’s what I’m paying most attention to, some kind of psychological bias, or if the universe is telling me it’s time to buckle down and figure this thing out.
Read MoreI originally wrote this post for our crew over at Next Level Barrel Racing but I thought it might be useful to the masses, too!
I preach a lot about teaching the horse to move with his head down - withers height or lower is usually my recommendation. This helps the horse naturally activate the “right” muscles - the ones that create the type of supportive spine we can sit on without damaging the horse over time.
And the question I got was:
When does the head come back up? Nose in the dirt won’t work for a race.
Read More
