Over the years, I have become increasingly sensitive to our deep need as a human tribe to communicate and understand the animals within our care, whether for sport or simply to share space with them. I received a strong communication from the horse world a few years ago, compelling me to create a modality that helps people bond with their animals in a sacred and safe way, listening to the subtle clues of the body and responding to more apparent emotive expressions. The animal world is constantly communicating with us in the purest way. They have no placebo. We simply need to learn to listen to and read the signs and signals they give us.

All mammals possess the ability to neurogenically tremor after an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. Humans, however, have overridden the brain stem function, which allows them to naturally shake off this hyperarousal after a fight, flight or freeze response. When manual fascia release is administered to humans and domesticated horses, we can access the areas of stored trauma in the body, whether from a slow stress state or massive traumatic episode. We are also able to create phenomenal healing in the connective tissue where injury and pain occur and release scars that could be creating a problem in the fascia’s web.

In this workshop, horse owners and therapists alike will be taught the anatomical and biokinetic philosophy of fascia and the ‘fascia trains’ as discovered by the team led by Vibeke Elbrond at the University of Copenhagen (based on the ‘anatomy trains’ of Tom Myers) and how to release the tremor mechanism of the horse and human. The attention is initially focused on the riders and their own compensation patterns, with the introduction of an effective manual therapy tool to self-treat their equines and themselves.

The workshop is not designed to replace but rather enhance the equine therapist’s toolbox and enable them to add a new aspect to their work. It takes a more in-depth look at the fascia trains as well as pain patterns, the link between chronic pain and trauma, and the neurology of the autonomic nervous system.

For the horse owner, the workshop provides them with tools to help themselves and bond with their equines in a deeper way, all the while supporting their Equine Therapists.