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News From Jim  The European courses are now all completed and soon I will be back on home turf. I really appreciate the level of horsemanship here, and the commitment of all who participated. I want to especially thank; Pen Gunter who has helped us with organizing the clinics in the UK, Linda Gould in Belgium, Sheaffe Monteith in Ireland and Katy Davidson for pulling together the yards and horses for the 5-day course in Ireland - we couldn't have done it without you all! The prize for coming from the furthest destination goes to Chantal
Labuschagne,
who flew all the way from South Africa to complete part of her Phase II prerequisite to help at a weekend workshop, Thanks, Chantal for your help! I also want to congratulate our first Phase I certificate candidates, I will now turn them over to the capable hands of Tamara Yates who will guide them through Phase II. I want to announce our newest Certified Masterson Method™ Practitioner; Zoe Milne from the UK who completed her Certification at the Ireland 5-day course! Congratulations Zoe! We will be highlighting her in our next newsletter. We are considering another Phase I & III Course in Ireland next Spring for those that are interested in the Certification Path. We will also be scheduling a 3-Day Advanced course for those that want to go deeper into the techniques but aren't interested in becoming certified. If you are interested in being contacted when we secure the dates, click here.I want to introduce to you Sue Gasperson from North Carolina, one of our new Certification Graduates. Read about her below, not only is she a Masterson Method™ Practitioner, but is also a Centered Riding Instructor! Read also of Glenda Farrier's success story with her horse Flyer who had been injured as a two year old and through Glenda's persistence, is now doing the job she was bred for. And, finally, I have pulled a question from the Discussion Forum for the "Ask Jim" column. I think you will find it interesting. Has your horse ever fallen asleep while you work on him? Read what happened to Ashley's friend's horse when the endorphins kicked in! Until next time, like me, enjoy your horse! Jim
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New Masterson Method
Certification Practitioner
Sue Gasperson
Tryon NC 
Sue has been a lifelong horsewoman beginning her riding
career at age four. She showed hunters
and jumpers, and later dressage through second level. Sue has been a riding instructor for forty years and is currently
a Certified Level II Centered Riding® Instructor teaching hunt seat, dressage, and recreational riding at
Flight Quest Farm near Tryon, NC.
Sue became interested in equine massage therapy and body work in 1992 as
a way of helping her horse Mombi recover from a spinal injury she had suffered
on the track. Over the years, she
attended several equine massage short courses in different modalities, to
expand her knowledge. Attending
her first Masterson Method™ two day seminar in 2007, she was impressed by the gentle
movements and light touch which she found highly effective, and decided to seek
certification.
The unique combination of using Masterson Method™ body
work to balance the horse, and Centered Riding® techniques to balance the
rider has produced some spectacular results in helping horses and riders
achieve optimum performance. In
addition to student's horses, Sue serves horses in all disciplines throughout
North Carolina and surrounding states.
You can contact her:
Farm: 828-863-4913 Mobile:
828-817-4234 email: flightquest@windstream.net
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Masterson Method™ Success Story from Glenda Farrier 
My Morgan mare, Flyer, was injured as a 2 year old when a stray dog chased her over a fence. Our vet drained fluid from between her muscles and skin four times. No other injuries were apparent. We started driving her as a 4 year old but she was rushy, stiff and anxious. She would panic when we started off and tried to zoom through everything asked of her. We gave up that year and tried again the next year, but she was even worse and not safe to drive.
It finally dawned on me that this had to be physical since she was a very sweet and cooperative horse otherwise. A thorough vet exam determined that she had a lot of muscle scarring and some of her muscles had "scrunched up" causing intense pain when she was asked to do certain things, like pull a carriage or bend her body.
I had heard about Jim and went to one of his weekend Masterson Method™ clinics. What I learned there was amazing. I went home and applied my new skills to Flyer. Our vet supported my plan and for 10 weeks, I
worked her for 15 minutes at a trot behind a pickup three
nights a week and afterwards I did the Masterson Method™ and tail pulls.
Her releases of tension and pain were like peeling an onion layer by layer; and with each layer she improved. Finally, we hitched her to a cart for the first time in months. This mare who had been dangerous to drive to a cart, walked off like an old broke horse. We cried. I think she even cried.
This year, Flyer is six and she's finally a driving horse!!! She still has some physical issues; she probably always will, but I can relieve them with a treatment, which she LOVES.
This is our success story! Glenda Farrier
Editor's note: If you have a success story, send it to us to post!
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Ask Jim: 
Dear Jim: I have been sharing your Method with a farm friend.
She wanted to bond with her new 12yr Combined Training, gelding. She is
happy
with the changes, but we have both observed her horses' legs giving out
when he
is worked on. I have not seen this activity addressed in your video and
wanted to
know if you could give me any explanation through your experience.
He
is
releasing and in a very deep state of relaxation. In areas of the
shoulder and
hind end his front or hind end will just give out! He hasn't fallen down
to the
ground, but he has come very close. It could be pictured as if a student
is
falling asleep in class then suddenly jerks. What should we do? Thanks, Ashley
Hi Ashley,
There are two things that sound
familiar to me about this (other than the falling asleep in class
part!).
One is the behavior of the horse as
endorphins are released when we do this work. I've noticed that some of
the
techniques cause the horse to be "drugged" more than others. Also, some
horses
release endorphins more readily than others.
The
shoulder-scapula releases in
the front often can cause a big release of endorphins. Another is a
variation of
the hind leg release in which the hind leg is relaxed forward across the
mid-line, under the belly. Occasionally a horse will become so
relaxed that legs, hind or front, will "buckle" similar to what you have
described. None I've worked on have so far fallen, but I can see how this could be a
concern.
If your friend's horse hasn't fallen yet then it may be that he is
capable of
waking in time to catch himself. (If we're lucky, he may learn to lie
down
after you've worked on him.)
As far as why some horses buckle and
others don't, it probably has something to do with the horse's check
apparatus,
which locks the legs, allowing the horse to sleep standing, among other
things.
I was told by a client recently that
her vet diagnosed that her horse's check apparatus wasn't functioning
properly,
and that he was having to use muscles he normally wouldn't have to use
to relax
standing. I don't know how common this condition is, but I can only
surmise that
if these muscles were relaxed enough to let go, that the legs could
buckle. It
would be interesting to know if this happens with your horse when he is
sedated
for dental or veterinary work.
Another thing that relates to this
has to do with the horse's nervous system "processing" the releases of
tension in
the muscles. When a horse has been
holding tension in an area for a long time, especially if he has been
blocking
pain related to it, we often see signs of the horse's nervous
system
"processing" the release. The muscle lets go of tension, circulation
starts to
return, and the brain starts "re-connecting" through the nervous system the
recently "blocked" areas. Synapses in the brain start re-firing, sending
signals between the brain and the
muscle, letting the body know that the area's working again.
This could
be
connected to endorphin release, too. The horse looks half-asleep, the
only
difference being that his eyes will widen a little, then soften, and
he'll be
twitching and sometimes jerking. Then after a little while he'll wake
up, and
start yawning or licking and chewing, and maybe stretch around and
scratch his
hind end or flank, testing his new flexibility and connection. (Sound
familiar
to any of you?)
I do have one story of a horse
starting to fall over during this process, that didn't involve the legs
buckling. The mare was put in position to release the sacroiliac, that
is a
variation of the hind leg release in which the hind leg is relaxed
forward
across the mid-line, under the belly. (This is one of the positions that
I
refer to as "Horsey Yoga".) Resting in this position, she became so
"drugged"
that her nosed dropped to within a few inches of the ground for at least
five
minutes. During that period, without so much as moving her leg, or
raising her
head, she simply started to fall over! This happened three separate
times. The
owner and I had to walk over and steady her up three times, or she would
have
fallen. She didn't square her legs, raise her head, or anything. Simply
stood
there head down, hind leg crossed, and started to go over.
No moral to that story, it was just
kind of funny to see. Well, another long-winded answer. I
don't know if it answers what to do in this situation, other than hold
up the
horse, but maybe it helps explain why he is doing it.
Keep up the good work.
Jim
 PS. Here is a picture of Zak, one of the horses we used at Wendy Robert's Yard in the Shropshire, UK clinic. After working on him, he just laid down for a snooze. People and horses walked around him and he didn't bat an eye. He was pretty tight in his poll, and after the release he needed a good rest, and, he didn't care what anyone else thought!
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Missing Link from Last Newsletter
In the last newsletter we posted a letter from Rachel Kristiansen from the University of Mississippi asking for support for a dissertation project focusing on the personality structure of horses. The link to her website was incorrect, and for those that wanted to support her research by filling out a questionnaire, were left with no where to go. Here is the correct link:
http://wyomingequineresearch.org
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Seminar
Calendar
August 14th-15th Little Compton, RI FULLMasterson
Method™ Weekend Seminar-Workshop August 21st - 22nd Three
Forks, Montana (30 min W. of Bozeman) Masterson Method™ Weekend
Seminar-Workshop with Tamara Yates, Certified Instructor Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierFor more
information Contact Us641-472-1312, M-F 9am-noon Sept
4th-5th Palo Alto, CaliforniaStanford
University's Red Barn Masterson Method™ Weekend Seminar-Workshop Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierFor more information Contact Us or call 641-472-1312,
M-F 9am-noon Central Time Sept 6th - 10th 1 Spot LeftPalo
Alto, California 5-day, Phase I Certification
Course. Prerequisites apply. Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierFor more information Contact Us or call: 641-472-1312,
M-F 9am-noon Central Sept 18th - 19th NEWMequon, WIWith Stefanie Reinhold Certified Instructor (18 miles from Milwaukee Center and 26 miles from Milwaukee airport) Click here for FlierFor more logistical information contact Stefanie or call: 608 513 8777 October 2nd - 3rd UK Seminar (45 min N/NW of Heathrow Airport) Masterson
Method™ Weekend Seminar-Workshop Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierContact us for more
information and booking form. October 4th - 8th UK, Phase I Certification Course - FULL Prerequisites apply. October 16th-17th Girona, Spain Masterson Method™ Weekend Seminar-Workshop Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierContact us for more information and booking form October
22nd, 23rd, 24th Tryon, NC (near
Asheville) 3-day Advanced CourseTaught by Tamara Yates Certified Instructor Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierFor more
information Contact Us or call: 641-472-1312, M-F 9am to noon, Central Time November 6th-7th Terrell,
Texas(40 minutes East of Dallas) Masterson Method™ Weekend
Seminar-Workshop Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierFor more information Contact Us641-472-1312,
M-F 9am-noon November 13th - 14th Pendleton, IN
(Heated
barn!)(45 min NE of Indianapolis, IN) Masterson Method™ Weekend
Seminar-Workshop Read about course descriptionClick here for FlierFor more information Contact Us641-472-1312,
M-F 9am-noon Central Time |
Dressage
Training-On-Line
The website:
DressageTrainingOnLine has asked Jim for some videos to post on their website. This is a membership based, on-line streaming, dressage training website. After a member posted an article on the Masterson Method, they contacted Jim to see if he would be interested in posting videos. They felt Jim's techniques would round out the other training videos of their stable of riders, trainers and judges including Catherine Haddad, Hilda Gurney, Andreas Helgstrand, Courtney King-Dye. Jim's videos should be up and available soon. Click here to go to the site =>
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The World's Finest Horse Grooming Brushes - Borstiq™
Horse Grooming Brushes from Natural Materials, made in Sweden
This just in from MM Certified Practitioner and Instructor, Stefanie
Reinhold:
Borstiq™ brushes are made of finest natural materials like hardwood, good quality natural bristles and leather straps to provide you with the best, long lasting quality and your horse with a great grooming feeling. These solid, well made brushes feature a higher bristle density than any other brush on the market. Before deciding to retail and distribute these brushes, I tested them by using a set to brush my three horses approximately 5 x/week for 11 months (that equals 660 grooming sessions!!!). The brushes passed the test with flying colors. No bent, out of shape bristles, no need to buy a new brush, they look good and still go strong and I expect them to last for years to come. These excellent horse grooming brushes are also a blessing for any horse that is sensitive to synthetic bristles or to the stinging action of cheaply made horse hair brushes. Their ergonomic shape makes them easy to use and you'll never have to look for another brush again. Disappointing horse grooming brushes are a thing of the past! Good quality makes sense, also from an environmental perspective. A brush that gives you years of satisfying service, replaces a series of purchases that end up in the landfill. Click here to go to Stefanie's website to find out more information on these natural brushes! |
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