As a note we have a 5 month waiting list for horses in training, If you are thinking of booking time for this please do so soon to assure your horse has a place this year at SOM.

The introductory price for IHTC will be change in a few months to full price. The IHTC condenses decades or researches, experiments and practical applications. There is only one syllable between simple and simpler and without adequate knowledge simple is simpler. We do not pretend that the horse's biological mechanism is simple, but it can be clearly explained. We do not pretend that riding efficiently is simple but it can be learned. We do not pretend that reeducating a horse is simple. Accepting the complexity of a problem is a decisive step toward resolving it. In most instances a horse's can be reeducated if we move away from the riding and training principles that created the problem. 

Sincerely,
Editor Helyn Cornille
Science Of Motion

 

 

Wow.  There's just so much to talk with you about in regard to the In Hand Therapy Course...

I guess to answer your first question, yes, I use the information every single time I work with my horse.  Or other horses for that matter.  The depth of the material is amazing...

Let me back track a little to give you a better understanding...

I began riding 35 years ago.  I became a massage therapist almost 15 years ago.  -I'm a licensed massage therapist and my practice revolves around massage therapy for both horses and horsemen.  I'm an equine veterinary technician and I've been blessed with the  good fortune of working with some of the best equine sports medicine veterinarians in the country.  Continuing education is incredibly important to me. Once a year, almost every year for the past 15 or so years, I've traveled across the country searching for the best, most up to date courses on equine anatomy, physiology, sports medicine & rehabilitation, saddle fitting, etc. etc.

 

The area I live in has a fairly high population of professional horsemen from a wide range of disciplines.-From flat racing and steeplechase to polo, carriage driving, eventers, dressage, etc.  We even have a few eventers who are veterans of the Olympic Team.  -As you can imagine, there's no shortage of options for clinics and lessons.

Trust me, the only reason I'm telling you all this is to point out the fact that I've done my homework in regard to my choice to study with Jean Luc.

This calibre of education is very, very difficult to find.  Yes you can certainly find pearls of wisdom with various horsemen and/or veterinarians.  But as I said, the depth and the quality of education Jean Luc is offering is priceless.  I've been trying to find a program like this for years.  You'd be hard pressed to find someone who not only understands anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, and equine psychology as well as he does BUT ALSO has a gift for teaching and sharing it.  AND has the career riding experiences that he has.

As I mentioned, there are numerous riding instructors in my area.  And again, very, very few of them can train a horse, especially to the higher levels and keep the horse happy and sound.  That's honestly what I love the most about studying with Jean Luc.  As a vet tech and a massage therapist, I can't tell you how often I hear clients talking about joint injections.  It's almost a given that horses who are competing end up having their hocks and stifles injected.  That's just not a path I want to travel with my horse.  -Too often as a massage therapist I have felt the muscular strain and fatigue that's the "accepted" result of many training programs.  I was looking for a much more educated approach...an approach that would offer a stronger, healthier horse.  I wanted a training philosophy I could feel confident in passing along to my clients.  I want to be helpful to them and to their horses in offering rehabilitation options if they do have injuries. -I'm guessing you've either met or seen photos of the Cornille's horse, Chazot?  -take a look at the muscular development from the time he left the race track and first arrived at their farm to the way he's built and carries himself today.Those pictures will tell you alot.

Yes, I've been to numerous clinics that Jean Luc has taught here in Pennsylvania and I've traveled to Georgia for I believe the 3rd Immersion Clinic.

In fact, we're in the processing of organizing another clinic here in PA, hopefully early this spring.  The information is certainly not difficult to understand.  -You do need to be open to the fact that many of the training philosophies we were taught as young riders has been proven to simplynot be true.  You're going to learn new concepts.  If you're going to attend an Immersion Clinic, depending on how confident you are in equine anatomy, I would suggest brushing up on it before you go.  There's alot of information presented throughout the weekend and it will be much easier to absorb and process if anatomy is second nature.

But seriously, there is no need to take my word for any of this.  Spend some time riding with Jean Luc.  Your horse will tell you he's happy.

And your horse should have the final say!

Kindest regards and very best of luck to you!

D.P

 

Most of those of us currently enrolled would be considered the freshman class. We are the Beta version, hence the current cost. I am an Equine Therapist, so for me the concentration is on performing the work in hand, as compared to the riders in the group who will focus on the work from in the saddle. The science of equine  motion is the same regardless.  We have a group on facebook which serves as both a forum and support group. The variety of questions is great because other people are always coming up with things you might not think of and that broadens the experience. Some of us have become regular friends on facebook as well, so that we can chat outside of the forum. We all keep an eye out for when Jean Luc is doing a clinic in our area so we can see the well spring of SOM in action. For me it is not easy and I have seen some of the DVD's multiple times and still go back to them. It is rewarding though, when you go back and realize how much more you see. What is really amazing though is the way you begin to experience seeing a horse. It is kind of funny when you see a horse standing there and you find yourself thinking, move already so I can see what kind of horse you are. I am not a rider, but even I can watch someone bouncing all over the place at the trot  and wonder when the horse is going to go lame, because I see it as a biomechanical issue. LW

 

Hello, As a recent graduate of veterinary school at the ripe age of 52, I just wanted to comment on science of motion. I went to veterinary college specifically looking for the sort of approach you have developed for rehabilitating horses and for preventing injury in the first place. It is what I imagined doing as veterinarian. For four years as a student I looked for someone would even acknowledge that such an approach was possible let alone had any idea how to go about it. Helping a friend recently trying to rehab a horse with an SI dysfunction led me randomly on a search that allowed me to discover scienceofmotion. Speaking as a veterinarian and lover of horses, I am so thankful that you have dedicated your lives to creating this body of information and are willing to share it with the world. Best wishes, Dr. Timothy Rogers DVM

 

Welcome, and we thought we were on to something with the immersion clinics, IHTC adds a new dimension. If immersion brought technicolor to your world with horses get ready for surround sound and 3D. Louis Wild

The first month's packet is wonderful as it is going even deeper into the knowledge needed to really understand the kematics of the horse. I have even found that studying it, I can look up scientific articles describing the way muscles work which help me to start to grasp the whole concept.

The more I see and learn, the more I am convinced that this is the only way to truly help the rider help the horse. They are the ones that have constant contact with the horse and in order to try and show them this true way, one must have an indisputable knowledge of the scientific facts regarding the horses biomechanics. The In Hand Therapy seems the best way to help the rider help the horse. Rosemary Crowley

"My horse is a dominant horse. I have been told that I have to dominate him". Think again. If the horse is effectively a dominant horse, he will resist or even fight domination. The story will end, like they often do behind the curtain, with old cowboy tricks, roping one of the horse front leg, throwing the horse onto the ground, keeping the head shortly tied for hours in the stall, etc, You might end with a submitted horse but you will have severely damage the horse's brain and consequently you will have hampered all chances to properly educate the horse's physique.

In the training ring, you are not in competition with your mare's hormones or your gelding or male testosterone. From the simplest performance, carrying a rider through the country side, to the most complex athletic achievement, a grand Prix jumping course or dressage test, the horse's limbs and vertebral column kinematics adapt to the burden of the rider's weight and the athletic demand of the performance, The more complex the performance, the greater the involvement of the horse's intelligence. For instance, Jose Morales measured in 1998 the hind legs adaptation to the addition of the rider's weight. "It should be borne in mind that the weight of the rider will rise two- or three-fold during locomotion and also that more energy is required by a mounted horse and this energy must be obtained by increasing the stance phase so as to recover more energy during the swing." (J. L. Morales, DVM, PhD, 1998)

The bottom line is that even the most elementary performance, carrying and rider, demands an adaptation that the horse is unlikely to succeed efficiently without educated insights form the rider. Academic equitation as well as natural horsemanship oversimplify the problem pretending that the horse's education is about , "restoring to the mounted horse the gracefulness of attitudes and movements which he possessed when he was free. But which becomes marred by the weight and interference of the rider"  (General Decarpentry - 1949) This concept is na�ve and inaccurate. Athletic performances are inspired from natural movement but they are stylized versions form these natural movements. A ballet dancer lifts her leg at the vertical. The move is the stylized version of a natural movement, the one that you and I may execute lifting the leg at the horizontal. We are executing this natural movement using muscles of the upper thigh. The ballet dancer executes the stylized version of this natural movement using and coordinating totally different muscle groups. Preparing a horse for modern athletic performances through the repetition of natural reflexes condemn the horse to performances below their potential and inevitable lameness.  

True education is about preparing efficiently the horse's physique for the athletic demand of the performance. Therefore, true education is about guiding the horse's brain toward an orchestration of natural reflexes sophisticated beyond the scoop of natural reflexes. Already at the 17th century, the Duke of Newcastle understood the concept. "Art and science coexist creating perfect motion." A century earlier, Leonardo da Vincy (1452-1519) also related art to scientific knowledge.  "Lacking an appreciation born of a detailed analysis of bone structure and muscular relationships, the would-be artist was liable to draw wooden and graceless nudes that seem rather as if you were looking at a stack of nuts than a human form, or a bundle of radishes rather than the muscles...." Leonardo metaphors, "stacks of nuts, bundle of radishes," apply both to the muscular development of horses trained through natural reflexes and the look of performances executed by dysfunctional horses.

Creating a functional athlete and therefore a horse muscularly prepared for the athletic demand of the performance, engages the horse's intelligence and instead of killing the brain of a dominant horse training psychology should at the contrary develop the horse's intelligence. The brain of a dominant horse is more active and creative than the brain of a submitted horse. In the history of evolution, it has been observed that predators needed, in order to survive, more mental diversity than grazing animals. They needed more planning, observation and exploitation of the prey's habits, the hunt demanded strategy and ruses, the attack required planning and so on. Dominant animals are mentally more active and instead of killing the gift, training techniques should challenge and direct the horse's mental processing.

READ ON

Forward (Braking and Pushing )Preview from the DVD Forward

 

Usual abbreviations and key words

(SIJ), Sacroiliac Joint. (SID), Sacroiliac Dysfunction. (VSIL), Ventral Sacroiliac Ligament. (DSIL), dorsal sacroiliac ligament. (Physeal), Relating to the area of bone that separates the metaphysis and the epiphysis, in which the cartilage grows. (SCDL), sacrocaudalis dorsalis lateralis muscle

When, in 1969 James Rooney introduced the biomechanic analysis of lameness, standardbred racehorses were particularly prone to sacroiliac dysfunction. The pathologist theorized that "the waggle-tail gait of the harness horse might well predispose to minor subluxation of one or the other sacroiliac joints, tendinous strain, etc." (1) Rooney also observed partial luxation of one or both sacroiliac joints in jumpers. Today, jumper and dressage horses are the most affected. "In a group of 74 horses with pain in the sacroiliac joint, dressage horses and show jumpers were found to be more at risk for sacroiliac dysfunction than horses from other disciplines including racing, eventing and general purpose." (2)

Several hypotheses may explain the actual increase of sacroiliac dysfunctions, (SID), in the dressage field. One rational thought is that new training techniques are creating abnormal stresses on the sacroiliac joints. Another possibility is that traditional training approaches are no longer capable of efficiently preparing the horse's physique for the athletic demand of modern performances. A third perspective is that when those, with insufficient knowledge of equine biomechanics, attempt to teach specific movements, the subsequent physical and mental development creates a horse that is physically unprepared for the athletic demands of the performance, which then makes the body more prone to injuries.

"The role of the SIJ is to transfer the forces from the horse's hind limbs to the thoracolumbar vertebral column. This transfer of forces may be achieved via connection of the ligaments particularly the DSIL and the sacrotuberous ligamen, and the related fasciae. These ligaments are anchored through the thoracolumbar and gluteal fasciae and the hamstring sacrotuberous ligament complex." (4). Below the sacrum is the very strong Ventral Sacroiliac Ligament, (VSIL).

View of the main thoracolumbar spine's ligaments. The position of the ventral sacroiliac ligament is indicated by transparence through the pelvis under the sacroiliac joint. The red arrow shows the short DSIL

Above the sacrum and connecting to the tuber sacral is the dorsal sacroiliac ligament, (DSIL). The DSIL is composed of two elements. One is a cord like portion that runs from the dorsal aspect of each tuber sacrale to the apices of the sacral spinous process. This element is referred to as the short DSIL.

Hastened and superficial education places horses in the Grand Prix ring before they have reached physical maturity. In 2009, Kevin Haussler recorded deformations of the equine pelvis under load. "The bones of the pelvis are not a rigid structure and bony pelvic deformation is a normal occurrence in any sacroiliac joint movement." (3) The degree of deformation varies with age. Equine pelvis physeal closure occurs at 5 years of age (plus 2 to 8 months). Iliac crest formation and fusion to the underlying bone occurs at 7 years. Therefore, a dressage horse entering the Grand Prix Dressage ring at age 7 is not structurally ready for the intensity of the athletic demand.

SID is primarily a training disease. In a few instances dysfunction can occur from dramatic trauma but most often, dysfunction is the outcome of repetitive abnormal stresses. Training misconceptions, such as compelling the horse to speed around the ring, are abnormally stressing the sacroiliac joint, (SIJ). In two cases that we have rehabilitated the problem was that the training techniques applied were ill adapted to the horses' particular morphology. As a generality any training program that submits every horse to the same order of priorities places each individual horse at risk of SID. The anatomy of the SIJ clearly exposes its deep relation with forward motion, balance control and performance. A clear distinction needs to be made between learning to show and learning to ride. Learning to show is about submitting the horse to judging standards without sound understanding and concern for the athletic demand imposed on the horse's physique by the performance. Learning to ride focuses on preparing efficiently the athlete's physique in preparation for the demands of the performance. The former is the main cause of SID. The latter is the best therapy for prevention or treatment of sacroiliac dysfunction.

Based on manipulations applied to humans a battery of manipulations have been proposed for the horses' rehabilitation. However, while a human is likely to participate in the manipulation knowing that some pain during the therapy session might lead to better reeducation in the future, the horse, which lives in the moment, is more likely to protect himself from any stimulation of pain, thereby resisting the movement that the therapy is suggesting. The movements suggested, as therapeutic manipulations, can be recreated while riding the horse or working the horse in hand. Whether mounted or in hand, such an approach demands equitation based on actual knowledge of equine physiology as well as correct symbiotic positioning while working from the ground. Both of which in turn creates more effective therapeutic movements. Basically, an educated equestrian may be the horse's best therapist.

 

 

The complete PDF file which is available for purchase here

The new program, Immersion One to One, is the absolute, ultimate learning tool.

The day commences with a conversation in the barn while tacking up the horse. The discussion is about the horse's history. Jean Luc is asking questions about the progression of discomfort or lameness, the therapies applied, etc.

The first riding or in hand session focus on identifying the root cause of the horse's problem and teaching to the rider how to address the horse's issue.

As the horse rest after his work, the rider and Jean Luc are discussing in the class room, the physiology behind the horse's problem. The conversation is casual but eminently informative. Horses' skeletons as well as computer animations are used to provide a sound picture of the horse's problem and the body coordination likely to restore soundness.

Jean Luc often uses Vincent van Gogh's reflection, "I dream my painting and then I paint my dream." After a visual and intelligent understanding of the horse's problem, (I dream my painting), the rider paints his dream practicing with greater accuracy riding techniques and exercises applied during the first riding session. 

   

In the light of our first One to One Immersion, we feel that the half day option is the most efficient. Several variables are possible.

(With your horse or our horses)

One rider and one horse. Half day, arriving the day before and leaving the afternoon or the next day.

One rider and two horses. One horse the morning and one horse the afternoon.

Two riders and two horses. The riding sessions remain private, one rider the morning and one rider the afternoon, but the discussions referring to each horse's issue can be shared by both riders.    

Not surprisingly, the same approach is used for performance, (see the first One to One Immersion report). The first case of navicular syndrome that we have rehabilitated was initially unable to perform the series of tempi-changes. The back muscle imbalance which created the limb kinematic abnormality causing the injury was primarily hampering the horse's ability to perform. If, instead of being interpreted asbehavior, the horse's difficulties had been scientifically analyzed, the development of navicular syndrome would likely have been prevented.

Immerse yourself into this new technique. , at new home of Science of Motion,  

One to One Immersion Programs

From private lesson to 1/2 day Immersion we have several programs that can fit your needs.

Drive in.

-Private lesson, $165.00 per hour. Stall available for resting the horse or other horse with no charge.

Half Day Immersion.

(With or without your horse)

$350.00

-Private lesson, analysis of your horse.

-Introduction or further education of the in hand work with our horse

-Technical discussion, scientific approach to a problem regarding your horse.

-Hand out, Jean Luc or scientific study related to your horse's problem.

-Stall available for the horse.

Three to Five Days 1/2 Days Immersion

Three Days $ 1,000.00, included horse's boarding and turn out, (arrival day before, departure day after).

                                                Five Days $ 1,650.00 included horse's boarding and turn out, (arrival day before, departure day after).

To make reservations contact Helyn 706-485-1217 or email helyn@scienceofmotion.com

 

In respect of actual knowledge of limbs kinematics and equine vertebral column mechanism, medium trot is a performance athletically more demanding than Piaff and Passage. Rationally, medium trot should not be asked before at the least Prix Saint Georges and probably even later. In fact is medium trot is performed as it should maintaining perfect control of the balance and therefore cadence all the way through the diagonal, the athletic demands of the performance is as difficult if not more difficult than the piaff. The reason why medium trot is asked at third level is that the designs of the dressage tests as well as the judging standards are based on the heretical belief that the alighting hind leg propels the horse's body upward and forward as soon as ground contact. The same belief supports theories such as driving the horse onto the bit and rushing the horse forward. If, as these inaccurate theories believe, the alighting hind leg produced an upward propulsive force as soon as ground contact, increasing the hind legs propulsive activity would be effective.

The problem and the reason why these riding and training techniques are keeping talented horses below their real athletic abilities and cripple a large percentages of them is that the supporting hind leg does not propel the body upward as soon as ground contact. At the contrary, the supporting hind leg decelerates the horse's body from impact and until about 45% of the support phase. The joints of the alighting hind leg fold resisting attraction of gravity and inertia forces. This cumulus of forces is often referred to as "impact forces." This sequence of the stride is referred to as "braking phase." The term braking is confusing. A good comparison is the work of your leading leg as you are walking down hill with a back pack of about 15 pounds. Your leading leg impacts and your knee extensors muscles decelerate your body resisting attraction of gravity and inertia forces. Without this decelerating action, gravity would make you run faster and faster until the bottom of the hill. Technically, your leading leg is "braking." However you leg is not rigid bracing against the ground; forward motion never stops. The joins of your leg fold resisting attraction of gravity and inertia forces. The work of your knee extensor muscles is essentially eccentric, which is a powerful type of muscle contraction. As you are walking and not jogging, the strain energy created by the eccentric contraction is not immediately reused and therefore is dissipate as heat. If you are not trained at hiking up and down hill, you will experience muscle soreness the next day.

Since he had his pictures published on Facebook, Caesar is a little cocky and he is bullying Manchester. All three are in the large field, Arpege, Caesar and Manchester and the dynamic is changing. Manchester is the patriarch, the philosopher and I was expecting that he will move away. I was amused by Caesar postural behavior and even if I was grazing and not even watching, I expected seeing Manchester walking away. I became intrigued observing that at the contrary, Manchester hold his ground. Then I was appalled the see Manchester rearing and then chasing Caesar while bucking. The grass fell each side of my mouth it is how I realize that I had my mouth open. Even Caesar was surprised. He cantered away realizing that Manchester had metamorphosed into a leader.

 

I walked toward the fence and Manchester joined me on the other side. We were grazing like if it was business as usual but as you know, I cannot resist a little sarcasm. I told Manchester, Well, according to the horsemanship theories you are the dominant one. Manchestre reacted quickly. What these herd dynamic theories completely miss is that our behavior in the field is directed by our personality and our athletic capabilities. I have been crippled and lame for 8 years of my life. I could not rear. I could not canter. I could not buck. I could not even kick with one hind leg while standing still. I could barely move away at the trot. I did not have the physical capacity to react. I am not low in the packing order lacking self-esteem like these theories theorized. I had a strong mind but a crippled body. I did not have any choice but outsmarting the physical ones. I never have been the young stallion puffing his chest entertaining the ladies. I always have been the patriarch, which company has always been appreciated by the females seeking calm and the young horses seeking advice. While the physical leader was posturing and gesturing, I was the spiritual leader around which many horses liked to graze. The horsemanship believers were all wrong and truly never understood my situation in the social order. I guess they judge in terms of hormone or testosterone but not in terms of grey matter. Today I am physically sound and in fact, I feel stronger and stronger. I have the same mind but a stronger body and I can play the physical game." I told him that I remember having done the same thing to him when I arrived at the farm. I was happy to have company and I pushed him. I even hurt him. Helyn and he separated us and when they tried again later Manchester was always placing a tree between him and me. When I realized that Manchester was in fact outsmarting me, I gained respect for him. We have become great friends. His presence reassures me and he likes to be close from me.

 

Equestrian theories are for a great part simpler, the safety rein, half halt, stretching of the neck, side reins, legs without hands and hands without legs, etc. etc. These theories came with the label scientifically proved, which means that partial scientific findings have been distorted to accredit the theory. In a recent talk, epidemiologist Ben Goldacre denounced as bad science, the misrepresentations or convenient omissions that food industries and others, including the equestrian industry, are using to sell their products.

When in the history of riding a theologian came up with the theory, legs without hands and hands without legs, the thought was based on simplistic thinking and complete ignorance of the fact than any complex living organism, such as the horse, is composed of  systems within a system within a system. The Dopeys of the equestrian world emphasized the superficial results. They totally ignored the chain reaction from which superficial to microscopic level is going to efficiently orchestrate the horse's physique, thereby leaving potentially crippling effects.

A rein action that may appear efficient at one level may induce adverse and damaging effects at a deeper level. The so-called safety reinfor instance, promises control by bending the horse's neck intensively. Promoters never talk about both the physical and mental damages that the rein action is causing. Whether their omission is directed by plain or convenient ignorance, the damages are abnormally stressing the horse's physique.

In this rubric, we refer to theologians of the equestrian world as Ghosts, because they live in an unreal world. The prefix waspish refers to the ghosts' nastiness. Their equestrian theories are off of reality but their egos do not allow them to look for more intelligent and efficient approaches. Their energy is then concentrated on proving that they are right and criticizing anyone who does not venerate them. Look very much like fanatic religions does it not?

Since, like humans, horses suffer from bad science and benefit from real science, we are going to expose through this rubric and in the light of most recent scientific discoveries, the side and hidden effects of simpler theories starting with the safety rein as well as every lateral bending of the neck achieved through reins effects.

"In the cervical and thoracic vertebral column, rotation is always coupled with lateroflexion and vice versa." (Jean Marie Denoix, 1999). In the horse's thoracolumbar column, transversal rotations occur mostly in the vicinity of the 9th to 14th thoracic vertebrae but do have an effect on the whole thoracolumbar spine. Transversal rotations can be proper, enhancing the horse's performances, or inverted, hampering the horse's ability to move and perform efficiently.