What is equine bodywork?
Horse’s muscles do not get better with rest. As a prey animal, the horse guards and hides his weaknesses, like muscle tension and restriction, and layers it like an onion. This may create various physical and emotional barriers that will affect the horse’s performance and overall health.
4WS bodywork sessions utilize the Masterson Method, an integrated, unique interactive, multi-modality method of equine massage. By taking each joint of the horse’s body through a small range of motion while working under the horse's instinctive bracing response, this method releases tension in key junctions of the body that most affect performance (Poll-Atlas Junction, Neck-Shoulder-Withers Junction and the Hind-End Junction), allowing the horse to actively participate. The part of the horse's nervous system that blocks out pain and discomfort (the sympathetic, or flight, fight or freeze) let's go and that part of the nervous system that regenerates and heals (the parasympathetic) comes into play. This allows the horse to release tension that it has difficulty releasing on its own. What sets this method apart from any other? The horse must actively participate for it to work.
4WS bodywork sessions utilize the Masterson Method, an integrated, unique interactive, multi-modality method of equine massage. By taking each joint of the horse’s body through a small range of motion while working under the horse's instinctive bracing response, this method releases tension in key junctions of the body that most affect performance (Poll-Atlas Junction, Neck-Shoulder-Withers Junction and the Hind-End Junction), allowing the horse to actively participate. The part of the horse's nervous system that blocks out pain and discomfort (the sympathetic, or flight, fight or freeze) let's go and that part of the nervous system that regenerates and heals (the parasympathetic) comes into play. This allows the horse to release tension that it has difficulty releasing on its own. What sets this method apart from any other? The horse must actively participate for it to work.
Alice with husband Lyle and Jim Masterson, Creator of the Masterson Method, at Final Certification in 2018.
