Equine BodyWork Musings for Horse Lovers

Equine BodyWork is a great way to connect with and heal your horse, and as I’ll explain a little later, a great way to connect with and heal ourselves as well.  Heal is a big word. In this context, I am referring to two main pathways that lead to decreasing stress levels and increasing endorphins (and other good things!) that provide fertile ground for healing processes.  These two pathways, simplified, are 1) reducing tension, and 2) developing focused and positive intention.  

There are lots of ways to accomplish this for ourselves and our horses, like proper training, riding, care/attention, exercise, and more.  Horse massage, or as I prefer to say, Equine BodyWork, just happens to be one of the best ways, in my opinion.  I may be biased.  

Massage and Bodywork is one of the few crafts I have dedicated over 10,000 hours to (this concept is based on a theory popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, and while it is by no means a complete learning theory, is an idea that illustrates several good points).  It has taken that much practice and observation to say it all boils down to 1) releasing tension and 2) developing focused and positive intention.  At the end of the day, spending time with someone (horses definitely included here) in a present way, free of agendas, and with a loving and caring heart is where real magic and healing can occur.  

A loving heart, and present hands is all that matters, especially when talking about you and your horse, and your daily routine.  While it took me many years to really realize this, it doesn’t take any time at all to add this to your ‘on the ground’ tool kit.  

We share a deep and profound social instinct with horses, and even more interestingly, we have coevolved for centuries, further developing and deepening this instinct.  This instinct is part of why horses know what we are thinking and feeling, and even more astonishing, we believe they understand our intentions, but that’s a whole other subject for another time!   

One really cool side effect here is that healing, in this way, is a two way street.  The Heart Math Institute has done some research to help explain something all of us who are passionate about horses have known all along:  Just being around horses feels good!  I think several factors are at play, but their research has revealed something that I think is revelatory, and not surprisingly it’s all about the heart.

Did you know that our hearts produce an electromagnetic field that extends in all directions around us 8-10 feet?  The Heart Math Institute has measured the electromagnetic field of a horse's heart and discovered that it extends 40-50 feet!  They have also determined that the horse's field (horsefield LOL)  is so strong that it can influence our own heart rhythm.  Even more profound is that the heart rate variability (HRV) associated with horse hearts is associated with human feelings of joy and calmness.  If interested, more info is found here:  https://www.heartmath.org/?s=horse

I’d love to go on for days and nerd out about all the various nuances and subjects relating to equine bodywork, such as how communicating with horses through their body is how you speak to their brain, the wonderment in knowing their bodies are composed of remnants of stars, or their athletic prowess as measured in muscle mass and VO2 max is truly legendary across all animal species, or that their heart pumps over 13000 gallons of blood a day, and how we can take human based osteopathic modalities and apply it to horses; and hopefully for anyone interested, we will have a chance to talk about some of these things down the trail.  

Ultimately my hope is that you will find it inspiring and empowering to know that YOU can connect profoundly through your hands, using the ancient art and science of healing touch with your horses, and it is my sincere intention to show you how.   

Channeling a Jedi attitude is key:  Use the Force!  And as always, May the Horse be With You Always!

- Josh Williams