For years now, my horses and I have been getting myofascial release treatments from Doris Halstead, who wrote the book Symmetry in Motion and has also written Release the Potential and released a DVD. Lucky for us, Doris has been a local gal, a physical therapist who found the myofascial release technique and then began applying it to horses as well as humans.
You can read more about the technique at www.myofascialrelease.com but the general idea is that the fascia are the guy wires that hold muscles and tendons and hard tissue together, and manipulating the fascia and releasing the connective tissue can help address body asymmetries and associated dysfunction and pain.
I am a crooked girl, largely due to a bad fall I took from Ned when he was 4, and subsequent crooked habits that I honed for years following. In general, I tend to ride a straight horse as though it is heading toward 10 o’clock, so work from Doris and diligent practice in pretending I am riding a horse that is going toward 2 o’clock get me somewhere near straight. Most of the time. Unless I spend too much time on the computer, or in the car, or indulging bad habits like always crossing one leg over the other, etc.
Doris arrived to work on me and two (human) friends of mine. Joan, who has had neck surgery resulting from a car accident over a decade ago, and Carla, who is a fellow endurance rider but also an aesthetician, a career which creates all sorts of opportunity for body pain!
Doris worked first on the equine boys. Ace needed some work on his tongue and face, and you could actually see how one of his cheekbones was set higher and further forward than the other. Or, as I told Doris, I could see it AFTER she pointed it out to me! Likewise, he had one shoulder that wanted to stay forward of the other.
Doris worked on Ace for quite a while, asking him to lower his head and neck and open his throatlatch (something we’ve also been working on with him in his dressage lessons and just in general while being ridden) and as simple as it seems, he really struggles.
The most amazing thing about Ace is in watching his eyes as he’s being worked on. Half Arabian and half Saddlebred, he’s one firecracker of a hot little horse, but kind and earnest and very honest. He’s a worrier too, and as Doris asked him to lower his head, you could see the little wrinkles of worry appear over his eyes. Once she talked him into it, and told him how brilliant he was for working with her, his eyes softened and got dreamy. Such an expressive child!
Ace is just plain not sure he wants to lower his head
Ned got the equivalent of what Doris called a “well baby check.” He came out, he was healthy and well and symmetrical, so mostly a myofascial thumbs-up from Doris.
She did find a little bit of a gelding scar which needed some work. Anyone who knows Ned knows that he is a rather penis-centric horse, so of course he found this wonderfully enjoyable.
Okay, for those of you who might be grossed out, let me explain the gelding scar thing a bit. Some geldings get scar adhesions from their castration surgery; in fact, Rich’s older gelding, years ago, always seemed to be swishing and kicking at “phantom” flies at his belly. It would be the dead of winter, and he’d be kicking and carrying on as though being swarmed.
Turns out that the pulling and discomfort of the adhesions were what was causing the behavior. So the idea is to slowly draw on the skin of the sheath (essentially it feels like holding the excess skin in a fist) to allow the adhesions to release. It takes some time, but what a marked difference in the comfort of the horse! (Maybe I should have mares … )
The fun of having the adhesion worked on was second only to a good belly-scratching, which brought on the ecstatic wiggle lips.
Joan and Carla arrived, so we moved on to the humans.
Doris has a little massage table which she set up in the living room, and Joan was the first victim. Joan has a long history of back, neck and shoulder issues and there was a lot of work for Doris to do, and a lot for Joan to learn about how to sit, walk, stand and work to address her body imbalances.
Joan post-release work:
Carla’s shoulder blade asymmetry before being worked on:
After work:
Then it was my turn. I’ve been feeling pretty good, pretty symmetrical, but have had a couple of neck issues since my overly exuberant shoulder stand in yoga a few weeks ago. And of course the omnipresent tendency to have tight and sore psoas.
There’s something painfully wonderful about being worked on. My joke is that Doris will find a sore spot, stick her thumb in it and leave it there for a year or two. My response is often to hold my breath in response to the discomfort, so I’d get an occasional affectionate thump on the shoulder with the command to “Breathe!”
When Doris was done, I got up from the table feeling as though someone had shifted my entire pelvis to the right. As crooked as it feels, I know my body is lying to me and that THIS is straight!
So my job is to not lose that straightness a moment sooner than I have to!
Updated to add: Doris is in the process of moving down to the Greensboro, NC, area. She was up in WNY this weekend to pack her horses up and take them to her new home, and we were thrilled that she was willing to take the time to spend the day with us yesterday. If you’re an endurance or dressage rider in NC, or the surrounding area, Doris is a gem. If you’re interested in scheduling treatment or a clinic with her, drop me a line and I’ll help you get in touch with her.
Forecast is getting better and better for Thursday. A lovely cold front coming through and hanging around, and it means I’ll be able to save some money on ice for cooling the boys down! Hooray!