Heart Equine

08/30/2025

CAN THE HORSES NERVOUS SYSTEM ACT AS YOUR ‘MANUAL THERAPIST’???

Ever since my first weekend of Animal Chiropractic School legally termed ‘Veterinary Spinal Manipulation Therapy I knew that soft muscles and aligned joints that functioned through their full range of motion was the key to sustainable athleticism.

But how to get there ?
How to stay there ?
How to find a way that every horse has access to a body that works as nature intended??

Healing Oasis Wellness Center taught me about the nervous system and how it works

Postural Rehabilitation for horses and dogs taught me about posture, gait and how this can change based on the priorities of the nervous system

Great Horse trainers all demonstrate success teaching horses in a ‘ventral vagal’ / parasympathetic state consistently dispelling rumors of negative qualities embedded in horses and reinforcing the deep desire of this species to live and learn peacefully.

Not everyone has access to the training I have received or the hours spent working with horses BUT that doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability to help your horse.

Did you know that creating length and space in your horses joints helps them feel calm ??

Did you know that calm horses have more relaxed muscles and so don’t tighten their joints up as much with muscle tension??

Did you know that activation of proprioceptive cells on the bottom of the feet sends signals to the brain??

What is the brain ‘hearing’

Stuff about the ground and where the foot is.
This makes the horse feel happy and calm when the brain is activated and talking to the body and tells his body that it is safe

This causes muscle to relax
Making space at the joints

Creating alignment
Telling the body it’s safe

Creating more relaxation .
Allowing MORE proprioceptive information to get in.
Which fires up the brain which inhibits
Sympathetic tone

Allowing the parasympathetic and proprioceptive information to be heard as it’s no longer overridden.

Working joint stretch AND proprioception is a powerful combination to create lasting change in the nervous system.

Giving the horse access to a calm and relaxed nervous system can create lasting change in the health, function and range of motion in the joints.

Win
Win

😊😊😊
💚🩷💛🤍🖤

08/27/2025

THE HARD PATH OF DOING LESS.

I live in a visual world of context similar to the animals and there are no pictures for the abstract concept of ‘no’ or ‘not’.

Trying to communicate spatial relationships, energetic concepts and visual metaphors can be awkward and ineffective in some crowds and life changing in others.

One ‘truth’ I hope we can all start to embody and embrace is that most horses carry a lot of tension in their legs and become agitated, unbalanced or worried when asked to fully extend all the joints in a single leg.

What many if us think of as ‘stretching’ is really just taking or sometimes pulling the leg into extension.
Most horses do not ‘easily’ do this and improve or dont with practice depending on whether they can relax into lengthening or need to resist it.

Regardless, if they dont go into full extension when we ‘ask’, when do they?

If they are just standing there, the joints should be able to just lock into extension so they are stable and the horse can rest the large fast twitch mobilizer muscles.

So, if the horse is standing around NOT with extended joints then they are probably a little bit flexed.

Which means mobilizing muscles are activated

Which means the nervous system is on high alert and NOT resting

Before we can train extension we have to train not flexion
Many horses might resist extension because they are in ‘flexion’
First get them not to ‘flex’ or tense up
Then ask for extension

Skip the poles
😊❤️

08/26/2025

This week I will be presenting to the New York Veterinary Medical Association on Chiropractic Medicine. I am excited to share my paradigm which revolves around the health of the SPACE between the bones as my primary area of concern.

In September I will be presenting this SAME talk for FREE to everyone on my email list which you can hop on by going to
www.heartequine.com

I will be doing a live presentation with Q and A that will be also available as a recording. Date and Time TBD !!
Watch this space and the September Newsletter for updates

08/25/2025

08/24/2025

HEALER HEAL THYSELF OR WHY SHOULD YOUR DOCTOR BE HEALTHIER THAN YOU ??

There’s a bit of a narrative around the ‘great’ health practitioners that put everyone else before themselves.

‘They ALWAYS picked up their phone’
‘He worked at the track every day even when he went through chemo’
And so on

What happened to the amazing Dr A ? He died by su***de
What happened to incredible Dr B ? She died from cancer
What happened to super compassionate Dr C? They changed careers

Sometimes being a ‘great’ doctor in the eyes of the patient might be unsustainable and then what ?

What happens to these healers that put everything before their self care when they can no longer maintain the job and reputation they have created for themselves ??

Do you think these folks are going to feel good giving less ?

One of best ways to get a reputation as a great doctor is to give the job everything you have - clients love someone they can call at all hours, who will seemingly gladly drop personal commitments to care for clients first. These doctors by design are always exceptional at their craft as well making it THAT much harder to say no.

‘ Did you know Dr D missed their anniversary celebration?? They could have sent the intern but it was blanky blanky blank blank who was sick so they had to come ! Now I hear they are getting a divorce’

My first job, after I left the track was in a group practice. I was a newly divorced single mom with no friends, family or ex in the local picture.I signed on to work 4 days a week and was instantly labelled by my associates as lazy and lacking dedication.

My absolute commitment to keep my work week at 40 hours over 4 days was looked upon as career sabotage as an equine vet and it some ways it was. Not being around all the time meant lots of missed opportunities.

I had to find clients that valued my way of practicing and the care and healing I brought, not my availability.

That actually turned out to be a great thing !!

Yes it took longer, I had to build relationships and create trust. I had to teach and empower my clients that although I worked ‘part time’ my care was no less effective than the bad ass vets that were putting in 60-80 hours weekly.

Eventually I learned that being available all the time and sacrificing my self care ultimately really worked against us as a profession.

I was smarter, happier, calmer and so much more patient with the animals and the clients when my personal cup was filled.

This became my paradigm, a way of looking at things, a put your oxygen mask on first because if you can’t breathe you can’t help anyone.

I am happy to say that I spent all last week with over 50 different health care professionals and healers all committed to this way of approaching their careers.

Postural Rehabilitation for horses and dogs is all about ‘you’ before it’s about the horse. Because if you’re not balanced and stable and present in your mind and body - where do you think the horse you are touching will be ??

After a few days of that I went off to the Catskills in New York for a ‘Qi Intensive’ weekend with my Qigong community another group of healers. The purpose of the weekend was to practice intently in order to build Qi that will be used to heal others and ourselves and also to teach us how to replenish that energy.

What does it take to put yourself first as a doctor ?

It takes FAITH.
FAITH that if you learn to care for yourself you will have MORE to offer not less.
FAITH that as you discover what heals you, you will discover more how to heal your patients.
FAITH that this is how it was meant to be, and never the other way around.
FAITH that quality is better than quantity.

Have faith healers !
Heal thyselves you will never regret the decision to put yourself first and nor will your patients !!

xx
Heart Equine

08/24/2025

I’m still processing from my time with my mentors at Postural Rehabilitation for horses and dogs. Excited to share with you some new discoveries once I get home and can play with my herd!!

08/20/2025

I learned so much this week and got to connect with so many great veterinarians and chiropractors !!
Grateful for this community of inspiring doctors 🩷🙌😊

08/20/2025

DID YOU KNOW THAT IF YOU CHANGE HOW YOU USE YOUR BODY YOUR HORSE MIGHT ACT DIFFERENT ??

If you know people in the industry that are constantly putting themselves out in the world to be educated and learn new things, sometimes hard things, then you can bet they are also being constantly humbled.

‘How are you so damn good at everything you do Dr Showmaker ? ‘
I asked, wondering how one person could continuously blow my mind.

‘I don’t have kids’ she said. She then went on to explain her absolute devotion to the truth and to the animals. The name of her clinic Always Helpful Veterinary Services 😊🩷

I cried a bunch this week. Between the emotional releases from the Alexander Lessons to the humbling observations of foundational stuff I had been missing about the use of my body I felt sad and frustrated and had to let go of those unhelpful feelings.

My horse LOUIE had been right when he had been telling me over and over,

‘You’re not doing it right’

One of those ‘things’ was around how I had been working with him and his feet.

As my teacher, LOUIE is uncompromising, thus his absolute greatness in this role. 💫
You can be sure that if he won’t work with you easily, there’s a reason - so far, it’never been him !!

After watching Dr Shoemaker work with unstable dysfunctional, often not effectively shod horses for three days I was convinced that I, not the horse, owned THIS problem.

Can’t wait to get home and try out my new knowledge with LOUIE !!
But first a Qi Intensive Retreat in the NY Catskills for more ‘work’ on myself.

AND watch this space for some awesome NEW (cheap too !! ) offerings from the folks at POSTURAL REHABILITATION !!

08/19/2025

WHY ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE ??

This week I am so grateful to spend time with my Postural Rehabilitation mentors - Dr’s Judith Shoemaker, Dr Karen Gellman and Alexander teacher Elizabeth Reese.

When I first took these classes back in 2009/2010, I was stunned to find we were spending SO much time on our own bodies when I was there to learn to work on horses !!

‘Think about your own body the horse will take care of itself ‘ said Dr Shoemaker

What???

As it turned out, I had terrible stability in my body and this was really affecting the quality of my work. By having an unstable body and trouble organizing it for smooth and harmonious movement I was inadvertently sending signals to the horse.

What was it saying ?

‘ I am not safe, I am not stable, if I pick up your leg you might not be okay, if I touch you I might put you off balance by leaning on you too hard. I cannot manage my own body how can you expect me to manage yours ?? ‘

Any surprise I was struggling picking up feet ???
Any surprise that the horses wanted to move away from me when I approach it ?
Any surprise I needed to ground, take a breath, and organize MY body to have the horse find me an acceptable dance partner ??

Alexander technique teaches up how to organize our bodies for movement. I never would have believed that working on MY body could make such a difference in the ease and quality of my work.
I have taken this lesson to heart over the last fifteen years have studied with Alexander and other movement teachers.

This mornings session went over how we push and pull against the ground to create spinal extension and flexion.

I discovered I had been doing this backwards !!

My method was creating stability with a brace and one of the places this was showing up was when I was picking up things,

Could this be why I struggle so much when picking up my horses’ feet ??

When I did it correctly I went onto a huge emotional release and felt a level of relaxation in my back I haven’t felt for a long time.

How cool is that ??
Take care of yourself to take care of your horse !!

08/19/2025

Wisdom