Heart to Hand Equine Interaction

23/09/2024

😊💕😊

Too many people unnecessarily suffer from stressThe Herd Of Grace Band came together to help humans all over the world be happier.We believe animals have an ...

14/09/2024

The Super Duper Bladder Meridian Challenge runs from the 16th to the 26th of September 2024
Over the next few days you are invited to practice the Bladder Meridian Technique with as many horses (and dogs) as possible. Share your photos, videos and testimonials using the hashtag . There are some great prizes up for grabs, but the best prize of all is the one you will give yourself when you discover the effectiveness of this simple technique.
The Bladder Meridian Technique is one of the cornerstone techniques of The Masterson Method®. The benefits of this technique are huge - you will impact both your horse’s body and mind in a positive way. The really cool thing about this technique is that anyone can learn to do it.

Benefits:
- It establishes a foundation for communication between you and your horse.
- It is a major acupuncture meridian of the body that balances the entire meridian system.
- It has a calming effect on your horse by upregulating the parasympathetic nervous system.
- It is a fact-finding tool to show you where your horse may be storing tension and helps them to begin releasing it.
- Trust is built and strengthened in the relationship because you are developing your ability to listen to your horse’s subtle communication.
- It is soothing, promoting deep relaxation and a sense of well-being. Ironically, this effect is also noted in the human who is offering it to the horse.

Where exactly is the Bladder Meridian on a Horse?
The bladder meridian runs along each side of the horse’s body parallel to and just below the topline. It begins just behind the eye and runs over the poll (between the ears) and down the neck, withers, back and croup, about 2 to 3 inches below the topline. From there, it goes through the poverty groove or the crease between the hamstrings muscles and down the hind leg, side of the hock, down the tendon area just behind the cannon bone (still on the side), over the side of the fetlock and pastern, and down to what’s called the “ting” point in Chinese medicine, which is on the coronary band.

What do I do?
As you run your hand lightly and slowly along the bladder meridian, you will use the SRSR approach:
- S is for SEARCH: Search slowly along the bladder meridian with a light touch.
- R is for RESPONSE: Watch for responses to your touch. You are looking for a correlation between your touch and what the horse is doing. Blinking is the most common response but you might see subtle things like nose or ear twitching or an intent and focused expression. Stay safe and back off if the response feels like a definite ‘No!’
- S is for STAY: Pause and wait in that spot when your horse shows you any kind of response to your touch
- R is for RELEASE: Stay on that spot until your horse shows some sort of release. You are looking for things like licking and chewing, snorting, a head shake, stretching, or scratching any part of the body.

More information on how to do it here:

https://mastersonmethod.com/learn-the-bladder-meridian-technique/

29/05/2024

AlignmentHorse Webinars: 30 May and 6 June at 6.30pm UK
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alignmenthorse-theory-with-liz-vanross-tickets-911224877137

AlignmentHorse is a unique and powerful approach to give horses and their owners the advantage; to boost their equine skills & success, in any discipline. If your horse is falling in or out on a circle, fails to hold a straight line (with or without being nudged), is heavy in the hand, if you have to ride him from inside leg to outside hand, or if he pivots off a single leg for a canter transition; if any of these things is true, then your horse has not yet understood the transformative AlignmentHorse approach.

"For decades I have travelled the world, riding in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Australia, New Zealand, America, Mexico, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Ethiopia, Nigeria and, of course, the UK and it was not until I met Liz VanRoss, Creator of AlignmentHorse, that I heard of the Laws of Locomotion or the 12 Steps of AlignmentHorse that transform a horse’s way of going. It is genius! This is a truly unique approach - a real 21st century solution to age-old challenges of equitation."
~ Katherine Harberd

* AlignmentHorse Clinic 17-19 June in the Cotswolds. Clinicians are encouraged to join the webinars (their online tickets are free). If you want to watch the webinars first, before deciding on the Clinic, your webinar cost will be refunded when you book your place on the Clinic. Auditors are very welcome too. More information here:
https://aligned-balanced-connected.com/shop

22/05/2024

Heart to Hand Equine - May Newsletter

News - May 2024

01/05/2024

This is SO important....

The 24 Behaviors of the Ridden Horse in Pain is a film that dares to challenge the way we look at "badly behaving" horses, and promotes the notion that lamen...

22/04/2024

Masterson Method fun :-)

21/04/2024

Well worth the time… and braving the cold 🤭

Horsemanship Showcase is Organised Equestrian's annual event to bring the community together and enjoy outstanding Horsemanship.

24/03/2024

Hear from the filmmakers about the background of the film project 'Rescued Hearts'

Be the first to know about the film's release but subscribing on our website:https://www.rescuedheartsfilm.comBelow are the links to several of those we feat...

14/09/2023

The ponies saw their dentist Josh Milburn yesterday. Jock was not terribly impressed when Josh said he needed a bit of intervention - he thought his teeth were fine just as they were. I sympathise completely 😁

26/08/2023

Neuromuscular dentist Josh Milburn will be in Norfolk the week beginning 11 September. He is the dentist for the H2H ponies and I am so happy to recommend him. If you would like your horse to be added to the visit list please contact him at Milburn Equine.

18/08/2023

I’ve been posting some short quotes by an author-horse trainer/healer-horseman-horsehuman facilitator coach, Nahshon Cook (he eloquently exists beyond the limits of a single title). I’ve been reading about a chapter a day, sometimes more, as part of my centering practice recently while caregiving for my mom.

The short quotes are left for people to make their own metaphors, connections, and applications from. This will be a longer post, making some of the (potential) connections more explicit. Horses teach us, or have the potential to teach us, about every other aspect of life—if we’re listening. As a therapist who specializes on relationships in all of their varieties (parent-child relationships, romantic relationships, divorcees and co-parents, foster/adoption/kinship care dynamics, work stress, social skills, etc.), it is clear to me that people often aren’t listening. Listening requires letting go of control. Listening requires not knowing. Listening requires being open to being influenced by someone else’s experience, even if it is different from your own or inconvenient in some way. The discomfort and fear of those requirements can override the ability or willingness to listen in a moment. And that is a place where humans cause a lot of (unintentional) harm. After all, most of us have been modeled ways to persuade, convince, or demand that certain things happen on certain timelines, without also being taught skills of compromise, discernment, or adaptability.

In chapter 26 of “Horses See Us As We Are”, Nahshon writes “With horse, when you can move beyond what you’ve learned to be afraid of, and it still feels right, even if it doesn’t make sense, that’s love. You just want them to be happy. That said, sometimes you have every good thing to offer, and they still say “no.” If you honor their answer, that’s love.”

That is also true for a child, or a partner, or an athlete, or a colleague… the ability to accept an authentic “no”, even if it doesn’t make sense or isn’t what we want to hear (because we’ve already given every good thing we have), is the ability to tolerate disappointment and heartbreak. [Ideally, especially with a loved one, we get the chance to have an open conversation about the boundary, over time, with support, but sometimes it isn’t up for conversation or explanation.]
Sometimes people leave. Sometimes relationships fizzle. And when we have space for boundaries and limitations inside of ourselves, we don’t have to fight against or deny that truth. The “no” can cause an ache or sinking, and we feel that truth alongside the spaciousness that the “no” was honest as well. The magic is that there isn’t a secondary contraction around the ache or the sinking feeling. So much more becomes possible when we practice this skill.

In chapter 31, Nahshon adds, “But, I know that sometimes the lesson is in accepting that a horse is outside of my expectation of what I think they should be and that being enough.
For example: I have a horse, my young horse Remi, who is seven, who had really horrible trauma done to one of his ligaments in his back. He’s rideable, and I want to ride him, but he doesn’t want to be ridden, so I’m not going to. He’s cured. His body is good. But mentally, he’s not, and he may never be, and what do I do with that except understand that being healed can sometimes be very different than being cured.”

You might want to read that last part again. Feel it. As a therapist, it brings tears to my eyes. Sometimes, when I’m working with clients, the entire work is around the fact that I don’t have the same expectations of them as their parents or teachers or other people. I let them choose their goals. I let them identify what they believe can be healed or not. I often hold more belief in their capacity to heal than they do, because I’ve already seen/experienced that kind of healing and know it is possible. But I don’t have expectations about their pace or how far they get or what route leads to their healing.

Imagine how much less conflict would be in your life if you didn’t experience the pressure and “shoulds” of someone else? Imagine how much less conflict would be in your life if you didn’t hold so tightly to the “shoulds” and expectations you have of other people. What if it was all just questions and requests? And enough space to say “no” and receive “no” when it is true?

Thanks for this inspiration Nahshon Cook Horsemanship.

18/08/2023

Amazing ❤️

Most of the time, if you are on your horse and the bridle is not, something has gone wrong. But for veteran endurance rider Jeremy Reynolds, who on July 29 won the one-day, 100-mile Western States Trail Ride, popularly known as the Tevis Cup, for the fifth time in his career aboard his Arabian mare....

18/06/2023

Teri, Cloud and Alfie had their baths on Thursday. On Saturday it was Jock and Aragorn’s turn….

17/06/2023

So what do you do when it is unusually hot in the UK? Bath your horses of course 😉

16/06/2023

I’m very very sad to report that this horse has been found but is dead 😢

LOST SUFFOLK PUNCH
This lovely boy absconded from his field near Attleborough in South Norfolk 2 days ago and still hasn’t been found. I spent a couple of hours driving and looking yesterday; many others are out looking for him too, but nothing has been seen, not even evidence of a large horse passing through. Please keep an eye open for him; he could be anywhere by now, especially if he took fright and ran.
If you see him, or any unusual things that could make you think there is an unaccompanied horse in the vicinity, contact Drew: 07862670701

16/06/2023

LOST SUFFOLK PUNCH
This lovely boy absconded from his field near Attleborough in South Norfolk 2 days ago and still hasn’t been found. I spent a couple of hours driving and looking yesterday; many others are out looking for him too, but nothing has been seen, not even evidence of a large horse passing through. Please keep an eye open for him; he could be anywhere by now, especially if he took fright and ran.
If you see him, or any unusual things that could make you think there is an unaccompanied horse in the vicinity, contact Drew: 07862670701

03/06/2023

What an absolutely spiffingly marvellous first day of the Masterson ‘Light to the Core’ course we have had…

02/06/2023

In the queue for their manicure session with the wonderful Olivia Polly Smeath