Dear Sir / Hello Jim (whatever suits you best) I have a Standardbred gelding, 8 years old, and two Shetland pony mares, 12 and 5 years old. They are either in training or harness racing. We have quite an active harness racing community for ponies here in Finland. The performance of the elder pony has been…
What if my horse is constantly fidgeting? What if he appears uncomfortable and wants me to stop?” Often when we find something in the horse that’s uncomfortable, he’ll fidget, or he’ll tell us it’s uncomfortable. This is part of the communication. When that happens, we have to find the right level of pressure or non-pressure,…
by Megan Dushin MMCP, MMES If you’ve seen Jim Masterson or a certified practitioner demonstrate The Masterson Method®, then you’ve seen what some common “releases” look like when a horse lets go of tension. A horse may lick and chew, shake his head, scratch himself, sigh or snort, rest a hind leg, yawn profusely, or…
How Often Can I do this Work? Every horse is different. Different horses have different histories and different things going on, and different nervous systems. A draft horse has a different nervous system than say, a thoroughbred. And with this method you’re working with the horse’s nervous system. His nervous system is releasing the tension.…
By Lisa Haldane, MMCP and owner of Avalon Performance Horse and Rider Support In Part One of this series, I talked about the daily routine for cutting horses in a training and show environment. In Part Two I talked about the Masterson Method techniques that are most useful in supporting the mature cutting show horse.…
by Nikki Kagan Anyone who follows Jim Masterson’s work, as well as those of us who treat horses with the Masterson Method know full well its effectiveness on horses. In fact, it works so well, that I began noticing its effect on people too. When I decided to study the Masterson Method and eventually become…
By Lisa Haldane, MMCP and owner of Avalon Performance Horse and Rider Support In Part One of this series, I talked about what the daily routine is like for cutting horses when they are in a training and show environment. It was descriptive of the life of the horses that show at the highest levels,…
by Crissi McDonald, MMCP When we shut the truck doors and let the dogs jump out of the backseat, our clinic horse Rocky raised himself from a warm morning nap he’d been taking. He pushed on to his front legs, rocked forward, and then got his wobbly hind end underneath him. As he walked toward…
By Lisa Haldane, MMCP and owner of Avalon Performance Horse and Rider Support As many of you know I got certified as a Masterson Method practitioner in 2009 and started teaching weekend seminars over the next few years. Later I developed the online courses that are now offered through Avalon Performance Horse and Rider Support…
Have you ever noticed in training that it is often easier to do lateral work, bending, turning, and lead changes, in one direction than in the other? This may be due in part to a horse’s natural predominance of one side; what is sometimes called, “natural crookedness.” Horses are similar to humans in this respect.…