At Bodywork For Equine summer kicked off in Watsonville assisting Instructor Sandy Vreeburg through a week of the advanced Masterson Method Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork. We visited 5 different barns tucked away in the south bay hills. Real gems of equine paradise! Students were working on learning advanced techniques while keeping it all about the horse. This was an amazing group of students who I look forward to connecting with again as they pursue their journey in the Masterson Method®.
The amazing group of students in Sandy’s 5 day
The next week saw me up North in West Linn just outside of Portland Oregon. This time I was a student while also filling the role of assistant alongside fellow MMCPs Jill Trueblood from Washington State and Nadine Vollmerg all the way from New Zealand, while we set out to learn about facilitating Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) from Masterson Method Equine Specialist (MMES) Instructor Megan Dushin. Many thanks to our host Allison of Liberty Reins for her generosity of her barn and lovely horses, all! As much as I want to absorb and digest everything Masterson, nothing quite prepared me for this course. By the end of day 1, students had every horse melted with their touch. The synergy here was different, these students brought their therapeutic awareness with them to the barn, this was something special to observe.
Students melting horses
I wasn't always sure of my role between assisting students in their learning process and yet very much the student myself. I am still processing all that I learned over the 3 days at Liberty Reins as I now embark on my fieldwork with the MMES program.
A synergistic group of Equine Specialist students at Liberty Reins
Back in NorCal in time for a day at the Western States Horse Expo I met up with Warwick Schiller and bought his new book, The Principles of Training. Can't wait to dive in!
I saw an impressive mounted archery demo by Adam Sewell and team, stopped by David Lichman’s liberty booth and listened to Carla Bauchmueller talk of becoming a more intuitive rider.
Me & Warwick
Then it was straight off to the Diamond Bar Arena in Ceres for a weekend Masterson Method® course where I met up with my MMCP friends, Val Loera and Instructor Amy Alford. We all had a fantastic weekend working together and getting to know the amazing students as they learned to work with the horse not on the horse. Thank you to Kim & Shane of Diamond Bar Arena and all of your incredible horses, especially Chigger!
The fabulous students at Diamond Bar Arena & Chigger
Gratitude to all of the barn hosts, all the students, all my MMCP peers and all my instructors and above all to the horses who teach us so much on this journey and to Jim Masterson who shares his knowledge generously so that we may learn to help the horses with this gift.
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