Welcome to Equine MyoTherapy

Your horse works hard, you make sure he does. Whether your equine partner is involved in reining, dressage, jumping driving or in weekend warrior trail riding, they put in their best efforts for you.
Or do they?

Is your horse inconsistent in his workouts? Do you just get the feeling he might have pain somewhere, but you don't know for sure? Does he fail to perform moves he knows well, but won't seem to accept? Does he have behavioral problems that seem to escalate? Is he good, but you feel he could be so much better, though you're not sure how to get more performance from him? Would it surprise you if a study from a university found that more than 90% of a horse's behavioral problems were found to be pain related?

Horses are incredible compensators. By and large they will do what is asked of them within their ability. But so often, their abilities are trapped behind hidden prisons of 1) pain, muscle fatigue and weakness, 2) drilling exercises that promote the weakness rather than strengthen them or 3) foot balance that forces weight shifts that lead to other issues that impede performance. Even chiropractic mal-alignments that changes gait proficiency stay hidden from detection. There are many more elements of their compensation that go undetected even by the best trainers and instructors.
The Total Balance Method utilizes many tools to identify the compensating factors your horse is using in his efforts to continue his job. We investigate the issues of conformation that structurally limit what the horse can physically comply with. The careful evaluation process helps to locate chiropractic issues, muscle weaknesses, foot balance, tack related impediments and issues of behavioral resistance to his training. With the information from the evaluation, the Total Balance Method Instructor works with you to create a re-training program that will put your horse back into his optimum position for work. She/He will work with you on massage using myotherapy techniques, sometimes enlisting essential oils, applied acupuncture theory with LED lights or other homeopathic remedies for muscle tension, issues of joint pain, muscles experiencing trauma or fatigue, as well as provide you with stretch routines that target the areas presenting themselves as needing attention. Under saddle or groundwork exercises can be used selectively to work individual muscles that support specific gait movements. Individualized programs for exercise, chiropractic health, muscle massage, foot balance and complementary therapies designed to work in unison create an environment for ultimate success.
For example, a horse that has accepted jumping small jumps is ready to move up by six inches. However, when presented with the larger jumps, he refuses or runs out. Is this an attitude that must be "trained" out, or is he experiencing pain? Perhaps he had grown accustomed to a mild discomfort in his hind end that he was previously not asked to engage to this extent. Likely, he will learn to accept this new discomfort if he is not particularly strong willed, after he is forced in training to approach the new fence height again and again. If it were an issue of pain, would it be of more benefit to relieve the pain, and then allow him to accept the new height without expectation of discomfort?
Consider another example: a horse is slightly "off" intermittently on his right front foot. The Vet has cleared him as not being lame, having no bruising etc.; he is just slightly off cadence. Is it an issue limited to the right front foot, or is it possible that his left hind limb has a weakness that forced him to carry himself so long on the forehand, he has fatigued the suspension mechanism of the right front to take weight off the left hind? If this is the case, should we expect the condition to be eliminated by treating the right front in some manner, even though that is the place where weakness is evident?
By taking a full body, multi-conditional approach to finding these inconsistencies, the Total Balance Method allows for a more thorough re-training process of all the affected areas, thereby creating less availability for the condition of dysfunction to perpetuate more compensation and more issues of weakness.
Currently the Total Balance Method has assisted horses in over a dozen states as well as abroad. Evaluation clinics are available throughout the country for small or large groups. Contact us for details for a clinic in your area.