Andrea, Dan and Chantelle have a T Touch session;
Today was Dan's second session with Danielle. I'd heard of TTouch (or TTeam) in the UK, bought Sarah Fisher's book and was impressed with the case studies illustrated, but didn't know of anyone nearby who practised it. Then Danielle's parents came to Kerry's pilates session and told me that Danielle was training to practise TTouch, and Gail put me in touch with Danielle when I talked to her recently about Dan's jaw/muscular problems.
On Danielle's first visit she spent a lot of time assessing Dan, feeling him for hot/cold areas, muscle knots, imbalances and watching him, how he moved, stood, his facial expressions, and asking questions about what he does/how he is. She did some "touches" on his tight areas, stroking and wobbling, and some gentle tail circles - I could see the reaction from that all down his back. We walked S shapes, slowed the walk, halted, reined back, to get him to take his weight back and become more aware of moving his feet, and Danielle suggested that I walk him over scattered poles, and I've been doing this with all 3 horses.
Today Danielle set up a labyrinth with 6 poles which Di and I walked through without a horse first, normally, slowly then stopping - interesting - we became "better balanced". Dan was wrapped up in bright purple elastic bandages to make him more body aware and we had a go at walking through the labyrinth - Dan was pretty good, never touched a pole, but I kept getting it wrong at the turns, not being in the right place, over-shooting.. then we walked across the poles a few times. Dan was quite tired after this, and Danielle showed us how to do leg circles - she said these will be good to do when picking out his feet before working him, to give an idea of how flexible he is feeling. We did hock wobbles, pelvis circles (Dan loved that), tail circles and body touches. It's very light and non-invasive, you can't really do any harm, and it's important to listen to the horse, watch his reaction, let him walk away if he doesn't like something - he'll tell you when what you're doing is good.
Then we spent a bit of time on Chantelle - poor Danielle had never worked on quite such a crock, she really doesn't have a good leg to stand on (but still manages to canter around!). Danielle said that just brushing her tail (which I confess I don't often get around to) will help her - the tail is full of nerve endings, and also mild versions of the touches and rubs we've been doing on Dan. I can also try walking Chantelle through the labyrinth (I reported recently that she has loved walking over poles), but a wider version than we used for Dan. Danielle thought we should see some improvements in her movement, so we'll see. I've given up Emmerdale for the summer, so that I can spend an extra half an hour a day with the horses - I'm going to need it!
What was really interesting today was trying some of the touches and movements on ourselves and each other - Danielle showed us how important it is to use our whole body, not just our hands, when carrying out some of the movements - it made the difference between a rather rough unbalancing movement, and a gentle swinging movement for the pelvis circles. Wobbling feels nice when you do it to yourself - try resting your leg on its toes and gently wobbling the knee, you can feel your whole leg releasing - this is what we were doing to the hock on a resting hind leg, although Chantelle was too tight to wobble much at all. And to get an idea of the pressure needed for and the effect of some of the touches/circles it really helped to try them out on ourselves first.
Today was Dan's second session with Danielle. I'd heard of TTouch (or TTeam) in the UK, bought Sarah Fisher's book and was impressed with the case studies illustrated, but didn't know of anyone nearby who practised it. Then Danielle's parents came to Kerry's pilates session and told me that Danielle was training to practise TTouch, and Gail put me in touch with Danielle when I talked to her recently about Dan's jaw/muscular problems.
On Danielle's first visit she spent a lot of time assessing Dan, feeling him for hot/cold areas, muscle knots, imbalances and watching him, how he moved, stood, his facial expressions, and asking questions about what he does/how he is. She did some "touches" on his tight areas, stroking and wobbling, and some gentle tail circles - I could see the reaction from that all down his back. We walked S shapes, slowed the walk, halted, reined back, to get him to take his weight back and become more aware of moving his feet, and Danielle suggested that I walk him over scattered poles, and I've been doing this with all 3 horses.
Today Danielle set up a labyrinth with 6 poles which Di and I walked through without a horse first, normally, slowly then stopping - interesting - we became "better balanced". Dan was wrapped up in bright purple elastic bandages to make him more body aware and we had a go at walking through the labyrinth - Dan was pretty good, never touched a pole, but I kept getting it wrong at the turns, not being in the right place, over-shooting.. then we walked across the poles a few times. Dan was quite tired after this, and Danielle showed us how to do leg circles - she said these will be good to do when picking out his feet before working him, to give an idea of how flexible he is feeling. We did hock wobbles, pelvis circles (Dan loved that), tail circles and body touches. It's very light and non-invasive, you can't really do any harm, and it's important to listen to the horse, watch his reaction, let him walk away if he doesn't like something - he'll tell you when what you're doing is good.
Then we spent a bit of time on Chantelle - poor Danielle had never worked on quite such a crock, she really doesn't have a good leg to stand on (but still manages to canter around!). Danielle said that just brushing her tail (which I confess I don't often get around to) will help her - the tail is full of nerve endings, and also mild versions of the touches and rubs we've been doing on Dan. I can also try walking Chantelle through the labyrinth (I reported recently that she has loved walking over poles), but a wider version than we used for Dan. Danielle thought we should see some improvements in her movement, so we'll see. I've given up Emmerdale for the summer, so that I can spend an extra half an hour a day with the horses - I'm going to need it!
What was really interesting today was trying some of the touches and movements on ourselves and each other - Danielle showed us how important it is to use our whole body, not just our hands, when carrying out some of the movements - it made the difference between a rather rough unbalancing movement, and a gentle swinging movement for the pelvis circles. Wobbling feels nice when you do it to yourself - try resting your leg on its toes and gently wobbling the knee, you can feel your whole leg releasing - this is what we were doing to the hock on a resting hind leg, although Chantelle was too tight to wobble much at all. And to get an idea of the pressure needed for and the effect of some of the touches/circles it really helped to try them out on ourselves first.