Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Nerve of it All

One of the course subjects of the recent Equine Advanced course was working with the nervous system. This isn't working with a nervous horse, but rather working with the nerves themselves and understanding where they may be contributing to the many of the common issues we see in horses.
Anyone who has had a lameness exam to the extent that the vet does a nerve block, knows that the nerves contribute to the perception of pain. Hell anyone who's hit their "funny bone" knows this. What if many of the common movement problems we experience with horses are caused by a problem with entrapped nerves?
Eight years ago I started on a journey of working with nerves in my human practice when my friend and colleague Christoph Summer introduced me to this work. At the time the only book on the subject was in French.
Three years ago I attended a 3 day workshop developed by another rolfer and chiropractor Don Hazen, who has been investigating the implications of nerve entrapment in postural issues.
It was after this workshop that I started to develop the work with animals which requires some "translation" from the human context.
If you are interested in this check the website www.animalsi.com in the next couple of weeks or sign up for the newsletter on the site to be notified when new material is put up.

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