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.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I Learned to Moon Walk
I have a client who is a professional dancer and Michael Jackson fan. She told me that when she was a young girl she bought the Michael Jackson video where he revealed Moon Walking to us. I think it was Thriller?
She watched this video, over and over, rewinding it until she was able to pick out the particulars of how he did the Moon Walk. Me being me, asked her to show me. She Moon Walked across the carpet in my studio, not hard wood floors, carpet! Then she told me the secret and coached me in how to do it. I Moon Walked! Now this might not seem like a big accomplishment, but when you're as big as I am, it is impressive.
But that's not what I want to write about. In Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book "Outliers", he talks about the need to practice a craft--10,000 hours--to become competent in it. What my client did was analyze the video and the movement of Michael's feet to determine the mechanics of Moon Walking. She spent hours rewinding and mimicking his movements until she determined the secret and was able to pass it on to me.
This is what we pay teachers for. Those of us who teach spent hours studying, researching and practicing so we can figure out some of the secrets to our profession and pass them on to others so that it looks simple.
She watched this video, over and over, rewinding it until she was able to pick out the particulars of how he did the Moon Walk. Me being me, asked her to show me. She Moon Walked across the carpet in my studio, not hard wood floors, carpet! Then she told me the secret and coached me in how to do it. I Moon Walked! Now this might not seem like a big accomplishment, but when you're as big as I am, it is impressive.
But that's not what I want to write about. In Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book "Outliers", he talks about the need to practice a craft--10,000 hours--to become competent in it. What my client did was analyze the video and the movement of Michael's feet to determine the mechanics of Moon Walking. She spent hours rewinding and mimicking his movements until she determined the secret and was able to pass it on to me.
This is what we pay teachers for. Those of us who teach spent hours studying, researching and practicing so we can figure out some of the secrets to our profession and pass them on to others so that it looks simple.
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