Niamh Fitzpatrick started her journey with horses at a young age at a local riding school. Her 20s saw her take a break from horses as she spent time travelling and carving out a career in Financial Services. In 2010 Niamh Fitzpatrick got the opportunity to visit a dude ranch in Tucson, Arizona, she came home determined to immerse herself back in the horse world. Very soon after her return she bought herself a beautiful ex-racehorse, Dynamo Dan. Niamh Fitzpatrick believes that Dan played an integral role in her future. Full of enthusiasm she set about working with and schooling Dan. Her goal was to take up riding club eventing but Dan had other ideas.

She met with a variety of issues over a prolonged period and despaired. Niamh couldn’t understand how her horse, who was quite a pleasure on the ground, could turn into such a difficult animal under saddle. She tried different trainers, gadgets, feed and shoes; in addition to a handful of bodywork sessions but was losing all hope. Dan bucked, spooked, shied, refused to go forward and eventually started rearing. Looking back she can easily see Dan was doing his best to communicate with her but at the time she lacked the skill and sensitivity to tune in.

Following a change in circumstances in 2012 Niamh was inspired by her love of horses and decided to invest in a significant career change.

She started training to become a Masterson Method Practitioner in late 2012. During her training she realised that her own sensitivities would require some fine tuning and so began her personal development journey.

She embraced all that colleagues, mentors and most importantly the horse could teach her. She travelled to the UK and the USA to hone her skills and met some amazing people and horses in the meantime. Additionally she studied Equine Biomechanics, Gait Analysis and Lameness at Whittle College (UK,) under Barbara Crabbe DMV, MS, to broaden her knowledge and get a better understanding of the difficulties faced by the veterinary industry while attempting to diagnose equine conditions.

Dr. Crabbe is a contributing editor to Horse and Rider magazine and a frequent contributor and member of the advisory board for Dressage Today magazine. Her articles have won numerous American Horse Publications awards, and in 2007 she saw her book Comprehensive Guide to Equine Veterinary Medicine published by Sterling publishing, a large New York publishing company.

http://www.pacificcrestsporthorse.com/doctors.html

Horse’s being prey and herd animals do their best to mask pain until it is difficult for them to do so. This trait makes the veterinarians and body workers job a lot more difficult.

Back in Ireland Niamh was fortunate to spend some time observing local equine veterinarians at work to gain a practical understanding and appreciation for the work they do. She is a firm believer that all experts in the equine industry should work together harmoniously for the well being of the horse and will endeavour to do so within her practice.

Following Niamh’s Masterson Method Certification, in June 2014, she attended a Myofascial Release Training event in Geneva with Ruth Mitchell-Golladay. MFR therapy was another skill that Niamh was keen to add to her tool box.

Jim Masterson already utilised some MFR techniques in his integrated therapies so it made sense for Niamh to acquire the full training.

In late 2014 Niamh decided to embark upon further training, in an even more subtle form of healing facilitation, so she began attending Quantum Coherence Therapy training with Stuart Breen of the Irish Tai Chi Chuan Association. Niamh has worked with some extremely sensitive horses where a mere presence can feel too invasive to them, this among other things is what led her to pursue training in one of the most subtle forms of healing.

With Niamh’s considerable change in career paths it was necessary for her to spend significant time and energy developing her own sensitivities. She knew this was essential in order for her to be the best that she could be to facilitate healing for any animals or humans that came into her life. In order to develop and maintain these sensitivities Niamh embarked on a journey of personal development and now practices daily and consistent self care, comprised of Tai Chi Chuan, meditation, regular holistic treatment sessions with either Stuart Breen or Chris McMahon, among other things.

TO DATE NIAMH HAS GAINED THE FOLLOWING QUALIFICATIONS, CERTIFICATIONS & AFFILIATIONS

No hoof, no horse, we’ve all heard this before but no herd?

Day five of the Dan’s hoof poultice regime; I arrived at the yard that morning as usual and headed for the field. To my relief I straight off saw that Dan had some weight on his near fore and more importantly was standing with the herd! Poor Dan had been ostracised from the herd about five days previously.

Why?

Because he had picked up an infection in his hoof which turned nasty and travelled up into his lower leg, basically turning him into a liability. Now bearing in mind Dan’s herd consists of a Connemara gelding with navicular, and a 20+ y/o mare struggling about with stringhalt, not exactly up for battle should a predator come looking for them.

This is me, Dan and his old herd.

I headed into the field feeling a lot chirpier than I had been over the past week but still can’t say I enjoyed the run-around I got from my previously dog-lame TB, who even yesterday couldn’t put weight on the aforementioned leg. Now I was struggling to catch a sprightly 9 y/o who looked to be feeling on top of the world, even though still clearly demonstrating a gait discrepancy.

What this scenario highlights to me is the effort our horses will go to, to conceal an injury, mask the pain and just get on with life as best they can.

Why do horses do this; despite our best efforts to domesticate the horse we can’t change how Mother Nature designed them. Dan, once the proud herd leader, had become a liability and although animal predators don’t really exist for the domestic horse these days, their instinct to flee remains intact. So Dan’s priority was to regain position in the herd, for group safety, and also to display agility to discourage any hungry predators.

The horse is considered the 11^th fastest animal on land so we can appreciate why a healthy horse could put a lot of predators off the chase.

This predator alert response, known in lay terms as the fight or flight response, is initially activated through the amygdala in the horse’s frontal lobe. This then triggers a response in the hypothalamus and results in the release of adrenalin. The hypothalamus, situated in the base of the forebrain and connected to the pituitary gland, is itself an endocrine gland (hormone releasing gland) and is the main link between the endocrine and the nervous system. It makes sense of and then directs signals from the five senses and the internal organs. Mini memos are then issued to either the nervous or endocrine system to dictate the body’s response. That’s the short version but if you’re interested you can read more about it here.

http://www.fairhorsemanship.com/articles-horse-science/the-physiology-of-the-fight-flight-instinct/ ; http://www.equestrianlife.com.au/articles/Fight-Flight-or-Freeze_.

So what happens if we have a situation where our horse isn’t motivated enough to fight and isn’t able to flee. When does this even happen you may ask yourself?? 

Well I’ll give you an example that’s all too familiar to me! Imagine you have two horses in an arena suffering with chronic low level caudal heel pain with secondary compensatory tension and restriction in the body. The first horse is a young hot-blooded TB and the second a middle aged “reliable, bombproof” colder blooded pony. The first horse is super sensitive, full of his own self and is determined to demonstrate that he is in pain and proceeds to buck his way around the arena when the pressure of the requests are increased. This is the fight and flight response in action.

Not to anthropomorphise the horse but when I think of this situation I visualise a beautiful and proud animal determined to be heard.

On the other hand we think of the colder blooded, less sensitive older horse, but one who regardless still feels pain. Maybe they used to fight or attempt to flee but have since resigned themselves to not being heard so instead brace their mind and body and block out the stimulus until the ordeal is over; not exactly the golden road to “partnership” most people are hoping for with their horses.

It was only during my Masterson Method Practitioner training that I started to realise the extent that horses do this, this being to brace against pain and unpleasantness. Jim Masterson used to say that it is the horse’s natural instinct to move or flee but when we take away this option, simply by putting on a head collar and tying the horse up, instead we activate the “brace response”.

An example I regularly use to explain this to my clients owners is to put ourselves into the therapist chair. Unless you’ve opted for a non-invasive therapy, examples of these, among others, would be energy work, MFR etc, anyways if you opt for the more hands on therapy at some point you are going to want to brace your system in anticipation of pain but you know that this is good for you so you instruct your muscles to stay relaxed. How I ask do we convince a 1000lb animal not to brace their system??

The Masterson Method describes itself as, an Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork. Integrated in that it combines techniques from different modalities, unique in that it fundamentally follows the horse’s responses to help them release pain and tension; nicely demonstrated by some of my clients below.

This is done by activating the four key junctions, (the poll / atlas, the shoulder / wither junction, the hind end and the horses back), in a relaxed state, consequently increasing range of movement and releasing any tension the body is holding.

The key phrase here is Range of Movements in a Relaxed State; by working with the horse to stay under their brace response, what we now know to be the body’s response to stimulus it cannot escape from, we can help the horse release long held tension and restrictions.

What’s so exciting about this is that by doing this regularly we can not only improve our horse’s performance but also their longevity. I say longevity because if we think back to Dan on day five of his hoof poultice regime, he is still some way from being 100% but as a horse he does his best to conceal his pain, as is natural and instinctive to him as a prey and herd animal.

Fortunately for Dan I am not only aware that he is not yet 100% and as a result he won’t be back in work until he is properly sound, but also that with compensation his offside will be overworked, unbalanced, tight and tender. A lot of the time the injury has long since passed but the knock on changes in the body are overlooked and with no treatment being provided only become tighter and more restricted. This not only impacts performance but also contributes to the slow demise of the internal structures.

If you would like to learn more about me, my training and what I can do to help your horse, please come follow me on FB & Twitter. https://www.facebook.com/equinetherapiesireland  https://twitter.com/etiwellness. Alternatively you can read up more about the Masterson Method @ https://www.mastersonmethod.com/about-the-masterson-method-and-jim-masterson.html

The Head Shy Horse, a theme many of us know all too well!

What if I told you that maybe your horse wasn’t head shy but that they just had a very sore head!

A cold Thursday morning in Kildare as I travelled to see and treat Lola…Lola is a 7 y/o NH racehorse whom I first met in early 2013. What jumped out and stuck with me when I first met Lola was how head shy she was! She couldn’t tolerate me being near her ears, poll, or even from mid-way up her neck. She was guarded, suspicious and apprehensive. I asked her owner about it and he said, “she’s always been like that”; she’s home bred so he would know. Charlie’s a great guy so was open to my opinion that most head shy horses are like that because of pain and tension in their poll. It’s my belief, from my training and experience, that all pain, via compensation, at some degree ends up at the poll.

Let’s look at some of the mechanics in the horse’s body to get an understanding of how the poll can come under pressure and develop this pain. We know the poll as the area behind the horse’s ears, more specifically the atlanto-occipital joint or junction. This is the point of attachment of the horse’s head to their spine and subsequently the rest of their body.

The horse’s head accounts for approximately 10% of the horse’s body weight, so if we think  about it, before any human intervention the poll is already managing quite a bit of downward pressure.

The funicular, (Latin for rope, meaning chord like in this context), section of the nuchal ligament attaches to the poll at the occipital bone; from here it travels under the horse’s mane, along the top of the neck, and continues along the back as the supraspinous ligament, linking bone to bone as far back as the lumbar spine. The lamellar nuchal ligament links the funicular nuchal ligament to the middle cervical vertebrae.

So we’re already starting to see how the poll is connected to the horses back and to their neck. If we now think about the brachiocephalicus muscle, which is charged with extending the shoulder, advancing the limb and drawing the head and neck to the side when the limb is planted, this attaches to the poll at the nuchal crest and the wing of the atlas (atlas = cervical vertebrae 1 (C1) & is one half of the atlanto-occipital joint).

So now we see that the poll is coming under pressure not only from the downward force of the weight of the head but also through attachment to the muscles that move the legs and the connectivity through the spine. If we take a look at the longissimus (Latin for longest) muscle of the horse’s back, we note that there are in fact five parts to this muscle. The atlantis, capitis, cervicis, thoracic, and lumborum parts. So not only does the poll connect to the back through the ligaments but also through the muscles. I guess the picture I’m trying to draw here is one where we can see that the whole horse is connected, be it through muscle, fascia (connective tissues), ligaments or tendons.

The above is a depiction from a Masterson Method (MM) colleague based in Wisconson, USA. I was fortunate enough to spend some months with Becky Tenges in early 2014. She wrote an article for the MM newsletter on her experience of the whole horse concept following a training course with Dr. Kerry Ridgeway DVM. You can find this link at the bottom of this blog.

So by understanding how the horse is designed it makes sense that if there is primary pain or trauma eventually there will be secondary tension and fatigue. I believe that in order to give our horses the best opportunity to perform at optimum ability we need to see and treat them in their entirety.

As a Masterson Method practitioner myself, I work with the horse by following their neurological responses. This provides instant feedback to what’s going on in their body and helps me to help them release tension in their whole body. Helping our horses to release this build up of tension results in a happier, more relaxed and willing horse.

In my experience pain and discomfort at the poll can and does develop secondary to a lot of primary equine afflictions. A common one I see is the horse suffering with chronic low grade caudal heel pain. These horses, to alleviate pain at the back of the hoof, brace up into the structures in the upper limbs and the muscles at their chest. This response is essential as they adjust their posture to ease the ache in their heels. This adjustment may provide short term relief but eventually the tension in the limbs and pectorals will travel up in the neck and then into the poll. It’s at this point that we can end up with a troublesome head shy horse, among other things.

“Fast forward to today, months since I first met Lola; when I last spoke to her owner he mentioned that her handler had asked what had been done with her since she had last been in race training. Why? because apparently she was a different horse to handle. Charlie explained about me; apparently he said he wasn’t sure exactly what I did but that his mare sure seemed more relaxed afterwards.”

If you are the owner of a head shy horse why not connect with me through FB, Twitter or on my upcoming website, www.equinetherapiesireland.ie. We can have a chat and maybe help your horse feel better.

https://www.facebook.com/equinetherapiesireland

https://twitter.com/etiwellness

See also below articles from Jim Masterson and Becky Tenges on the “head shy horse”.

https://www.mastersonmethod.com/educational-articles/item/155-head-shyness.html

https://www.mastersonmethod.com/educational-articles/item/148-tmj-whole-horse-approach.html

So I reckon in this life we all travel many different paths which of course take us on many different journeys and so my horse journey began at a pretty young age at a local riding school. That’s me, the first of the three; I’d been horse riding for quite a few years by the time this was taken.

I was a pretty lucky kid and got to move on from that riding school and spend my summers looking after Simon Ryan’s ex show-jumper. Of course at the time I didn’t realise this and so like most teens my prioritise started to change and so my path changed and along with it that horse journey. All through my 20s I still thought of and dreamt of horses BUT at that stage of my life I was “super” busy travelling and carving out a career in Financial Services.

2008, I’m 28; a long way from that girl sitting on that fence but lucky me I got the opportunity to spend a week in Price Canyon Dude Ranch, in Tucson Arizona. It was during that amazing week that my passion for horses fully came alive again; and so unknowingly, at the time, I meandered down another path.

I arrived home babbling about horses and determined to get myself back into the horse world and so bought my first horse. Considering the impending state of the economy its no wonder I picked an ex-racehorse, two for a penny considering the strain on the industry. Anyways apparently hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I now believe everything happens for a reason and so me and my ex-racer travelled down the next path together, and wasn’t it a bumpy one! Dynamo Dan, AKA DAN, played an important role in my present journey. I was brimming with enthusiasm but lacking in core knowledge, unbeknownst to myself at the time as is usually the case! So I set about working and schooling and working and schooling Dan with the hopes of pursuing a casual eventing career! Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Dan had other ideas. Coming up against every possible, or so I thought at the time, issue, over a prolonged period I really began to despair on my path. Why had I ended up here I asked myself, what made me buy “this” horse, I dreamed of a “push button horse”, one I could ride without the worry of ending up on the ground. I just could not figure out how Dan, who was quite a pleasure on the ground, could become so difficult once he had a saddle on. I tried different trainers, gadgets, feed, shoes, along with some bodywork sessions; everything the “propaganda” AKA marketing machine prescribes but was losing all hope of getting anywhere. Dan bucked, spooked, shied, refused to go forward and eventually started rearing. Looking back now I can clearly see Dan was doing his very best to communicate with me but at the time I lacked the skill and sensitivity to tune in.

2008, and before this current journey began, I had gone back into part-time college and for my efforts was awarded a Business degree; typically, and not long after I started back in college, I was told that I was going to be made redundant from my long-term job in AIG. At first I thought about more studies in the business sector but soon realised that my interest in business had seriously faded and that horses were what I was truly passionate about. Around this time I began to research different equine bodywork courses and set upon a UK Equine Physiotherapy qualification and was due to start training after my redundancy. In the meantime however I became aware that Jim Masterson https://www.mastersonmethod.com/about-the-masterson-method-and-jim-masterson.html,

was returning to the UK to give training in the summer. I was aware of Jim and had looked at his training before but at the time couldn’t justify the costs. But this time I was ready for change and so made the necessary enquiries. Following the initial intensive training course in the UK I was hooked and so after deliberations I decided to go ahead with the Masterson Method certification instead. Back to Ireland and I enthusiastically started my case study work and also to regularly treat Dan. I was blown away by the changes in him, physically, emotionally and under saddle. By helping Dan release the tension accumulated in his body I helped change how he felt in his body. He started to float under saddle the same way I saw him float in the field.

I could see the potential of my training to not only treat horses but to learn to read and better communicate with them. At the same time I realised that my own sensitivity would need some serious fine tuning and so I embraced all that colleagues, mentors and most importantly the horse could teach me. I travelled to the UK, USA, France and Geneva to hone my skills and met some amazing people and horses in the meantime.

I also studied Equine Biomechanics, Gait Analysis and Lameness at Whittle College (UK,) under Dr. Barbara Crabbe DMV, to develop my understanding of the difficulties faced by the veterinary industry in trying to diagnose equine conditions. Horses are prey and herd animals so they do their best to hide any pain until it is impossible to do so anymore. This makes the veterinarian and body workers job a lot more difficult. How easy is it for the doctors who’s patients tell them where is hurts instead of trying to hide it! So with my corporate background and a never ending desire to provide solutions I did some more research to see what I could do to help provide affordable solutions in these situations. It was here that I learnt about infrared and its amazing ability to see what was going on under the skin. So while in the US I trained as a Level One Themographer and an Equine Themographer. At the same time I affiliated with United Infrared, Inc, this gave me access to qualified veterinarian interpretations of my infrared reports. Now I was working alongside some amazing vets but also vets who were qualified and experienced themographers. What a combination; but I’ll chat more about that in another post.

Back in Ireland I was fortunate to spend some time with some local equine vets which helped me develop a practical understanding and appreciation of the work they do. I genuinely believe, with every fibre of my being, that all experts in the equine industry should work together harmoniously for the well being of the horse. The horse, as I’m sure you know, is the most amazing, forgiving, humble, proud (I know its a contradiction but it’s true!) and patient animal.

Over the past few years I have really changed my way of life and my attitude to life. I am definitely happier than ever and being located in the heart of horse country, Co. Kildare Ireland, I hope to bring a lot of relief to horses and owners in the area

No hoof, no horse, we’ve all heard this before but no herd? Day five of Dan’s hoof poultice regime; I arrived at the yard that morning as usual and headed for the field. To my relief I straight off saw that Dan had some weight on his near fore and more importantly was standing with the herd! Poor Dan had been ostracised from the herd about five days before. Why? Because he had picked up an infection in his hoof which turned nasty and travelled up into his lower leg, basically turning him into a liability. Now bearing in mind Dan’s herd consists of a Connemara gelding with navicular, and a 20+ y/o mare struggling about with stringhalt, not exactly up for battle should a predator come looking for them.

This is me, Dan and his old herd.

I headed into the field feeling a lot chirpier than I had been over the past week but still can’t say I enjoyed the run-around I got from my previously dog-lame TB, who even yesterday couldn’t put weight on the aforementioned leg. Now I was struggling to catch a sprightly 9 y/o who looked to be feeling on top of the world, even though still clearly demonstrating a gait discrepancy.

What this scenario highlights to me is the effort our horses will go to, to conceal an injury, mask the pain and just get on with life as best they can. Why do horses do this; despite our best efforts to domesticate the horse we can’t change how Mother Nature designed them. Dan, once the proud herd leader, had become a liability and although animal predators don’t really exist for the domestic horse these days, their instinct to flee remains intact. So Dan’s priority was to regain position in the herd, for group safety, and also to display agility to discourage any hungry predators.

The horse is considered the 11th fastest animal on land so we can appreciate why a healthy horse could put a lot of predators off the chase.

This predator alert response, known in lay terms as the fight or flight response, is initially activated through the amygdala in the horse’s frontal lobe. This then triggers a response in the hypothalamus and results in the release of adrenalin. The hypothalamus, situated in the base of the forebrain and connected to the pituitary gland, is itself an endocrine gland (hormone releasing gland) and is the main link between the endocrine and the nervous system. It makes sense of and then directs signals from the five senses and the internal organs. Mini memos are then issued to either the nervous or endocrine system to dictate the body’s response. That’s the short version but if you’re interested you can read more about it here http://www.fairhorsemanship.com/articles-horse-science/the-physiology-of-the-fight-flight-instinct/ ; http://www.equestrianlife.com.au/articles/Fight-Flight-or-Freeze_.

So what happens if we have a situation where our horse isn’t motivated enough to fight and isn’t able to flee. When does this even happen you may ask yourself, well I’ll give you an example that’s all too familiar to me. Imagine you have two horses in an arena suffering with chronic front limb lameness with resulting secondary compensatory tension and restriction in the body. The first horse is a young hot-blooded TB and the second a middle aged “reliable, bombproof” colder blooded pony. The first horse is super sensitive, full of his own self and is determined to demonstrate that he is in pain and proceeds to buck his way around the arena when the pressure of the requests are increased. This is the fight and flight response in action. Not to anthropomorphise the horse but when I think of this situation I visualise a beautiful and proud animal determined to be heard. On the other hand we think of the colder blooded, less sensitive older horse, but one who regardless still feels pain. Maybe they used to fight or attempt to flee but have since resigned themselves to not being heard so instead brace their mind and body and block out the stimulus until the ordeal is over; not exactly the golden road to “partnership” most people are hoping for with their horses.

It was only during my Masterson Method Practitioner training that I started to realise the extent that horses do this, this being to brace against pain and unpleasantness. Jim Masterson used to say that it is the horse’s natural instinct to move or flee but when we take away this option, simply by putting on a head collar and tying the horse up, instead we activate the “brace response”.

An example I regularly use to explain this to my clients owners is to put ourselves into the therapist chair. Unless you’ve opted for a non-invasive therapy, examples of these, among others, would be energy work, MFR etc, anyways if you opt for the more hands on therapy at some point you are going to want to brace your system in anticipation of pain but you know that this is good for you so you instruct your muscles to stay relaxed. The Masterson Method describes itself as, an Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork that follows the horse’s responses to help them release pain and tension; nicely demonstrated by some of my clients below.

This is done by activating the four key junctions, (the poll / atlas, the shoulder / wither junction, the hind end and the back), in a relaxed state, consequently increasing range of movement and releasing tension the body is holding.

The key phrase here is Range of Movements in a Relaxed State; by working with the horse to stay under their brace response, what we now know to be the body’s response to stimulus it can’t escape from, we can help the horse release long held tension and restrictions. What’s so exciting about this is that by doing this regularly we can not only improve our horse’s performance but also their longevity. I say longevity because if we think back to Dan on day five of his hoof poultice regime, he is still some way from being 100% but as a horse he does his best to conceal his pain, as is natural and instinctive to him as a prey and herd animal. Fortunately for Dan I am not only aware that he is not yet 100% and as a result he won’t be back in work until he is properly sound, but also that with compensation his offside will be overworked, unbalanced, tight and tender. A lot of the time the injury has long since passed but the knock on changes in the body are overlooked and with no treatment being provided only become tighter and more restricted. This not only impacts performance but also contributes to the slow demise of the internal structures.

If you would like to learn more about me, my training and what I can do to help your horse, please come follow me on FB & Twitter. https://www.facebook.com/equinetherapiesireland https://twitter.com/etiwellness. Alternatively you can read up more about the Masterson Method @ https://www.mastersonmethod.com/about-the-masterson-method-and-jim-masterson.html