Equuheart Integrated Bodywork

03/20/2026

This mare really tugged at my heart strings 🖤

Big thanks to Sasha at Equuheart Integrated Bodywork for treating a few horses here yesterday. I always love watching her work her magic! Extra big thanks for showing me new ways to interact with our newest mare Lady Riju. This mare is so sensitive and has such a mistrust for people, along with being an introvert who freezes and tries to hold all her emotions inside, making the small changes towards accepting things so easy to miss - and easy to push her too far if you miss them 🤦‍♀️. Sasha helped me recognize the tightness in her jaw, the long slow blinks vs. hard fast blinks, the way her muzzle twitches when she’s even thinking about releasing, letting down her guard and truly relaxing. She’s come a long ways from when I first met her in December. When I approached her, still 20 feet away and reached out my hand, her shoulder just started trembling as she was so afraid. Every horse has something new to teach us. I love learning new things to help our horses thrive ❤️

03/11/2026

🧘🏼Hind leg yoga

One of my favourite "diagnostic" poses for any horse.

It tells me a great deal about their proprioception, coordination and balance.

Here's some ways a restricted horse will respond:

-Inability to pick up the opposite hind leg when I ask
-Snatching up the leg/ kicking out/ over reactivity
-Inability to release the leg across midline
-Touching down the toe and falling out of it immediately
- Bracing the back and ventral neck to balance.

Here's what we work towards:

-Picking up the opposite hind with ease and lightness when I ask
- Slowly releasing the leg and opening the fetlock as it glides across midline.
- Ability to relax the head and neck down
-Holding the pose when I step away and breathing into it for at least 30 seconds.

I cannot stress the benefits of this pose enough. Not only is it wonderful for lengthening hind end abductor muscles, it creates a spiral through the trunk, opening the opposite rib cage and lengthening the opposite longissimus.

Major bonus points if the horse can relax and recruit the diaphragm while holding the pose, massaging the visceral system with every breath 🫁

03/05/2026

Tuesday May 12- Mark your calendars!

I am so excited to announce the first saddle fitting and anatomy lecture hosted by Meadow Lane Equine Veterinary Clinic in Surrey, BC.

I will be joined by Dr. Robyn Kopala and Dr. Grace Bailey to have an in depth, interactive and educational conversation about saddle fit.

We will go deep into the anatomical structures of the horse as they relate to the saddle.

We will talk about common saddle fit problems and how to identify them.

We're going to hack into some saddles to discover just what's inside.

Dr. Kopola is going to take live back X-rays of a few demo horses on site so we all have a clear understanding of what a healthy back looks like, and what it doesn't look like. (How freaking cool is that).

There will be lots of time built in for questions as well.

This is going to be such a fun afternoon of learning. Please stay tuned for registration, I will be sharing it here in the coming weeks!

03/01/2026

I can maintain a performance horse every 2-3 months.

I can improve a performance horse once a month.

March availability: 3-15th

02/27/2026

Compression...

Nearly every single interaction we have with our horses involves pressing into their bodies.

Halters hang over their polls, pressing the backs of their ears.
Curry combs and brushes and hoof picks are pushed, rubbed and scraped into their skin and feet.
Girths are tightened around rib cages.
Nosebands buckled around noses
Bits press into tongues.
Legs squeeze into ribs.
Rider weight bears down on backs.

Dont get me wrong, physical pressure isn't inherently bad.

But if it's the only thing they ever experience from us, the result is a shut down body packed with tension.

This is why horses can appear "re-inflated" after a bodywork session.

Consider the time you spend with your horse, does any of it encourage expansion or is it 100% compression?

Don't know how to incorporate expansion into your daily routine? Reach out for an equine bodywork session🤓

12/18/2025

12/15/2025

Weaving Masterson Method ideology - staying below survival brace to find range of motion...

With

Academic/ classical principals- teaching the horse how to speak our language (aids) in a low stress environment.

My first time doing anything other than bodywork with this horse, possibly his first time wearing a cavesson.

I am introducing the direct rein aid which looks for lateral poll flexion.

"First you teach them the individual letters, then words, then they can communicate in sentences"

Because once you work with a horse in lightness, there's really no going back.

12/09/2025

Kamloops!

The good news: I'm home for all of January
The bad news: it's January 🥶

Weather permitting equine bodywork treatments.
Saddle fittings
Camp!

equuheart@gmail.com

12/03/2025

When’s the last time you put your saddle on your horse without any pads and just took a look?

When’s the last time you flipped your saddle over and ran your hands down each panel to feel for lumps and bumps?

Your saddle needs to be regularly inspected. I cannot stress this enough.

As someone who formally kept a sheepskin half pad permanently attached to her jump saddle and NEVER looked at anything- don’t do what I did. Your horse will pay the price, mine did.

No idea what to look for or how to look at it? Message me! Or your rep.

Happy riding 🐎

12/01/2025

🥱 Not all yawns are created equal

Here's what I look for and why it matters:

- Lower jaw opening to it's full expression
-Lower jaw swinging to the left
-Lower jaw swinging to the right
-Tongue extension
-Third eyelid
-Ears moving

Jaw/ TMJ/ tongue mobility can tell me a great deal about how that horse perceives gravitational forces.

Can she only yawn half way?
Is there an audible clunk out of the jaw?
Does she only yawn rolling her lower jaw left or right?
Does she almost yawn but then suck the tongue back and chew on it?

The entire body is at the mercy of how the horse's brain perceives its horizon.

If its perception is skewed, the body orients itself to the brain's concept of gravity.

So, the yawn actually provides me incredible Intel.

Thanks to Star for showing us all the points of the yawn! ⭐

11/28/2025

Body tension is created in the brain. There is no cell in soft tissue capable of memory. The body (and its pain signals) is at the mercy of the brain.

These are just the facts.

Staying below the survival brace to re introduce range of motion in an otherwise chronically tight junction is the bread and butter of my practice.

The biggest difference between an equine therapist and a human therapist is that horses dosn't consent to the therapy.

I must gain trust and avoid breaching pain thresholds. The horse doesnt know short term pain = long term betterment from the 60-90 minutes I'm there.

I get in and get out while the horse is relaxed and regulated. I find a better range of motion than I did a moment before (on a good day) and move on from there.

11/25/2025

Camp Equuheart?
A dream of mine in the making.

I was so fortunate to get to spend 3 consecutive days with a regular client horse while his mom enjoyed a holiday away.

One bodywork treatment is better than nothing for all horses. But it rarely feels like enough and I am always wanting to evaluate how it affects movement.

I was able to take a deep dive into addressing nervous system regulation, movement patterns, postural patterns and neuromuscular DISconnections.

Combining tension release therapy, liberty, longeing and basic in hand patterns to help the mind and body re-establish connection and expression!

All things I have learned, practiced and obsessed over the last 5 years culminated in a buffet of consecutive daily sessions.

Thank you to his wonderful owner for the time.
If anyone is Interested in learning more about "Camp"
Please email equuheart@gmail.com