Balanced Equine Energy with Shannon

08/06/2025

Frogs should NOT have cracks. That deep central sulcus? That's a harbor for bacteria and fungus and other junk that leads to infection. I've seen so many horses with deep-seated central sulcus thrush and owners who have no idea that their horses' caudal heel pain or stumbling might be caused by an infection in that central sulcus.
Many horses don't have strong, healthy hooves. Many have soles that are crusty and broken up. The frogs have deep cracks and flaps that harbor nasty microbes -- as well as being contracted with flattened heel bulbs. The horses land toe first to avoid pain, and that worsens the cycle because landing solidly on a robust digital cushion and well developed frog increases blood flow which contributes to hoof health.
One of the most interesting aspects of working with my rehab horse Eason is the partnership between Jamie Lyn Robbins, who trims her, and me. Jamie is rehabbing Eason's feet as I'm rehabbing her body. It's been fascinating looking at the changes in Eason's hooves over time. She was lame when she came to me in August last year, with a hock rotation so severe her left pastern would almost go to the ground. With careful trimming and bodywork and slow groundwork, she began to move better, but it took putting composite shoes on her front feet for her to be able to feel more normal. By January I was seeing positive changes, but then the ice melted and everything turned to mud and during the four days when I was gone to a dissection she went from walking and trotting and beginning to be able to canter to the left on the line to totally lame again. It turned out that not only had her heels collapsed from the wet, but she had abscesses in both her right hind and her right fore. That girl is TOUGH -- incredible at masking pain.
I pulled her shoes and did my best to treat the abscesses in horrific conditions. Jamie couldn't make it up for a month, and I tried every kind of hoofboot the local shop had available, but her hooves were so distorted nothing worked.
By March she was starting to feel better in her body but her mind was out of control. Her pen was too small for her speed-loving Thoroughbred body and she was miserable without the space to move all day. It took me a couple of months to convince the farm owner to allow me to create a track system for her, but once I got the go ahead I bought posts, tape and a solar electric fence charger and set up my primitive track with slow feed hay nets at two different locations. Her mood brightened the moment she had space to move. I'd been about two days away from hauling her back to Jamie's because I couldn't bear how unhappy she was -- so the farm owner's final "yes" was a relief to both Eason and me!
Since getting access to the track in June, Eason has been doing better overall. Three trims ago, we replaced the front shoes despite a temper tantrum on Eason's part when Jamie went to slip on the left fore. Jamie let me know to pull the shoes if Eason looked like she wasn't doing well with them -- given her extreme reaction to having it put on. So I pulled them two days later and she was surprisingly sound without them. I ordered custom ScootBoots right away and have been using them for our work sessions and lane walks.
I've been treating her central sulcus thrush forever, and it's finally starting to go away. Having her barefoot helps a lot. Her retained sole was finally separating and yesterday I watched Jamie pull away the folded over bar on her right fore and bring back the toe on her left fore. The difference in the look of her feet is incredible. I wish I had taken a picture! (I will get one.)
Even so, her hooves are a long way from looking like the hoof of a client horse I saw a week ago. I asked if I could take a picture because it illustrated a healthy hoof -- smooth, strong, with (almost) a dimple in the frog. My client, who mostly does her own trimming, has been rehabbing her horse's hooves for a full year after a terrible case of thrush, and anticipates another three years for the hoof capsule to grow out and the hoof to be properly aligned with the bony column of her pastern. She still needs to work on bringing the heels back, she says, and that line in her frog will be gone with the next trim.
Which hoof looks healthier to you?
Oh, and Eason has been doing so well on her trips out and her walks down the lane and along the busy road by herself that I am signing her up for a clinic (just groundwork at this point) in a couple of weeks! 🎉

07/14/2025

The following article on the connection between the Colombian "Guardians Del Mar" (Guardians of the Sea) and their community and environment is beautiful. We need more people who see those connections between what we do and how it impacts our environment, including other beings. In addition it touches on something important in my equine massage work, the potential for significant and meaningful communication between horses and their guardians.

One trained Guardian Del Mar, Luis Antonio “Toño” Lloreda, recounts his experience freeing a whale from an abandoned fishing net: “'To connect with the whale, I used what we call intuitive interspecies communication,' says Lloreda, explaining that this involves non-verbal, energetic communication. 'I asked the mother for permission – energetically.'”

A friend sent me the article, asking if this is what I do when I communicate with animals, and the answer was "Absolutely!"

I've just spent a weekend in Bend, Oregon, working with 11 very different horses and their wonderful guardians. Time after time, I stood with the owners while I waited for each horse to approach. The owners would tell me a little about their equine friends, and I would explain how I work with horses, and in that time, I would be sending energy to each horse, letting him or her know I'm there to help, that I will not push past boundaries, that I will ask before doing. And the horses would come up -- worried horses, anxious horses, horses coming back from injury and difficult rehabs -- and I would start my healing work.

Often the guardians wanted information on how to do what I was doing, and I would share what works for me, and I would watch in joy as owners slowed down and breathed and grounded themselves, and their horses dropped their heads and nuzzled them, or blew softly in their nostrils, or turned and requested touch in a certain area. I watched as owners held up hands to feel their horse's energy, then felt the energy soften and invite them in for touch. I watched the horses release, their eyes softening, their breath changing. "Visualize what you're planning to do," I told the owners. "Watch the horse's reaction. Is he positioning himself so you can do what you want to do? Is he blocking you? If he's blocking you, don't do it."

A block doesn't always mean "no." Sometimes it means "not yet." Learning the nuances of what the horse is communicating takes close observation, deep breathing, slowing waaaaaayyy down. But it's worth it. It changes the relationship profoundly.

In one case, I was slated to work with three horses in one larger herd. We went into the shared space. "Which horse do you want to start with?" my owner asked.

"Let's let the horses decide," I said. Her mare came up first, a horse I had not personally worked with before (except during a remote session where I talked my client through what to do to help her), so we started with her. Once we had finished, one of the geldings came up, so he was next (and what a transformation from last time!). And then came time for the last gelding, who had walked away as soon as he saw the halter in her hand. We walked up to him. He stood with his back to us. I waited at a small distance, breathing and grounding myself. He thought for a moment, slow blinked, then turned, came to us, and dropped his head in the halter. (Usually I work without halters, but because of the relatively small size of the space and the six horses present, it was easier to halter and move away to a different spot. I maintain my rule that the horse can always walk away if they need to, and often the lead line ends up draped over the horse's body and I don't need to use it to guide the horse at all.)

At another place, a mare I was working with had some profound changes in her breathing and went into deep processing after I had worked with her right fore. Then she walked away. I knew she needed visceral therapy on her ovaries and help with her TMJ, but she went into a completely different pen, rubbed her neck on the stall door, then stood with her head in the stall and her back to us. We waited for a bit, then I asked if I could start with the owner's second mare while her first horse processed. I also let her know the mare might be finished for the day, and if so, I wasn't going to push it.

The second mare was ready and waiting, so I worked with her. Again, she had some profound changes, then walked away before I could work with her poll, which I knew had tension still. I moved away to chat with the owner and her friend (who was also my friend, and who had arranged the trip). As I chatted, out came the first mare and positioned herself so I could work with her ovaries, then so I could work with her head. She had swelling behind her TMJ, and her nose and eyes started running as I worked, and then she took a huge shuddering breath and blew and sneezed a few times, before smelling my friend's hat with focused intensity, huge deep breaths that pulled air deep into her diaphragm and her belly.

I thanked her for the honor of being able to help her, as I always do, then moved away as the second mare returned for me to work with her head.

Some horses need a long time to process. Being willing and able to provide that processing time goes a long way in establishing trust. Being willing and able to work without any restraint tells each horse you trust them, and establishes their trust in you. When horses who fear strangers walk up and greet me, I know I'm on the right track, and the track I'm on is guided by what I am now going to call "interspecies energetic communication."

Next time you get an idea of what to do or where to go when you're with your beloved horse (or dog, or cat, or hamster or chicken 😆), ask yourself if that idea came from you, or if your beloved friend is energetically communicating with you. When I was working with horses in Ireland (or riding my ponies as a young teen), often I would get an idea to do something or go somewhere -- sometimes quite unorthodox. And off I'd go, with my partners-in-crime fully invested. On retrospect, I think it was their idea!

Horses can tell you whether or not they want fly masks or blankets or composite shoes (apologies, Eason, for my recent deafness in listening to your needs about that). Just ask. Then listen. And then one day you'll be gone a couple of days and your horse will see you from the far end of the track and come running, yelling for you, "Where have you been?!!!!! I've missed you?!!!!!"

And if that's already happening, congratulations. Your horse sees (and hears) you.

Abandoned fishing equipment haunts our oceans, killing coral, turtles, sharks and whales. But in Colombia’s Gulf of Tribugá, ‘guardians’ are on call to free entangled marine animals

07/09/2025

I am beyond grateful to have so many amazing clients in multiple locations -- from Issaquah to Bend, from Tri-Cities to Benton City and Ellensburg to Cle Elum. And that doesn't include all my clients in the Yakima area and my remote clients from way far away! Yesterday was a day in Benton City and the Tri-Cities area. I had a blast chatting with clients and watching their interactions with their beloved horses -- performance horses and rehab horses, young horses just starting their careers and older horses switching to a new life. From Tri-Cities to Issaquah, the horses, ponies, minis, mules and soon -- a donkey -- keep me on my toes and filled with joy that they have wonderful people who love and look after them -- true guardians.

I'm also grateful for a bodyworker network, others like me who love horses and whom I encounter at practicums and other events. Thank you in particular to Alexa Schmidt and her recent referrals!

Picture of Eason waiting to go out on her track.

06/19/2025

To feel safe, horses need freedom, forage, and friends. Without all three, their physical and emotional health is compromised. They are more likely to be anxious and spooky, to have ulcers, to develop vices.

Eason spent the late fall and winter in a small paddock with a run in. In some senses it seemed adequate. I've seen horses kept in smaller space. I've worked with horses who were kept in 12x12 looseboxes, with an hour a day being ridden, and maybe a Sunday out on pasture.

Know better... do better.

As winter dragged on, the mud getting deeper, the ice more hazardous, the days too short for full play sessions, Eason got more unhappy. In early January she was looking good, developing a topline, seeming contented. But by mid-January, long days filled with relentless rain and mud caused her heels to collapse. She developed abscesses and her topline vanished overnight.

She had all the forage she wanted -- teff and timothy and alfalfa hay in slow-feed hay nets in a tub in her shelter. She had a friend across the aisle, within sight, but not touchable. That's a better life than a lot of horses. But it wasn't enough.

By mid-March, I knew I had to do something. If I couldn't provide her with more room to move around, I wouldn't keep her. I would send her back to her lovely owner, Jamie, to her familiar herd and a much bigger space in which to live. Without a friend to mutually groom and freedom to move, her life was miserable. At that time, she was pacing, her ribs showing, her hair scruffy. She was anxious, bitey, unhappy. After several composite shoeing sessions where she had stood well, she had devolved to rearing, yanking her legs away, and thrashing around.

So I spoke to my friend Ewa, the owner of the barn where I keep Eason. Between Jamie and I, we managed to convince her of the value of track systems. Not all of us have 100 acres and a herd in which to let horses live socially appropriate, horse-happy lives, but we can put together something that allows for more freedom of movement, for time with equine buddies, for something that comes closer to what horses need for true welfare. A few hundred dollars later, a solar fence charger, electric tape and step-in posts have created a perfectly adequate track around the little pasture. Three or four slow feeder hay nets filled with teff and some timothy dot the track, hung from the outside fence posts. The horses can wander from net to net, get up a bit of a gallop if they want, and don't get trapped in corners.

And Eason is feeling happier! She gets a couple of hours a day on the pasture before Lulu, who's metabolic and can't have grass, gets to join her on the track for the rest of the day. At night, they come in to their little paddocks and Eason gets her flake of alfalfa along with more teff and timothy. Her coat is shining. Her muscles are developing nicely. Her topline is returning. And bonus, Lulu is losing weight and moving better.

Will this allow Eason to become sound enough for riding? I don't know. We went to the vet today to investigate her heats, as she's had to be on Regumate every spring for most of her life until I started doing visceral therapy with her almost two years ago. Everything looks good. The reproduction specialist vet said we can rule out sore ovaries or issues with her uterus. 🎉

So on we march, maybe towards ridden work, maybe not. But if not, I'm learning a lot from her.

Grateful I was able to make her life better, and for all she's teaching me.

06/04/2025

Years ago a little Anglo-Arab taught me that it's fun to do groundwork. He invited me to "drive" him without lines and we could walk, trot and canter, bend through poles, pop little cross-rails, halt square and back up, all as though I had physical lines on him. I loved it, but didn't appreciate the complexity and beauty of it because he made it so easy for me.

Years later I have a horse who is not rideable -- who may never be rideable. Eason, at 17, has had maybe 45 rides in her life, most at a trainer's, because of physical challenges plus a reactive personality. My journey with her started because I was an equine bodyworker and knew she would be an amazing teacher for me. I could see the challenges she would present, and I wanted to learn. And she has fulfilled that role in so many ways. She has made it crystal clear that "no foot, no horse" is a foundational saying that can't be ignored. She'll drop her topline overnight if her feet are out of balance, which they easily become because of her hi-lo syndrome. She has confirmed how ingrained habits of posture, grazing with one leg always forward, for example, create major asymmetries that ripple through the entire body. She has shown me that horses who can graze as they should be able to, in big spaces, walking one foot, then another, then another, can start to balance out those asymmetries. But most horses don't have that opportunity these days. They stand, eating from hay racks or nets, or piles on the ground, often with their dominant leg forward and the other far back.

Eason spent two months on a farm with a huge rolling field and a pasture mate. Being able to watch her graze freely let me see how natural movement for a horse helps build their bodies effectively. Unfortunately she couldn't stay there, and her new place constrained her to a stall with a small paddock all winter. When the weather improved, we created a primitive track system with electric tape around the perimeter of the small grazing fields, and she now has access to that track during the day, which has improved her outlook. One slow-feeder hay net is hung at the far end, and another is tethered in an old water tub in her shelter. She walks back and forth between the two and can canter or briefly gallop if she wants to. Soon we'll introduce the other mare on the farm to the track, and they can be out together, which will help both of them.

Watching people ride is hard. Just a few years ago I dreamed of getting my bronze medal after the lovely Rosie danced well enough to get me my first and second level scores. I've imagined the joy of eventing again (low levels, of course). And I've audited a couple of clinics where the pull to be back in the saddle flared hard. But I know too much now about dysfunctional bodies and how horses as prey animals hide their pain. Until Eason has a topline that will let her carry a saddle and rider, and until she says, "Hop on. Let's go," I'm not going to ride her.

And that may or may not happen. So in the meantime we rehab with groundwork and I play with teaching her all sorts of fun things. She's not my Anglo-Arab yet, in the "invisible lines" department, but she's getting the idea and seems to think it's enjoyable. I love that even with the track system being in, she comes to the stall door when she sees me and waits for me to put on the halter.

See the comments for a link to the video I made of our ground driving without lines.

05/08/2025

Screenshot from my personal page. I love these happy endings!

Central sulcus thrush can be a big issue because it can hide deep inside the cleft, evading discovery because you can't smell it or see the black gunk. If your horse has a slit in the center of the frog rather than a thumb print dip, he or she has likely got thrush deep inside. Most shod horses end up with contracted heels, putting them at risk of thrush deep in the cleft.

I've had a lot of luck with No Thrush, a powder that helps draw out the wet goo. Their page, Four Oaks, has lots of good info on how to treat it effectively.

Happy spring horsing!

03/14/2025

Yesterday I had an amazing experience with a remote session and energy healing. I've written a blog about it, so if you're intrigued by the screenshots below and want more details, check it out: https://beewithshannon.blogspot.com/2025/03/im-sorry-but-im-going-to-go-on-about.html

02/25/2025

Thank you to my amazing clients in Ellensburg and Cle Elum. I spent the day yesterday working with six beautiful equine souls, and saw some lovely changes. Then today I got this wonderful text from a client. I've seen Rory twice since my client bought her, and her first reaction to the bodywork was, "I don't know about you." She needed a slow and thoughtful approach, lots of waiting, the right to say no. A stunning senior mare who's had a tough life, she came with quite a few physical challenges, knotted muscles, over at the knee, a tightly clamped tail that spasmed with touch, so sore and tight she could barely walk. It was gratifying to see her standing straighter in the leg with a softer tail and more rounded muscles at the end of the session.

The second visit she saw me and came right over, ready for all of it, often leading the way during the session, letting me in to all the spaces she had guarded before.

And today she made her guardian very happy. Happy horse; happy guardian; happy me. Grateful for amazing clients -- horse and human, and this job that brings me such joy.

02/01/2025

UPDATE: She was an angel for her composite shoes! She had a brief moment when we turned the hair dryer on, and then remembered it wasn't going to eat her and dropped her head and relaxed as Jamie dried the glue. 🤩

No hoof, no horse. We've probably all heard that saying. As an equine massage therapist, hooves aren't my business, but the deeper I go, the more I realize the accuracy of that statement. The fact is everything is connected, so teeth, feet, muscles, gut, breathing -- all of it has to be factored in.

A couple of weeks ago I got back from an amazing equine dissection experience (thanks, School of Animal Massage and Equine Services) to find Eason was lame. I had to pull her composite shoes because the packing had shifted and was stabbing her tender thoroughbred soles. The next day, her body had devolved -- sunken topline, an increase in her barrel rotation. I had brought my hoof boots and put them on, and the relief was enough to help her body, though she was still not moving well.

Her mom planned to put the composites back on at the weekend, but because of the frigid weather wants to use a hair dryer -- which worried Eason. I had five days to get her used to a hair dryer blowing on her hooves. TRT Method is great, but the idea of trying to guide Eason into the tension-reducing patterns while I was also trying to turn off and on a blow dryer that was hooked to an extension cord and electricity just didn't sit right. Since she was familiar with and comfortable with scent exploration work, I decided that was the best route.

I videoed three of our four sessions, each video edited to be under four minutes and with title slides explaining what we were doing. If anyone wants to see what a combination of TRT and scentwork can do to help an anxious horse learn to self manage, check out the first video below, and the other two in the comments!

01/10/2025

Some days are magical. Yesterday and today were both amazing. First, Dandelion is over his trauma from the face cream fiasco (see post further down). It took me a while of calibrated and careful scentwork to get him there, but it worked. (Yes, he's a dog, but it's my equine bodywork page, so I'll post what I want. 😆 It's all connected anyway.)

And then there's Eason, sweet royalty-with-all-the-sass Eason. She's had all the bodywork, her mom Jamie (FB won't let me tag her) has been dialing in her feet, we've been working on her nutrition, and I've been pursuing my TRT "yoga" and self-management work with her. And now I'm at the canter therapy stages with her. She needs to canter so she get that diaphragm moving correctly, but until recently she was too sore. Now that her feet are coming along and she's wearing composite shoes with DIM to help her tender soles, she's feeling pretty good, so I've been adding in canter. Yesterday, we went full bore with the breathing therapy, and what a difference it made. It's taken a lot to get her to even consider breathing into her flanks, but finally there she was, blowing out, her flanks moving, and doing one heck of a job managing her emotions at the barking dog and the clanging neighbors.

And today.... today she got her new shoes, and she stood like a queen for everything -- and not a drop of Dorm in her. She picked up and held all her feet like a champ. No kicking, striking, trying to fall into the wall or any other resistances. She was polite when she got unbalanced, and then offered her feet when she was in a good position again. It nearly brought me to tears because she's struggled so much to pick up and hold up her feet even for hoof picking, and that's made it hard for Jamie to keep a farrier, and now Jamie's doing her own trimming and shoeing -- and what a difference that has made for Eason.

From the moment Jamie arrived, Eason was in self-manage mode. She was taking deep breaths, her head relaxed. She stood calmly. No pacing or pawing. Jamie trimmed her, anticipating that we would need the Dorm for shoes, but we didn't. She picked up her hind legs, even her really challenging left hind, beautifully. If it were a movie, there'd be a choir of angels singing over us. I think I can hear them now. 😍😆

I'm grateful to Jamie for letting me borrow her sweet opinionated royally inclined professor mare so I can continue my learning, and also for her diligently driving up here every few weeks to take care of Eason's feet. I'm also grateful for my friend Ewa who is letting me keep Eason at her lovely place. I feel privileged to have such good friends and amazing opportunities to grow my skills as a bodyworker and animal communicator.

Thank you to everyone who has believed in me, supported me, and encouraged me. And thank you to all my amazing clients -- horse and human -- from whom I learn every day. 💕

https://youtu.be/l3NE1eqrgpQ

12/03/2024

Last year I had the pleasure of playing with Eason for a couple of months -- Early July through mid-September. She was a sweet mare who carried a lot of tension and moved with her head almost vertical at times. She cross-fired in the canter and suffered serious panic attacks at anything new or different. Just walking out of the area of her pen set her off. I spent a couple of months playing with scentwork in the round pen and arena, and doing TRT groundwork with her. She grew more relaxed, but always remained somewhat shut off and guarded. She never offered to come out and play when I entered her pen, although she didn't actively resist.

This year her lovely mom, Jamie Lyn Robbins, let me "borrow" her again in late August. She's a shared project. Jamie has been working on getting her feet in order, and as she does, Eason is becoming more comfortable and moving better. I'm working to help her in her body and to help her gain confidence in managing her own emotions instead of spiraling. This year, she's a lot less guarded. She nickers to me when I arrive, greets me at the door of her stall, sticks her head in the halter, and walks out to the arena with great willingness. And she lets down and releases in extraordinary ways sometimes. It's been an honor watching her start to trust me.

She was born with a crooked right front leg and those kinds of defects, if not fixed from a young age with frequent careful trimming, becoming long-term issues. Investing in a good farrier every couple of weeks if your foal has long bone issues is well worth it, but many of us don't know that when we breed a horse, and once the bones have hardened, we have to work with what we have. Eason has a barrel rotation and moving straight can be a challenge. She was a "sidewinder" when she came last year, moving slightly crablike with her body tilted to the right on three tracks. I've been working to unwind that movement, help her be straighter, and help her learn she doesn't have to live in her sympathetic nervous system.

Recently I've been looking back at old videos and pictures, and I made a side-by-side video of her walking a year ago versus this year. There's quite a difference in her balance, her forwardness, and her movement. The right photo (I know, I know -- it's backwards) shows her walking last year. She struggled to walk forward and straight. She still has some hock/fetlock rotation in the recent (left) photo, but there's less than previously. Sometimes she's quite straight, and then she gets tired and falls into old patterns.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making real progress. We're not close to her being ridable (and maybe she never will be). She still has her moments of panic on occasion. While she's really good about picking up her front legs now, she still struggles with her back legs. She's better, but it's not easy for her.

And yet she's a love. The little kids at the farm where I keep her adore her. She stands for their awkward petting and spiky energy, and breathes softly into their sweet faces. When we go out to the arena, she tells me the work is hard, but she's game. She does her best. When she needs a break, she tells me with a swing of her head, with a momentary fierce look. Mostly she speaks softly.

I want to share more about her as I get the time. Looking at the walking video, and a comparison picture of her expression a year ago compared to this year (I'll share it later), give me hope. Even if she is never ready for me to ride her, what I've learned and continue to learn from her is invaluable.

Thank you, Jamie, for trusting me with your beautiful girl. 💕