2.) My introduction to the massage world,
or How Epsilon is showing me the way...

The first time I met Epsilon, he was just acquired as a show-jumper by one of my ex-students. she had called me to let me know that she was to compete for the first time on her new horse and if I would please come and have a look. So I did, and found myself looking at a totally disturbed grey horse. He was cantering across the warming up arena, with a young girl on his back, desperately trying to hold on to the reins. Adding his short strides and braced back to his head high in the air, the whole picture was one of fear and panic. My thoughts were going from "what the h*ll is this" to "who in his right frame of mind can buy a horse like this?", but little did I know that this grey horse would send me on a long journey.

That day, they cleared all fences, in a record speed time, but many times they came close to crashing into the jumps. Afterwards I was approached by the mother of the girl, if I could please return to teaching her, she would need all the help she could get. I doubted that I could do anything with this horse, because to be honest, I had some respect for him (okay, some call it fear...), but, decided I could at least try and keep the girl safe.

Since I was on a tight schedule, I only saw the couple a few times a week and sheŽd already be warming up before I arrived, so I did not see many of the "side" problems they had. That was, until she asked me to take care of Epsilon for 2 months while she was on holiday.

My first "sign" that something was really wrong with this horse, I encountered first time I wanted to take him out of his stable. Just opening the stall door sent him off climbing the walls in the furthest corner. Now, I am not the barging in, getting on with things type of person, and I figured that if there was anything I could do for this fellow, should be try and get some trust between us. So, I spent about 2 or 3 weeks passing his stable, talking to him, standing in the doorway etc, until he was actually prepared to come forwards to me, instead of me trying to catch him.

Another 2 weeks were spent to get him to lower his head a little bit. He was so headshy that pointing at him would bring out the weary look and he would tense his body. I had never worked with a horse like this before so in my spare minutes, I started reading and reading, first on the Internet, training problems and their answers, articles about natural horsemanship till one day I got to read about TTeam and TTouch. I thought maybe I should give it a try and get this fellow to feel better in his body.

I was not to ride during those 2 months, well, I had decided to give him a break and work on some other issues (that was decided the day I first opened his box...) and by the time the young girl came back from her holiday, I found her in tears. She was crying because her little guy actually came round and greeted her when she approached. We decided to do more groundwork together and little by little we found out more about the horrible past of this horse. Turned out, he had been mistreated by various owners, probably because of his sensitive nature that you can expect to be clashing with Spanish temperament, (we live in Andalucia, Spain.) Among other things, he was stabbed in his head with a pair of scissors, explaining the extreme head shyness.

Another problem was when dismounting, he would leap off about 6 feet, which was a very dangerous situation. We had a vet check his back, but other than a general sensitivity, presumably caused by past, he could not find. We checked his saddle, but did not really know what to look for. By then, the girl had to move to study and wanted to sell the gelding. When she found it impossible to do so, she almost begged us to have him. He has been with us ever since.

In October 2000, we had another vet check him out, because even though he was changing a lot and getting so much calmer and happier, I still had the feeling something was wrong. The diagnosis I got was that nothing was bad enough to treat and if I wanted him to be treated I should work him hard to make a real problem come up. That to me, did not feel too good and I decided that I had to do something else to help him. Again I went on the Internet, reading all this wonderfull information about chiropractors, master dentists, massage therapists etc. If only I could find somebody over here to do that... which I did not.

So, Epsilon sent me on a trip. I went to north California to follow classes with Equinology for three months and was amazed (and hooked). When I got back from that trip, I looked at horses in a different way, and at Epsilon of course.

One of the things I had learned was motion assessment and movement improvement of the spine. I started going through the ŽroutineŽ about once a week, and pretty soon I had some wonderfull changes. What I would do was warm him up, and then do some slow wither rocking, and individual wither spine movement. After that, I continued with a thoracic lift and also curve by reaching underneath across the midline and ask for a lift and curve.

These movements he happily accepted, but as soon as I would go further back, heŽd become worried, so I decided to leave that for the beginning. Curiously, I noticed for the first time I had him, that there was a little bump on his spine before I started doing anything and after contacting the vet (who did not say anything about it) I decided to keep all exercises low key.

Another thing I did were tail pulls. In the beginning he was always clamping his tail, and it was hard to get him relaxed but after a few times he actually started to enjoy. I would start off by massageing the dock, by making small circles, and afterwards make small circles with the dock, to get him to relax, before I would consider a tail pull. I also worked with moxa on his lumbar and sacral region, to prepare in a soft mode for the tail pull.

One day, he totally hung into the pressure and I let him roll after I was done. I then noticed the bump was gone, and that he was moving so much better. He all of a sudden had an extended trot and would stand square.

On my trip I also learned how to use Bach Flower Remedies and I have given him a daily mix to become stronger himself. He used to be very dependent on my other horse, who would totally bully him around, but when seperated, Epsilon would go in a fit and panic. I made him a mixture of Centaury, Crab Apple and Larch and added this daily to his water and feed. I also started giving him mouth massages with this mixture and noticed many positive changes. Problems he used to have touching his head or mouth seem to be in the past, and although he is still not dominant, he will defend himself when bullied.

Turns out that this little panicky odd-looking horse is becoming a pretty, confident horse and it even seems he has grown taller. He is a joy to work with and a great teacher. He is showing me that faster isnŽt always better, and that appearances may fool you.

When I look at him now, I am so happy that he did come and stay with us. And it looks like he is happy too...

Massaging Epsilon's mouth

Epsilon having a nice run!