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Sunday, October 29, 2017
1:00 – 4:00pm
Happy Dog Ranch, Littleton, CO
$72 per person
Horsemanship based on Feldenkrais® Movement – extremely quiet and soft
- Explore movements that translate to softness and receptivity in a horse
- Increase your body awareness for more sensitivity and grace when handling a horse
- Reduce stress and tension in both you & the horse
How little it takes to create a soft response!
Work in a small group with a haltered horse to learn how subtle you can be and how receptive any horse can be!
Horses provided. Groundwork only, no riding.
You will receive a confirmation email with instructions and directions.
Write to iamhorsehungry@horsehungry.com with any questions or to join our mailing list to learn about upcoming events.
About Feldenkrais Method® for horsewomen:
The Feldenkrais Method is a form of somatic (body) education that uses gentle movement and directed attention.
What can it do for you?
By using the principles of bio-mechanics and the powerful connection between the brain and body, Feldenkrais can:
- Increase your ease and range of motion
- Improve flexibility, coordination and athletic skills
- Reduce stress and tension
When you practice groundwork with the Feldenkrais Method, it can do the same things for the horse!
About Pam Beets
Pam has been a Feldenkrais Method Practitioner® for over 26 years, specializing in equestrians and their horses. Pam works with people to help recover and regain movement after joint replacements, surgery or injury; those with neurological difficulties or chronic pain, and those who would like to reduce their stress.
She is a Certified Member of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America. Pam maintains a private practice in historic Englewood, Colorado.
By appointment * 303-788-1803 * 2bewell@ecentral.com
Kathleen’s Experience with Pam & Feldenkrais®
I am so happy to bring you this workshop with Pam Beets! Here’s why:
There are two aspects of Feldenkrais® work: hands-on body work and movement. In our workshop with Pam, we will focus on movement and body awareness rather than actual body work.
Under Pam’s instruction, we humans will first work together to experiment with very subtle movements, so we know what softness and receptivity we are innately capable of before we get to our horses. You will increase your body awareness so that you can feel in your wrist or finger or shoulder what I have experienced: more ease, more fluid movement, more calm and connection that elicits the same responses in the horse.
I want to tell you about my experience with Pam’s Feldenkrais body work so you get the big picure:
I met Pam four years ago in Linda Tellington-Jones’ clinic at Happy Dog Ranch when I took my horse Qamar there for help with old injuries. Pam is also a certified T-Touch® Practitioner and a long-time associate of Linda’s. Linda derived her T-Touch Method from Feldenkrais®. In that clinic, I was immediately impressed with Pam’s patience in dealing with both horses and people (sometimes a rarity in the horse world). She explained concepts and practical application extremely well and with lightness and humor.
Pam has generously helped me apply my T-Touch to Qamar and she has taught several TTouch workshops for Horse Hungry members. But I didn’t really know what Feldenkrais was or how it could help me until I started riding after 16 years out of the saddle.
Sixteen years! Ouch! Every joint in my body cried out, “You’re kidding, right?” especially my ever-tight hips. After months of limping, my hips felt like they were hot-glued into their sockets. The burning sensation while I rode was nearly unbearable. My stirrups were impossibly short, causing me to feel awkwardly confined. In a conversation with another of Pam’s happy clients, I decided to try that Feldenkrais stuff.
Now, I have had tons of body work – massage therapy, Rolfing, physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, cranio-sacral – that have each helped me at various times. But Feldenkrais felt very different, so soft and non-invasive. It looked like Pam was merely admiring my leg, her movements were so small and gentle.
I joke that it took about 10 minutes, although she must have worked with me about 30. Pam rotated my leg at the hip (which is, I learned, actually the Greater Trocanter – doesn’t that sound like an advanced equine gait?) She talked to my leg, whispering, “Oh, that’s nice…. Almost…. Ahhh, there we go,” while I watched.My hip seemed to be oiled by Pam’s cooing. The way she handled my leg was like you would hold a new born baby. I was amazed that she got so much movement while I sat and did nothing.
Very shortly, Pam said, “OK, try that on horseback in a few days. Give it time to sink in.” I felt hopeful as I left her studio.
My next lesson, I did not have to apologize to poor Comet for leaving my footprints all over his rump. Instead I swung into the saddle with such increased ease that I sat down with a surprised little thud; I had actually swung my leg (barely, but I did it!) over the horse!
The next revelation was when I trotted. Up until now, trotting was absolute torture. It hurt so much, I could only trot for a couple of minutes, and you can probably guess it was not pretty. After Pam’s treatment, my legs actually hung down Comet’s sides farther than ever before. My stirrups were adjusted longer. And I trotted without pain for several minutes before my flaccid muscles tired.
Later when I worked with Pam, we practiced movement and awareness so that I could begin to understand how to use my newly-suppled body to better advantage. She asked me to hold the other end of a lead rope and to respond just as I felt anything. Even after years of learning how to handle Qamar in ever-softer ways, I was still dumbfounded by how easily Pam could move my feet around by turning her wrist a quarter of an inch or curling her little finger or lifting her chin. She showed me what she was doing so when we switched roles, now I was curling my finger and turning my wrist. I felt such incredible connection with her as my “horse” and I moved her feet with the slightest of movements.
So that is what I want for you: that you begin to build skills in body awareness and responsiveness and get to practice telescoping that softness to the horses you work with.
I hope you will join us!