Masterson Method

The Masterson Method

The Masterson Method is an Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork. A ‘stand-alone’ therapy in its own right; but can also integrate well with other modalities if required.

Originally developed by Jim Masterson as an Equine Performance Bodywork, his insight into reading the horses responses and understanding the importance of three key junctions in the equine body, (the Poll-Atlas junction, the Neck-Shoulder-Wither i.e. Cervical-Thoracic C7-T1 junction and the Sacroilliac Junction) revolutionised his work, and it keeps improving. Jim Masterson describes his gentle method below:

‘The Masterson Method – Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork – is a unique interactive method of equine bodywork in which you learn to recognise and use the responses of the horse to your touch to find and release accumulated tension in key junctions of the body that most affect performance’.

The horse ‘actively’ participates in the bodywork and it is this participation that makes the method both fascinating, rewarding and performance enhancing.

Horses have many ‘natural instincts’ and as 1) a prey animal and 2) a herd animal, two of those instincts for survival are fight or flight. By accessing these instincts that are wired into the Sympathetic Nervous System (fight and flight) and the ‘soothing’ relaxation of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (relaxation, eating, mutual grooming), Masterson Method cuts under emotional and physical brace or fight responses such as:

• Rearing
• Pulling back
• Pushing into the handler
• Bucking
• Bolting or
• Simply the horse working in a tension-based outline or not breathing correctly

Often when this occurs, the internal organs are also affected e.g. the digestive system for one. The horse either pushes into pressure or pulls away from it.

When prey animals feel discomfort/pain, some block it out. A lame prey animal is vulnerable, so they may try to block out the discomfort by creating compensatory patterns of movement, which results in attitude or performance being slightly ‘off’. These compensations are often difficult to diagnose and may originally have been soft tissue driven, but eventually joints may be involved, and the ensuing lameness can become a bit of a mystery! The nervous system has blocked it out. It has become a new normal.

The Masterson Method has been used on thousands of equine competitors, including those competing in FEI-level dressage, show jumping and eventing as well as the USEF (United States Equestrian Federation) Singles Driving Team.

Jim Masterson has been the equine bodywork therapist for the USEF Endurance Team 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. He has worked on thousands of performance horses including competitors in FEI World Cup, Nations Cup, Pan-American Cup and the World Equestrian Games.

Now an Internationally recognised Equine Performance Bodywork, this unique style of bodywork can be, and is applied to all equines irrespective of size, age or discipline. Practitioners undergo a rigorous training programme with the support of Jim Masterson and a team of Masterson Instructors, Mentors and Coaches. Course dates and venues are available from the website.

In the UK veterinary permission must be obtained prior to performing any bodywork.