My horse's hooves have never
looked so good! Tracy started working with us early this year and I am
very impressed with her knowledge and dedication and enthusiasm. She is
always stretching herself to learn as much as she can and is flexible
in her approach to horse and human with her eye on the holistic aspects
of horsemanship. She is incredibly reliable (always on time!!) and it
is a pleasure to work with her. I wont have anyone else touch my horse's
feet!!
Lynette Heaton-Jacques and Nautilus
It has been so refreshing to meet someone who understands the
true biomechanics of a horse’s body and also who has the ability to
deduce purely from its muscular development the exact way in which it
is being trained. With such a sincere and deep-seated passion for true
and correct horsemanship and a genuine honesty to pass on and educate
the owner for the sake of the horse, such a truly classical eye,
coupled with such levels of understanding in this modern day is
extremely rare indeed.
Tracy has played a hugely valuable part in my on-going journey and
understanding of training horses and the positive, negative effects
these different methods have on a horse’s body. She has kindly enabled
me to voice questions and offered me the opportunity to have in-depth
discussions on all aspects of their care as I continue to learn. My
main questions have been the how’s and why’s of classical training
versus modern training techniques which I have been researching,
learning and trying to implement with my tricky mare over the last few
years through various professionals such as body workers, trimmers,
instructors etc. I had so many questions and was beginning to get more
and more confused about what actually was the ‘correct’ way as opposed
to ‘incorrect’. Very few of these previous professionals had ever been
able to give me solid and simple but sensible answers to the burning
questions I had.
I think I once described it to Tracy metaphorically
as an inner circle at the mountain - top which is completely hidden by
mist and clouds from below. As we struggle up this mountain in the mist
we come across many other methods and ways along the journey, all of
whom tell you that they are correct and classical. Many people are
completely convinced by these methods and so never feel the need to
carry on further up the mountain side. But just a few people keep
struggling on, exhausted, blinded by the mist but still searching for
something which may not even exist at all... Something which resonates
deep within and drives us to keep going, keep looking, searching.
Then
when you are near collapse, your spirit is completely broken you
finally meet someone who understands, really understands, and you
realise you have just unknowingly stepped through into that sacred
inner circle. Here is an elite place where everyone understands, knows
one another and above all they have the same selfless and beautiful
goals which put the horse’s welfare first and foremost above all else.
I
probably should explain that my mare is now finally using her body and
moving truly
correctly for the first time in her whole life –she is nearly 15 years
old!
She has
spent 8+ of those ridden years in an incorrect position, depending on
which
method of ‘correct’ training I had been sucked into believing at the
time (!)
-Hollow
through her back,
-Round
and deep and behind the vertical, -Lifted
through neck, up through shoulder, -In front of the vertical
Which sadly
resulted in a combination of the following:
-very
tight longissimus dorsi muscles in her back due to hollowing, -over
large and very tight brachiocephalic muscles in the lower neck, -weak
muscles in the middle of the neck, splenius, -over
large muscles in the crest of neck,
-weak
over the wither, spinalis,
-and
finally intermittent unlevelness on Right Fore
Her body
has changed dramatically since meeting Tracy as a result of good bodywork, biomechanically and classicly correct training, balanced feet, good diet and a relaxed, natural environment.
Its a long and lonely road to finding the simple truths of how to keep your horse happy and sound - if you have found Tracy, you've arrived.
