I’m considering doing the Masterson Method Certification course. Before I sign up I’d love to know peoples opinions of this method - I’d like to know there would be work out there for me!
I have the book and have had great success working on my own horses, I like that it is non invasive and interactive with the horse.
So what are peoples thoughts? Have you used it and liked it? Hated it? Are you a practitioner or know a practitioner? How is does work go
I think that your financial success, or lack of it, would depend on your location and the equine culture of your possible clients. Where I currently live, it would be a hard sell because horses are relatively cheap (to buy), and there’s a reluctance to try anything out of the norm.
I’m somewhat familiar with the Masterson Method, and my horses have enjoyed what little bit of “practice” I’ve done on them.
I have had a MM person work on my horses. Loved it, but it is a discretionary item so I don’t always have the budget for it. I think that will be the issue you face when you do that type of work. If you can afford the certification, go for it - even if it just for you and your horses.
I got the book and use several exercises with my horse. He likes it, therefore I like it.
That said, make sure with clients that any horses you work on don’t have underlying pathologies that necessitate many return visits. If you find yourself repeatedly working on the same issues with a horse, be prepared to suggest to the owner the horse may need veterinary intervention beyond bodywork.
Personally, I find my horse prefers Masterson work to massage.
I would think that a good Masterson practitioner would be able to quickly pinpoint soreness issues and I would think that they, like a good farrier, would be a good first resource to use to be able to determine what kind of veterinary action you need to pursue if it warrants. I just had a Masterson treatment done on a horse and she found a shoulder soreness that made her look down into the foot and she saw a reaction to frog pressure so we’re treating for a thrush problem that we didn’t know we had. Farrier is due so we’ll see there also. This horse has a very tight close frog so we missed it, given the rain this past spring thrush was a big issue some places. Personally having had an old Norwegian grandmother who could massage you into complete relaxation, I’m a fan.
There are several factors in whether you can make a livelihood in horse body work.
Some are about you and some about your local market
About you; are you actually good at the technique? Just as important can you communicate what you are doing to the human client? Can you effectively market yourself? Do you have existing connections?
About the market: as one of the posters said, are you in an affluent enough area that people pay for these extras? If you are how many people are already offering horse body work? How will you distinguish your services?
I live in a relatively affluent horse area in a metro area where humans are very interested in alternative therapies. But it also seems like almost every week I come across a flyer FB post or business card for yet another person who had taken a short course in one of the Equine body work modalities.
I already know a very good equine massage therapist and another bodyworker who does chiro alignment. I don’t pay much attention to the newbies as when I get a bodyworker out I have identified a problem and want results for my $100 fee. I would prefer to pay $100 and get a confident diagnosis and a fix than $50 to be a learning experience for a newbie.
However I am not sure how much of their income either of my bodyworker earn from that. One seems to have an organized route through the big barns and travels with a show team in winter. The other one I think has several money earning projects on the go.
I doubt many folks make a full time living from.this.
Where I live MM would be a good way to earn extra income, but there would not be enough owners partaking of it for it to be a full time job.
What can you do to investigate the size of your potential market?
What would you do if you were ill or injured?
I get regular MM bodywork done on my grand prix dressage horse. I buy packages from a certified MM bodyworker and she charges now $200 for three. Realize that one session averages 2-3 hours so she is not making a lot per hour, plus she drives about 3 hours RT to get to us. My horse really loves it though and she has increased the mobility of certain joints that were locked up by about 50%. Her poll, TMJ and hyoid apparatus are definitely more relaxed since the bodywork. The body worker sends me video of the releases she gets at the end (like the finale at the 4th of July fireworks) usually about 10 yawns in a row…
We started with 2 sessions in a week, then weekly for a month or so, then every other week. Every other week seems to be about right for my horse. I have no idea how many clients she has.
I found her by doing a search for certified MM bodyworkers in my state on the MM website. Perhaps you could call some of them to get business information.
The woman I ride with all the time has done quite a bit of Masterson, which includes a couple of clinics at our barn plus the books and DVDs. She’s really good at it, partly because she can find and “feel” all the spots that need release. She works on some of the lesson horses for the BO. Some of them seem to release and let go as soon as they see her in the stall. She’s done a little on my horse, and he seems to enjoy it. She retired from teaching a couple of years ago, and I told her that she ought to do more training and do this on the side. She seems to be quite sensitive to their needs.
She does lease, feels that owning a horse isn’t a good investment when you are retired. I haven’t found that yet…
Thanks everyone, your thoughts are much inline with my own, that it’s as much about how good you are as an individual rather than the method you use.
I’m in New Zealand and I haven’t heard of anyone practicing the Masterson Method here, so it would be a new venture. I have also done Barefoot trimming for years and I’m looking at becoming certified in that and combining the two.
I still want to keep up my current work part time so I think this may work well. Who knows how things may go with any new venture, but it’s something I’m excited about 
No, she’s in Northern Colorado and comes to us in the Denver metro area. I am really lucky–she doesn’t own a horse and is doing this to stay connected to horses. She is very very good and was selected to work on Jim Masterson’s own horses during her certification testing. She’s done a lot of training. I have the books and dvds, but with a FT job and commute and trying to train and compete my horse, I don’t think I’d be very good at it. It takes focus and desire to learn about anatomy and responses and patience to do this. We did bring in a cranial sacral therapist for one session, which she observed, because my horse carries a lot of tension in her jaw and poll and my MM bodyworker thought this person could get through it quicker. I think my horse was most helped by MM and this practitioner though. Tension is the enemy of soundness, and there is a certain amount of tension you get when you train a horse to do new dressage movements. So regular bodywork is, I believe, essential to maintaining a sound and fit horse. Now that my horse is trained, I am working to make her more and more supple and loose in the movements, so MM is helping me to rid her of any accumulated tension. I can tell it is making a difference because of what I am able to get from her now. But a lot of people don’t invest in bodywork–their dollars are stretched and this seems an extra to them. I think it might be hard to make a lot of money at it, but I believe it is very very worth it.
I had a MM person come out to see my horse as we don’t have a massage therapist in our area. I wasn’t familiar with the method, but the horse seemed to like it ok, although I think 2-3 hours is too long to keep their attention and he was pretty much over it by the end. Didn’t see any improvement in his movement afterwords. I’ll keep an open mind but I will say he had much better results with chiro. YMMV.
As for whether you can make a living - I’m in a not-especially well-to-do area, and my MM practitioner drove up in an Audi. It was clear this was her part-time work to give her something interesting to do. At the hourly rate, I can’t imagine doing it for an actual living, but part-time if you enjoy it, ok.
I had it done on my horse about 3 times several years ago. I don’t recall how long the session was, but it was not anything like 2-3 hours. I also don’t recall the practioner recommending it be done weekly, semi-monthly, etc. I just used her when she came to my area, as she was not local. I did not see any improvement on anything after a session nor did I notice any positive response from my horse. I’ve never noticed any improvement from chiro, massage, and accupuncture either, and I’ve used several different vets for that. In short, I don’t think body work is all that it’s cracked up to be, but good for those of you that have horses that benefit from it.
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