So there’s a thing… That pretty much sums up many of experiences in the horse industry. THW would not be new under this description.
I have found a few very good teachers, for which I am very grateful but honestly, they are outweighed in # by the MLM personality cult people.
[quote=“meupatdoes, post:781, topic:770014”] her Pinterest quality guns,
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I’m dead I love this description so much 
First. Thank you. At the risk of giving the TTW something to gnaw on, I humbly admit you are correct. Second. My facility is open for my joy of being with other horsewomen. Bringing credible clinicians for them. My husband and I do this for the joy of it. We don’t make money off clinics, in fact, we spend. It’s fine and it gives us pleasure to host and cook and house. There are clinicians I can’t bring here because TTW despises them and will attack them if I host them. Truth. But. I will host clinics with care. I deeply appreciate your obvious concern for my wellbeing, so thank you. Please know that any semblance of attack on victims of TTW gives her traction. And that’s all I will say. My concern arises out of a deep sense of justice, not a desire to create drama.
Again. Thank you. I will take care. Thank you.
So you run a clinic with someone that doesn’t know or care who THW is. That’s like 99.9 per cent of horse world. When you post the ads on FB block THW and all her flying monkeys that you know by name first. Then post your ads.
Do not have a friend monitoring THW. Don’t fret over what she’s posting or saying. From now on she doesn’t exist in your world anymore than she does in 99.9% of horse world. Realize that except for you and maybe one other THW victim, and her flying monkeys, the rest of us are following this thread because we never ever heard of the person and we’re curious.
No reputable clinician will care if THW is posting crap on her own site and if she starts trolling them, she’ll be blocked.
Pick someone who has no idea who she is and doesn’t care (easy, 99.9% of horse people don’t). Obviously don’t pick one of her friends or someone out of that particular drain swirl. Pick someone real, who doesn’t care. Maybe bonus points if it’s a man from Western World because men have about zero tolerance for middle school girl games. They were baffled by all that at age 12 and remain baffled at 35.
All reputable horse trainers are well aware there’s a floating pool of fakes, charlatans, and total cray cray out there, and have figured out how to slide on by and not let it affect them.
In other words, no one is going to care that THW is bashing them anymore than they pay attention to Dressage Hub or The Maestro or whoever is behaving badly online this week.
Obviously you can’t draw your attendees from her crowd. You will need new friends.
I cannot tell you the volume of the alarms that went off in my head when I heard a follower (disciple? Cult member) use that term to explain just about everything perceived “wrong*” with any horse. I can’t tell you the volume because the scale doesn’t go that high. Absolutely head-splitting loud.
*extended to but not limited to things like an Arabian with a slightly dished face. I’m sure a horse I had many years ago who came from a line of Roman-nosed horses would also have been pronounced as having suffered birth trauma to have ended up with a (gorgeous, it was truly stunning) slight Roman nose. The batshittery is astounding.
I totally get what you are saying and I appreciate your viewpoint, even though it rubs me a little raw. You are blunt and to the point. But. I can accept your point. There is nothing she can do or will do, I say, so I do need to move forward. She is toxic and I am just inviting that to wash over me. Thank you for your forthrightness. I am thankful this forum is here, though, and have felt largely safe expressing my experiences. So. Thank you for being a part of that. And thank you for your honesty. (Also, I have no clients. Lol. Just a retiree with a beautiful facility and I host clinics. No boarders.) thanks again.
Yep, I like it but it takes to dang long. In contrast to THW, Masterson says “I came up with this because I was lazy and uneducated.” So he’s got a point for self-deprecation. I am not aware of any instances where he faked his own education or credentials, and he has been actively developing his scientific understanding of why the method works. If anything, his work seems to keep trending towards lighter and less invasive, so little to no chance of doing harm, yet I’ve seen a demo horse turn to absolute jello being worked on in front of 20 people. Also, he freely puts out lots of content, has a book and DVD that can be purchased for much less than ahunna-fiddy, etc. So it doesn’t seem fair to put them in the same category, even if you don’t like or believe in his method.
It does take a long time haha it’s worth it though.
No dog in any fight here, but a curious onlooker. I am compelled to post because I’m confused-- and yet intrigued-- by this notion of “birth trauma.”
I’ve foaled out about 75 mares in my breeding career since 2008. I can count on one hand the number of “traumatic” births (that ultimately resulted in seemingly normal, adequately-developed horses). “Traumas” were mild, but included a couple instances of cracked ribs, two shoulder-locks, and one twisted, upside-down HUGE colt that required a lot of extra help to get out. (But that little dude actually was up, standing, walking in 10 minutes and is normal, actually VERY NICE in every way as a current yearling.)
My point is that “birth traumas” are not common, and even more rarely result in lasting woo woo effects. I also say this as someone who has foaled, raised, and started my own homebreds under saddle. I am intimately aware of every influential moment of their lives…and if their future owners (years from now) want to spout nonsense about birth traumas and developmental gobbledigook causing these horses’ issues (whatever they may be), they are barking up the wrong tree. Look at your own riding first, your current feed program, and your horse’s exercise, health, saddle fit, etc… before you go all the way back to the day he was ejected into the world as a cold, wet, floppy foal.
Perfect.
I agree with everything you say. I have foaled out likely over a hundred mares over the years… I can also count the “birth traumas” on one hand. Add in dystocias that could not be fixed - maybe 2 hands.
Newborn foals are also made out of rubber - or so it seems. I helped a black Arabian colt into the world and all was going well - he still had his back feet inside the mare (first time mom) when she turned to acknowledge him and tried to lick him… as the BO’s drunk husband blasted in the door with an equally drunk buddy (drinks and the bottle in hand) as he had been told a foal was arriving. Startled mare leapt to her feet, turned and plunged around the foaling stall in a panic as ice cubes clinked and the two morons laughed. As I tried to get the foal out of the way, mom completely trampled him into the straw twice while avoiding the idiots who were trying to come in and pet her… as I tried to get rid of them and not YELL to further upset the mare. That poor trampled foal took a bit longer to get to his feet… but despite his pounding, was fine. Although later in his life he may have had an aversion to the smell of Jack Daniels.
One of my most difficult births was a gray filly who was huuuuge… she was non-responsive when I finally got her untangled, straightened out and in the straw. That took far, far too long but I worked hard on that filly to resuscitate her. I managed to bring her back and cried tears of relief and exhaustion as the mare moved in to comfort her filly. Surely that must have been a terrible birth trauma. She actually turned 15 yesterday and has been amazing and completely sweet and normal.
@EventerAJ and @smoofox
Thank you for sharing your stories, and yes, you are absolutely correct. Even the research studies done on thoracic trauma on a large number of TBs show that significant birth traumas are quite rare, and more rarely do they have lasting effects beyond the first few weeks of life. Those studies are public and easy to find with a quick Google search if anyone is interested in the topic.
So, the concept of birth trauma explaining why a 15 year old horse doesn’t have a topline is highly unlikely for example.
“This study demonstrates that thoracic trauma is often present in newborn foals and may not always be of clinical significance.”
I agree with the other posters. It’s time for you to move on and not care what this TTW cares about. %99 of the horse world doesn’t know who she is or doesn’t care. Other clinicians are used to people not liking them and don’t care. Host what clinics you want. Move on.
Solid advice! 
Will do the same.
These MLM Hon narcissistic-types nemesis is to be completely ignored.
The whole birth trauma thing is weird in light of the squeeze technique people are successfully using to “reset” dummy foals.
Exactly!
One of the most common ones in the BTMM group is claiming that a crest flip is proof of a broken nuchal ligament.
All horses crest flip, from the time they are foals, you can see it when they are grazing. It’s just the movement of soft tissue.
Walter Zettl and Gerd Heuschmann regularly describe the crest flip as indicating correct flexion, but now we have a bunch of horse owners who are paranoid their horses are ‘broken.’
What this tells me is that anyone who believes this has not ridden enough horses at an advanced enough level to identify correct flexion.
Or, that they haven’t observed enough untouched horses to recognize a crest flip is normal.
WTAF? No (printable) words.
This is absolutely true. A friend who was implementing and giving credit to things they learned from BTMM, anytime they shared their own work, would be messaged by CLL or other BTMM trainers and harassed about not tagging BTMM, and was even accused of stealing BTMM ideas, even if it was work that I’ve seen them doing for years.
While they were associated with BTMM, it was a very toxic and distressing culture going on in private messaging anytime they posted something BTTM et al didn’t agree with.
This is not the only trainer this has happened to.
Someone should ask Equitopia why they were forced to take down a short video showing of one of the BTMM exercises, even though a lot of people really liked it.
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