Thoughts on "The Traveling Horse Witch?"

[Paint_Party]

@MapleBreeze

Dorsal pelvic dysfunction and lower impulsion chain dysfunction? What do they mean?

Oh, to know this you’ll have to pony up a certain sum of money in order to have access to the Traveling Horse Witch Dictionary of Speshul, Magical Terms

[sascha]

@outerbanks77

Birth trauma flashbacks, obviously

oh how I needed that laugh this evening!

[Sticky_Situation]

@2bayboys

I came across a Facebook post shared by a friend, wherein an equine bodyworker “assessed” the horses at the Land Rover 5* during the jog (by video, not in person), and determined they all had significant physical problems (which apparently this person felt could be fixed through their bodywork methods), and reading it I felt like it was very similar language and mood of the Horse Witch.

Sure enough, this person is a follower of Celeste, an accolyte, and there are comments back and forth on the FB page from Celeste where they heap praise on each other.

Here’s an excerpt from the post in question:

"Thirty-eight horses jogged up for the vets and all were accepted.

By my anecdotal and non-medical assessment using the same criteria I use for my series horses, all thirty-eight horses showed:

-Evidence of negative palmar angle, excessive flaring, egregious medial-lateral imbalance in one or more hooves, clearly collapsed or crushed heels, feet that were clearly too upright, high/low syndrome, toe or quarter clips, or landings that were not heel-first.

• overdevelopment of brachiocephalic muscle

-Pelvis angle too steep - indicative of chronic psoas tension

-What EFIT practitioners refer to as a “V” holding pattern. Evidence that tension is chronically improperly transferred across the superficial dorsal lines and superficial ventral lines.

Of the thirty-eight horses, thirty-seven had improper development of the longissimus dorsi muscle.

Thirty-six had dysfunction of the forelimb protraction line - commonly seen in jumpers

Thirty-two prioritized moving their limbs to create forward motion rather than recruiting the full-body chains of kinetic myofascial lines

Thirty were tail wringers, or avoided tail movement at all. Thirty showed incorrect development of the medial glutes and the quadriceps.

In twenty-eight horses, the Cutaneous Omobrachialis was easily visible

In twenty-six horses, the cutaneous trunci was easily visible

Twenty-two horses showed either dorsal pelvic dysfunction, or lower impulsion chain dysfunction - both associated with galloping, starting work too young, or acute or chronic hind limb trauma

Twenty-one horses stood out to me as having an especially hard fascial expression, excessive freeze responses, excessive spooking, or excessive ear movement - all indicative of chronic stress or discomfort

Nineteen horses were presented in a flash noseband

Eleven horses demonstrated “spicy” or spooky behavior despite being some of the most highly-trained animals in the sport

Six horses demonstrated headshaking or nerve-fire behavior in the head.

This is the sport of eventing. This is the sport I fell in love with as a teenager - before I knew what I was seeing. Things have gotten better, and they are still this bad.

I have had success alleviating all of these symptoms with manual bodywork and specialized movement work. We can do better."

It is physically impossible for a horse to be sound enough that these nutbars won’t say it’s in pain and “we need to do better.”

That’s why none of them ever seem to own a horse that isn’t perpetually “rehabbing” and they sling accusations of cruelty at anyone that’s out there actually doing stuff with their horse.

[Ghazzu]

@Sticky_Situation

It is physically impossible for a horse to be sound enough that these nutbars won’t say it’s in pain and “we need to do better.”

That’s why none of them ever seem to own a horse that isn’t perpetually “rehabbing” and they sling accusations of cruelty at anyone that’s out there actually doing stuff with their horse.

They are from the same church as the Religious Barefooters.
I once had an exchange with a True Believer of that ilk in which I pointed out that some horses, in this particular case distance horses, wear off foot faster than they grow it.

Her response was that the horse shouldn’t be ridden so much.

[NerdyHorseLady]

She misquoted Einstein and even put it in quotations! If that doesn’t speak to a lack of any college education, especially in the sciences, I don’t know what does.

People tell you who they are, we should maybe believe them when they do.

As per Einstein quote, the correct verbiage is: “Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler”

Leave it to THW to twist a very well known quote to be all about her superior knowledge

[NerdyHorseLady]

@Old_Mac_Donald

I would absolutely love to see a conversation between CLL and Sharon May-Davis (The bone lady). I don’t mean this in a snarky way; I genuinely would love to see the pair of them discuss/debate biomechanics in relation to muscle attachments (“yes, that is how that works”, “no we believe it works in this way” etc…)

Unfortunately, as much as I would love to see this as well, history has shown CLL to be very adept at using the right key words, allowing the true expert to dish out all their goodies, then she turns around and regurgitates that information into a very watered down simplistic version of her own interpretation while claiming to have been doing those things all along and had only lacked the words for them previously.

Similar to the whole BTV fiasco last summer, she vehemently defended it, but recently changed her tune to be that of a more French Classical flair, and apparently has deleted much of the BTV supportive posts… nothing like rewriting your own history.

[NerdyHorseLady]

@AppyGoLucky

the insertion points, and the fact that we know the brachiocephalicus is a limb protractor, making it impossible for it to also elevate the neck. It can’t be a flexor and extensor at the same time.

Thank you! Someone who actually understands functional anatomy in motion!

[NerdyHorseLady]

@K_VanOlst

One of her acolytes shared a recent post in a Correct Dressage Schooling group and the comments have been interesting - although I’ll admit this was my favorite

Okay now this is hilarious!

[NerdyHorseLady]

@BrownDerby

I liked her head shaking comment. She attributes it as pathological when it’s just a VERY normal indication of exuberance in fit equine athletes. You are barely more than a pinata when jogging out those jocks.

I am curious about this, I have a friend with a horse diagnosed with trigeminal issues, seasonal. He is extremely fit endurance trail mount, head shakes in summer. Curious about your comment regarding it as a normal exuberation in very fit athletes, would you mind elaborating on the difference between a syndrome vs exuberance? I am genuinely curious, TIA

[BrownDerby]

Trigeminal headshaking is not voluntary as opposed to the snaky twist of the neck thing that amped up horses do. Mares heading off another mare from their foal, jacked up horses just wanting to GO and so forth. Trigemital neuropathic headshaking can also be related to light conditions and seasonal allergies (and unknown factors) as well. Moreover some cases of trigeminal neuropathic headshaking can be to some extent controlled or at least reduced by devices such as a nose net, certainly not the case in a jacked up eventer, stallion, or race horse.

That the Traveling Horse Witch cannot divine the difference between the two is quite telling of her ignorance.

[Ghazzu]

@AppyGoLucky

It can’t be a flexor and extensor at the same time.

That depends on the muscle and joints under consideration, though.
For instance, the semitendinosus extends the hip and flexes the stifle.

But in the context of the current discussion, I agree with you.

[HorseBuff]

Excellent job reviewing her program with the Pillars. I use Pillar one quite a bit. I have a Friesian cross who loves her Brachio “on”. It’s not easy to help her to turn it off. That being said, after working with her on and off for over a year, she now will ask to stand in Pillar one. It’s quite remarkable that she now finds this a place of relaxation and the place she wants to go when she needs to process.

I also want to add that my mare’s bodyworker noticed a huge improvement with the work we did in Pillar one after a couple of months. She didn’t know what we were doing, must that her neck looked better and her chest was better.

[K_VanOlst]

Ah yes, we collectively should have majykally known that her licenses were under an alias, not the name she goes by for her business

@NerdyHorseLady I’m not sure if you’re in the FB group Equine Biomechanics, Massage & Chiropractic but there’s currently an interesting post going on in there with TTHW claiming her modalities have never injured any horses.

[Scribbler]

What on earth is a structural integration therapist?

Googled. It’s the new name for Rolfing.

Rolfing

[Paint_Party]

@Scribbler

What on earth is a structural integration therapist?

I was wondering the same thing. I’m always suspicious when several seemingly unrelated big words are strung together with “therapist” tacked on at the end. Thanks for looking up this, er, uhm, specialty.

So now I need to worry if my horse’s energy field is aligned with the Earth’s gravitational field? This sounds like he might require a tin foil ear bonnet.

[fivestrideline]

@Paint_Party

So now I need to worry if my horse’s energy field is aligned with the Earth’s gravitational field?

Oh man. “Sorry judge, I can’t circle left because it would put my horse’s energy field out of alignment! Clearly I care and know more about my horse than anyone here so I’m the only one doing correct dressage - you have to score me a 10 on all my movements!”

[NerdyHorseLady]

Notice the narcissistic tendency of acting as if she is above everyone else and superior, meanwhile shaming educated folks for failing to know she uses an alias she failed to mention or provide. Most normal practitioners will list their credentials front page and easy to find. Why so elusive? And yes, she may be licensed in Rolfing for humans, but was anyone able to identify a horse-related license?

The fact anyone even needs to ask for proof of this is absolutely absurd. It is as if she creates the drama on purpose in order to play the victim. It’s not a good look.

[Scribbler]

@NerdyHorseLady

@Old_Mac_Donald

I would absolutely love to see a conversation between CLL and Sharon May-Davis (The bone lady). I don’t mean this in a snarky way; I genuinely would love to see the pair of them discuss/debate biomechanics in relation to muscle attachments (“yes, that is how that works”, “no we believe it works in this way” etc…)

Unfortunately, as much as I would love to see this as well, history has shown CLL to be very adept at using the right key words, allowing the true expert to dish out all their goodies, then she turns around and regurgitates that information into a very watered down simplistic version of her own interpretation while claiming to have been doing those things all along and had only lacked the words for them previously.

Similar to the whole BTV fiasco last summer, she vehemently defended it, but recently changed her tune to be that of a more French Classical flair, and apparently has deleted much of the BTV supportive posts… nothing like rewriting your own history.

Assuming SMD is a professional who knows her stuff. I don’t quite see the point in thinking about real professionals debating slippery charlatans. Unless the pro really has an axe to grind and wants to take down the charlatan. I mean I’d love to see that too, but the pro likely has better ways to spend their time. And with a slippery charlatan there are 2 outcomes. They roll over in their backs and wave their paws on the air and agree with the pro and later use the pro in their marketing. Or they later start a hate campaign against the pro. Really these hot mess type fakes are better to just completely avoid

[Old_Mac_Donald]

She is. She has has multiple papers published in research journals regarding the horse’s neck.

She has a Ba in Applied Science (Equine), a Masters, and a PhD - all in Equine sciences. Definitely educated. None are from disreputable unis either.

That is true.

[Scribbler]

@Old_Mac_Donald

She is. She has has multiple papers published in research journals regarding the horse’s neck.

She has a Ba in Applied Science (Equine), a Masters, and a PhD - all in Equine sciences. Definitely educated. None are from disreputable unis either.

That is true.

Then she doesn’t even need to acknowledge the existence of CLL. Even debating her would be too much attention. As for the rest of us learning we’d be better off just going to SMD’s actual work rather than having to think through what CLL is saying in order to reject it. I think we can just reject CLL and go back to credible sources.