Here is an excerpt from my Bowen muscle therapy for horses teaching manual, that gives you a bit more information about the Bowen move, with some of it’s “do’s and don’t ‘s” that are appropriate to you here on this course.
About Bowen
Bowen was developed by an incredibly gifted man called Tom Bowen who primarily worked on humans, but also worked on animals – particularly horses. Alison Goward with her Equine Muscle Release Therapy (EMRT) expanded on Mr Bowen’s work. We’re expanding on that again by using the pendulum to test for the muscle work and combining all of that with using the natural connection between you and your horse to get the best overall result.
Mr Bowen himself worked intuitively and rarely performed more than a few moves on human or animal. Alison Goward’s EMRT more closely follows the Bowtech method of Bowen on humans, where certain moves are performed in a framework and in order. Out of deference for Alison’s work, I refer to her EMRT as “classical”.
Be aware, we ARE NOT learning EMRT. Nor am I associated with them in any way.
Using the pendulum and Bowen muscle therapy together, enables us to target exactly what we need to do, in exactly what order, to make sure that we do exactly as much and no more than the horse can heal at any given time. (I am going to give you some pendulum instructions on a separate webpage shortly.)
The Bowen “move” sets up a vibration between the brain and muscle which can have far reaching and balancing effects on muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs and the skeleton itself.
The brain resets the muscle in such a way that that the brain itself can gently pull/allow (we don’t really know which) the skeleton to come back into the correct position.
I’ve looked at a lot of different tools for muscular skeletal work and have not yet found anything to rival Bowen in power and gentleness – which makes it particularly valuable for our horses.
THE BOWEN MOVE
Your Bowen “healing” session will consist of a series of Bowen moves, tested with your pendulum and governed by your communication with the horse.
The Bowen move is usually made with the pads of your loose fingers, firstly by taking the slack of the skin back until you feel the edge of the muscle, then by “challenging” the edge of the muscle (holding/pushing gently the edge of the muscle for a few seconds) and then by “pinging” over the top of the muscle to complete the move.
The Bowen move can also be made by the whole hand in a kind of “wave” motion, starting with the heel of your hand and using the heel of your hand for muscle challenge. The “ping” is still a key to the best success of the move.
The Bowen move is NOT made by pushing or dragging your fingers through a muscle. That can be quite painful and is not effective to healing. The Bowen move should always be done with loose relaxed fingers – not stiff and rigid.
There is a wide variety of pressure that can be used to achieve your Bowen move from quite firm (although never hard), to very, very softly. Any variation is just as effective. Horses often do not enjoy too soft a touch – it can annoy some of them.
You can even do the Bowen move in the air above the horse, exactly and with deliberate intent creating every nuance of the move, including the challenge, with your hand or fingers. When I do this, I can even feel the “ping” as the muscle pops over. Certainly you will see the horse’s muscles flicker and respond in exactly the same way as if you were touching it.
Your “intent” is a very important part of the success of your “healing” session in three areas.
• the overall intent of the session – to work for the horse’s highest good and to do no harm;
• and your intent to remove a blockage/s to healing with the session;
• and the intent with which you do the Bowen move itself, especially the challenge and the “ping” that creates the vibration for the most effective move.
Your integrity is another important aspect of the healing session with your horse. This covers some interesting areas, including the “space” that you are in when you are dealing with your horse, your frame of mind in other words. For example, chatting to someone while you work on your horse may be OK, but anything “negative” about that chat would not be OK. For example, talking about your personal problems while you are working – not OK; talking about someone else’s personal problems while you are working – not OK; complaining about something or someone – not OK. Get the idea?
Stay connected to the horse, rather than be disconnected by what is really not part of the session.
This raises another issue, related to integrity. We perceive things, “see” things, through the filter of our own experience. It can be quite difficult to do anything else except filter through our own past experiences. Because of this, it is absolutely critical that we only tell anybody else EXACTLY what the horse said, or EXACTLY what we “saw” or “heard” – not any sort of variation or interpretation.
I have had many examples of “hearing” or “seeing” things that didn’t make sense to me, that were so tempting to interpret. If you or the owner don’t understand what something means right now, don’t worry – you or they will, provided you haven’t made it something completely different by interpreting it!
Here’s some things to be aware of when you work:
• Bowen keeps working, keeps improving the brain to muscle connection and releasing muscle spasm for 3 to 5 days after a session. Imagine that the brain to muscle connection is a pond of water as still as glass. You put the Bowen move in and it vibrates like crazy for a while creating very rapid ripples very close together, resetting the muscle more and more as it goes. Over time, the ripples get slower and slower, until 3 to 5 days later, the pond is as still as glass again.
• There are very important rest periods that come up in a Bowen “healing” session. I always think of the wait time being for the ripples to slow down enough so that they don’t overload the brain at the same time. Whatever the reason, the waits are an essential part of the healing process and can range from two to fifteen minutes in extreme cases. Your testing will tell you.
• Do not force a horse into any position for a move. Use your connection and communication techniques to re-assure them and encourage them into position.
• I prefer to work with horses with the rope over my arm and not tie them up at all. Of course, you need a long flexible rope for that to be effective. That way there’s no risk at all of the horse pulling back.
• There are some moves that a horse MUST NOT be tied up for, generally, all those around the head and neck. Some horses will pull back when tied up in any situation.
• If you ever feel that you are in danger working on a horse – THEN DON’T DO IT!!!!! Your options are endless. Do your connection/ communication work first until there is no sense of danger any more. Stand back and work from a distance, visualizing every nuance of the move, like working in the air above the horse except doing it from 20 metres away. Get the owner to read Zen Connection with Horses. Whatever… But nobody will look after you as well as you will look after yourself – so make sure that you keep yourself safe.
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