Soft Eyes Equine Bodywork

09/20/2026

How to Play the Piano on your Horse!

09/19/2026

Keep Fitness Fun! These are some of the layouts I used with Fitness clients this month. The 3 layouts on the left were used with horses that are really long-legged and used to doing ground poles, so the complicated layouts and raised poles challenged them more with proprioception and their minds. It should be noted that their actual needs are different though. The layout on the bottom right is for a horse working to improve posture and overall conditioning to be a great riding companion. Are you interested in a Fitness appointment with your horse, or do you need help staying consistent?

09/18/2026

When I arrived to an appointment, my client showed me how her horse was reacting to standard tacking up. She told me more examples of the odd reactions. One may have thought he was auditioning for Cirque de Soleil, but he wasn't! tee hee. Earlier in the day, I had just been poking around in my books looking for clues to different cases, and some of the information applied here too. But I needed more. So I consulted 4 resources for strategies to help this kind fella.

Even though he was reacting with his hind end, the work I did was primarily in his shoulders. At the end of the appointment, we tested and found that we had made significant progress and his body was calming down. His owner took him for a walk so the body and mind can reconnect without this discomfort.

This particular horse is in the trenches of corrective shoeing and regaining strength. So it's been waves of progress and challenges and thankfully the vets have rulled out serious conditions. But the path is not straight or obvious. We all work together for problem solving and listen to what the horse is telling us.

I'll see him again soon. Curious to know how he's doing!

09/17/2026

This young fella is a big dude who found a wonderful new person. As they work through the slow changes to improve his health, conditioning, and well-being, they are having a great time. I love when the first appointment is full of 'should I trust you' and the following appointments start with 'oh, you're here today!' I'm honored to be on their team to help with body tensions and offer fitness support.

09/15/2026

A really important person in my family is having significant medical treatment starting next week. I will be reaching out to reschedule existing appointments that now conflict with our new schedule to support our loved one.

I will continue to be available for video or zoom appointments for:
-riding analysis via video submission, and
-fitness exercise guidance and feedback via zoom or video submission.
Please reach out if this interests you.

For clients near Kenosha, I may be available for in-person, hands-on appointments more frequently.

To open my schedule and meet your horses' needs, I cancelled all my previously scheduled travel and local activity for professional development through the end of the year that I had mentioned in the last newsletter.

And honestly, working is just as therapeutic for me. It feeds my soul, mind, and sense of purpose. So, I will continue to be as available as I can.

Please send us any extra positive vibes, juju, prayers, and mojo. I deeply appreciate your kindness and support during this very difficult time.
with gratitude, Amy

09/11/2026

We have limited time to help the horse unwind and to guide owners with homework to help maintain or maybe even help improve the tension patterns. Every appointment is unique. The only routine is gathering information, which points me to the plan. Horses often have multiple influences impacting how they use their bodies like repetitive use or posture, illness, injury, nutritional imbalances, scars, trauma, and so on. So I try to prioritize the most important imbalances and how to best influence them. Sometimes it's directly on the spot. Sometimes it's the opposite end of the body. Sometimes it's adjacent. Sometimes the horse tells me my plan is wrong and moves to redirect my focus! ha! They really do know their own bodies best.

09/10/2026

Hanging out in my office between meetings

09/09/2026

This!!!!! 🥰🥰

When it comes to stretching positions and how much we can ask of the horse... We should be meeting them where they are not forcing every horse into the same frame.

These student pictures show the same handholds and movements with horses that have different capabilities for range of motion. They're meeting these horses where they're at in their fitness journey.

We have to look at each horse like an individual and connect the dots of restriction to find the root cause of issues.

Track progress and improvements... Keep consistent... And watch improvements become a new baseline for a better athlete.

09/08/2026

First appointments can be super interesting. I FEEL the tissue change under my hands, but I often don't SEE it until I look at the pictures later. I know, I know, how can I not see it right there? Because I'm still in the forest at this point making sure I do all the things for the appointment. :)

OH! This cutie's shoulder, withers, and neck had quite a bit of tension. This is a great example of how my 'Goldy Locks Grooming' for homework will help with the maintenance of this appointment's progress.

PS Don't put any weighted attention or value on the horse's head position. This is a brief moment in time when we are often asking the horse to 'square up' or I'm trying to get better lighting.

09/06/2026

PSA: There is a page called Equine Anatomy Lab with highly stylized AI generated videos. Please note that they are not accurate.

This week alone, I have seen posts by TWO DVMs and other reputable equine professionals sharing this 'ai slop'. One took corrective actions after being called out. The others continue to share inaccuracies. In the past, I have seen other equine related businesses sharing many other examples of ai slop.

So if something seems off or overly simple, research the information and the source creating it. In doing this, I have decided to unfollow these professionals or block such information from my feed as it is not helpful to our industry.

If you've read this far, please know that I really love the idea of 3D modeling to make anatomy more tangible and intellectually accessible. But it has to be as accurate as possible. Yes, I know there are variations but this level of inaccurate information is not acceptable under any standards, in my opinion.