Lyons Institute Equine Manual Therapy

As I approach my 75th year on the planet I wanted to create, with my partner Michael, a video series that would hopefully just keep on giving for all the horses on our water planet. They have given so much to humanity for thousands of years! I am going to share with you my 35 years of experience as a practitioner and 32 years as a teacher of the healing arts.

I started this journey at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado. I have studied with the Upledger Institute for Cranial Sacral Therapy, and a two-year program on the Biodynamic approach of cranial sacral therapy the Karuna Institute in Devon, England. I have also participated in numerous continuing education programs to deepen my understanding of approaches to healing and wellness.

My experience with horses began as a 4-year-old! I drove my grandmother crazy as I slipped two blocks away through the woods to the Hungarian stables to watch these giant beings. My riding didn’t start until summer camp in my early teens and then my later teens when I bought my first horse, a Leo bred quarter horse and traveled 600 miles over 6 months along the Continental Divide.

From 1970-1973 I ran the largest equitation center in Colorado under Captain Zygmunt Bilwin, a Polish cavalry officer and twice Olympian. If you don’t know what it’s like hanging out with 50 horses, it’s hard to explain. I sometimes rode 8 horses a day. When Captain Bilwin died, I traveled to Pennsylvania to spend some time learning from Major Jeremy Beale, a former British cavalry officer.

In the late 70’s I worked for Cashvan Arabians in Virginia Beach, Virginia, an 82 horse breeding farm. My responsibility was the care of 9 stallions. After I left Cashvan Arabians, I met and learned from Linda Tellington Jones. Linda was teaching a different approach to handling horses than anything I had learned from cavalry officers and cowboys. She used mazes, much like what I learned from Pat Parelli 20 years later, and her way of touching a horse which was called TTouch. I immediately used it with remarkable “success” with my horses. I could see that the horses were more relaxed having me tacking and riding them.

In 1989 I began working on my Arabians and other folks’ horses using the Rolfing concepts that I had been trained in at the Rolf Institute. The results were immediate, especially around their withers, neck, and back. 5 years later I started incorporating cranial sacral therapy and the Bowen technique into my work.

I also studied the work of Jack Meagher, who clarified even further the concept of trigger points and muscular dysfunction. Jack was a giant in the field who impacted many equine massage therapists simply because his approach worked so beautifully on releasing muscular dysfunction and restoring normal balance and pain-free movement!

And ten years after that, I incorporated the Biodynamic approach to cranial sacral therapy - a concept which is deeply embedded in our video series.

My last focus was taking care of an Olympian’s five horses. She finished in the 2012 London Olympics in the eventing games, which was quite an honor for her!