Educational Symposium Day 

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Heather Beachum:

“Discover The Simple Way To Improve Your Horse’s Balance and Movement.”

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At the educational symposium, Heather Beachum, a Feldenkrais practitioner, will present “Discover The Simple Way To Improve Your Horse’s Balance and Movement.” She will introduce a method using everyday pads placed under a horse’s hooves to enhance balance, muscle tone, and body awareness. Heather will explain how pads create a “Sweetspot” of gentle disruption to habitual movement patterns, allowing the horse’s sensory, vestibular, and nervous systems to recalibrate for improved movement without stress. Through a demonstration, attendees will learn to observe and give horses time to process these changes, requiring no special equipment or courses. The talk emphasizes simplicity and the interconnectedness of the horse’s systems to foster lasting improvements in health, happiness, and performance.

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The Feldenkrais Method, developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, is a somatic educational approach designed to improve movement, reduce pain, and enhance overall physical and mental function through increased body awareness. It emphasizes gentle, mindful movements to retrain the nervous system, helping individuals discover more efficient and comfortable ways to move. Below is a concise overview based on the context of Heather Beachum’s presentation and general knowledge about the method:

Key Principles

•  Holistic Approach: The method views the body and mind as an interconnected system. Movement, sensation, thought, and emotion are all linked, so changes in one area (e.g., physical movement) influence the others.

•  Awareness Through Movement (ATM): These are guided group lessons where participants explore gentle movement sequences to increase awareness of habitual patterns and discover new possibilities for movement.

•  Functional Integration (FI): One-on-one sessions where a practitioner uses gentle touch and movement to guide an individual toward improved function, tailored to their specific needs.

•  Learning Through Exploration: The method avoids forcing change. Instead, it encourages curiosity and experimentation to find easier, more effective ways to move, often described as finding the “path of least resistance.”

•  Neuroplasticity: By engaging the brain’s ability to form new neural connections, the method helps rewire inefficient movement patterns, improving coordination, balance, and flexibility.

Application to Horses (from Heather Beachum’s Presentation)

•  Use of Pads: In the context of Beachum’s talk, pads placed under a horse’s hooves create a “Sweetspot” of subtle disruption to habitual movement patterns. This gentle challenge prompts the horse’s sensory, vestibular, and nervous systems to recalibrate, fostering improved balance, muscle tone, and body awareness without causing stress or resistance.

•  Systemic Impact: The method recognizes that a horse’s movement involves interconnected systems (e.g., sensory, nervous, muscular). Pads influence these systems holistically, encouraging the horse to find new, more efficient movement patterns.

•  Non-Invasive and Simple: No special equipment or extensive training is required. Everyday pads can be used, and the focus is on observing the horse’s natural responses, allowing time for processing and adaptation.

Core Techniques

•  Slow, Gentle Movements: Movements are performed slowly to enhance awareness and avoid strain, allowing the nervous system to process and integrate changes.

•  Observation and Non-Judgment: Practitioners encourage observing movement without forcing outcomes, creating a safe space for learning and adaptation.

•  Minimal Intervention: The method avoids aggressive corrections, instead using subtle cues (like pads for horses or guided movements for humans) to stimulate self-correction.

Benefits

•  Improved Movement and Balance: By breaking habitual patterns, the method enhances coordination and fluidity, reducing strain or injury risk.

•  Pain Reduction: It can alleviate discomfort from tension or poor posture by teaching more efficient movement.

•  Enhanced Body Awareness: Both humans and animals develop a better sense of their body in space, improving spatial acuity and confidence.

•  Stress Reduction: The gentle, non-invasive approach promotes relaxation and reduces anxiety associated with movement or performance.

•  Versatility: Applicable to humans, horses, and other animals, making it useful for improving performance in activities like riding, sports, or daily tasks.

Training and Practice

•  Practitioner Training: As noted in Beachum’s presentation, Feldenkrais practitioners undergo a 4-year training program to learn techniques like using pads to influence balance and movement. This training equips them to work with both humans and animals.

•  No Special Tools Required: Beachum emphasizes that no proprietary pads or courses are needed, making the method accessible and practical.

Practical Example (from the Presentation)

When pads are placed under a horse’s hooves, they slightly alter the horse’s interaction with the ground, disrupting ingrained movement patterns just enough to engage the sensory and nervous systems. This creates an opportunity for the horse to explore new ways of balancing and moving, leading to lasting improvements in posture and performance. The key is finding the “Sweetspot”—enough disruption to stimulate change but not so much as to cause discomfort or resistance. ​

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