I am a certified equine massage practitioner and live and practice horse massage in South Central Wisconsin.

The positive effect equine massage can have on the performance, rhythm, fluidity of gaits, relaxation, general wellbeing and behavior of a horse without any gimmicks, special equipment or substances and often in a very short time, convinced me to become a life long student of this practice. Due to personal experience I believe that many 'horse behavior issues' are indeed not training issues, but often have the root cause in physical or mental discomfort or pain, trauma or fear of reoccurance of such pain. I therefore invite you to explore equine massage and bodywork as one option not only when performance issues are at hand, but also when you experience behavior issues with your horse (after the veterinarian rules out health issues).

In my equine body works practice I tailor the application of massage and body works techniques to the individual needs of your horse. Main method is the 'Masterson Method', complemented by Sports Massage, Chinese Massage (Tuina), Meridian Massage and relaxation strokes. The careful application of aromatherapy oils to support the equine massage benefit can also be added as an additional option. I follow the methods and teachings of world renowned animal aromatherapist Caroline Ingraham. My goal is to promote 'Horse Wellness', a holistic understanding of how physical and mental wellbeing of the horse result in maximum performance, no matter what your horse activity of choice.

How I got here

From an early age on (6) I felt drawn to horses and even though I was a 'city kid', I was fortunate enough to have a family who would make my interest in horses possible. I grew up riding an abundance of school horses and trail hacks, everyone a dream horse to me, and later moved on to a 'Bereiter' (trainer) apprenticeship in Germany.

Almost three years spent as an apprentice in a large show barn in Trier, Germany, I had the opportunity to experience and learn everything from cleaning stalls, caring for tack, saddling, daily and show grooming over riding, training and gymnasticizing to giving lessons. The barn was a state of the art facility and a very competitive and commercial environment. When I got married and had children horses were only a small part of my life for quite some time. However, I continued to read about horses, got into horse photography, stood on the sidelines many times and rode sporadically for pleasure. Just could not let the horses go...

(1969 in Germany -->)

After many years of raising children and working in the corporate world I decided to go back into what I really love to do, work with horses. Today I live and work in Madison Wisconsin and own two wonderful horses, Cody and Yankee.

FREDO

My 'about me' would not be complete without Fredo. I met Fredo when I was 11 years old. He was a 4 year old Oldenburg stallion who was ridden by an abusive 'trainer' with sharp spurs; the horse was bleeding on both sides behind the girth, prancing and sweating. A year later I was back at the barn, where I had seen Fredo in this sad state. The old 'trainer' was fired but, by now Fredo was deemed 'unridable'. He bucked off even experienced riders and was unruly and uncooperative, but never aggressive or mean.

I liked Fredo and I was a kid. So I hopped on naively in sneakers and jeans. Today I think that the fact I was not wearing the stiff riding boots that might have reminded him of the brutal ways the spurs were used on him contributed to the fact that we became friends instantly and I never had a problem with Fredo. The barn owners tried a number of different things with Fredo to stop him from bucking off riders, including getting him gelded at age 8. This made everything worse and Fredo, my good friend, ended up in a slaughter house at age 9. (with Fredo in Germany in 1972 -->)

I have since seen a number of horses in the same predicament as my friend Fredo.
And I believe that there are many more Fredos out there. Because of this early experience, followed by other similar experiences, I have a special interest in pain or trauma related behavior issues.

Thank you.

Horse Education