Welcome to Thornton Equine Academy, providing courses and workshops to horse owners and therapists alike. Where you can learn unique skills that are easy to learn and help you to be more in charge of your horses musculoskeletal health.
A 2-day
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆 course, for the WHOLE horse
Perfect for horse owners and therapists alike: I've been given the feedback that this is also a perfect course for newly qualified therapists/bodyworkers, having had two therapists on the last course: "I wish I had learnt this amazing & different work during my qualification, I am having amazing results"
NEXT DATE - 17/18th APRIL 2025 @ LINCOLNSHIRE, DN21 4UQ
What you will learn: A series of holds, rhythmic motions, activations and merging techniques to help your horse regulate unwanted tension. This will change your relationship with your horse, your horses stress levels, and improve your horse’s musculoskeletal comfort whilst improving your understanding to a new level.
A 2-day Structural Balance Therapy course, for the WHOLE horse. Combining structural therapy and somatic exercises, this one-of-a-kind course is easy to learn and will provide a set of skills you can do regularly with your own horse. For therapists you will learn a new way of working on horses that’s also easy on your own body.
Helping YOUR horse on so many levels, learn how to "drop them down the staircase" reducing unwanted tension and locked up terrain.
It's very important not to segregate the body or to concentrate on one section. The connections throughout the body are simply amazing. Understanding this is of great value!
What`s in the mind is in the body, what`s in the body is in the mind, be prepared to be blown away with this demo!
Full of fabulous learning, covering the application of hands-on skills to connect with your horse, to develop core freedom of movement, to build structural foundations for a more balanced horse, and for you to help your own horse’s body as a horse owner, or new skills as a bodyworker.
The 2-day Structural Therapy course is the first of its kind for horse owners developed from two decades of experience giving owners easy-to-learn techniques that can only benefit the horse and your relationship.
👇👇The 2 days consist of👇👇
Day 1
What's in the mind is in the body, what's in the body is in the mind.
Rider/owner Zone 1 activations - a must before embarking on using your hands to help your horse.
Horse anatomy 'n landmarks
W𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭
What's in the mind is in the body, what's in the body is in the mind.
Rider/owner Zone 1 activations - a must before embarking on using your hands to help your horse.
Horse anatomy 'n landmarks
What are my horses limitations?- Bodily check-ups
What does my horse want/need? - Dropping down the staircase.
Holding patterns using transverse sections with somatic integration.hat are my horses limitations?- Bodily check-ups
What does my horse want/need? - Dropping down the staircase.
Holding patterns using transverse sections with somatic integration.
Day 2
Further hands-on including Acupressure Points, specific whole-body regulation and somatic integration of the body using our touch with specific motions to re-connect the body and brain. Plenty of hands-on practice for everyone as horses will be provided.
This is NOT MASSAGE. This course looks at somatic integration therapy and structural integration together, and the techniques you will learn are gentle, yet powerful. Anyone can learn this basic system.
"Owners need to feel empowered to trust their gut that what they notice in their horse is real and important and push for more."
This programme is easy to learn you just need to be patient.
The second day finishes with an overview of specific, very easy, rehabilitation exercises devised by myself, broken down from a therapist’s point of view. These exercises change the long-term outcome, post diagnosis/op - and help to start those much needed changes for conditions such as top-line syndrome.
Opportunity to bring own horse.
To book: Tel 07947 623923
email: thorntonequineacademy@gmail.com
COST: £325 for 2 days
If more than 6 weeks away a deposit £100 can secure place
* non refundable or transferable
Please check Facebook under events page for any new courses & for current dates
(New 3 day version with Hoof Mapping: https://fb.me/e/2s6d7XMFo )
SOMATIC INTEGRATION MOVEMENT THERAPY WORKSHOP
A practical day course where you will learn techniques you can use on your own horse or learn new skills and information as an equine therapist.
Somatic Release Techniques are widely used by people to reduce tension and stress locked within the body.
Here we learn to transfer and use this skill to help our horses release unwanted tension patterns and stress in key areas.
THORNTON EQUINE ACADEMY
What will I learn?
*Guided sequence of somatic exercises to help your horse release tension throughout the layers
*Each focusing on a different area of the body
*Instruction and further tips to help you further engage with the tissue
*Fun learning environment
A simple day broken down into simple exercises for you to learn, so you can help your horse. This is not massage.
Gentle & restorative to retrain the brain and release long standing muscular tension. Returning the body more to its natural state of ease and motion.
Somatic techniques are a gentle release practice that disrupts the brains gamma loop of tension. The gamma loop consists of signals that are moving continuously from brain to muscles, telling them to stay tight.
Somatic Release movement retrains the brain to allow the muscles to let go and relax where undesirable amounts have become locked in = Relaxed and ready, instead of overactive and tense.
Help your horse to softly n progressively release, bringing immediate relaxation results.
A more balanced body.
Stress inhibits the body, help your horse to reinhabit theirs!
This is a practical based course, you will go home with a routine you can use on your own horse, having practised on different horses.
Course timetable
9.30am am Welcome and hot drink
10 - 11am The principles, theory session & demo of all techniques,
Take notes
11 - 11.15am Break
11.15 - 13.15 Practical Session
13.15 - 2pm Lunch n mingle
2 - 4pm Practical session and Questions
@ DN21 4UQ
Course price: £120
To book: https://buy.stripe.com/fZe4jmc5DfBD22cfZ5
OR
Tel: 07947 623923
email: thorntonequineacademy@gmail.com
NOTES:
Tea n coffee provided
Bring your lunch
Held inside and outside so dress accordingly for on the yard.
NO TRAINERS OR WELLIES.
This course is limited to 15 people to ensure small groups and individual attention.
Opportunity to bring own horse.
NEXT DATES: 24TH APRIL 2025
Horse Musculoskeletal first aid
BODY CHECK-UPS:
NEXT WORKSHOP DATES: 8TH MARCH 2025
Would you like to be able to check your horses body, including jaw, hyoid, sternum, shoulders, ribs and more? Learn ways to find what areas may have restricted movement? Affecting comfort and performance.
Would you like to be able to check fundamental areas, such as thoracic sling development and the pelvic function in your ridden horse, so important during rehab cases!
The musculoskeletal first aid, ideal for routine check- ups, for understanding your horses body more and as guidance after any fall or incident such as in the field and of great value whilst rehabilitating any horse.
Held @ DN21 4UQ — Horses provided
10am start:
10-11am All check ups demonstrated
11-11.15 Break
11.15-13.15 Practice
We finish with questions
Tea n coffee provided
Held inside and outside so dress accordingly for on the yard. No trainers.
Please bring pen & paper
This course is limited to 15 people to ensure small groups and individual attention.
NB: All courses need 6 min to go ahead, in this situation your place will be moved to the next dates that are convenient to you.
Cost: £80
“So I'm Fran, and this is Cal. And we would both like to really recommend Helen's Thornton's Horse Owner's Empowerment Course. She is a really good teacher, (she) broke down some really quite complicated concepts into simple words that we could all understand. And then we did loads of hands-on practice with really good coaching.
She taught a really easy routine to assess how your horse is feeling and any areas that might be troubling it. And then some lovely, simple soft manoeuvres to enable horse owners just to do general maintenance and tune into their horses and keep them feeling well. It was a brilliant two days - really well priced.
Really recommend it. And yeah, Cal is very grateful. I have been delaying making this video ‘cos I wanted to look smart and clean. Um, I'm obviously not, but you can have a shot of the horse who is!
So do the course. You won't regret it.”
- Fran McNicol
Fran McNicol - highly recommending Helen Thornton’s 2-day Horse Owners’ Empowerment Course
“𝑯𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 2-𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏. 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉, 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒆𝒔. 𝑻𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆. 𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏 .”
𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 2-𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏. 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒕 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏-𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒔. 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏.”
𝑾𝒐𝒘, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 2 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒃, 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 ‘𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔-𝒐𝒏’, 𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 ‘𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒈𝒐’ 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒙𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒐𝒏𝒆’𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔. 𝑨 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆-𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏 𝒙𝒙””