Equine Performance Solutions

05/24/2026

When Max gets nervous his go to is to frantically start circling, push into my space, and if he hits the end of the line the energy often goes up into a rear. It’s sometimes hard to know what to do in the moment and how to handle it when you’re in the middle of it, and with Max things tend to escalate quickly😅
My goal for this clinic was to gain more insight and tools of how to bring his energy back down and his attention back on me when in stressful situations. I’m so grateful to have someone kind, calm, patient and so effective guiding me through the process and giving me some tools of how I can help him become more regulated🙏🏻

05/24/2026

I’m so gateful to my experience at the clinic yesterday🙏🏻 To have Max at a place where we can finally go and do stuff like this and he staying in a mindset where he actually remains trainable feels amazing! 🙌🥳💃 It wouldn’t have been possible a couple of years ago…
One of the big challenges for me with Max is how quickly he goes from one mode to another and knowing when to push through and ask for more and when to back off, when to reward with a break but also recognizing when that break looses its value and becomes a distraction etc… it’s easy to look at a horse like Max and judge the handler😅 Lord knows I’m still working on trying to become quicker and more effective… but this clip shows how emotional he gets and how small the margin is between him ignoring me and stepping into my space, to becoming very insulted and animated because I touched him to reinforce the request that he was contunualy ignoring😆

05/24/2026

Not sure who’s more tired, Max or I😅
I took Max off the farm and participated in the Tik Maynard clinic in Sanford. May not sound like that big of a deal but it’s something that a couple of years ago was something I thought I would never be able to do... Of course Max showed up slightly more animated than your average participant, but overall did really well, and I’m so proud of just how hard he tried. Good but exhausting day😊🥵

05/17/2026

I just started doing this the last few years and even once I started I didn’t take enough time to pause/soak/dwell but would go back to work too quickly…. It is the most powerful tool and the more time I allow for it in the beginning stages the quicker the horses respond to what I’m trying to teach them.

05/01/2026

BRB - Out of office for a few days!
🇮🇹🍝🍕🍷

04/28/2026

This is an amazing opportunity for owners, riders, and trainers to learn some easy and very effective ways to help their horses! I LOVE acupressure! And Susan is an incredible instructor!

Time is running out to register! This 2-day acupressure course will allow you to become the best advocate possible for your horse.

The EQ80: Equine Acupressure Techniques for Owners & Trainers course offers an introduction to the principles of Five Element Acupressure and how they apply to the horses in your care. This course offers a deeper way to understand the patterns behind equine behavior, tension, discomfort, and overall well-being — moving beyond simple “points for problems” to a system that helps you recognize why those patterns develop in the first place.

Designed for dedicated owners, trainers and riders, this class blends classroom learning with hands-on application so you can begin using these techniques with confidence.

📍 Salem, Connecticut
📅 May 8–9, 2026
👩‍🏫 Instructor: Susan Tenney, CMT, EEBW

04/26/2026

I haven’t had a chance yet to share much about the dissection with Becks Nairn that I attended last week. It was a lot to process, and I’ll try to share more details soon—but for now, a few reflections.

So far, to better my understanding of how horses are structured, I’ve attended a clay anatomy course with Deb Patillo, where we spent seven days building the muscles of a horse from the inside out on a horse skeletal model. This was such a cool and educational experience and I can still picture the size, shape, and fiber directions of the muscles and how they connected on to the skeleton as I work on horse or evaluate their movement.

After that, I traveled to Canada (mid winter🥶) for a five-day whole horse dissection with Deb Bennett. Another truly mind blowing experience. Seeing, tracing, and touching muscles, fascia, tendons and ligaments for real, and discovering how everything interconnects, gave me another level of depth to my understanding of functional anatomy, collection and spinal alignment. From this insight my movement training system evolved further.

This most recent dissection, was different. It was centered around discovering what was actually going on inside the mare we were studying and uncovering the issues she had been living with. We had her full medical history and her owner present to fill us in on the challenges she had faced throughout her life.

Each of these experiences has been incredibly valuable in their own way, but this last one affected me on a much deeper, more emotional level. I’ll try to share more details soon, but for now I want to say this:

I’ve had a great deal of admiration for Becks Nairn since I first started following her, but after participating in this dissection, listening to her explain her findings and watching her work absolutely tirelessly over two days to show us everything that she possibly could, I’m truly in awe. From the muscles and fascia to the skeletal structures, heart, lungs, intestines, stomach, brain, eyes, nuchal ligament, nerves, spinal cord, dura, tendons, ligaments, hooves, and stay apparatus… and conditions like ECVM, collapsed pelvis, sacralized lumbar vertebrae, and DSLD/ESPA. The depth of her knowledge and her absolute dedication are extraordinary.

The work that she is doing, the information she is gathering is incredibly important in helping us understand what goes on inside our horses, the damage we're doing to them by applying too much pressure on them at a young age, and the things they carry and compensate for, that we often can’t see. It's emotionally draining work and we need more people like her in the industry. This was a truly life changing experience and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to attend. 🙏🏻

Pictured: Kerry (Becks’ right hand and another wonderful and inspiring woman), myself, and Becks at the end of two exhausting but incredibly enlightening days🤩

04/19/2026

Some of the findings from the past two days. What an absolutely whirlwind of an experience this was. I’m so grateful that I was able to attend this. The gift that this horse and her owner gave us…🙏🏻

04/17/2026

I came across this video while searching for something else and got sidetracked reminiscing.... How can this be so long ago?!?! I miss all this so much. The most amazing mare that I was somehow fortunate enough to own, the most amazing instructor Lucia Santa Cruz and my amazing fun group of girls that we trained and showed together with. Wish I could turn back time to experience the bond with this mare again. She was a once in a lifetime type of special... ❤

04/11/2026

Since I shared “Parkour Max” earlier I figured I’d share what things are like now🥰 standing at the mounting block was a struggle to say the least… it took some time but he has finally come around and realized that riding isn’t all that bad after all😊
****ck