Articles

JONATHAN HUNT EQUINE HANNA SOMATICS (EHS)

The-Newmarket.org - www.the-newmarket.org.uk

Jonathan Hunt is no stranger to the world of professional sport and its ups and downs.

Having achieved premiership status during his eleven years as a professional footballer with clubs including Derby County and Birmingham City. Sadly, his career was cut short in his prime at the age of 29 due to serious back and pelvic injuries. After a few years striving to find relief from pain, his discovery and experience of Hanna Somatics brought about a profound healing of himself.

This truly unique method for relief from chronic pain and movement related issues led him to a vocation in his number one passion in life, horses. Jonathan is now a fully certified Equine Hanna Somatic Practitioner, and currently the only one of his kind practising in the UK today.

EHS is a new and cutting edge technique from the USA, where Jonathan was trained at the renowned Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training in California.

He has been practising the EHS techniques for two years along with being fully certified for three years in applying the principles to humans.

He is very excited at the possibility of working extensively in the Newmarket area, as he believes the method can seriously benefit racehorses both in and out of training.

During EHS sessions, horses are guided through a series of safe, slow and gentle movements tailored to meet specific needs. Like humans, horses experience stress (physical/emotional) and develop chronically contracted muscles as a result.

Racehorses especially are exposed to many stressful situations, and because of this their muscles respond by contracting. When this happens over a prolonged period, they lose the ability to completely relax specific muscles, and chronically contracted muscles can have a serious impact upon a horse’s function in life, affecting joint mobility, pulling on tendons and ligaments, pressing on nerves, reducing the supply of oxygen and blood to vital areas and constricting breathing.

EHS uses a special form of mind-body education known as assisted pandiculation.

This involves a series of full-body muscular contractions and slow elongations, that all healthy vertebrates are capable of performing. Horses have many reflex patterns, but they do have voluntary motor control.

All movements during the session are performed slowly to access the voluntary part of the horse’s brain. This is what sets EHS apart from manipulative therapies; namely the horse performs all the movements and the practitioner is there only to suggest and assist in the process.

The results can be quite staggering. Horses will often experience a reversal of pain, have greater relaxation and length to their muscles, better joint mobility and exhibit an improved co-ordination and flow to all of their movements.

The sessions can also decrease the possibility of injury, speed up recovery times, enhance performance, improve digestion and ease ulcer symptoms..

EHS is complementary to many other healing methods and also compatible with all types of equine address such as shoeing, foot trimming, dentistry, saddle fitting and so on.

Owners, trainers and stable hands can be taught some very simple exercises to help increase their horses movement potential during and after sessions. They help the horse to normalize their muscular system and also help to prevent the recurrence of any problems.

If you are interested in finding out more about Equine Hanna Somatics go to www.somaticliving.com or contact Jonathan Hunt (Equine Hanna Somatic Educator) via info@somaticliving.com or 07801 440729.

The Racing Post interview Jonathan Hunt

Equine Monthly article about Equine Somatics