"Gary Douglas is an inspiration in my life and in the area of animals. His has a unique love of horses, which began around the age of four. Gary assisted me in beginning the ESSE work I do now and I was so grateful to treat some of his horses.  This is an article written by Gary Douglas on the Energetic Synthesis of Structural Embodiment." Suzy Godsey

I have been riding horses for 64 years. I have been looking at a lot of new things in the last 15 years, and there have been some amazing advancements in the things people are doing with horses. One unique thing has come to my attention recently, which I would really like other people have the opportunity to see, to recognize, to experience!

One of the most interesting things I have witnessed recently is called ESSE, which stands for Energetic Synthesis of Structural Embodiment. I have seen people do Rolfing on horses before, but I have never seen anything quite like this. I met these two unique people, one German who lives in America, Suzy Godsey (an amazing dog whisperer), and American Jason Rabineau (a rolfer). They have developed this technique ESSE, which has made profound changes in the structural integrity of horses. I have watched them take a horse that has a short stride, and by working on the horse to change the connective tissue between the bone and the muscle, as they do with Rolfing, and adding the energy systems that they create, they actually have been able to increase the horse’s stride by up to as much as 6 inches in one session. It was a remarkable thing to see.

I was first introduced to ESSE in Costa Rica. I have a mare that I board there, that I acquired when she was pregnant. She was a really nice mare and I left her with someone who was supposed to take care of her for me, but he did not do a very good job. He put her in a stall with giant rocks in it, so this pregnant mare could not lie down. As a result of that, the tendon that normally passes behind the hock, slid around to the side. Her pasterns dropped dynamically, to the point where the vet had shoes with large clips put on her to lift her feet off the ground, so the pasterns would not hit the floor as she walked. It was a sad thing to see this poor creature. She looked emaciated, her ears hung, her lackluster eyes were devastating. I had never seen anything quite so awful in my life. It was heartbreaking to watch this horse move without any kind of ease.

Jason and Suzy agreed to work on her for me, after I heard about ESSE. The first day, I had my new trainer bring her to the resort where I was staying. As they began to work on her, the pain began to leave her eyes. It was an amazing thing to watch. They started to strengthen the muscles and lengthen them. Now this horse basically was lame in three of her four legs and could hardly move at all. The trainer had told me I should get her pregnant and sell her, because that was the only way I was going to make any money on her. From his point of view she was useless. After the first session, as she started to move around, the startled look on the trainer’s face was as amazing as the smile on mine. Suddenly this amazing creature was beginning to move with more ease.

The second day the trainer brought her (this was most amusing to me) he told us that the moment she saw the trailer come into the yard and he opened her stall to get her, she ran out of the stall and jumped into the trailer, ready to go. She knew she was going to get some more! After the second session, the trainer thought she could be ridden. It was phenomenal to watch the muscles in her back to start to work again, and to watch her front end begin to work. I noticed that her pasterns weren’t hitting the ground any more, so I asked him to remove the shoes with the clips to see if there was going to be continuous improvement. The next time he brought her, a couple of days later, once again she saw the trailer and ran into it, ready to go (by the way this horse did not particularly like the trailer before this). When she got out she took her head and she stuck it into Suzy’s chest as a thank you. You could see the kindness that is normal for a horse had returned to her face. Her eyes were soft and gentle, which had gone away with the pain she was in. She had been a cranky mare during the time she was in such intense pain. That day as they worked on her the trainer was startled because her pasterns started to lift off the ground, instead of dropping towards the ground, as she trotted in the circle, and she even started to run. Getting her to trot before had been hard, and now she started to canter of her own volition. It was a miracle to watch!

A few days later we had the last session with her before leaving Costa Rica and Suzy, the amazing Miss Suzy, worked on her back and her rump, so that she could start to have some freedom in that area. That day I watched the horse walk away with her hips moving. They swayed like a beautiful woman’s. It was great to watch this horse as she walked out to be exercised after the session. At the end of the lunge line, she was moving with enthusiasm, with joy. There was a sense of awareness and a sense of presence with her body that I hadn’t seen since I bought her. The really cool part for me was that the trainer said, “You know what? I think I am going to start riding her again, because I think we can put her in the show ring.”

That was the beginning of my journey of seeing how Miss Suzy Godsey and Jason Rabineau could do miracles with horses. I have watched them work with at least 15 different horses now. I watched horses that were experiencing pain and suffering change to having ease with their bodies. Horses that could not turn their neck with ease, after three treatments were able to drop their nose in, flex at the pole, and turn their heads with great ease and great joy. That is a great miracle as far as I, personally, am concerned. If you ever get the chance to experience this, it is a gift to see the return of the comfort and ease that should be natural in the horse’s body. We eliminate that by our unwillingness to let them be in the wild, by our inability to give them large enough pastures, and (especially with our show horses) with the sense that keeping them in a confined area is necessary to keep them in showing form.

I understand that Suzy and Jason are thinking about doing classes. If you have ever thought of learning something, this is something you want to learn for your horse. I hope this helps everybody, I hope you see an opportunity here.

I am Gary Douglas, and I facilitate Conscious Horse, Conscious Rider clinics. These people are worth knowing.