top of page

Heart + Hands: Presence + Practice Intensive 

Practitioner Regulation, Resilience & Experiential Anatomy Mapping for Equine Professionals

(Equine-focused program; adaptable for canine practitioners in future offerings or upon request.)

The Heart + Hands: Presence + Practice Intensive is a four-day, in-person learning experience designed for equine professionals who want to deepen both practitioner sustainability and anatomical mapping skill.

​

This immersive program integrates practitioner self-regulation, embodied anatomical understanding, and applied equine mapping skills so participants leave with tools that strengthen both their professional effectiveness and long-term career sustainability.

​

Participants develop skills that improve clarity of perception, accuracy of touch, confidence in anatomical mapping, and the ability to maintain professional presence while working with horses and their humans.

 

The program weaves together two integrated learning tracks delivered across four days:

 

• Practitioner Regulation & Resilience
• Experiential Equine Anatomy Mapping

 

These learning streams alternate and reinforce one another throughout the intensive, allowing practitioners to apply regulation skills while developing anatomical mapping accuracy.

Our Instruction Team

HeartMath coaching, Physical Therapist–led embodied physiology, anatomy-anchored contemplative practices, and craniosacral perspectives come together in an integrated teaching team.

 

Your instructors guide you through holistic techniques, mindful practices, and hands-on labs that build real inner clarity, enhance how you communicate with yourself, horses, and clients, and expand your ability to map anatomical structures in both practitioner and horse.

 

Participants benefit from multiple professional perspectives working together to support both practitioner wellbeing and anatomical skill development.

​

Practitioner Regulation & Resilience
Care-for-Care-Provider – Professional Sustainability in Practice

Equine professionals rely on their own bodies, perception, and nervous system regulation as essential professional tools. Yet the same sensitivity that enables effective work can also lead to accumulated stress, blurred boundaries, fatigue, and reduced clarity over time.

 

This portion of the program teaches practitioners how to recognize, regulate, and support their own nervous system responses so perception, touch, and communication remain clear and accurate throughout sessions.

 

Participants learn and practice:

 

• Somatic resourcing and nervous-system regulation tools
• HeartMath coherence techniques
• Grounding practices including tools such as 5-4-3-2-1 sensory regulation
• Intention and boundary-setting practices
• Strategies to prevent practitioner fatigue and emotional fusion
• Tools supporting clearer perception and decision-making

 

Participants also engage in experiential exploration of the respiratory diaphragm, pelvic diaphragm, and psoas within their own bodies, including:

 

• Felt diaphragm and rib work
• Psoas and pelvic-bowl awareness
• Breath and heart integration practices
• Playful clay modeling activities to build tactile understanding of respiratory and pelvic diaphragms

 

These experiences foreshadow and support later mapping work on horses, while simultaneously strengthening practitioner regulation and embodied anatomical understanding.

 

Movement practices, breathwork, reflective exercises, quiet walks in nature, and embodied labs provide restoration and integration throughout the program.

Experiential Skeletal & Muscle Anatomy Mapping
From Bony Landmark Literacy to Functional Mapping

This portion of the program transforms anatomy from memorized information into a practical language practitioners can see, feel, and communicate with through skilled palpation and mapping.


Instruction progresses from conceptual understanding through model-based learning, tactile exploration, and supervised application on live horses.


Participants work with:


• Coloring and mapping exercises
• Real skeletal bones and life-sized skeleton models
• Breyer horses and tactile mapping tools
• Guided palpation practice
• Supervised barn mapping sessions


Practitioners learn to identify visible and palpable skeletal landmarks and use them to accurately infer the axial skeleton and map deeper structures.


Special emphasis is placed on mapping:


• Respiratory diaphragm
• Pelvic diaphragm regions
• Psoas musculature attachment zones


Learning is reinforced through parallel experiential exploration of these structures within the practitioner’s own body during regulation sessions.


Participants leave able to confidently locate these structures, improving assessment clarity, communication, and targeted hands-on work.

Experiential Integration Opportunities

To support integration of practitioner regulation and anatomical learning, optional experiential activities are offered throughout the program.

 

These may include:

 

• Guided nature experiences
• Reflective and creative activities
• Community meals supporting connection and restoration
• Optional allied professional sessions offering restorative movement, somatic awareness, nervous system regulation support, and gentle body-based or meditative practices

 

These opportunities help practitioners regulate activation patterns, support recovery between sessions, and build sustainable self-care strategies that carry into professional practice.

 

Participation is optional and designed to support learning without adding obligation.

Interactive Learning – Presence & Practice Together

  • Daily nervous-system tools you can use in 1–3 minutes (breath + HeartMath coherence + grounding + somatic wellness) so you arrive, conduct, and leave sessions regulated.

  • Clear, repeatable intention- and boundary-setting routines that protect your energy, speed up decision-making, and enhance communication with both horses and humans.

  • Embodied palpation practice and (optional) partner labs that let you feel key landmarks in your own body before you touch horses.

  • Somatic experiencing and physical awareness tuning taught by Dr. Allie Baier, DPT, SEP  — integrating human anatomy, nervous-system regulation, and intuitive guidance to bring clarity and felt connection into equine sessions.

Integrated takeaways from the applied anatomy & wellness days

  • Both the Applied Anatomy and the Wellness-focused days are designed to strengthen professional skill while sustaining practitioner stamina. Together, they build sharper anatomical literacy, embodied awareness, and tools to protect practitioner energy—supporting both practitioner and animal wellbeing.

  • Participants leave with:

    • Improved ability to see, feel, and identify anatomic structures—sharpening how you assess symmetry, tension, and restriction in every horse you touch.

    • Heightened tactile precision and visual literacy for matching intention with structure—connecting what your hands feel to what your eyes and mind understand.

    • Human-to-horse laminated landmark guides to serve as quick-reference anatomy primers.

    • Mind–body tools and cue cards—like HeartMath Quick Coherence, grounding practices, journaling prompts, reflection tools and other techniques to support balance and clear presence in daily practice.

    • Photo documentation and a tactile keepsakes (such as clay diaphragm models or mini-maps) anchoring learning through visual and hands-on memory.

    • “Find Your Joy” creations—like a gemstone bracelet or decorated journaling books or a horseshoe—offered as lighthearted, mindful play during mid-day renewal blocks.

    • Optional private 1-hour sessions with allied professionals (Physical Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy or remotely provided Somatic Care) each available by pre-booking for deeper individual reset and integration.

 

Together, these experiences support practitioner sustainability while improving outcomes for the horses and clients practitioners serve.

Who Should Attend?

Designed for practicing equine professionals including bodyworkers and any other professional equine practitioners who want to deepen both self care and applied anatomy skills to improve professional presence, long-term sustainability in practice and anatomical accuracy.

 

Practitioners working with both horses and dogs may find many skills transferable across species.

 

EBKN courses are designed and intended as continuing education for those in professional practice. If you are not currently practicing in an equine-related field, please contact us before registering. 

Course Format

  • Delivery: Live in person

  • Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin

  • Enrollment: Capped at 8 students (registration closes automatically when full)

  • Dates: Mar 28 - 31, 2026

  • Tentative Future Course Dates 

        Jun 13 - 16, 2026 

        Sep  5 - 8 or 12 - 15, 2026 

        Nov 14 - 17, 2026 

  • Time: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM CT (with breaks)

  • Optional morning guided woods walk each day

  • Long-table lunch + a 1-hour “Choose Your Joy” block (arts, crafts, guided nature walk, model practice, or pre-booked private wellness session)

  • Two barn mapping sessions on each of the anatomy days; model & tactile stations on the caregiver days

  • Optional community dinners at the end of each Care for the Care Provider day

  • CE Approvals & Recognition

    • NBCAAM Recognized CE Class

  • CE Credit: 32 Total CE Hours (16 hours Anatomy, plus 16 hours Practitioner Wellness) â€‹

  • Tuition: Early Bird Pricing for the March Class one month prior to course date! $75 discount

​

     Early Bird: $800 (through February 28th).  Early Bird Coupon Code: Save75

     Standard: $875 â€‹

​

     Refund & Cancellation Policy

  • 50% refund > 14 days before start

  • 25% refund 7–14 days before start

  • No refund < 7 days before start unless your spot is filled from the waitlist​​​

Every horse has a story.
 
I listen with trained hands, a curious mind, and a responsive heart--and help others develop that same fluency in practice, in learning and in life.
IMG_0703.jpeg

© 2025 Equine Bodyworks All Rights Reserved

bottom of page