
Welcome to Elkayam Equine Therapy
Appointments: 1-408-6674545
Appointments: 1-408-6674545
A unique combination of modalities developed through years of work with a variety of horses working across all disciplines .
comming soon the art of reading the equine body
Basil helps with anatomy learning follow him on line at Elkayam Equine therapy
The art of reading the equine body
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2 Day clinic
4 day clinic
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I have a net work of other equine professionals that I collaborate with.
if you need help with feet , saddle fit, veterinarian or other physical therapy please reach out .
through the craft of identifying compensation in its stacked layers, coupled with knowledge and understanding of anatomy and physiology to facilitate a return to functional symmetry In the horse.
Appointments for horses are about 90 minutes . It is best if your horse is not worked and fed before appointment. I travel almost anywhere if there are enough horses assembled.
I am an anatomy illustrator and am passionate about educating horse owners.
I provide anatomy illustrations to other equine educators and organizations, while working on my own books.
I treat small animals too, especial dogs and cats. Treatments for small animals are around thirty minutes to an hour.
I am an equine bodyworker. Helping horses and horse owners is my passion .
In my practice, I use different modalities such as CranioSacral therapy through Upledger Institute, Myofascial release therapy, Masterson method certified practitioner .
Over the years, I have used my knowledge and observational skills acquired through art school and my practice of different modalities to develope an intricate system of assessment using asymmetry and fascial lines.
Building on understanding of anatomy to get a clear picture of the horse’s physical state in all its layers.
This system allowed me to plan a treatment protocol to optimize and facilitate a return to balance and physical health.
I’m a passionate student of equine anatomy and health. I’m equally passionate about sharing knowledge and educating people so they can help their horse.
Natural crookedness in the horse
I have read this sentence numerous times in various books of famous trainers and equine practitioners. There are endless methods out there all aimed at straitening the horse.
Let’s first understand what is a crooked horse and how does it happen. I think most people don’t really understand what is going on anatomically and physiologically. Can a crooked horse really be balanced again?
I must thank the wonderful Monique Craig at EponaMind for letting me borrow her lovely skeleton. I had first noticed his imbalance when we talked of other things and was delighted to find out she had the entire skeleton. This meant that I could see how the imbalance in the skull would affect the rest of the body.
Please remember this is an oversimplification of a very complex process.
Most of the horses I see are crooked to some extent and I would like for people to understand the implications of that.
Before we embark on this journey it’s important to understand that balance in a living body is a moving target !
These images were taken by myself on flat even surface; I blacked out the background to make it easier to see.
I know nothing of this horse’s history I think he is in his mid teens.
As you click on each image it will explain the asymmetry and what to look at. I’m not a particularly good photographer so I will try to describe what I see.
So let’s start with what cause theses imbalances. It important to understand that this happens over time like stones placed in a river will slowly change its course. It is a culmination of life events.
It can be one big cataclysmic event that leaves scars but for most horses it is a collection of events.
Gestation and birth is the first event. Often there is not enough room in the womb for the large horses we now bred. This limits their space to move and grow so they rest predominantly on one side; this creates the first imbalance.
Birth has its challenges; the birth canal can distort and shift cranial bones and stress the tissue of the body .
Remember, at this point all the sutures and growth plates a wide open. Foals are soft and pliable; all tissue types have room to move around.
Foals, like all young things are Incredibly wild, uncoordinated and playful. This results in many wipeouts, crash and burns and general bouncing off the body of hard surfaces. Each one of those incidents will create small shifts in bone and soft tissue.
This in turn will contribute to the asymmetry of the body.
As the foal matures, these small shifts are set as part of the growth pattern of the foal.
Then begins the training of versions disciplines. Often growth plates aren’t fully closed when this work begins. When horses enter training, adding a rider and saddle weight and asking them to move differently. All these things add to tension patterns and small shifts.
Teeth are treated, feet are shod and the imbalance is sealed. When we start to trim teeth and feet, the aim is to achieve balance, but if the horse is already asymmetrical as in out of balance, then we are sealing this imbalance. In that moment, this is sealing the crookedness of the horses.
Again, it is important to remember that this takes place over a long time. When horses are young, a lot can be changed and turned around; as they age, there are more limitations.
So what can we do to help our horses?
Treat them as young as a day old to help the bone and tissue find balance. Please remember that any treatment of foals should be under veterinary supervision. Do your research; find a person that knows what they are doing.
As they grow, keep getting them therapy; I think it’s most important before we start addressing teeth and feet. The reasons being if we balance the body before manual change is applied, there is a greater chance to start of with a balanced horse.
For older horses, if you are committed to change balance, it can be achieved over a long period of time. This requires a team of farrier, bodyworker and dentist to work together.
I think the most important thing to take away is that often when they seem stubborn or resistant to the things we ask, it is simply because they cannot physically comply.
Remember, balance is the goal but it’s a moving target and hunting after it is a life long process.
© All Rights Reserved 2019 Tamara Elkayam
“Fascial fun working on creating education.🤓
💡Fascial manipulation is a manual therapy the requires a good working knowledge of anatomy and physiology.
💡Fascia and muscle act as the rigging that allowed the body to remain vertical.
💡Fascia spirals in and out, this spiral arrangement of collagen fibers allow for movement with out loss of stability.
💡Superficial fascia blends with deep fascia in the distal limb it acts as a mechanical and thermal cushion . This gliding movement hides the tension that takes palace in the deep fascia.
💡Deep fascia is formed by connective membranes that form sheets over the muscles, it forms sheets for nerves and blood vessels and surrounds organs. It binds all the structures together.
💡In some areas the deep fascia duplicate itself to form the deep laminate especially around the spine and vertebral muscles
💡Epimysium is deep fascia that encloses a single muscle , these structures then subdivide into muscle bundles
💡The body’s fascia is arranged in plains.
💡Fascial depth is created embryological through development when it stats to fold in on it self so even though we have fascial plains it all started from a single plain.
💡Fascia is anchored at boney stations or attachments ,where fascia fibers, muscle epimysium or tendon are integrated or continuous with the periosteum of the bone or the collagen matrix of the bone.
💡Most of these bone attachments have communication with the next fascial attachment bone on the superfical plain rather then the deeper plain.
💡Fascial plains regularly interweave joining or splitting from each other.
💡These place of splitting or interweaving require the body to make choices in force transmission depending on posture and activity.
💡Some of theses attachment bones are areas where force vectors meet and cross over creating multi tugs forces around the bone.
💡We can use bone position and orientation to showers us the dominating tug.
💡As a therapist it is vital to know and understand which bones in the horse are particularly subject to these force vector and where the fascial lines meet their next “roundhouse”.
💡When we talk about articulation we are generally referring to bones. Meaning an area where two bones or bone and cartilage attach for the purposes of motion.
Soft tissue need to articulate in the same way allowing for a sliding motion between structures and tissue, fascia articulates.
© All Rights Reserved 2020 Tamara Elkayam
“Fascia or Bone, that is the question “
We think of fascia as connective tissue, but really fascia is the tissue!
It’s a giant bag that contains lots of other bags that contain our bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, organs,vascular system and nervous system.
Fascial pull -
The issue is in the tissue.
The body hugs the issue.
In order to compensate for the issue the body creates fascial pull.
Very often the issue is silent and the result is loud.
Bone Asymmetry -
Is the bone asymmetry the reason for fascial pull or the other way around ?
Everything to do with Bone asymmetry starts in the the teeth and TMJ.
The asymmetry of the TMJ translates to the rest of the body through spinal rotation.
Both bone asymmetry and fascial pull is something we can look at to see where the horse maybe compensating.
The real problem starts where the horse is compensating for the compensation as in “Decompensation”(the failure to generate effective physiological coping mechanisms in response to functional overload).
Now apply all that to the human too!
Then put it all together through a usually Ill fitting buffer (saddle) and there you have it.
Horse riding at its best 🤦♀️🤯
This is where a day of studying will bring you to a place with more questions 😉

© All Rights Reserved 2020 Tamara Elkayam
This has become the way to go out in public, as I show up to appointments that can’t be missed wearing a mask and gloves I noticed a change in the horses.
I noticed that many horses are confused or hesitant even though they recognize me they’re not quite sure what to make of my face covering.
There are numerous articles talking about horses reading facial expressions of humans and having a better understanding of our state of mind through this.
Now, I am not suggesting that we don’t wear facemasks or protective gloves!
What I am suggesting is that we maybe stop and consider how our horses are reacting to this new change.
Remember that stress can cause dysfunction!
Humans are stressed right now and that’s normal, but when we show up with all that energy and a hidden face it can be stressful to the horse.😷
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There are different prices available for multi treatment and multi animal clients
Coming soon
work in progress
Please contact us directly with any questions, comments, or scheduling inquiries you may have.
Feel free to phone or text (408)6674545
San Jose, California, United States
Monday - Friday: 8am - 5pm
Saturday - Sunday: open
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