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Become a Better Rider: Improve Your Posture, Balance & Flexibility in an Unmounted Workshop

Learn How to Improve Equine Performance and Well-Being too!

Feldenkrais Method® for Horses & Humans with Mary Debono, GCFP

Dates: July 29, 2017 – Group workshop

July 30, 2017 – Private Sessions

Location: Lake Norman Dressage Center, 157 Watts Farm Lane, Mooresville, NC 28115

Do you wish you had effortless, elegant posture – both in the saddle and out? Do you want to improve your flexibility, vitality and coordination? Improve your balance and skill in the saddle? Walk or run with ease and grace? Learn how to sit up tall without straining? Sit more comfortably? Would you like to learn gentle hands-on techniques to help improve your horse’s athletic performance, release tension and improve equine well-being?

Mary Debono (www.DebonoMoves.com) is coming to Mooresville, North Carolina to teach a group workshop on July 29 and individualized Feldenkrais Method® sessions for horses and humans on July 30, 2017.

Why Feldenkrais® and Mary Debono? Feldenkrais uses gentle movement and directed attention to develop better body awareness and coordination. If you have aches and pains, stiffness, posture issues, or want to improve the ease at which you ride your horse, then you will really enjoy what you learn in this workshop!

Riding Instructors: this “off the horse” work can help your students improve their own body awareness when riding. Riders: this supplements (not replaces) your riding lessons!

During the workshop on Saturday, July 29, Mary will teach two fun, eye-opening lectures and three Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) sessions, which are gentle movement sequences designed to improve awareness, flexibility, coordination and balance. Previous participants report great improvement in the comfort and flexibility of their necks, backs and hips. Many also discovered that they’ve been sitting crooked and can now sit balanced for the first time in years! Enhanced confidence and vitality are common too.

Want to join us? Click here to email Mary!

Lecture Topics: Learn the “Secret” That Helps Horses Use Their Backs More Easily. Bonus: Your back will feel better too!

Is Your Horse Stiff to One Side? Or is it you? Learn how You & Your Horse Can be Flexible & Balanced.

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Hands-on Work for Horses: Just like humans, horses develop inefficient habits of moving, with some of the joints and muscles doing more than their share of the work. Soreness, fatigue and degenerative changes such as arthritis can be the result.

Mary uses gentle, precise touch and movements to remind the horse how all his parts can work together harmoniously, improving body awareness, athletic performance and confidence. Mary will demonstrate and explain hands-on techniques for horses. You’ll go home from the workshop with skills to help yourself and your horse improve flexibility, coordination and self-awareness.

The workshop will begin at 8:30 am and end about 4 pm on Saturday, July 29, 2017.

Private Sessions: Would you like to benefit from a customized private session with Mary?

Private Feldenkrais sessions for horses and humans

are available after the workshop on July 29 and all

day on July 30. Space is limited and appointments

must be made in advance. Email

Mary@DebonoMoves.com with any questions.

As a life-long horsewoman and Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, Mary has helped riders: • Replace force with “feel”

• Eliminate back, neck and knee pain

• Improve posture, flexibility and coordination

• Feel their seat bones evenly and effectively use this essential weight aid

• Return joy to the horse-human partnership

• Ride in a manner that encourages relaxation and suppleness in the horse

Many people believe that a supposed weakness or bad habit must be "overcome" through some rigorous, forceful routine. One of the most rewarding benefits of Feldenkrais is the realization that improvements in ease of movement can be learned in a pleasurable instant. Flexibility, coordination, and power then increase automatically. Questions? Email Mary at mary@debonomoves.com.

Interested in how Mary can help you and/or your horse?

Email Mary by clicking here!

Click here to read Mary's article on how the Feldenkrais Method can help riders. It was published in Equine Wellness Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 2.

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What People Are Saying About Mary Debono:

“My first experience with Mary Debono’s work was after I had severely injured my back a few years ago. I had tried standard treatments — a visit to the doctor, drugs, chiropractic and physical therapy. I was in such pain I could not stand up and had to navigate life in the “C” position. Sciatica set it and nothing helped. I was considering acupuncture when a fellow equestrian recommended Mary. She was so enthusiastic about how Mary had changed her life that I made an appointment.

“My back started improving immediately... Mary taught me how to move more efficiently so that I would not stress my back. To me, Feldenkrais has been nothing short of a miracle.

“Mary also works on my dressage horse and he loves to see her coming. He can move much more freely after she works on him.

“Mary’s all-day Feldenkrais workshops are amazing. As an athlete, I believed I had to live with a certain amount of low-level pain. Mary has taught me that I don’t have to endure any pain, that it is possible to be active, athletic and not have back pain! I could not recommend Mary more highly. She has changed my life!”

– Kate Shuster, USDF Gold Medalist and dressage judge

“Mary Debono’s work has helped me tremendously regarding body awareness and coordination. Due to the newfound ways of moving my body, I have been able to

ride differently, but also use my body in a more beneficial way on a day-to-day basis. ...Overall, the

Feldenkrais work with Mary Debono has enriched my movement on and off the horse. I hardly have any back

and shoulder pain anymore.” –Lientje Schueler, international FEI dressage

competitor and clinician

“Mary Debono is skilled at making both you, the rider, and your horse feel better than you ever have. Through exercises, workshops and hands-on technique, Mary teaches ways to be more balanced and flexible, whether you have two legs or four.”

– Victoria Cummings, author of Teachings of the Horse

Questions? Email Mary by clicking here!

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“If you missed the Chapter-sponsored clinic with Mary Debono, you missed a GREAT clinic! Mary’s clinic on November 5 was a sell-out and hugely rewarding for the participants. Mary taught attendees about biomechanics and new ways of moving to break old habits. Gentle exercises were used to interrupt ingrained patterns of movement that may be unwittingly leading to asymmetrical movement or even pain.

“There were many “aha” moments as people unlocked resistance and discovered a new range of motion for their bodies. At the end of the session, bodies felt better aligned, and people were more tuned in to how they moved, and how their movement habits influenced their life and their riding! Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and demand for this clinic was so strong, that we may try to hold another.” – California Dressage Society newsletter

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“The morning before I was to ride with a well-known dressage clinician, Vicky introduced me to your Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement® lessons (exercises). We did one of your exercises that you created specifically for riders. “It was amazing. I was so glad she had shared that with me, as I managed to get my hip into a position I know I could not have managed without those exercises. It was fateful! “My little Morgan has a lot of inherited problems. One of which is, if he gets a little out of balance, he RUNS. So this time when he bounded off, I was determined to not brace, but in the past even that doesn’t always work, but with the help of your exercises, I managed to get my outside hip in place, and in one stride, literally, he was doing a lovely light collected canter I could begin pirouette work from. “Sorry for the long story, but it was dramatic, and then when we were working half pass, I was also able to get my outside hip in the right place and got some respectable half pass work as well. So I owe a huge thanks to Vicky for the introduction and a huge thanks to you for doing the work!”

– Brenda Aloff, dressage rider, internationally-known dog trainer and award-winning author

“The horses feel great after Mary works with them. They are balanced, focused, and ready to

go.” – Susie Hutchison, World Cup show jumper and

Hall of Famer

Susie Hutchison and America 1

“Hi Mary! I just wanted to let you know that yesterday I rode for the first time after your session. It was fantastic! Just like I was hoping it would be! My

trainer said that I was super centered. I could trot and canter, since my balance was there again. You are really amazing!

I cannot thank you enough.” – Kristiina Lehtonen, Finland

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Mary Debono, Feldenkrais® Practitioner, helps horses:

• Engage the hind end and round the back easier

• Eliminate stiffness, back soreness and other discomforts

• Improve flexibility and the ability to bend in both directions

• Make tacking up a pleasant experience for even “girthy” horses

• Promote long-term soundness by reducing strain on joints and muscles

Just like humans, horses develop inefficient habits of moving, with some of the joints and muscles doing more than their share of the work. Soreness, fatigue and degenerative changes such as arthritis can be the result. The Feldenkrais Method® can be a way out of this vicious cycle.

How does Feldenkrais differ from equine massage and other bodywork techniques?

With equine massage and many other bodywork modalities, the therapist generally focuses on releasing tension in the horse’s muscles. This can be a pleasurable, helpful approach. However, as a former equine massage therapist, I found that most horses would return to their chronic muscular tension and poor movement habits.

And if you think about how the brain organizes the body, this makes sense. If you focus on changing muscles, you’re dealing with lower-level organization. After all, muscles don’t give orders, they only take them. It’s the horse’s nervous system that tells the muscles when to contract and relax.

Let’s imagine that a horse is having difficulty rounding his back. The veterinarian rules out a serious medical condition, but notes that the horse’s back is sore and tight. It’s tempting to simply focus on relaxing the horse’s back muscles. And doing so would probably help the horse feel better and round his back more easily too. For a little while.

But rounding the back requires an exquisite coordination of various parts of your horse’s body. It’s not just about the back muscles. For example, did you know that your horse’s rib cage plays an important role in rounding his back?

Unfortunately, many horses have restricted movement in their rib cage, which can create chronic tension in the extensor muscles of the back. This makes rounding the back difficult and leads to a tight, sore back. That’s why we need to remind the horse that moving his sternum and ribs in specific ways can release the tension in his back and make his life a whole lot easier. We’re communicating with the horse’s nervous system when we do this. And we’re getting to the root cause of the horse’s problem.

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Mary Debono’s Background and Training

Mary knows the pain of growing older. When she was a computer analyst working in Manhattan and Princeton, Mary

suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome that resulted in nerve damage. Surgery and physical therapy offered no relief and

her painful hip and stiff back were getting worse. Like a lot of people, Mary thought she had to expect increasing

discomfort with each passing year. What’s amazing is that although a few decades have passed since that day, Mary

feels younger now than she did back then. So, what changed?

Mary began to study holistic approaches to health, most notably the

Feldenkrais Method®. She learned that when we stay stuck in our habitual

ways of thinking and moving we get physically stuck too. When Mary

released the habits that kept her stuck in unhealthy patterns, she learned

to move, think and act in different ways.

Mary began feeling younger by the day. Her aches, pains and limitations

vanished. Grateful for her own transformation, she was eager to help

others feel better too. She loaded her Appaloosa on a horse trailer and

headed across the country to San Diego, California. There she enrolled in

a four-year program to become a Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner. For the past 25 years, Mary has been helping

animals and their people move well despite challenges such as injuries, arthritis, hip dysplasia, aging and anxiety. Her

clients have ranged from severely disabled dogs and cats to world-class equine and human athletes.

Mary travels internationally to teach people how to accelerate learning, rebalance mind and

body, and deepen the human-animal bond. Mary wrote her award-winning, Amazon #1

bestseller, Grow Young with Your Dog, so that dogs and humans all over the globe could benefit

from her experience.

In addition to teaching canine and equine workshops internationally, Mary maintains a busy

private Feldenkrais Method® practice in the beautiful coastal town of Encinitas, California. Her

unique work has been shown on TV News and in newspapers and magazines. Mary was a

featured presenter at the CHA (Certified Horsemanship Association), NARHA (now PATH Int’l),

and regional Feldenkrais annual conferences.

Mary and her Feldenkrais Practitioner husband, Gary Waskowsky, have created videos that are popular with equestrians

and other athletes wishing to improve their flexibility, coordination and posture.

Mary welcomes interviews as well as inquiries for speaking and teaching engagements. She can be reached at

Mary@DebonoMoves.com. Her website is www.DebonoMoves.com.

Please consider signing up for Mary’s newsletter to receive free articles and videos on how you and your animals can

grow younger with each passing day!

Questions? Please email Mary@DebonoMoves.com.

Please click here to let Mary know you’d like to attend the July 29, 2017 Feldenkrais® for Horses & Humans workshop in

Mooresville, North Carolina.