Why Feel Matters for Every Equine Professional
Technique matters. Technology helps. But neither can replace feel.
Every equine professional shares the same goal: helping horses feel and perform at their best.
Feel isn't just experience or intuition. It's the ability to recognize what the horse is communicating through movement, posture, muscle tone, and behavior—and respond appropriately.
Here's how I learned that lesson.
I Had No Feel
When I first began massage, I didn't have good feel. In fact, my wife at the time used to complain that my massages were terrible. She would tell me I had no feel whatsoever. She was right.
The Lesson That Changed Everything
Then I met Mike Scott, who taught me something that changed my life. More importantly, he taught me that feel is a skill. It can be developed.
If I could learn feel, virtually anyone willing to practice can.
Developing feel is one of the greatest challenges in horsemanship, especially for amateur riders. Most amateurs ride the same horse four or five days each week. Outside the barn they're sitting at a desk, driving a car, answering emails, or looking at a screen. Very little of daily life asks them to become highly aware of subtle changes in muscle tone, posture, balance, tension, breathing, or movement.
Why Feel Is So Difficult to Develop
Professional riders improve their feel by riding many different horses every day. Most amateurs simply don't get those repetitions.
So how do you develop feel when you only have one horse?
What Ten Years of Massage Taught Me
From 2003 until 2013, I hardly rode at all. I spent ten years massaging thousands of horses and learning to recognize subtle changes in muscle tone, asymmetry, guarding, relaxation, and movement.
When I finally climbed back into the saddle in 2013, I was a significantly better rider than I had been ten years earlier—not because I had been practicing riding, but because I had been practicing feel.
My balance, awareness, timing, and sensitivity had all improved. Developing physical feel while massaging horses directly improved my riding feel.
Why Massage Develops Feel
Massage trains your nervous system. Every session teaches your hands to distinguish healthy tissue from restricted tissue. Eventually your educated hands create an educated rider.
Feel Benefits Every Equine Professional
Riders
Develop quieter communication, better timing, and greater confidence.
Grooms
Recognize subtle problems before they become obvious.
Bodyworkers
Let the horse guide the session rather than relying on a memorized routine.
Laser & PEMF Practitioners
Technology is only as effective as the hands determining where treatment is needed. Better palpation leads to more precise treatment.
My goal has never been simply to teach massage techniques. My goal is to teach people to develop feel.
Feel improves your riding, your communication, your confidence, and your partnership with your horse.
Feel is not a gift.
It is a skill.
It can be practiced.
It can be developed.
And once you truly begin developing it, you'll never experience your horse the same way again.
Develop Your Feel
Feel develops one observation at a time.
Before you ride next time, ask yourself...
• Did my horse move differently today?
• Where did they hesitate?
• What changed?
• What am I noticing that I missed yesterday?
"Feel is not a gift. It's a skill you can develop."
— Sal Salvetti
Ready to Develop Your Feel?
Developing feel isn't something you learn in a single lesson.
Start with the Foundations Course and begin developing the awareness, observation, and understanding that make feel possible.
