About Me
My story is like many other equine bodyworkers I’ve met. We have a horse that needs help so we begin our quest to find ways to provide relief. Eventually we start helping our friends’ horses. Inevitably we want to help all the horses because we love the horses, the complexity and variety of the work, and we experience great joy. Because horsie day is always a good day!
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Amy Callahan
with her first teacher, Goose
My goal for your horse is no different than my goal for my own horse:
be as able-bodied for as long as possible. SM
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In Spring of 2018, our horse Goose was 17. He had a bump on along his spine, he never seemed to roll on his right side, he stopped cantering, and he has had pronounced DSLD his entire life. He always loved a good butt rub, but I wanted to understand these specific concerns and learn how to help him stay as able-bodied for as long as possible.
I started asking people I knew in the horse industry for help. The book “Beating Muscle Injuries for Horses” by Jack Maegher was highly recommended by an accomplished breeder for the sports massage techniques and preventative approach. I used this book countless times after Goose let me know something’s going on.
Looking for videos, I found and took the accredited home-study course “Equine Musculoskeletal Unwinding” by April Love founder of Holistic Horse Works. This soft-work modality expanded my understanding of tension, muscle spasms, and how they tug and pull on the skeleton. Goose loved the horse yoga we learned together!
I was told ground poles would be great for Goose. So I found a bajillion layouts on Pinterest and started tinkering. Every day with him, we would do a different design to keep it fresh and engaging.
Five years later, I attended my first in-person course, Tensegrity Balancing Therapy Level 1. I learned about techniques to use neuroplasticity to help the nervous system, somatosensory and touch and motion for mind-body connection, and fascial remodeling. I saw how soft, slow touch could make a big impact on horses. In fact, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to make long-term progress for any horse if their fascia is tight.
Wanting MORE, I completed the Equine Rehab Therapist program hosted by the Association of Certified Equine Therapies and taught by Superior Therapy LLC. This fantastic course required much more knowledge of equine anatomy, biomechanics, and physical therapy as well as corrective exercises. We also learned how to use therapeutic devices: PEMF, warm and cold laser, light therapy, nebulizer, and massage gun during sessions. I plan to attend again at another location to learn how to use a water treadmill!
I then took Reiki I and II because I felt energy from the horses but didn’t understand it. I had been told for years that I transmit energy in my hands. I’ve also been told that Goose chose me and I have an energy that horses are attracted to. Who knew?! I finally started seeing it in my regular interactions with other horses, so I decided I better understand it better.
In 2024, I completed the first year of a 2-year diplomate program for Equine Osteopathy at Animal Osteopathy International based in the United Kingdom. I had planned to graduate in late 2025. I was so excited to complete this 1200-hour program and deepen my equine knowledge and ability to help horses more. However, the school discontinued this program.
When I found that Dr. Sandra Howlett was teaching equine craniosacral again in the US, I registered as fast as I could! I have completed level 1 in April 2025 and enrolled in level 2 scheduled for October 2025!
I do have big dreams of being a trusted and recognized industry expert who is sought out because of the quality of my work, my kindness to the horses, and my ability to positively work with my human clients and their teams. I am honored that my clients are on this journey with me, and I sincerely appreciate their trust to work with their beloved horses.
But all in good time. I do need to go riding myself too!
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I’m often asked about my life before or outside of horses, so here ya go.
In previous professional lives, I have created and taught my own French curriculums for 10 years to nearly 1,000 students age 4-80 for fun and travel, at the university, and a private independent school.
I have worked on and off in hospitality since I was 13. I loved my work in non-profit management and volunteer services where I attended a national conference and saw President George Bush (Sr.) and Secretary Colin Powell speak. But my greatest accomplishment was earning a $3000 grant to pay my key volunteer staff member.
I spent a few years in insurance and financial services. When I started, I barely understood my employee benefits. I excelled in a specialized product where I earned the maximum bonuses in my first year. This qualified me for two levels of advanced sales training. In five years, I was teaching other agents across the country how to sell this specialized product for a brokerage firm.
I continue to provide occasional marketing and sales support to a small clientele for startups, raising capital, securing financing, and prospecting. A few projects that I am particularly proud of are the involvement in starting a national organic and non-GMO farmer cooperative and working on a team that obtained a $25 Million Letter Of Intent to invest in a new project. (Unfortunately the pandemic put a screeching halt to that and it never materialized. Yes, it was heart-breaking.)
Some miscellaneous fun facts.
I have an adult daughter. She is the sunshine of my life! And will always be a better rider than me!
I played piano and cello as a kiddo. My piano is 110 years old, can’t hold a tune, and needs constant dusting.
I’ve lived in Minneapolis, Paris, the Caribbean, NYC, and Milwaukee. I’ve studied French, Italian, Latin and Mandarin Chinese.
I’m a tech geek. I may have live streamed daily under an alias for a year to see what it was like to build an audience. I was the ‘tech’ person to live stream an event before the local media understood what my ‘equipment’ was. We had 20,000 views of a 300 person live event!
I am super passionate about clean food: growing it, preserving it, cooking it, eating it, and most importantly sharing it! I had a personal chef business. I cooked a 6-course dinner with culinary lavender in every dish for 24 people in my garage on a night that rained the whole time!
Last, if there’s (live) music, I’m dancing!
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As a horsewoman, my riding did not start until half-way through my 48th year. I had a specific goal to ride our National Show Horse, a strong saddleseat country pleasure horse. He was smart, spicy, very athletic, and so playful. A little like me! HA.
I had no idea I was being ambitious, but I achieved this goal in about 3 years. My best boy died suddenly from a strangulated lipoma a few months after moving him from a training barn to a boarding barn. I regret we never showed together. And I miss his athleticism dearly.
A few years later, I was very fortunate to be able to show saddleseat in Academy in Summer 2023 on a retired Morgan park horse, who is an excellent professor of the canter. And I’m proud to say, I won a championship class even against the littles who ride the heck out of their horses!
I have experience in saddleseat including equitation and gaited riding, western pleasure and dressage. I have ridden National Show Horses, Arabians, Saddlebreds, Morgans, stock horses, draft horse crosses, and a few ponies. I am hoping to do some cross-training and learn about barrel racing too. I hope to ride for as long as my own body will allow me to!
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As for my beloved Goose, he was a 2001 Polish Arabian baby, a Bask grandson. He did not readily show his age despite the DSLD and how it impacted his body. We could ride at a walk; he could trot and canter on the lunge line. Left to his own devices, I believe he’d imagine crossing the desert as he charged down the arena and snorting and blowing when he was feeling spry. I loved those days!
Some days, I called him Grampa Goose because he was a great ambassador for the Arabian horse. He enjoyed many visitors who wanted to be around horses but didn’t know anything about them. He was patient and curious.
He loved carrots, gets impatient for apples, was quite popular around the barn, and always loved a good butt rub! Baths? Not so much.
And he will always be my first teacher. He was game for new bodywork techniques and groundwork exercises. I tried out all kinds of brushes with him too. He may have been a little spoiled, and I remain forever grateful.
We lost Professor Goose in late November 2025. He still guides me and reminds me to keep going so I can share all he taught me and sent me on a quest to learn. Boy I miss him so…
Modalities
Jack Maegher's sports massage; Home Study, 2018.
Holistic Horsework's Accredited Musculoskeletal Unwinding; Home Study, 2021.
Tensegrity Balancing Therapy - Level 1; In-Person Clinic, April 2023.
Reiki I and II; The International Center for Reiki Training; November 2023.
Accredited Equine Rehab Therapist Program graduate, including use of massage gun. Hosted by the Association of Certified Equine Therapies and taught by Superior Therapy LLC; September 2023.
Equine Functional Osteopathy 1-year Certificate Programme; Animal Osteopathy International; completion January 2025.
Equine CranioSacral Therapy – Level 1 taught by Dr. Sandra Howlett; Equilearn/Equinology; April 2025, externship completion expected by October 2025.
Planned: Equine CranioSacral Therapy – Level 2 taught by Dr. Sandra Howlett; Equilearn/Equinology; October 2025, externship completion expected by April 2026.
Why am I venturing into horse bodywork?
It’s for me just as much as it is for the horses.
It’s physical but not something I should really rent a machine to do in order to save my body for another day.
It’s complex. Horses don’t have words to tell us what is going on. And their brain is designed to protect them in the wild. So they will often mask the discomfort and pain.
It’s energy and connection. In an extremely short period of time, I am asking a horse to trust me to touch the pain. I am asking them to stay calm and relaxed instead of panicking and running away or try protect themselves or just shut down.
It’s release. They drop their head. Their eyes change from worry and alert to soft and sleepy. They sigh or exhale deeply out of their nose. They stop moving about and become softly still. And my favorite is the big, wide-mouthed yawns when they stretch out their neck, pull their lips up to expose their teeth, move their jaw side to side, and shake their head. The best.
What kinds of horses do I like to work with? ALL THE HORSES!!!
The horses who are ambitious athletes.
The horses who have a job to do.
The horses who are retired.
The horses who teach people how to ride.
The horses who are asked to entertain people.
The horses who take us on relaxing and beautiful trail rides.
The little horses who teach our littles how to ride.
The horses who are asked to help people work through their human emotions and problems.
The horses who help young people develop muscle strength.
The horses who help military veterans process their wartime experiences.
The horses who teach people how to stay calm in the face of fear.
The horses who used to have impatient or angry people.
The horses who are no longer able to do their former job and are learning a new one.
The horses who love us unconditionally.
Working on horses is a lot of work!
And it is teaching me who I want to be as a person.
It’s more outside time, even in winter!
Speaking with love and kindness to the horses and their people sets up the experience to be positive.
My lifetime of wanting to nurture runs out my fingers and hands into the horses and their bodies tell more how to help them.
I release all the other things swirling around in my head. I am present with this horse and its person. Not much else exists.
And after, I can go back to my resources and learn more about helping the horse again or another in the future.
Contact
It is best to text or message me on the socials, as I cannot answer calls when working with a horse.
Soft Eyes Equine Bodywork is a division of CallaPlan LLC.