Aloha from Czech,
We just completed
a most enjoyable and interesting Foundation Clinic in a quaint little ranch and Inn in a secluded little valley in Czech. Interesting in that we had three different languages to cope with, Czech, Slovakian and Dutch. The Dutch girls spoke English and Germans, none of the locals spoke Dutch, very little English and of course I spoke nothing accept Scots, American, Australian etc - but we got by and had some excellent results with both students and horses. We all stayed on the premises which made for great bonding, though getting the students to decide when enough was enough was a wee bit beyond me, and more than one hangover was addressed on the massage couches in the morning. It was a great place, and we all had a great time, so already we are booking it again for next year, most importantly the horses were wonderful (see below) and really appreciated the attention by the students and work performed on them.
As you can see from the new banner, and if any of you care to go on the web sites, we are making some imaging changes which we hope to have completed by the International Conference in UK on the 19th and 20th of September. Both Ivana and I hope they meet with your approval. Cutting down on our traveling and teaching is going to allow us more time to work on these 'housekeeping' things.
The new VHT manuals are completed and are being proof read at the moment. The new uniform presentation of VHT will be in 6 encapsulated modules, each one layering on top of the other making it a complete educational program ready for accreditation and self regulation. We are also contemplating putting together for Equine Touch students (and others) a VHT one weekend clinic 'For Family and Friends' which will have enough information and techniques in it which when problems arise with your family and friends you will at least have some additional powerful tools to help them. The fact that you have already learned the unique ET/VHT move and been introduced to a simple method of Body Balance for humans will mean that it will be easy to learn and easy on your pocket book. More about that as it comes to fruition.
Only a month to go until the 'Equine Touch Fortnight in the UK ' begins and both of us are really looking forward to it as well as of course the International IETA Conference at Newmarket Racing School on the 19th and 20th. The future of ET and our mission to Help Horses by Educating Humans rests firmly in the hands will ultimately lie firmly on the shoulders of IETA. This organization is yours, it is not designed to be a profit making organization, it is designed to unify and support the students practitioners and instructors under one body and with one voice. This year we are going to try as one loud voice to get one very simple message out there, we are all united in a 'Campaign against Pain'. Le's all stand firm in our care for the horse and tell the these trainers and horse owners all over the world- "If there is Pain - Don't Train". I know I sound like a broken gramophone record at times, but it is a subject that I, and I know most of you are passionate about also. PAIN is the enemy, and we cannot defeat it unless we respect it and address it with respect. It wont just 'go away' if we ignore it, it will like the lone weed in a garden spread out its tentacles until eventually it chokes the very plants we have been trying to cultivate. Pain will eventually bring about the break-down of the horse, and this process is enhanced by training and performance when the pain is ignored by the rider and trainer and compensated for and ultimately buried by the horse to resurface when least expected with disastrous results.
How many more people did I upset with that little speech?
AN UPDATE: Yesterday, I was prepared for a relaxing day after the clinic in Czech, wanting to get this newsletter out to you all, when the University called, they had a horse that had died and invited Ivana to go and assist with the post mortem and dissection, I went along to take photos. The horse had been stabled the night before in with an infection in the foot, was in extreme pain, could hardly walk. Left overnight for observation and stall rest the vets found her in the morning lying dead in her stall with the leg swollen like a balloon. Apart from the infection in the foot the post mortem revealed surprisingly that the pelvic was smashed and broken into six separate pieces. No one picked it, how is a mystery, the stall was deep with straw, soft. ------- Every horse, alive or dead teaches you another lesson.
| Q and A with Jock and Ivana |
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Q: From Linda for Ivana: I know we have covered this in class, but how often should I do ET on my horse? Can I overdo it? I had been working on my horse once a week and he seemed to be loving it, a lot of problems were disappearing, and then he had a fall, so I worked on him every day, he was appearing to enjoy it and the pain had virtually vanished, when all of a sudden he would not let me touch him. Two weeks later he was back wanting ET again. had I overdone it or what? |
This week I have decided to suspend my Answer section due to this fabulous story that I want to share with all of you. A couple of weeks ago Lara had this lovely lass Caron Foley on a clinic in the UK. Caron who suffers from spinal bifida and is confined to the wheel chair, showed that no matter who you are, with the right integrity and desire you can achieve wonderful things. It was a privelige to have her on one of our courses, and I think far more inspiring to you all than one of my answers. Good on you lassie. Ivana and I look forward to meeting you. |
A: The Equine Touch has two sides (at least). Firstly the physical side, where the ET moves can affect the soft tissue and can start, through many reflexes, a cascade of physiologic responses. Working with the connective tissue can also speed up detoxification, and the clinical signs that accompany it. The horse, the same as humans, after receiving bodywork can, the following day feel a little bit off. I heard somebody say that after a good session sometimes they feel like being run over by a steam roller. They experience achy muscles, sometimes headache with some of the signs of detoxification such as the runs or nausea with a funny taste in the mouth. Certainly this process is beneficial, but it brings along some unpleasant feelings. Do horses feel this? There is no study (to my knowledge), but with experience I believe that they also can. I can smell sometimes the changes in their breath even during the session, they urinate or defecate a lot after the ET. So while we do not know for sure, we can assume. With the ET move is one more factor to look at - the pressure. During the "challenge" we apply pressure to the soft tissue, by using excessive pressure there could be post session soreness, as result of micro-damage. Imagine having this done every day for a week, maybe we would be also a little less enthusiastic about an ET session. How many husbands will not let their wives work on them as they were the guinea pigs for their wives enthusiasm at the start? The other side of ET, the energy side can be even more interesting. If the move is performed with the correct integrity and intend supported with correct breathing, many people noticed that they hands are warm, tingling and these can be the source of strong healing energy. This can be "filling" also, especially when the problems disappear so there is not need for it, the body can be more and more sensitive to this invasion of unwanted intent. I know many horses who are very sensitive to and even reject, hands-off energy work and react negatively to many different machine or equipment designed to stimulate their energy flow. So here we can have other explanation how and why ET can be overdone. The most important factor which we have to take from this is our major law, when working with animal: ‘Listen to the horse’. Offering our hands and trying gently working with it is our part, but the receiving of our gift has to come from the horse. In ET we say work with a break of 3-4 days (or up to 7 days) day between sessions, but we also know that daily address are possible, as we experienced this on every class where we use some of our horses for all 3 (sometimes 4) days during teaching. Some can take it (they needed) and the students touch was light, but some, by the third day, start to be fidgety, moving a lot, do not want to be touched. These horses we immediately try to exchange. We say they have enough, they are cooked! But also what we know is that after a short break (and digesting and processing all the work) they are once again happy receivers of ET. Exactly like your horse. When he needed ET, your work was appreciated and also you could see its effect. After a while he let you know, enough is enough. So in your case it was nice to see exactly how it works and why we say: Listen to your horse, he knows best". |
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Here we are with Katarina Kolenova our Czech and Slovak coordinator and Gentle Touch Instructor along with our two Foundation Level students from Holland, Marian Dollekamp and Charmaine van denBerg, who drove all, day and night to find our clinic in the Czech countryside. They did marvelous, Ivana and I live only 30 miles from the ranch and we were lost three times. The Czech villages are not well signposted, the villagers content that they know where they are its just the tourists who drive through who are lost. Mariam is a trainer who works using horse therapy with problem children, while Charmaine is a Bodyworker and communicator who practices Bowen (we'll convert her) and who was born in the Dutch East Indies, learned about ET in Africa, she lives in Holland and now has trained in Czech, so I think we can say she is truly an international student. The great thing about these kids is that they were seekers, not course jockeys or prisoners waiting for the class to finish but really interested. What was awesome at the end of the clinic was watching them improve as I made them work on the horse with their eyes tightly closed. Once again a great compliment to the behavior and personality of the horses that we had to work with. |
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SEPTEMBER UK CLINICS |
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The latest update for all Jock and Ivana classes scheduled for the UK in September is that they are either FULL, or have only 1 or 2 places left. If you want them, contact the Adele at the NCC at ukcentre@theequinetouch.com NOW. Jock and Ivana will not be back in UK until June 2010 and these will be the last Level 3 of its kind ever in the UK. |
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CLINICS WE WOULD LOVE TO FILL |
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CALIFORNIA CLINIC. October 30, 31 and November 1. The founder's last Level 1 and Level 2 Symposium in North America this year. This symposium will be held at the ' Flag is Up Farms' the home of Shy Boy, just outside Solvang, California. The farm owned by Monty and Pat Roberts is one of the most ideal teaching centres for Equine Touch anywhere in the world. Ivana will be taking the level 1 and Jock will be taking the Level 2. If you are interested, or you have friends who may be interested contact either Jock and Ivana at: equinetouchinc@aol.com or Raian Kaiser at the USA NCC: equinetouchusa@yahoo.com. There is excellent affordable accommodation for students in ....................... and the venue is only a three minute drive from the town. Early Bird Fee available |
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THE ALOHA CLINIC. November 6, 7, 8 Equine Touch returns to Hawaii and Maui in particular, where Jock and Ivana will be holding a Level 1 and level 2 at the Waihe'e Valley Plantation, Waihe'e Valley Road, Waihe'e. This is great time for Jock's old friends, students and clients to catch up with him Jock has has a long history with Hawai'i and Maui in particular where he taught many classes of Bowen, which he introduced into Hawai'i back in 1996. the class will be hosted and Coordinated by Jill Fairchild, national dressage judge and riding instructor, you may contact Jill on her Email at: horsesfromtheheart@mac.com or phone (808)357-6131, or PO Box 2627, Wailuku, Hi 96793. A map will be sent to those interested. Early Bird Fee available. |
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THE DISSECTION CLINIC. December 5, 6, 7 in Lincoln University, New Zealand. Interest in this Dissection class is heating up, and it is officially already half full with students flying in from all over. This clinic cannot be reserved solely for Equine Touch Bodywork students so if you are interested and want to attend you must be quick as the numbers are strictly limited to allow for a higher level of education and information for the students. For further details re this clinic, accommodation and other details surrounding the event please contact Ivana's coordinator Janice Clyma at: janice.clyma@xtra.co.nz . Also watch out for the ET clinics: Level 3 and 4 starting the day after in Christchurch. |
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| UK: Had an equine vet on the course this weekend - we had fun on day three as she had stethoscope out and was showing us how to listen to the horse's heart. Initially she was keeping eye on little shetland we were using who has cushing's - she was checking heart rate after different procedures. It went up after they did hamstrings and foreleg as he has stiffness in legs, heart rate slowed on throat and tmj as he loved those. - Lara | |
| CA: At my Level 1 clinic recently, I had an equine massage therapist taking the course. She arrived as a skeptic ( course had been referred to her by another EMT that had taken my course earlier), by Sunday she had been reduced to tears several times, saying, " I have not made this much of difference in a horse in a long, long time." She returned home to work on her own horses and it was the first time her horses wanted to stay with her after she finished working on them ................. She has already taken a page out of my own book...after I/she learned ET , I/she never returned to massage. - Trudy |
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Let's think about this: Give a starving man a can of tuna and he can feed himself for one meal. Give him a fishing net and teach him how to use it and he can feed his family for the rest of his life! Give the horse owner the number of a professional bodyworker and the horse will be helped at each appointment. Teach the owner the gift of Equine Touch and the Horse will be helped every day for the rest of its life. |
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That's all for just now, if you have any questions, snippets or articles you would like to contribute to this newsletter then we look forward to hearing from you. For those of you in the UK, and across the puddle in Europe, don't forget the IETA conference, lets make a noise so that the whole Equine World sits up and takes notice. Till next time, keep touching! Jock |
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