Equine Touch Newsletter

BYE BYE UK - USA HERE WE COME
Aloha means hello, alas it also means goodbye. Yesterday we left UK and we are now entrenched in a cute wee farm house in PA for the next week to start off our USA cross country tour. This has been an amazing European summer for ET and we topped off that tour, not only with the exciting IETA conference and a trip to Windsor Castle, but with well over 100 students attending various clinics throughout the UK during that time. Fabulous! Ivana and I can't thank you all, or praise our UK team, enough for making our dream to help horses everywhere come true. The response to ET in the UK and Europe has been amazing and with the new, more robust ETF teaching program coming into effect in January 2010 next year is promising to be even more exciting. The above group of Equine Touch enthusiasts attended the level 3 and stretching clinic which we held last weekend at Bristol HorseWorld. the weather was great, the horses were great and the students - bloody awesome.
Already we are planning next summer to visit and teach in Ireland, as well as visiting and perhaps teaching in Scotland, so these dates should be up on the web site shortly. The new more robust teaching syllabus for 2010 is almost completed, the girls have been discussing, debating and deliberating (polite for arguing) on it for the past couple of weeks and as soon as it is down in black and white I will share it with you all. At present the new system which effects only Level 3 students will only be taught in the UK, USA and Canada where we have instructors with the mandatory 5 years teaching time under their belts. Until other countries come on line, Ivana and I will continue to teach Level 3 under the old system. Aloha Jock
	LEVEL 3 AT BRISTOL HORSEWORLD
	Ivana returned to our old base at Bristol Horseworld last weekend with 21 Level 3 students including 3 instructors in training for the new education system. It was great to be back where we taught for so many years and to see the enthusiasm among the attendees, some who came from overseas and had never met Ivana before or realized the depth of her knowledge or the brilliance of her lectures and demonstrations. Never satisfied, even with that which she presented in Oxford two weeks ago, for those of you who know her, she was as usual studying the latest information available on teeth, feet, saddles and training until the late late hours every night.
	MASTER CLASS -VHT PRACTITIONER CLINIC
	VHT for Family and Friends was launched successfully last Friday. A packed clinic at Lyn Palmer's in Glastonbury saw a tribe of VHT bodyworkers focus their skills on the new simple work that our instructors will be teaching their students to perform on their family and friends. This is a whole new paradigm in body - work - body - balancing development. In most modalities the growth evolves to complexity. In VHT for Family and Friends, I tried to do the exact opposite and came up with a very simple, easy to learn as well as practice system, which is as adaptable to the very personality of the practitioner as it is to the person it is being practised on.
Feedback on Family and Friends from Carly Jarrett ET and VHT Practitioner: I found the course very good, but most importantly on the following Sunday I went out for a ride on my horse and felt as though I was sitting wonky on the saddle. I asked Colin to see if the saddle was straight, if I was straight and it all was. After awhile trying to find why I felt so different to before, I noticed my right stirrup was a hole lower than my left. I put the left side down a hole and felt much more in balance. I had been riding with one stirrup longer than the other for months because I was so wonky and after the work I had on Friday was much more even again Also my mare will now canter on the right rein much more happily, before i was having real difficulty getting a right canter and then keeping it, now I know why she was so reluctant with me blocking her so much.
	MASTER CLASS - PRESCRIPTION AND LAYERING CLINIC
	Once again Glastonbury was the host venue for the first ever Prescription and Layering Clinic. Restricted to Level 4 plus students the class was packed, all the students had to bring with them was their brains and a chair. Four horses were brought in throughout the day, each one was discussed and procedures from BBB to the most advanced ET and Beyond proposed, debated and decided upon before the horse was addressed. The purpose was to make the students think like professional equine bodyworkers. It worked, the results were mind boggling as they tossed around ideas working in teams and then comparing ones's ideas against the others. The feedback was all positive. Another step forward.
Feedback on Family and Friends from Caroline Lindsay ET Practitioner: The course was beyond expectations. Students were encouraged to think for themselves, then having their findings and prescriptions confirmed. A good confidence booster. It was great to see before and after results - unlike on other courses. Great reactions from the horses, I felt we really made a difference. I tied in all previous information in an APPLIED approach. It was excellent, no pressure or fear of being “wrong’ helped the group to participate and share their findings and suggestions. Lots of new and interesting information as a result. ET is, in my experience, undoubtedly the best equine bodywork course available. Very high quality in terms of reading the horses and applying techniques.
	MOBILIZATION AND STRETCHING CLINIC LAUNCHED
	After years of promising we finally held the very first Mobilization and Stretching clinic ever. What started off as a simple little idea ended up with a 54 page professional manual to provide the student with the best support possible. Three instructors in the UK have been selected to 'try it out' for the next 12 months and then we shall review it, fine tune it where need be and will bring it out for general teaching worldwide. I handled the heavy stuff in the morning and then handed the exhausted students over to Ivana who took them meticulously through 'carrot stretching' explaining the intricacies and aspects of mobilizing each vertebrae in the neck. Another valuable string to the practitioner and horse owner's bow to help the horse.

Hawaii and the island of Maui is the setting for the 'Aloha Clinic' scheduled for November. As always we rely on word of mouth to advertise these clinics in order that we can continue to keep them affordable for the already hard pressed horse owner in this time of recession. So if you know people on the islands who could be interested please get in touch and tell them about these Level 1 and Level 2 courses. Mahalo.

For further details please contact our coordinator and host on Maui - Jill Fairchild, Email: horsesfromtheheart@mac.com

STOP PRESS - - - - - IETA AUSTRALIA UP AND READY TO GO!

I am happy to let everyone know that IETA Australia is now up and ready to go. All the necessary paperwork has been done, the Code of Ethics locked in and all the i's dotted and the t's crossed. The WA girls have done a magnificent job and deserve compliments from all. Within the next 30 days it will be up and running, but before that can happen the committee need three more members from around the country to join them. If you are interested and have a record of dedication to ET and the horse and want to help the spirit of Equine Touch even farther then contact immediately the IETA Australia committee at: ietaaustralia@gmail.com

Members: Now that IETA is up and running it is mandatory worldwide that al lET Practitioners must be members. This gives you not only a voice but with the IETA code of ethics, credibility. All students are recommended to join IETA and instructors will supply them with all the information required at every clinic.

Members receive several worthwhile concessions for joining, which is only available to members be they students or practitioners, such as a discount in all soft wear purchases, a 50% discount in attending a clinic a second time, a discount of 25% repeating ET and Beyond. Members will also receive a national IETA newsletter and negotiations are in hand for all members to receive an International IETA magazine 4 times a year. All members will be supported by IETA, but what is most important is that all members will have a voice and a body which will make their feelings for the horse known throughout Australia. Each IETA is run by the members, it is independent of ETF which is the teaching branch and is self regulatory, the founders having no vested interest in the association and do not sit on the committee. IETA is the quality control branch of Equine Touch. It is the umbrella of protection for the discipline, for the practitioners, students and the good name and the practice of ET. In the UK, IETA is now leading the way, taking ET to new heights of acceptance. It can do the same in Australia. Please join and give it your support nationwide.

Sorry no Q and A this issue or Instructor spotlight - but back on line next issue. Aloha Jock

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