Aloha Everybody - we are currently in UK having completed our whirlwind tour of the USA and have been teaching and holding reviews every day since we arrived. Some of you may have received this newsletter a few days ago - alas it did not go out correctly to all - so this is the second try.
Back at work at last - and always ready to act like an invincible idiot - this is Buddy a horse which I decided to 'stretch' in Detroit, a couple of weeks ago, is apparently the biggest in the state and has been weighed at 2,500lbs. I was dreading the aftermath - which would be worst - my back or Ivana giving me hell for being so stupid - thankfully my back stayed strong and Ivana did not see me working on Buddy!
Believe it or not this is the first day where I have been able to sit in 
a chair and work on the newsletter for nearly ten weeks. While I have been a bodyworker for over 40 years, I have never fully understood the true depth of the condition we all commonly call Sciatica. It has taken me on a marathon journey of emotion, frustration, depression, anger, self pity, suicide, hatred, aggression and unbelievable pain. However it has also taken me on an amazing journey of learning and understanding, I now know how easy it can be to become addicted to prescription drugs, to eye the Jack Daniels with something more than a smile, to hunt out a friend who just may have something growing in his back garden. I have also been able to indulge my self study on 'reaction to stimuli while in pain' and relate that back to the horse.
As many of you know I do not buy into a lot of the psychological profiling of individual equine behavior, believing that each horse while it is an individual, while having an individual personality or character, it also has generic (DNA, Breed etc) traits and learned behavior patterns. All of these are subsequently affected by the amount of physical, neurological or emotional pain it is in, especially at the time stimuli is presented . What I found in my case was that at most pain levels I became anti-social, would prefer my own company, did not want to be worked on, bothered or even touched. If the pain level was extremely low, I could be distracted from it quite easily - stick Willie Nelson on my IPod and I could drift away - I could live with it, but was often restless, pacing back and forward, unable to sit down and concentrate. A goat tried to get into make a feast of some new trees Ivana had just planted - without a thought I leaped the fence and charged after it. No thought of the injury or protection of my leg and back - therefore easily distracted to act normally - does that fit the horse?
The next level of pain up, where it was extremely hard to be distracted elicited a different pattern, once again I wanted to be left alone, but this time I was outwardly aggressive if presented with any stimuli - I became grumpy, nasty, volatile - angry at anything that was asked of me and not nice at all who did not understand my situation. The pain reminded me of the days when living breathing Rock and Roll died - the day they invented the Moog Synthesizer' which unlike live musicians did not have to breathe - on the in breath silence actually existed - the Moog maintained its sound incessantly with no breath whatsoever - that is the kind of pain that I am talking about, relentless, all encompassing, annoying reverberating throughout my whole body and mind - never stopping to take a breath everything I did was overshadowed and influenced by the degree of pain that i was feeling.
The last level which usually came on at 1am was intensely relentless, it was just pure white hot pain. I fought it for a short while, screaming inside, and then I found myself participating in a phenomena that I had never experienced before - I shut down. There was no aggression or anger - loads of self pity, even to the point of being suicidal, not wanting to go on - but too detached to get up and do something about it - so I just 'shut down' - I did not care what happened to me - my entire focus - my entire life was inside this pain - there was nothing outside the pain and the fear associated with it. How many times have we seen this in a horse?
For me it has been a great lesson in my journey to help and understand the horse for in truth it is mostly by comparison between ourselves and the equine that we can come up with understanding their problems and why they behave in their unique manner. Now when I compare my reactions to the horses while under the influence of consistent pain I understand a lot more than ever before and hopefully in my classes I will be able pass some of these ideas on to you when we catch up.
Talking about catching up, Ivana and I left New Zealand spent some days in Hawaii recuperating and catching up with our sons in Honolulu and some old friends before we headed out to Detroit and a great L3/L4 clinic hosted by Leah Astrup, that was followed the following day by a quick trip to San Marcos, Texas to teach there and then the day after that class finished we were in PA holding a packed Dissection Clinic with Randi Peters and Cate Stoltzfus before heading ( once again the next day) for the UK. Yes - we are slowing down a little !!!!!!!!
CATCHING UP WITH SOME OF OUR FAVORITE PEOPLE |
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Dr YUMI FUJI IN HAWAII |
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Way back in 1997 when I first introduced Bowen into Hawaii - Yumi Fuji was my strong right hand - she coordinated clinics - human and horses for me - drove me all around in her little red car and even babysat my youngest son John. An accomplished bodyworker herself as well as being a delightful hula dancer - Yumi was probably my first ever assistant so I suppose it was fitting that when in 1999, I introduced her to my next assistant Ivana, who she became close friends with, that she became her bridesmaid when we married on Kahala beach on Jan 2, 2000. Since then she has qualified as an acupuncturist and has built up a very successful clinic on Oahu. Last week just before I left, she asked to have a VHT for Family and Friends session performed on her - so stunned by the results she immediately booked on the Instructor Clinic in Czech in July and is flying in from Tokyo. This VHT Instructor Clinic is definitely going to be an international one with people from 11 different countries attending! |
LINDA YOXALL IN SAN MARCOS |
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One of our dearest friends from Western Australia, Linda Yoxall made the long drive from Houston to visit with us in San Marcos. It was fabulous catching up with the lady who made WA the jewel in the ET Crown and who we have such a great personal respect and aloha for. We even put on special entertainment for her - USA style - while we were sitting reminiscing the good old days car loads of armed police drove into the forecourt of our motel - the cops about 25 of them, jumped out - full body armor - guns everywhere and surrounded a unit - nonchalantly we accepted it as part of the Texas way of life as they led out a handcuffed drug dealer. Just another day in San Marcos! The next day Linda came to the clinic and assisted in teaching a level one class - it was great to watch her at work - her teaching and people skills surfacing as though she had just taught a class the week before - thanks for the support Linda, and truly wonderful to see you. |
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
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Hi Jock, you don't know me but I'm just away to do my level two at Sue Grouts in Scotland 30th April i just would like to say the equine touch which you and ivana have developed is just fantastic I have one question, i'm a fellow Scot i stay in Perth would there be any chance you may be able to do the level three in Scotland?? and the membership in England there is not too much use for it in Scotland so i will not benefit from it by joining, please could you help,looking forward very much to doing my level two thank you so much for reading this!!!!! |
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Thanks Audrey - Sue is a great instructor so I am certain you will have had a grand time and learned a whole lot more. I would love to come to Scotland and teach, as would Ivana - in fact I am up there doing demonstrations in Blairgowrie and Biggar in a few days and will be staying in Perth. The basic problem today is numbers and having someone who will coordinate the clinic for us and the NCC. Also the new UK educational set up - where L3 practical is only 2 days and is now taught in the UK by resident instructors and level 3 theory taught by Ivana adds to the logistic problems. However in saying that I am quite happy to teach a Level 4 clinic ( or any other level) in my homeland at any time - just fix it up through myself and the office - and I'll come running. However IETA is another case: you should join IETA - the benefits mean that you can purchase ETF items at a discount - attend my clinics, and Ivana's at a discount - repeat clinics at half price as well as becoming part of a voice that is starting to be listened to throughout the Equine World. |
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LEVEL 1 IN SAN MARCOS |
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We did a flying visit to San Marcos - taught a nice sized L1 class at The Whole Horse Clinic before leaving the following morning at 4am to catch a plane to PA. After having been in NZ for the past six months I had forgotten how hot TX can be - it was very uncomfortable and after 8 weeks of up to 22 pain killers a day which has given me ulcers - and with the worst jet lag we have ever encountered we were exhausted by the time we got off the plane in Philadelphia. The course itself was as always top class, filled with really dedicated students, thankfully Linda Yoxall was there to assist while I swigged back copious amounts of pepto bismal. Pam Cantwell dropped in and on the last day Suz Kurten came along to give us a hand fine tuning these new recruits. |
DISSECTION CLINIC IN PENNSYLVANIA |
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Am I proud of Ivana, bet your life I am. This dissection clinic we held in PA last weekend was simply awesome - students raved from start to finish - Randi Peters, publisher of Natural Horse Magazine was thrilled as was the clinic coordinator Cate Stoltzfus. This was an outdoor clinic, fabulous, a nice breeze every day and pop the cadaver back in the chill truck overnight. Hoppy Stearns went bananas, claiming it was the best clinic of anything she had ever attended in her life, and she has been around horses for all of it. Students were ecstatic: --- "For true understanding of the muscle and skeletal structure for bodywork purposes or trimming barefoot horses this course is invaluable. What is witnessed here makes sense out of book pictures.’ N.K. UPCOMING DISSECTION CLINICS - DONT MISS OUT !!! UK - Hartsop Farm September: 17, 18, 19, 20 USA - Detroit - Michigan September: 24, 25, 26 USA - Leesport - Pennsylvania October : 1, 2, 3, |
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Ivana in action - How about the hat ? |
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OUTSTANDING ET AND BEYOND STUDENTS IN SOMERSET |
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An excellent new venue, with some excellent horses was the background for 13 outstanding practitioners last weekend who attended an all new ET and Beyond clinic in Somerset. I say in Somerset as I got lost every morning (thanks Emily) when I tied to find it and again at night when I tried to find my way back to Lyn Palmer's where Ivana was holding a Level 3 Theory Clinic. It was great seeing some old friends such as Lisa, Mary and Ruth as well as a Paula from Zimbabwe who I first taught way back in 1999. The new practitioners and advanced students showed a unique understanding of ET and Beyond and it was interesting watching them work so very hard at learning the new procedures and at the same time working on their Equine Bodywork Horsemanship and finding their neutral places. They did awesome - proud of them all |
UPSETTING PEOPLE AGAIN |
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I am getting to the age where upsetting people has taken the place of arguing about politics as a perverse form of pleasure. When I was policeman every departmental revue that I was subjected to stated 'suffers fools lightly' - 'does not care who he upsets" - Well here I am 40 years later and still the same, a few months ago it was the Rollkur Crowd - just last week I received a promotional letter from a 'equine therapist' marketing a ''wonderful new gizmo' I duly went on the web site - perused it and found a pretty pink 'thing' which was supposed to do (as always) everything. However it was accompanied by this disclaimer: The XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX System is indicated for temporary relief of minor muscle and joint pain, arthritis and muscle spasm, relieving stiffness, promoting relaxation of muscle tissue, and temporarily increasing local blood circulation. The System is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent disease. If you have a disease or medical condition, consult with your physician or health practitioner before using the XXXXXXXXXXXX Laser. Use only as directed. Uses for medical indications contrary to the FDA registration are unauthorized and render the warranty null and void. To protect the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX System FDA registration, unauthorized claims may result in legal action, including civil claims and loss of opportunity to market the XXXXXXXXXXXXXX System. I am sorry but what that disclaimer says is quite simply - it does nothing, it has no substantial proof to back it up - last time I looked arthritis was a disease - If any of these gizmos worked every vet would have one - I would have one - I wrote my comments and hit the reply button - and alas it went back to her entire data base - not a happy camper - but I am sorry - if a person or company is not prepared to stand by their product and back it up - without such a disclaimer to prevent them being sued - stating that it does not do what they claim it will do in the sales pitch - then anyone who gets involved is a twit! - OK that was my bitch for this letter. By the way I received a few replies - apart from the angry one from the promoter they were all 'Bravo, Well Done , Good'. Have a show in Newcastle tomorrow afternoon then off to Scotland for demonstrations until Tuesday - then Ireland for a couple of weeks of flat out demonstrations and clinics. So will catch up when I slow down!!!! Aloha - Jock |
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