Equine touch

Equine Touch is a technique of vibrating muscle and soft tissue in the horse which relaxes and gives relief to tension and rebalances the body. It was developed by Jock Ruddock in Scotland, and was originally derived from Bowen technique, though it is different from this.

I was lucky enough recently to meet Jock's wife, Ivana, in a special demonstration of horse anatomy. Ivana is a vet and she dissected a horse over a period of 3 days. As an emotionally involved horse lover, I was apprehensive of this experience, but I had been looking at anatomy from an artist's point of view and I very much wanted to take this opportunity.

The dissection was a fascinating experience. I have owned horses and to know more about what is going inside them was extremely interesting. In fact, it had implications for all mammals, including, of course, humans. The body is an intricate miracle of bones, muscles, tendons and nerves, as well as organs and digestive system. In the horse the latter system is literally gigantic.

I have even greater respect for the horse and its body after this, as well as far more understanding about, for example, the "stay" mechanism (whereby horse can lock its stifle joint and save muscle power. Ivana showed us exactly how this works. There were so many other things she told us and showed us, and it will take me time to recollect.

I took many photographs. The group was mainly composed of ET practitioners and students, and Ivana took care to label the main muscles as she proceeded. I do not want to upload any of my photos in case readers of this blog find it distressing. In any case my iPhone does not always agree with google :( so that I cannot get pictures right way however much I try!