This article is from page 55 of the 2011-06-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 55 JPG
CLARE’S very own ‘horse whisperer’ will be on hand at the Galway Horse Show at the weekend, aiming to give a little TLC to 1,000 animals.
Gina Syver from Tulla is a qualified equine touch practitioner, having trained in the practice for two years.
And with Saturday being National Equine Awareness Day, Gina will be demonstrating how her technique can help.
“People think that troublesome horses have an innate badness in them but I don’t believe that’s true. In almost 100 per cent of cases, there is pain at to root of a horse giving grief,” Gina told The Clare People .
Equine touch is a discipline which was developed by Scotsman Jock Ruddock, who worked as a professional wrestler.
It started out with he and his fellow wrestlers learning to give each other therapeutic massage while on tour. With his wife, Ivana, he developed and adapted the system to treat horses and the practice is now fully accredited in the UK.
“Equine touch is a gentle hands on soft tissue bodywork technique which encourages tight muscles to relax, stimulates blood circulation, reduces pain and boosts the immune system, helping the whole body to improve its functionality,” said Gina. She has even worked with horses considered to be too dangerous to handle to return them to being gentle animals.
As well as treating injured and traumatized animals, Gina is starting to teach the technique, which takes two years and a series of studies and examines to qualify.
Gina and some of her students will be on hand at the show on Saturday and Sunday.
“To celebrate Equine Awareness Day, we want people to bring their animals to us to work on. There will be other people working at other centres to help us achieve our 1,000 horses target, so come along and let us give a demonstration of the technique.”
Anyone travelling to the show can find Gina at the green Equine Connect lorry near showjumping arenas one and two or call her on 087 9021666.