Wednesday, June 28, 2008

To be published next month in animolemag

You Can Be an Equiopath If You Want to

Being both a rider and … an Equipath !!!

The power of osteopathy has made it one of the favorite medicines worldwide as a discipline for the future. It has been criticized by some materialistic people, but criticism has waned given the results, followed by the evidence. It took some time for osteopathy to get recognition, but it is now recognized by the veterinarians’ highest governing body and it is on the curriculum in some veterinarian schools along with acupuncture.

In terms of human medicine the initiators are American and Indian. French doctors have been proficient in applying it to horses: Dr. D. Giniaux (Toulouse, 1968) has been able to conduct outstanding and world-class research work and teaching in equine osteopathy. Equiopathy is something that has reached New Caledonia only recently, as New Caledonia is a new country, but hippiatrists are gradually raising their awareness of equine osteopathy. It is a medicine, which means it can be practiced only by a medical doctor, such as a veterinarian or a human osteopathy specialist that has got the appropriate training in veterinarian medicine.

To make things clear for the remainder of this document, let’s define osteopathy as the technique for recovering motin, and horse riding as the art consisting in allowing the horse to use his natural paces despite the weight of the rider (among others). Thus, horse riding and osteopathy share the same purpose—one is practiced close to the horse and the other on the horse’s back. How about being able to treat your horse thanks to horse-riding?

At first is it at least possible to avoid illness? That’s Equiopathy. It is based on the fact that each rider acts with his weight just as a contributor to the way the horse positions his vertebrae and moves along.

By riding a horse, each rider is an unwitting osteopath and he/she practices osteopathy intuitively with his/her horse by adjusting his/her back’s position, so the horse positions his back so he can carry the rider with less effort!

Now the rider’s brain projects itself to his back by way of the cephalo-rachidian fluid (here I won’t undertake the sonogram demonstration showing the fluid’s pulsation), which is discharged into his pelvis by gravity and acts in all directions on the horse’s back’s movements.

Therefore, everybody is in a position to bring real well-being with the way he/she sits on the horse, and in return, the horse will provide a comfortable ride, and consequently a seat that is easy to manage, a relaxed pelvis and fluid spine movements, along with a pleasant feeling. Horse-riding is certainly the most ancient instinctive therapy that we have, even though some cynical people regard it as a psychotherapy. The relationship part is not as marked as the biomechanical aspect, which is in charge. Indeed, “yell at” your horse while riding him or when you are in his meadow and you’ll see that in the former situation he responds and in the latter he laughs…

Your back and your brain are powerful tools in seeking harmony with your horse. The hands can be useful in suppressing the horse’s fatigue after or before a job, and you’ll be surprised to see that if you do away with your horse’s stress, you’ll do away with yours… New Caledonia is a very sensitive field for study provided you are in good hands.. Well, Equiopathy is New Caledonian, so it’s up to you.

All ride.. bareback... It will be your first Equiopathy session.

By Alexandre Chichery, rider and veterinarian

If you wish to respond or provide testimony send your messages to tanghy@canl.nc. Your remarks will be filed. See you soon.

You Can Be an Equiopath If You Want to

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