Equine Touch at “The Quilty”, Manilla,NSW June 2010

“That’s endurance riding!” said Tracy John, Level 3 ET, Endurance Rider, philosophically after she informed me a week before the event that her horse would not be participating in this year’s Tom Quilty Gold Cup Challenge at Manilla, NSW due to a hoof abscess. Unfortunate timing after Tracy had so recently enthused about “the boy” being “on fire” and performing extremely well in all his preparation rides. “Next year!

Next year’s his year!” she announced with conviction, I suspect to console us both. My plan had been to attend the Manilla, NSW 2010 Tom Quilty Gold Cup Challenge to support Tracy, a student and friend, in her bid for a buckle, the award for completing the 160 km (100 miles) in 24 hours, & passing all the compulsory vet checks at the end of each stage. Moreover I was looking forward to that exciting atmosphere first experienced at Tonimbuk, Victoria, September 2009.

Having also committed to a couple of Level one courses in NSW the week before & after the Quilty we decided to go anyway hoping to reconnect with some of the people from last year. We did just that, and made some wonderful new acquaintances as well. Someone from last year was Louise Stevens. This is her Quilty ET story. “I first encountered Equine Touch at the 2009 Tom Quilty event where ET instructors & students were working on horses & humans as well as sponsoring a prize in each division. The Equine Touch camp was just across the way from ours and Kelly Long, (a Level 3 ET student) had demonstrated Equine Touch for us.

Laeli our strapper, found Janis after the third leg. “Boots” had an ET session before the compulsory re-present to the Vet before going out on the 4th leg. His log-book tells the story. From that time to the end of the ride Boots recorded all As and 1s! That means, his scores for all the vet checks (temperature, heart rate, breathing, hydration, gait & so on) were all top notch. We were over the moon! Dad & Mum (Laurie & Sally) who had bred the horse, Salz Bossy Boots, Laeli, our strapper, my two boys, Janis & Bruce, we all just couldn’t stop grinning!

This year we ran across Kelly again but she had already booked herself up to work on a few horses and passed on Janis’s card. Janis worked on Boots after every leg (as well as the day after) and supported the partnership, me & Boots, throughout the whole ride. She even worked on me a couple of times to help overcome the tremors in my legs from fatigue & cold. Janis & Bruce were definitely valuable members of our team & helped us to achieve another Quilty buckle. If Janis is holding a course near me I’ll be there! I have to learn how to do Equine Touch for myself or rather, for my horse!”

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