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What
is Equine Touch? Learning
Equine Touch
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In Celebration of a Special PonyDomonic was a very special pony. He left us on August 27th 2004 at the age of 41.
He was an escape artist and when he broke the wire yet again and got tangled up, trying to get to the greener grass in the next paddock, he would wait patiently until he was released! In his latter years he was known as the 'free range pony' for he took himself up and down the track between stable and field, often sneaking into the garden to scrump some apples or stealing a few mouthfuls of haylage from the hay barn on the way. The vision will remain for ever of the cutest 'apricot' bum jammed in the narrow doorway of the feed room with the head end stuck in a barrel of pony nuts and the daughter trying to ride him backwards out of it, pony nuts spilling all over the place as he reluctantly removed himself! Oh he was a larger than life character all right! 'The daughter' grew up and grew out of him and moved on to bigger and 'better' horses, competing and training professionally in dressage, but still Domonic was the centre of the family's horsey world, always there and always useful to 'babysit' youngsters or act as companion to a schooling livery horse. For 20 years he carried out that role. Then he once again became a teacher. 'The Mum' discovered the remarkable discipline of Equine Touch through a contact in the USA and hosted the first course ever held in England, at Domonic's home. Dom loved it. As The Equine Touch™ grew in popularity and more and more people wanted to learn about it for their horses, 'the Mum' was promoted to become the National Coordinator and then UK Instructor for The Equine Touch™ and during the last four years of his life Dominic stood willingly whilst countless students 'practised' on him, giving all the responses that course attendees needed to learn about, the bodywork energising him, keeping him mobile and healthy.
Eventually, although the spirit of the old Domonic was still there, his body failed and the morning that he left us he just could not get out of bed. Oh how we still miss him!
To celebrate Domonic's life, in a manner of which he would heartily approve, 'the Mum' - otherwise known as Lyn Palmer, Senior Instructor for The Equine Touch™ (United Kingdom) decided to award an annual bursary to someone who would like to attend an Equine Touch™ course to learn the body balancing technique to help horses, but whose circumstances made it difficult for them to afford to do so. The winner in 2004, as decided by the committee of the International Equine Touch Association, was Elaine Thomas. Elaine is a riding instructor and trainer, unstintingly giving her time to Pony Club and competing in affiliated dressage with her own horses, whilst also working as a 'post person' in order to fund the high expense of competing. Since her course Elaine has helped countless horses and ponies by using The Equine Touch basic body balance after observing discomfort or un-levelness in the horses and ponies she teaches. If you would like to be the recipient of the 'Domonic Bursary' that would allow you to attend a Level 1 Horselovers course free of charge please write and describe why you think you should be the beneficiary and send to: or email to homewayfarm@aol.com.
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Bought
as a first family pony for a pony mad daughter and a novice mum rider,
neither of whom had very much knowledge of horses or keeping them, he
turned out to be very much older than the 13 years he was supposed to
be when purchased! That mattered not one jot - with both daughter and
daughter's friend he bounced around the local shows doing Gymkhana, Working
Hunter classes and 2'6" jumping, gaining hundreds of rosettes, as
well as hacking around the lanes with both. He was unfailingly patient
whilst 'his people' learnt and made mistakes, not only for riding but
also in horse care and management, until he had taught them all he knew.
Domonic's
Bursary
Lyn
Palmer,