About Me

An equestrian career

I started riding and working with horses at 12 years of age, and after finishing college have spent 20 years working as a professional rider, groom and equestrian in thoroughbred horse racing industry. I’ve worked on 4 continents for some of the most successful people in the business, including 3 champion trainers. Riding some of the best horses in the world, means I have gained an insight and experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I have learnt horsemanship, horse care and horse conditioning in many different forms and using different methodologies and worked with thousands of equine athletes. It’s meant I’ve constantly been learning and evolving and that education continues every day I go to work. Working with elite equine athletes at the peak of fitness and performance has given me a very broad experience of the effects of training on a horse, and I have been exposed to the full range of routine and not so routine injuries and problems these athletes can face.

 

Trained to spot health issues early

One important role in my job as a rider is to identify signs of lameness and ill health and communicate this to the trainer, and this has been a great foundation for being a therapist and trying to help identify and resolve these conditions, and is also immensely rewarding to now be a part of the process of helping and healing these wonderful animals.

An inside perspective on sports injuries

I’m a keen amateur athlete and enjoy road running, swimming, weight training and dancing. Having trained and competed for so many years in sport has given me personal experience of sports injuries and exercise physiology, and this is of great assistance when treating both human and equine clients.

Finding Bowen Therapy

I first encountered Bowen therapy whilst working in Australia for Sheikh Mohammed’s horseracing operation Godolphin. After experiencing neck and back pain from falls and wear and tear from a career riding racehorses as well as a lifetime of sports, I had tried everything to try to get some relief. Whilst watching the news one night a segment came on asking viewers if they knew statistically what the most successful alternative therapy in Australia was. When they said it wasn’t massage, physiotherapy, acupuncture, chiropractics or osteopathy, all of which I had tried, I was intrigued.

The news segment went on to explain that it was Bowen Therapy, which was developed by the Australian Tom Bowen in Australia in the 1970’s.

 

The path to becoming a trained therapist

I decided to give Bowen Therapy a try and found it to be very effective. The therapist happened to mention one day that it was used on horses as well, and suggested I should train to become a therapist myself. I was excited by the idea but it was several years before I had the time to devote to fulfilling this goal, and it still seemed unrealistic as I moved to Dubai and all the training courses were mainly in the UK, Australia and USA.

At about the time I was about to give up, I saw a notification on a Facebook page of the only Bowen therapist here in Dubai. She was hosting the first Human Bowen Therapy Course in the Middle East. It appeared to be fate! I attended, and qualified in May 2016.

Equine Bowen

I then attended The European School of Equine Bowen Therapy’s course in the UK. This course took me 2 years to complete as I was an international student. The course director is Beth Darrall, and the course is supervised and examined by an equine veterinary surgeon and BHS instructor.

 

Specialized training

As well as training in the Bowen technique, training is given in saddle fitting, dentistry, farriery, nutrition, fitness, conformation and health in the horse. A qualified Master saddle fitter, equine dentist, farrier, nutritionist, and conformation specialist, provide practical and theoretical lectures. There is also much home study and assignments to do. Bowen performed during training – is approximately 70 individual treatments. In total I did 26 written equine case studies of 3 treatments each, plus 4 written assignments on various topics of horse health, anatomy and physiology and pathology. I also did hundreds of hours practice on other horses outside of the official case studies, sometimes up to 24 horses per week. I was lucky to be in an industry that provided me with plenty of equine athletes to work on.

 

Qualifications –

  • Diploma of Proficiency Bowen Therapeutic Technique
    Bowtech
    The Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia
  • The European School of Equine Bowen Therapy
    Practitioner Course
  • Specialised Bowen Procedures 1
    Bowtech
    The Bowen Therapy Academy of Australian
  • VTCT Level 3 Certificate in Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for Complementary Therapies
    Essential Training Solutions
  • HABC Level 2 International Award in Emergency First Aid in Work
  • NVQ Level 1, 2 and 3 Racehorse Care and Management
    British Racing School Newmarket

Bowen Seminars: –

  • The Importance of Symmetry Workshop
    Graham Pennington
  • Bowen Body Decoding
    Georgi Ilchev

 

Experience –

    • Satish Seemar, Dubai, UAE, Champion UAE Trainer
    • Robert Mills, Epsom, UK
    • Peter Snowdon, Godolphin, Champion Trainer Australia
    • Sir Micheal Stoute, Newmarket, Champion UK trainer
    • Freelance work rider Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar racetracks, Southern California, USA
    • Jamie Osbourne Racehorse Trainer, Lambourne
    • John Hills Racehorse Trainer, Lambourne

Association membership:

  • The Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia and the Bowen Association UK
    Registered Member
  • The European School of Equine Bowen Therapy

I undertake ongoing postgraduate training for both Human and Equine. I attend regular Continual Professional Development courses.

Share This