As Jock (John) Ruddock, the pioneer and founder of ET, tells it, Equine Touch was just something that just happened, and evolved to where it now is in the equine world simpley because it works. In 1996 he had began to develop and practice a holistic body address which worked on the principle of vibrating the soft tissue of the human by performing an Aikido based move over specific points on the body. The results of this technique, which he later called the Vibromuscular Harmonization Technique (VHT) were astounding and shortly after he began to teach it to bodyworkers the inevitable question was asked ' Will this work on Horses?'
As a result, on one Saturday morning in 1997 he traveled, to a stable in Aberdeen to show one of his human bodywork students where he thought she could do the VHT moves on a horse. Such was the result that he was invited back the following Saturday to work on ten horses, and so it began. One year later he was working on the European Steeplechase Champion, Cipisek, and three months after that was teaching his no name 'Equine Bodywork' to interested vets from all over Europe. The results for this first wave of vets was so successful that a few months later he was invited back by the Czech Veterinary University to teach an advanced clinic as well as teach another foundation class to even more vets who were queuing up from all over to learn this amazing non invasive system. On this second clinic he met a young vet, a lecturer in anatomy at University and a respected researcher into the equine, who a few months later was to leave Czech, marry Jock in Hawaii and join him in his teaching travels around the world. Their aim, to improve the life of horses by educating humans, in what is now known as The Equine Touch.
MVDr. Ivana Ruddock is the exact opposite to Jock, she is the classical trained piano player to his, country jamming guitar. She reads the notes, he feels the rhythm. The two of them in class, and in practice bounce of each other dynamically but in the process have evolved a unique and complete system of bodywork that has set standards throughout the world. The consummate researcher she translates his amazing intuition into fact, giving it form and putting it into an educational format that has achieved credibility and respect from the veterinary community. The Equine Touch is the only bodywork with National Accreditation in the United Kingdom. It was the only Equine Bodywork to be recognized by the Institute for Complementary Medicine (ICM) and The British Complementary Medicine Association BCMA (when they were recognizing animal modalities). In the past ten years Jock and Ivana, as the founders have taught Equine Touch and the human version, VHT in over 20 countries around the globe, sometimes even risking their lives, teaching amid the troubles in places such as Zimbabwe where their students were terrorized daily and one even murdered.
After ten years, what started off as a small simple system of bodywork taught to vets, the Equine Touch has now developed and evolved to where it now has over 5000 students at different levels worldwide. The main focus still being on teaching the foundation class to horse owners enabling them to give their mounts a better quality of pain free life, at a price everyone can afford. The technique itself has been praised by some of the top natural horsemen in the world including, Ray Hunt, Monty Roberts,Kelly Marks, Peggy Cummings, Pat and Linda Parelli, David Stuart and Bergy Bergeleen as well as respected equine vets on both sides of the atlantic. Due to the success, the evolution and development of the work, The Equine Touch Foundation now has four different levels of expertise that a horse loving student can attain. There is also an accredited professional practitioner track to allow the career minded to go out and work on other peoples horses. Jock and Ivana's teaching load has been alleviated with the training of 20 instructors who take students through Level 1 and level 2 before handing them over to the founders to take them through Level 3 and Level 4 where they may graduate, if they care to take the career track, as a qualified Equine Touch Practitioner.
The Equine Touch has been shown to:
Improve Performance
Locate and reduce soft tissue pain
Stimulate the recovery to normal after work
Address gait problems: tracking-up/short stride
Reduce stiffness in different areas of the body
Reduce the effects of veterinary diagnosed problems such as arthritis
Remove a reluctance to trot or change gaits
Improve problems with head carriage
Improve temperament and behavior: bucking, rearing, striking
Reduce stiffness in the older horse
Reduce lameness resulting from soft tissue complaints
Maintain and improve mobility in competition horses
Revitalize the horses own healing ability
Assist in rehabilitation after injury or operations