Date: February 4-6, 2025

Cost: R10,950

Duration: 3 days

We decided it was time to offer our unique Equinology guide to equine massage body work for horse owners and trainers. Even if you plan to only work on your own horse, it is essential to learn how to do so properly from internationally accredited instructors.

Whilst this three day course is billed as an Introduction Equine Massage course, it offers much more information than many massage workshops.

This course is appropriate for a variety of individuals, from new horse owners, competitive riders, yard managers and grooms through to experienced experts such as saddle fitters, trainers and veterinary professionals wishing to understand more about the maintenance and wellbeing of equines they work with. For those considering working professionally in the field of equine body work, it provides an in-depth overview as to what is really involved.

Although this course is not required to participate in our Equinology Equine Body Worker Certification courses, it will give a beneficial head start to those participants who plan to continue onto the certification course. Horse owners will benefit not only by learning the techniques but will also learn how to utilize bodywork as a regular assessment of their horse’s condition. Trainers will find that these techniques will help horses in their care especially as these horses advance in their training. Saddle fitters will be able to release some of the restrictions that alter the horse’s posture, prior to fitting a different saddle. Overall, the horse is the winner with improved health care, performance, comfort and communication with his care giver.

Learning the techniques properly is not the only important aspect of equine massage. Body mechanics need to be considered for effective bodywork. Correct body mechanics and safe bodywork techniques are strongly emphasized throughout the Equinology programme.

Please note: this is not a certification course and will not give participants a qualification to practice professionally. Full information for the EQ100SA Equinology Equine Body Worker™ Certification Course is available here.

To ensure that participants receive the personalized instruction, only approved Equinology instructors will lead these 3-day workshops.

Hours: This is a three-day course. Students attend class daily from 8:00am-5pm daily with 30 minutes for lunch.

Tuition: includes manual, DVD clips and class supplies.

We are privileged that this course will be presented by Debranne Patillo MEEBW, President and CEO of Equinology Institute.

This Equine Massage and Body Work Course will offer our unique blend of equine sports massage, soft tissue release and stretching. The class is presented with loads of hands-on practical experience, specimens, multimedia illustrations and video clips. Students will also receive a course manual to support the techniques demonstrated.

  • Locating the surface anatomy
  • Muscles addressed during the session
  • Common areas of stress
  • Encouraging communication and interaction during the session
  • Differentiating between normal and pain responses
  • Massage and body work techniques
  • Stretching
  • Correct and effective body mechanics
Although not a formal prerequisite: We recommend participants be comfortable handling and working around horses or dogs as appropriate, can pick up the limbs and are aware of the safety of yourself, those around you and the animal you are working with.
Suggestions for prior and/or further studies: Although not required for this particular course, individuals may find the Equinology EQ50: Online Equine Anatomy Course Distance Study helpful. EQ50 is the required pre-course study for the Equinology® Equine Body Worker (EEBW) Certification Courses.

DEBRANNE PATTILLO


MEEBW, PRESIDENT EQUINOLOGY ® INC

Debranne sees equine anatomy with the eyes of both a body worker and an artist. Her teaching is infused with her basic delight in both the anatomical precision that excellent bodywork requires and the dynamic variation that teaching anatomy on (mostly living, nibbling, opinionated) horses often presents! Her knack for seeing the bones and muscles with an artist’s eye and her unique way of taking the body apart, from the skin down to the bones, and putting it back together again — as a colored drawing, as an “air massage,” or as a painting done in chalk on a live horse — is a perspective that fuels her work as a practitioner of equine body work and sports massage and makes her a much sought-after teacher. Her “Painted Horse,” which has served as the backbone for presenting equine anatomy since Equinology started, was showcased in United Kingdom’s BBC television program “Country File” in 2001. Debranne’s first exposure to hands-on work with horses came through her then Sonoma County-based trainer, Gail Hunt, who took her to one of Linda Tellington-Jones clinic. This led to one of those “light bulb” moments which Debranne has in turn provided for so many of her own students. Debranne is the first to say that all of the instructors who teach for Equinology have been extremely influential to her, but she is also quick to acknowledge Dr. Kerry Ridgway, DVM (instructor and practitioner extraordinaire in acupuncture, animal manipulation and saddle fit) and the late Australian, Dr. Des Greaves (licensed acupuncturist, homeopath, osteopath, and chiropractor) as two of her most significant mentors, along with a cranky 16-year old Thoroughbred mare named Ronamead. Before dedicating herself to developing Equinology’s curriculum and faculty and teaching, Debranne owned and operated a small sport horse lay-up and boarding facility for six years. It was during this time that she discovered the benefits of equine sports massage for the rehabilitation and preventative care of these equine athletes. In 1993, she sold the ranch to enable her to work on an established monthly clientele of various disciplines, which included: dressage, hunters, jumpers, endurance, cutting, pleasure, as well as the geriatric retiree. Since 1994, she has been the lead instructor for more than 90 equine sports massage and anatomy courses to more than 1,000 course participants in the US, Canada, UK, South Africa, New Zealand and Canada. She holds the Equinology® Master Equine Body Worker Certification, a certification which takes participants over 1600 hours of coursework to complete. She is the author and facilitator of the unique Equinology® Equine Body Worker Certification Course (equine sports massage, stretching and specialized techniques), which is the signature course for Equinology. This course serves as the professional qualification in the BSc in Equine Sports Therapy presented by Writtle Agricultural College and University of Essex, United Kingdom. Debranne is also the co-founder and past Chair of the United States division of the International Equine Body Worker Association (IEBWA); a leading international association that aims to support and foster equine body work practices and ethics. She is currently the Division Head of the IEBWA for USA, Australia and New Zealand. Debranne is a regularly invited lecturer and guest speaker for demonstrations and lectures in anatomy, stretching and massage at colleges, universities, private educational institution and various equestrian facilities and venues. She has been working for several years on a comprehensive anatomy and sports massage textbook scheduled for publication in 2015 with Dr. Peter Flood and medical illustrator Sue Simon that includes major contributions from Dr. Kerry Ridgway, Dr. Barb Crabbe, Kalyani Premkumar and Dr. Joanna Robson. Celia Strain, art director of Equus Magazine, Laurie O\\'Keefe and Catherine Twomey all highly sought after medical illustrator support this book's text with their fresh illustrations.

A R4,000 deposit is required to hold your spot in a course – the remainder of the tuition is due at least six weeks prior to the course start date. The R4,000 deposit is nonrefundable and nontransferable, and is credited to the total tuition for the course. Confirmation letters, course outlines, required pre-study (if applicable), directions and lodging options will be sent when the R4,000 deposit has been received.

REGISTER FOR THIS CLASS TODAY!