Equi-Bow Canada™

PROVIDING, PROMOTING AND ENCOURAGING EXCELLENCE IN EQUINE CARE

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About Cheryl Gibson

Cheryl Gibson comes from four generations of horse breeders and trainers. Having trained and shown horses in many different disciplines, her experiences and interests are varied.

Cheryl is a past member of the International Alliance of Healthcare Practitioners and has been involved with natural approaches to body work and equine behaviour for over thirty years. For 22 years, she has practiced and taught equine Feldenkrais and has developed and practised myofascial release and CranioSacral techniques for horses and companion animals. She studied with the Upledger Institute in Florida for Human CranioSacral therapy and has accepted humans into her practice since 1996.

Interest in the physical and mental well-being of the horse and a holistic approach to problem-solving has led to extensive research, development, continuing education and teaching in various therapy modalities including:

• acupuncture
• acupressure

• acu-ssage
• structural anatomy and sports therapy
• movement analysis
• anatomical kinesiology
• proper foot balancing
• Touch For Health
• Bowen therapy (human and animal)
• EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
• energy medicine
• homeopathics
• herbal remedies
• flower essence therapy
• Therapeutic Touch
• magnetic therapy
• T.E.N.S.
• Quantum Touch
• balanced riding techniques
• tack fitting and saddle design (producing the SUPREMO custom saddle - designed to work with the moving horse)

This body of work plus close consultation with holistic veterinarians/doctors, has provided the foundation of Cedar Lane Farm's Equine Sports Therapy and education program.

In March 2002, Cheryl was introduced to Bowen therapy when she went for a treatment with Manon Bolliger. "I practically leapt off the table!" she said, "I immediately knew that I HAD to learn to apply this modality to my equine practice!"

Always searching for new and better ways to bring holistic healing to her equine, companion and exotic animal clientele, Cheryl recognized a bowen-based technique as a missing link. Wanting a safe and highly effective way to work on large animals that were too difficult to treat with CranioSacral therapy, she embraced this modality wholeheartedly. Studying the human qualifications with Jonathan Damonte of Bowen Canada, she immediately started adapting the technique to horses. Since human and equine anatomy and physiology are different, this adaptation was facilitated by Cheryl's many years of experience as an intuitive researcher - developing and fine-tuning different therapy modalities for horses. Cheryl and her colleague Simone Usselman-Tod, working together with Jonathan Damonte, a talented and experienced Bowen instructor as well as other qualified professionals in the veterinary and therapy fields, developed an equine protocol that became Equi-Bow's core content. Ongoing research and development of varying and more advanced techniques continues.

There are many venues worldwide where the bowen technique has been applied to the human and animal communities. Ongoing discussion and evolution of methodology is being pursued with other bowen workers in other countries. Bowen-based techniques are a very exciting world to explore!

"It has become evident over the many years spanning my practice, that less than ideal equine performance, chronically or "mysteriously lame" horses and horses exhibiting various behavioural problems, need an approach that considers all of the techniques listed above. These have proven to be valuable tools that have helped to solve behaviour, movement and performance problems in horses. Dressage horses, jumpers, hunters, western and trail horses, combined driving horses, Standardbred and Thoroughbred race horses have all shown dramatic improvement. Adapting bowen techniques to horses has been a valuable addition to my practice - I am wildly excited about the results that have occurred. One recent example has been dramatic healing occurring in a horse with severe and chronic West Nile Virus symptoms. The Equi-Bow technique is a very effective therapy modality."

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