Course Tutors
Liz Bridger BHSAI, BTERreg, Bowen Equus practitioner. - Bowen Tutor
About Liz Bridger
Born 7/11/57
She has always had a deep love of horses. Her Parents ran Public House in South London, so her first riding lessons were taken in Busy Park near Hampton Court. Liz started riding at eight yrs old, moving on to a weekend job at Coombe Hill Riding School with Mr. Savage where she worked weekends and holidays much to the despair of her farther who took her in at the crack of dawn even after a busy Saturday night at the pub .Liz always wanted to work with horses so gained qualifications at West end Farm, Burgess Hill in Sussex. Then progressed into the industry, as a family we did not own horses until later as the expense was too great, and I think Liz’s parents thought she would grow out of her love, hopefully getting a real job later on. Liz started work in a private polo yard in Richmond run by the Tauchat family who all had a deep love for the horses and put there welfare above everything, the team travelled extensively over southern England winning many tournaments. All this time Liz was expanding her knowledge of the horse world and gaining experience treating injuries and finding ways of keeping horses on the road
Liz started her own business in Surrey in 79 just down the road from Roger Stack and Bridget who helped and inspired her to go forward also by this time we owned a piebald pony called Mattie who was always out and about with Jane (younger sister) competing, he and our next purchase Hadleigh put up with different types of training methods and therapies. I think they would see that books had been purchased on the latest outing and say” here we go again” they were infinitely patient and wise they taught Liz so much about how equines think and respond to outside influences, there have been many other horses in her life but those two are held in the highest regard. Before starting her own livery yard Liz had worked in a dealers yard in Norfolk which showed the seeder end of the industry and then for Sheila Shaw who bred horses for eventing and had been a founder of the riding for the disabled, Liz arrived with no horses and came home with three, at that time she thought it better to start her own business rather than pay out for livery.
In 1981 Liz’s parents retired out of the pub and purchased Eastwood Stud Farm with the understanding that is had to stand on its own. So a thriving business was started with Jane and Liz now qualified to teach, the riding school soon was busy. Liz found great pleasure in breeding from cheap but talented mares and then taking them to the highest level, all the time looking for something extra that would help the horses achieve that bit more. As a livery yard owner she witnessed many different therapies that the owners would have applied to their horses only too see that a cheque was written with limited changes taking place.
Over the years Liz has tried to find holistic treatments that improved the conditions that a vet could no longer help and along with time there seemed to be very few. Having experienced osteopathy over the years that had worked to a level, but developed a fear of the manipulation that was part of that treatment, she felt that horses were beginning to experience that same fear and more and more needing heavy sedation to manipulate, sometimes this would work but more often it made no immediate change so was it the time that the horse had in the field or was it the treatment that had sorted it out. One day in 2000 Jane’s horse was kicked in the head as a result had 18 stitches over her eye and a very stiff neck that she was reluctant to move the vets suggested more painkillers which did not seem to work. So after 3 days the mare was feeling very sorry for herself and not eating , this was when a mother came in with her daughter for there riding lessons she said” I am doing this Bowen stuff do you want me to have ago” we said yes please ,nothing ventured nothing gained and she did a few moves on her neck and walked away then came back and did some more I don’t suppose the whole treatment took more than 30mins and within 3hrs the mare was looking over the door and was eating again, after that we went for treatments with Aurele Broom who was local she introduced Liz to Ian Fields who was at the time teaching equine Bowen and the rest is history.
Liz qualified in 2001 and has treated many different horses from many different disciplines also qualified to treat humans and is now running her Bowen practice based in West Sussex.
Jane Stickley BHSII – Horse management Tutor
Having had ponies since the age of 12, I then joined my sister (after taking A levels) to run the yard at Eastwood. We dealt with many types of horses from Shetlands to 3day Eventers and all sorts between. Following a successful eventing career only ended by the arrival of my daughter, I have gone on to teach in many disciplines within the Pony Club and am now a B test examiner. It was my horse that introduced us to Bowen and I was then treated for 2 years having been with an osteopath for 20 yrs, the difference is huge and now I am beginning my Bowen Training to help Liz with the rehabilitation side of the industry. Further information please contact Liz or Jane Liz - LPBridger@aol.com or www.equinebowen.com Jane – JaneStickley@aol.com or www.eastwoodstudfarm.co.uk
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