The Original Horse Whisperer ?
Last Friday my elderly Jack Russell and I made the trip over to Honeybourne to visit that legend among race horse owners, Ronnie.
My right hip had been plaguing me for weeks and Marmite had been accepting walks with reluctance for some time.
It is first come first served with Ronnie and he is only available for two hours on Wednesdays and Fridays.
We arrived at 10.10am. There were already four horse lorries, each with two horses on board, parked waiting, several humans in various stages of discomfort and five dogs.
We wait our turn, watching mesmerized as previously lame horses skedaddle up the ramps of their lorries apparently completely sound in all limbs after his gnarled old hands, he must be 85 if he is a day, have done their work, although
arthritis in his hardworked thumbs now leads to the ever increasing use of a little wooden mallet.
Not a man of great physical stature, I have seen him stand on an oil drum to reach the neck of a magnificent racehorse, but, no animal, however flighty, plays Ronnie up. Even stallions submit - hand on the neck, head droops, oh OK they indicate.
A man of few words, "trot her up, bring her here, hold her foot up, put her back on the lorry."
Marmite has her tiny pelvis flicked so gently one can barely believe anything has changed. She trots back to the car happily, tail up and perky.
My turn comes. With unerring accuracy, although I am fully clothed he finds three spots on my backbone which are seriously tender to the touch. Even though they have given me no trouble he flips them until they are tender no longer. Lying on the floor with a sling under my hips he swings me and instructs me to let my left leg flop. Turned on to my front I am rapped sharply in the region of my coccyx three times. I get up carefully as instructed. All pain in my hip has now gone, everything moves and functions as it should.
Four days later Marmite and I complete a five mile walk over steep boggy terrain with no trouble at all.
Any who doubt the efficacy of alternate therapies should meet Ronnie!
My right hip had been plaguing me for weeks and Marmite had been accepting walks with reluctance for some time.
It is first come first served with Ronnie and he is only available for two hours on Wednesdays and Fridays.
We arrived at 10.10am. There were already four horse lorries, each with two horses on board, parked waiting, several humans in various stages of discomfort and five dogs.
We wait our turn, watching mesmerized as previously lame horses skedaddle up the ramps of their lorries apparently completely sound in all limbs after his gnarled old hands, he must be 85 if he is a day, have done their work, although
arthritis in his hardworked thumbs now leads to the ever increasing use of a little wooden mallet.
Not a man of great physical stature, I have seen him stand on an oil drum to reach the neck of a magnificent racehorse, but, no animal, however flighty, plays Ronnie up. Even stallions submit - hand on the neck, head droops, oh OK they indicate.
A man of few words, "trot her up, bring her here, hold her foot up, put her back on the lorry."
Marmite has her tiny pelvis flicked so gently one can barely believe anything has changed. She trots back to the car happily, tail up and perky.
My turn comes. With unerring accuracy, although I am fully clothed he finds three spots on my backbone which are seriously tender to the touch. Even though they have given me no trouble he flips them until they are tender no longer. Lying on the floor with a sling under my hips he swings me and instructs me to let my left leg flop. Turned on to my front I am rapped sharply in the region of my coccyx three times. I get up carefully as instructed. All pain in my hip has now gone, everything moves and functions as it should.
Four days later Marmite and I complete a five mile walk over steep boggy terrain with no trouble at all.
Any who doubt the efficacy of alternate therapies should meet Ronnie!
posted by Diary Cow at 10:53 pm
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