ENGLISH TEXTS ing the flow of information within an organism by mobilizing its own healing resources fascinated me. Passionate about horses and an avid rider, I decided to pursue veterinary studies, a sine qua non condition for practicing acupuncture. In the late 1990s, while completing my doctorate, I undertook my first training courses in TCM. Later in my practice, I incorporated osteopathy as a complementary approach.
G. In what way are osteopathy and acupuncture complementary practices?
E. J. These two practices share the same goal: restoring the body’ s physical and functional balance without invasive methods or exogenous substances, which is a considerable advantage in the racing world! Acupuncture is one branch of TCM, a discipline over 3,000 years old, based on analogical reasoning, intimately tied to Taoist philosophy, and validated over millennia through practice. It’ s a complex theoretical approach that leads us to consider the individual as a whole, using our senses and knowledge to achieve targeted and concise treatment. Osteopathy, on the other hand, is a more recent manual medicine, born in the United States 150 years ago out of the need to treat soldiers with limited means during the Civil War. Today, osteopathy encompasses various techniques: craniosacral, fascial, visceral, en- ergetic, and structural. Personally, I mainly practice structural osteopathy, which focuses on the mechanical aspect. In fact, acupuncture— with which I always begin my treatments— addresses imbalances related to internal medicine, releases muscular and fascial chains, and provides immediate analgesic effects that facilitate structural mobilizations. The mechanisms of action of acupuncture needles are still not completely understood today; it is acknowledged that they act on the nervous system, but beyond that, it is suggested they involve interactions between electromagnetic flows. Ultimately, it’ s all about information exchanges— and that’ s precisely where acupuncture and osteopathy complement each other: they inform the body at different levels, from tissues to the energy that flows through them.
G. How do you work with racehorses?
E. J. Thoroughbreds behave like open books- they are extremely sensitive and receptive to these techniques. I always approach them following the same protocol: a palpatory reading of the acupuncture meridians guides my diagnosis; I then insert needles at specific treatment points and immediately reassess. Once the diagnostic points are rebalanced, I proceed to structural palpation of the spine and limbs, taking advantage of the general state of relaxation induced by the needles. I then initiate movement, which the horse continues voluntarily, completing the desired gesture gently, without force. This is what we call structural mobilization. In the racing world, I treat everything from foals with angular deviations to broodmares with hormonal imbalances, but I spend most of my time with horses in training— helping them achieve and maintain their physical potential while minimizing the stress associated with internal imbalances( gastric, respiratory, immune, etc.).
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