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this love as a career or profession. My maths was no good enough to become a veterinary surgeon and as a mounted policewoman they considered me too aggressive (laughs). Eventually I attended hotel management and the tutor of my apprenticeship gave me the book ‘Acupressure on horses’ as a present during my training. I was inspired and knew for sure then: shiatsu practice on horses is going to be my thing. As it was quite unknown in Belgium, I went to Scotland for a three- year course.How did you go about things when back from training in Scotland?Contacts in the equestrian world provided an info stand for me at the jumping of Lummen and at a few other contests. I invited the riders for a seat massage and while treating themI whispered into their ears something about horse shiatsu and how it could raise the performance of their horses. More and more riders gradually came to ask me to have a look at their horses.Was it easy to convince people quickly?Not really. Very often they said ‘I do not believe in it, but could you see my horse anyway?’ It was a great satisfaction whenit turned out I could achieve positive results and help their animals. Is there anything more satisfactory than bring back a horse everybody considered to be on its return? I could raise it back to its top in a few weeks only and make the horse feel good. That is the great challenge for me at Equina.What does Equina stand for?It refers to many things: horses (Equus), balance or equilib- rium (Equilibre), emotion (EQ ). It has an even royal ring as you pronounce it as if the word ‘queen’ is in it. I particularly value energy, balance and power. If you can bring the energy in your body into balance, you can draw power from that. In this respect I follow the yin and yang philosophy of the East. You will notice that in the logo the light horse and the dark dog balance each other in the same way yin and yang do.Evy Macquoy would like to get as many horses into top shape by Equina.Balance, energy and power. Can you solve all problems with them?I am as bold as to daresay I can solve 90% of the physical problems which are laid at my doorstep. You have to be hon- est, willing and able to see the problem at hand. Once you have established the diagnosis, the solution is easy to find.Could you illustrate this by an example?A horse is limping. It is the left leg. They treat it intensively, but without effect. Nobody had noticed that the cause of the left leg limping was due to a problem situated at the knee back of the right leg. That is what I mean “treating the whole body” by shiatsu and not only the spots they think are ailing.Which kind of problems are you faced with?There are coughing horses, stiff, thin and crippled horses, horses with back pain and horses that suddenly fail to jump at their best level or horses that show strange behaviour. Further we notice horses with muscle or stomach problems, which are related to bad nutrition or feeding them too much. There are problems caused by bad riding or keeping the horses too long inside without time for enjoying daylight.Sometimes the owners do not see the problems then? Indeed, they don’t or they act on a wrong diagnosis. So I had a pony under shiatsu treatment supposedly for ‘the Cushing ailment’. Eventually there was no tumour in the hypophysis, but the horse suffered from a viral infection. This pony was shining after my shiatsu treatment, suddenly started moulting, but recovered to become much merrier and more active. The155