About:
Helping Hands, Helping Horses
Kate Xerri initially followed her passion for animals by working as a stable hand then training to be a Veterinary Nurse in the 1980’s. She pursued this career to it’s logical conclusion, becoming Head Nurse of a practice which specialised in animal cardiology after an educational break to gain a certificate in Farming and Countryside Skills.
Her journey took her into the world of cardiac diagnostics in the human world and she was a Cardiac Physiologist for 27 years, initially working with children with congenital heart defects and finishing work in the private sector as a mobile cardiac physiologist working all over the UK and Ireland with teams that provide a diagnostic coronary angiography service. She estimates working in at least 70 different hospitals during that time. Whilst this was primarily a very technical vocation, one of her main skills was to calm and relax patients in the stressful environment. A yoga teaching certificate was put to good use in this area.
Retirement brought new opportunities and Kate was able to achieve her certificate in Masterson Method® which includes 82 hours of face to face coaching, 12 months of fieldwork incorporating 30 separate treatments and writeups of a minimum 2500 words plus the online Avalon equine anatomy course. During this period of Covid lockdown she participated in an online Masterson Method course with 3 live webinars monthly for a year, with Jim Masterson and other experts from the world of equine professionals. These covered sessions on dentistry, farriery and saddle fitters, closer looks at the individual techniques of the Masterson Method and how to treat the challenging behaviours you may encounter with a horse in pain.
‘Healing Hands, Healing Horses’ uses the The Masterson Method® as a core treatment but Kate’s continuing passion for education will no doubt widen the scope of techniques. Masterson Method® is a therapy which relies on ‘light touch’ to bring the horse into a state of relaxation. This then enables gentle movement of joints that ,over time, have become restricted due to tension, caused by acute pain or compensatory adjustments of the body as a result of chronic pain.
Masterson Method® is a supportive and restorative therapy, not intended as a diagnostic tool, nor to take the place of veterinary opinion or any other professional equine body. It can however be very useful in uncovering a possible primary cause for a drop in performance levels in the equine athelete.
Equally it is put to good use as a maintenance treatment for older, less active horses and with hands on guidance from a certified practitioner, some of the techniques can be carried out by owners with the bonus of increasing the bond and communication to which we all aspire.