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Reiki and Horses
Author Anonymous
I am a 47 year old reiki master/Vibrational Energy practitioner from South Eastern Ontario. I have always loved horses, having spent a large portion of my childhood on a farm with a retired Clydesdale for a playmate. My eldest brother, who was 17 when I was born and had moved to northern British Columbia before I was a year old, has lived and breathed horses since I can remember. After close to 35 years of hauling logs out of the BC bush with his tractor-trailer, he bought a small farm, a pony for his young grandchildren and a Buckskin Foundation named ‘Bucky’ for himself.
Then, near tragedy struck. Hans lost his arm when he was caught up in the chains of the trailer while unleashing a load of logs and when his friends scrambled to get him down before the ambulance arrived, one ran into him with the forklift and broke every possible bone in his face that could be broken (except for his nose). The doctor referred to it as a ‘facial smash’ rather than a series of breaks. He had suffered two totally freak, equally near-fatal and almost unrelated injuries. The doctors worked into the night at that small hospital to reattach his arm and then he was airlifted to a more qualified Vancouver hospital for his facial and head injuries. Surgeons there were astounded that they could in no way improve upon the (arm reattachment) job of the tiny, rural hospital.
Over the next while, Hans rehabilitated himself with vegetable gardening and what he called ‘horse therapy’ of his own design. Having had retirement from trucking forced upon him, he spent his days in his small barn, mucking his stalls with his arm strapped to his chest, his body rigged and harnessed to the wheelbarrow and then spend hours grooming his horses. It was his God and his four-legged doctors that did the most for his rehabilitation process. When the night terrors and flashbacks of post-traumatic stress robbed him of sleep he would seek comfort in his barn.
Over the years, he has regained more than 85% use of his reattached arm and other than some residual loss of memory (and trouble with airport metal detectors because of the plates in his jaws and face) he is fully recovered and happily accumulating fellow horse enthusiasts in the form of grandchildren. He is a walking miracle.
Then a few years after that incident, he and his pride and joy were brought together. While visiting a farm a few hours drive away, he watched as a man backed the most beautiful horse he had ever seen off of a trailer. He knew he had to, and would have, this horse. It was a Friesian, black as the darkest night and after some conversation, Hans learned that the horse had been bred and born in the same tiny village in Friesland, (N. Holland) as he himself had been close to 60 years earlier. That synchronicity alone cinched it for him. He has never told me what he paid for ‘his boy’, that is irrelevant, but my brother did learn that day that the present owner hadn’t really known why he had purchased the big black beauty. He had been gelded and could not be used as a stud. The agreement was reached there in the driveway and by the weekend, ‘Pier’ was in his new barn at the ‘Boon-derosa’.
My brother and I have always been connected at a soul level, but since his near-death experience (complete with tunnel, light and choir) we are even more so. On one occasion I called after months of quiet, to find him with his address book in hand, looking up my number. On another occasion, his wife called him from the barn for a phone call and he knew who it was because he saw an image of my face (as a 1- year old baby) hovering in front of him as he came around the corner of the barn to head for the house. But, the most amazing thing yet is, ‘Pier’ seems to know when it’s me on the phone with my brother, too, and promptly starts goofing off. He grabs the pitchfork or the rake from the barn and drags it out to the middle of the pasture, much like a jealous older toddler when mom is distracted with the new baby. Finally, my brother will put the cordless phone up into his ear and I will ask him (in our native Friesian dialect of the Dutch language) if he’s been a good boy and is taking good care of my brother. I hear the gentle snuffling of his nose against the handset and then Hans and I can finish our conversation in peace. I think Pier is fully aware of my appreciation for the role he plays in keeping my brother well. I have yet to meet Pier face to face but we already know each other. I am planning a trip in the future and it will be interesting to see how our first meeting will unfold itself.
And now a story closer to home. I thought of it when I read William Rand’s article in his Reiki News magazine. As I said earlier, I am a reiki master, although, not trained by William. Until a few years ago I had only channeled healing for other people, my shepherd/hound cross ‘Angel’ and a collection of cats. During a conversation at our village store, I learned from a friend that another acquaintance of ours had checked an unexpected guest into her barn. She owns horses and also boards them for city people and horse owners from a neighbouring race track. A neighbour of hers had been out riding her dapple gray, Shandy, along the country fence lines and ditches and when in front of Terry’s farm the horse had slipped in the ditch and sliced a major blood vessel on the inside of a hind leg (on the edge of a galvanized metal culvert).There was blood everywhere, but somehow the owner had managed to limp the horse to Terry’s barn to call the vet. After hours of work the wound was closed and bandaged up.
But days later the horse was still lethargic, almost seemed to be in a state of shock or suffering some after effects of the anesthetic. He merely stood in the middle of his borrowed stall and stared. I offered to come and do reiki and accompanied her to the barn after the horse’s owner had visited. After all, it was Shandy’s permission and acceptance of the offer that was important.
I was wearing inappropriate footwear, so I stood outside of the half-door of the stall for a few moments so that our auras could warm up to each other. I was left alone with Shandy to do my work, other than the other horses in their stalls down either side of the wide center corridor of the barn.
I called our Creator, our guides and our angels and requested whatever results would be to our Highest Good, as I had been taught to do with humans, and I said out loud, ‘Shandy, if you want this, you have to come here and put my hands where you need them.’
After a few moments, he snuffled, raised his head to look at me and ambled over to me at the stall door. I extended my arms and he placed his fore quarters/chest into my warm hands and just stood there. Then he hung his big ol’ head over my left shoulder with the half- door still between us, snuffled some more and started to toss my pony-tailed hair about, behind me. He did this for about five minutes and then backed away, turned and (one at a time) placed his hind-quarters/ haunches in my palms. At one point I was overwhelmed by his actions and, so grateful for this opportunity, allowed my tears to flow. I had never experienced anything quite like this before. We continued for a few more moments and then he raised his head, thanked me with a snuffle and wandered off to his oats.
You could have heard a pin drop in the straw of that barn. When I turned and walked away I saw an audience of horses all hanging their heads over their own stall doors and watching silently and intently. The barn glowed a pale gold, so thick was the energy of love and healing in that place.
I went back a few days later to check on my ‘client’. He was much improved, so much so, that my friend was worried that he would jump around when she tried to check his wound and apply a fresh dressing. I was properly foot-shod this time so I stepped into the stall. Shandy immediately came over to say ‘hi’. He put his forehead into my outstretched palms and stood, as if asleep, while Terry removed the wrap, the gauze, inspected the wound, spread the ointment, re-gauzed and rewrapped the ankle. It was truly amazing, an experience I will never forget.
My friend gave me the name of another neighbour woman who boards horses for the Humane Society after they have been removed from neglectful situations. I have done some volunteering there too. She was quite amused one day as I sat on an overturned milk pail with the front leg of her chestnut mare bent and on my lap, paying attention to a slightly damaged hoof. Their ornery old barn cat, rarely seen by barn visitors, sneaked over and on to my lap as I channeled reiki for the horse, and scammed a little energy of his own. The horse decided that enough was enough, threw her head over and back toward my lap to scare the cat away, and continuing with her own healing.
It is a most amazing thing, to be a part of this healing journey for animals. It is both rewarding and humbling to deal with such large beings and to feel the love, intuition, acceptance and appreciation they beam, unfettered and unrestricted by societal issues and hang-ups. Although my career involves the spiritual counseling and practice of ‘energetic’ healing arts (with humans), I seize any opportunity to be of service to God’s creatures (of any size).