By Nancy Diamond

When I offered to do Reiki for the horses at my neighbor’s boarding
and rehab farm Wendy’s response was, “Thanks, but all my horses are in good shape.” Then she hesitated. “Well, there is one that could
certainly use something.” Then she told me the story of the
13-year-old Warmblood mare, a dressage horse with anxiety issues, who had been in her care for about six months, having been referred from another farm that couldn’t handle her.

“I can’t seem to get this horse off square one,” she said. The mare’s issues included head tossing and constant pacing in her stall or small enclosure. If put in a pasture she would run and run until she either hurt herself or was totally exhausted. She was quite aggressive
with the other horses, would buck when being saddled, and was too much of a handful to be ridden regularly. Little did I know that this horse would become a dear friend and teacher. Her name was Dee, and I felt sure that Reiki could help her.

I began with a session for each of four consecutive days. Receptive
from day one, at first when I put my hands on her she would stand, but after a couple of minutes she would move forward a step or two, moving my hands further back along her body. Then a couple minutes later a few steps in the other direction. It seemed like she just couldn’t stand still. I wasn’t sure if it was her anxiety making her move or not, but I soon realized that she was also playing with the energy. She experimented with moving away from my hands and then back, seeing what the energy would and wouldn’t do. After her initial four sessions we went to twice a week. She accepted the energy, but showed no real progress. Then one day she very clearly communicated to me, “No one really cares about me.” I told Wendy what I had been blessed enough to receive, and thankfully she didn’t look at me as if I was crazy, but accepted the communication as genuine. “I’m not surprised,” she told me. “Here’s a horse who has never known what it is to be a real horse. She goes from her stall to a paddock for training and practice, back to her stall, gets trailered to shows, back to her stall. Someone controls her every minute she’s out of that stall, and if she stops winning ribbons she can be replaced in a heartbeat. I’m not surprised that she knows that.”

From then on we both began working to show Dee that there were people who really did care about her just for herself, and not for what she could do for them. When I did Reiki for her I would also take the time to groom her. I would bring her apples and carrots, and ask nothing in return except the joy of her company.

One day I arrived to do Reiki and she was standing with her back to
me. She turned, gave me a disgusted look, and I heard in my head, “Oh, you. You make me think too much!” Then she turned away and would have nothing to do with me that day. I honored her wishes, left an apple in her grain bin and went home. A few days later she was glad to see me again.

Gradually progress was made. Slowly, she began to calm a bit and show her gentler side. She stopped her aggressive behavior and actually made friends with the little blind mare in the next stall. I
introduced her to my six-year-old granddaughter who was a bit
intimidated by Dee’s size. Dee was fascinated with her, and they
quickly became friends. Every time Caiti would visit Dee would sniff
her all over and just gaze at her as if she couldn’t quite believe that
humans came in such small packages.

Fall was rapidly approaching, and for a week I was unable to do Reiki
in person for Dee, but continued to send distant Reiki. I drove by the
farm one day at the end of the week and did a double take. Either
there was a new horse at the farm, or my lovely Dee was in the pasture.

When I went for the next session, Wendy greeted me with an excited, “Did you see? She’s out in the pasture!” Indeed she was, and behaving like a real horse after only five weeks of Reiki. No frantic pacing or running. All her other “bad behaviors” had vanished as well. I cried with joy. As an added benefit, Dottie, the little blind mare was also in the pasture for the first time, because now she had a buddy to help her and show her the way, which Dee patiently did, rather than picking on Dottie or ignoring her like most of the other horses did.

Dee enjoyed a month of her new found freedom in the pasture, and rides through the woods and fields with Wendy before her owners reclaimed her and took her south for the show season. Wendy called me just before Dee was to be trailered home and I spent a final hour with her. We had truly connected during our brief time together and just before I left she rested her nose on top of my head and stood that way for a long time. “Oh, look,” Wendy said. “She’s kissing you.”

Word reached us later that her owners were thrilled that she was so
calm. Like a different horse they said. They were even able to
body-clip her without any struggle, or even cross-ties. She had a
fantastic show season and came back to Wendy’s the next summer for more R&R, and R(eiki)!

Today her picture hangs above my desk and she constantly inspires me to provide Reiki for other animals. She gave me a different
perspective on the life of a professional show horse and some of the
issues they might face. She has since passed into spirit, but
sometimes I feel a soft breath on the top of my head, and I know she’s with me still, and always will be.

About the Author:  Nancy Diamond lives in upstate New York. She began working with Reiki energy in 1993, and received her Reiki Master attunement in October 2003. She works with both humans and animals, and is a member of the International Association of Reiki Professionals. You can email her at ncdreiki@yahoo.com.

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