CASE HISTORIES

Question:
I find it difficult to accept that healing can help horses or ponies with behaviour problems. Can you explain how it works?

Answer:
Healing works on three energy levels within the body, mental, emotional and physical and unless a horse is balanced mentally and emotionally then it will not be at its best.

There is no such thing as a horse with behaviour problems - just horses behaving in such a way that they are trying to tell us something. So the first thing to consider when a horse 'plays' up is whether we are doing the right things to enable it to enjoy life. Horses need time outside to relax, every day for at least several hours. They need to be with other horses. We need to check the diet with a nutritionist as many personality changes are food intolerance's. Horses can also get dehydrated which affects behaviour as the body fills with toxins, so access to unlimited fresh water is essential. saddles and teeth need checking every six months and after every fall or accident we should ask a physiotherapist, osteopath or chiropractor to examine the horse.

That said, horses are very emotional creatures and hold onto feelings of anger, grief and shock and I have had a great deal of success treating horses with healing to help them recover from these emotional hang ups.

A lady rang me to see her young pony who had just come back from a week with a trainer. She went away sociable and easy to deal with and came back extremely nervous, head shy and obviously traumatised. She stood in the back of the stable and shook when anyone came in. She also came back lame and with a sore back. As soon as I laid my hands on her I could sense images coming from her of beatings and side reins, shock and terror. A couple of minutes into the healing she started to hyperventilate. The owner was very worried but I knew what was coming. Sadly I have experienced it before - the pony let out a scream, not like anything you normally hear, but a wailing cry like a human would make in a torture chamber. This little shocked soul screamed not once but four times. Then she gave a great sigh and blew gently through her nostrils. Her head dropped and she swayed and then we knew she was at peace. The owner cried, she said the feelings of tears seemed to come from her pony, and of course they were the pony's tears that she had not been able to release. The next day she was a different pony, happy, chatty, loving again. Her behaviour was back to normal.

Margrit Coates