Healing Touch for Animals Workshop

On April 1, 2007, Strides hosted at Healing Touch for Animals workshop at our ranch, focusing on using Healing Touch for horses. Eleven students attended the Level 1 workshop, where they practiced techniques they has learned the previous 2 days. As best I can understand it (not having taken the course), the technique is a transfer of energy to the horse from the practicioner along areas long identified by Chinese and other Asian cultures points which can become blocked and interfere with healing. The idea is to unblock these areas so that healing can occur.

We chose Sable, Chiquita, Bubba, Cuervo, Mimi, Teller, and Zane to receive treatment during the workshop. All these horses have some lameness or stiffness except for Mimi, who was chosen because we hoped it would relax her. The students used a variety of techniques, which you can see in the photos above. As an uninitiated observer, what I saw was that the students unfailingly identified where the problems areas were, and that our horses were extemely relaxed by the end of the session, almost to the point of falling asleep. For example, Sable does not like to stand still and is very "mouthy". She was totally quiet and relaxed and stood for over an hour quietly once the treatment began. She rested her head on the shoulder of her horse leader and all but fell asleep.

It was difficult to tell if the session did much more than relax the horses, as it was only one treatment and most of the students were novices. Sable, however, showed considerably more strength and stability in his hind end the following days. I believe this was as a result of a combination of the Healing Touch treatment and the treatments he as been receiving from a former volunteer, Sha'Ron Kleinbeck, who has been doing light therapy on him, which also focuses on moving energy.

One of the students in the class has offered to come back and do additional Healing Touch therapy for our horses, and we look forward to seeing the results.

A visit from our English rider, Pat Blackledge

Once a year we are fortunate to have a visit from a disabled rider from England. She comes for one lesson only, and it always makes our day. This year, we challenged her more than usual, and she wrote the following e-mail to us after her lesson:

Hi Nora,

I just wanted to thank you and all the volunteers for what I think was probably my best ever lesson yesterday. I felt I had so much confidence in the whole team that I could tackle anything you asked.

It would really be unfair to compare that with a typical lesson back home because there I'm in a class of about five riders and we don't have enough volunteers to give each rider such individual help and attention. Even if I could afford a private lesson every week, our structure is such (We hire the use of the arena and horses at certain times) that the volunteers wouldn't be available. Plus, I'd guess Chiquita is special even by Strides standards. Crispin, who I usually ride, is used by our good dressage riders in competitons but even he can sometimes be hard to get into a good, active walk. Chiquita seems to do it naturally. And when I tell them I only had to say 'Trot' and she did it immediately - I'll be the envy of the group. Maybe I should just move to California and ride regularly with you!

I've had no physical repercussions from trotting. The reins, while being great for my left hand, probably weren't good for my right and I've had a very sore wrist since last evening. I could tell it was doing some damage during the ride but was enjoying myself so much I ddn't want to change anything. I still wouldn't. It was well worth it.

Thanks too for letting me ride despite our getting hopelessly lost and arriving late. I'd actually given up all hope of a lesson and only really turned up to explain and apologise.

You've made me realise that I'm capable of quite a lot more than I'm currently achieving. I'll see what I can do about that and hope to report back to you next year! Best wishes to all the team,

Pat