The day started out as any other with me grooming my paint horse Kodiak. I grabbed his right hind hoof to clean it out and suddenly noticed a really big pointed rock stuck between his shoe and his hoof. “Uh oh,” I thought to myself. This didn’t look good.
Sure enough, by the next day Kodiak was head-bobbing lame. Really, really sore. My trainer palpated his hoof with her hoof tester, and sure enough, he was extremely painful in the area where the rock had been stuck as well as the whole bulb and back part of his hoof. He officially had a stone bruise. Having worked with many horses over the years I knew what that meant—weeks or perhaps months of soreness—in other words, a long road to healing.
As I soaked his hoof in warm water and epsom salts I stood several feet away and offered him Reiki. After a few minutes he relaxed his hind leg, turned to look at me, and cocked his foot so that I could see the bottom of the hoof where he was so sore. Clearly he was asking for hands-on Reiki directly on the sole of his foot. So I pulled up a stool and sat down, with the fingertips of my left hand on the bottom of his hoof and my other hand resting on his fetlock.
Over the space of about ten minutes, I could slowly feel the Reiki energy and the connection between us deepen. I could feel his pain radiating up my fingers and forearm and into my elbow. Then all the sudden, my hand felt as if it “became” part of his hoof, “merging” so to speak with it so that there seemed to be no separation between us. Over the course of another ten minutes or so I could feel our connection to each other’s whole being, not just my hand and his foot. Suddenly, I felt it heal. I can’t describe it other to say that I just knew it happened at that instant.
I stood up, said, “Good job Kodi,” and as I led him back to his pasture I hoped for the best. I knew that these kinds of injuries are long to heal, and although I had thought I felt the healing happen, I wondered if perhaps it was wishful thinking on my part.
The next morning my trainer came out first thing in the morning to check on Kodiak. Amazingly, he was not lame at all! She even used her hoof tester to check for any remnant of soreness, but there was no sensitivity, no pain at all. In fact, he was clearly ready to go and do something fun, so she rode him. He was 110% perfect, spirited and sound! As my trainer was relating this to me, she was in total amazement. She said she has NEVER seen a stone bruise heal that quickly: never!
Thank you Reiki! For me, this is a lesson in hope, in letting go of our expectations and in allowing our animals to show us the way. With Reiki, truly anything is possible!
Leave a Reply