A Day at the Horse Rescue Shelter

Julie and I went to a rescue shelter for horses to do some animal reiki yesterday.  Julie is passionate about horses, and regularly volunteers there.  I wanted to learn more about animal reiki, so I went along with her.  We picked the best day to go out!! Rain + wind.  I made sure that I had lots of warm clothes on, and put on a layer of full waterproof gear.  That way, I wouldn’t be distracted by the weather during the reiki sessions.  Julie took me to a blind horse and a female abused horse.  She said, “Ground yourself first, then stand there and offer reiki.”  Which I did.  I closed my eyes, and imagined myself and my energy expanding, and in that space I invited anything and anyone that wanted to share reiki with me to come in.  I felt a presence in that space – I think it was the blind horse.  I opened my eyes to have a look, and there it was, walking backwards closer and closer towards us.  He then stopped, and stayed still as though he was in meditation.  I close my eyes again, because I was becoming distracted with trying to work out what was happening.  We stayed like that for 30mins.  Then the horse walked away to eat.

We then went over to a herd of horses, which Julie said were frightened of people because they were abused and neglected.  We went over to them, and as we were about to be 5-8 meters from them, they ran off!  We then just stood a fair distance away from them, offering reiki.  Then the most interesting experience happened!  In my space with my eyes closed, one of the horses reached out for me and came into my mind.  I could feel his presence right there in front of me.  It was as though he wanted to know who I was and what I was here for.  I stayed true to my intention – to offer reiki to those who want it, and to show love.  I remained opened, letting the horse “read” me, and then I sensed that he was going to come over.  Guess what?  He did.  He came right up in front of me and Julie, and then he sniffed Julie’s hands, mine, sniffed her head, and then mine.  To be VERY honest, I’m soooo scared of horses!  My last experience with horses was not good, and I’m still scared of a large animal that could out run me, stamp on me, and kick me!  Julie said, “Don’t be scared, but be careful that he doesn’t take a bite off your fingers.”  Arrhhh!  They also bite?!?  I kept my eyes partially opened, but remained in the meditation state where everything felt safe and the horse was just checking me out.  He had the whole pack of horses behind him, all checking us out.  Then he stated his intention – thanks, I’m going to get past you now, and off he went between me and Julie, taking the rest of the herd with him.

We then moved onto another paddock, where there were two old female horses.  At this stage, my lower back was very sore, and so I sat down and went into my open space.  The horses in the mean time ran away to the other side of the paddock.  We stayed there, and we could feel energy being drawn from us.  Could it be these two horses, or the horses in the surrounding paddocks?  Then I felt a strong presence behind me, a strong male dominant presence, saying “I’m here. You seem interesting.”  He was a very confident presence, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a tall male horse, beautiful looking, standing behind me from the adjoining paddock.  I closed my eyes again, and stayed in meditation, in the open space, inviting all to come in.  Then I felt a soft spoken horse, quietly taking it in.  Here I was sitting down, with a strong male horse drawing reiki from my back, and a soft spoken horse sipping reiki from my space.  I felt like I was sitting in front of a fireplace sipping a glass of wine.  I felt so warm despite being in the wind.  Julie said, “Look, she’s coming over.”  This little white horse started walking over, backwards, one step at a time, while remaining very still.  We stayed that way for another 20 minutes or so, and I felt them saying thanks in the meditation space, and they withdrew their presence.  I opened my eyes, and saw them turn their heads to look at me, then they slowly walked off.

Although we had some amazing animal reiki experience that day, I must say that that only accounted for half of the horses.  There were horses on that day that made no connection with us at all.  Some were curious, but didn’t want a reiki treatment.  Some were happy to stand near us, but didn’t want reiki.  What was the most important thing for us that day was respect – respect for the horses’ choice and respect for their space.  There were times when we stood there offering reiki for 5-10 minutes, and the horses didn’t seem to respond.  Some eventually did later, but some stayed away.  And I must say, I didn’t do any hands on healing on the animals at all!  Not only was I too scared of horses to go near them, the horses were also too scared of humans for us to go near them.  So, I have now come to understand that animal reiki isn’t about actively healing animals that had a bad past.  It’s not about me healing the animals.  It’s about me creating an open space for the animals to decide what they wanted to do with it.  Reiki isn’t like traditional medicine where I am here to force the animal to take some pills and an injection.  It’s about creating an open space of energy, with no other motive in mind other than being an open and safe space for the animals to come in to heal themselves.  And therefore, the experience has confirmed that I must continuously work on myself and practice and go deeper into the space.  The more open I am, the more open my space will be, and the longer I am able to maintain that space.  The more practiced I am, the better I can help the animals.

Grace Tam