In  response to my last blog about counseling animals a reader sent in asking for advice in regard to a gnarly situation she just encountered. I will give my best advice via the blog and you can send in comments and ideas for her too. The overall issues here are that working with animals and helping them almost always involves interacting with people. Often there will be a need to get the people to change so the animals can be healthier and happier. Also emotionally, dealing with the problems of animals can be overwhelming. There are some very upsetting, very gnarly and horrid situations going on out there on an individual scale and on a bigger scale. I will do my best in this blog to give some ideas for dealing with all this. And please feel free to chime in. I find the readers of this blog to be most astute and enlightened and I get a lot out of the comments, thanks.
Here is her story:
I board my horse next door with the neighbor, who is a horse trainer. One of the horses there for training got her feet tangled up and cut her fetlock with a hoof. Just a small cut, but two days later, it was severely infected and the horse was unable to bear weight on that front foot. She was in agony. She needed to see a vet. I tried to suggest that, to no avail. I got wound care tips from my friend, an ER nurse of 30 years, and a horse owner. Suggested removing the horse from the herd as she almost got knocked over, and couldn’t walk to the water trough. All ignored. (I carried water and food to her.) The trainer wasn’t much concerned about giving her pain relief, either. Long story short, 5 days later, at my urging, she got the owner involved, who came out with a penicillin shot. She’s gotten several since then and is improving slowly, though the joint could be permanently damaged, and the horse is only 3.  How did she treat the injury? Tomato paste and turmeric poultice, wrapped it in bacon, and applied essential oils. She believes in natural healing only. Which is one thing if the horse were hers, but it isn’t. I was just sick, watching all of this, being unable to do much to help, though the horse was begging me for help. I feel like I failed her. I would really appreciate any advice for dealing with something like this in the future. Who knew that the hardest part of animal communication would be dealing with humans? Needless to say, my horse will be moving.Â
 My advice for this situation if she had called me day one and if she could have gotten some TeaPro (www.healing-tree.com)  would have been to spray the wound with that on the QT as much as possible. It is a miracle wound healer. There are probably some other great wound healers (like calendula oil) that might have worked. But what if she couldn’t get access what then? Going to animal control in some cases might help but usually they don’t do anything until an animal is almost dying. Organizing everyone in the stable to protest would probably get her kicked out and her horse hassled (at the very least) but might have been a possibility. (If I could clone myself I would write mystery novels about stables and the murderous dynamics that seem to be ubiquitous in those environments.) Here are some other ideas:
- Brainstorm Creative Solutions - Find some friends and brainstorm about creative crazy solutions. For example, maybe she could have gotten some allies and staged a camp-in the field -protecting and treating the horse until some action was taken. (Of course with an owner like that the horse may not have had a chance or would have encountered some other bad situation… and still may since the person still owns the horse and now the horse is now lame…)
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- Â Spirit Talk – In your imagination, Â talk to all the relevant players… the owner, the stable manager etc, and tell them what you can’t tell them in person. Go into great detail and explain exactly what you want and why. Listen to their arguments and respond. Sometimes this practice can create amazing shifts.
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- Manifesting – As I mentioned in the last blog, this is an option for helping an animal in trouble. You can manifest for them and explain to them how to manifest. I see manifesting as a way of manipulating energy to create the experiences (the energy) you want to have. In my classes I say, if you begin a conversation by thinking it will not go well and you won’t do well, guess what happens? Life is no different. What you think about you bring about and what you feel becomes real. So to shift a bad situation, think up, visualize, and most importantly feel what you want to have happen instead. Ask for the highest best outcome. Then imagine what you think that might be, realizing that things could go a different route. You are just looking for the best that can happen. Feeling seems to be the ultimate key to this. So in the case of this horse you could explain to the horse to see and feel someone coming to treat the wound and being taken to a safe stall and getting medicine and healing. The for yourself ask the question, how would it feel if those things happened, and feel the feelings as intensely as you can. That process opens the way for that reality to come in. This could still be done for the horse now, for her to get treatment and go sound and for the owner to shift or for her to get a nicer new owner…
Manifesting and the Real World
It isn’t enough just to manifest, one has to act as well. You will read below about the plight of the mustangs. I am giving a bit more detail as the situation is becoming desperate. I explain below ideas for manifesting for the mustangs. But we also have to get people involved, all our friends and all their friends and that takes on the ground action, calling, emailing etc. We could also brainstorm some creative ways to get attention for this cause. And think about who you know or who you know who knows someone famous who might join in for the cause. The more luminaries the better. So put these new found skills to work for a good cause: wild horses!
Wonder Woman Dog
This is here for comic relief because this blog is hard and sad….a reflection of life right now. But this dog is adorable. I have never seen a dog happier to be dressed up!
The Mustangs Need You Now!
March 25 Protest in WashingtonDC – see info below, get your friends and their friends to go…
The situation with wild horses is critical, time sensitive, and worse than imagined. The 2,000 horses rounded up from the Calico herd are in hideous shape: 40 spontaneous abortions and 75 deaths so far. But beyond their terrible plight the big picture is the US government wants to wipe out the wild horses. They want to roundup the remaining 35,000 of them and ship them to the East and Midwest to zoos specially made to hold wild horses using $43 million in public money. It appears that the reason for the Calico and some other fast track scheduled roundups is to make way for a planned gas pipeline through the public land in Oregon, Washington and Nevada wild horse range:Â
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/258-ruby1
We who love animals, horses and the west we must do something now or we will lose these herds. More roundups are planned. We have to get involved and stay involved and get every horse lover in the world working on this to stop it. If you care you have to get involved now, it is that serious.
The claim is that wild horses can’t find enough forage and need to be sent to managed zoos. That is just a ploy to get the land cleared for the pipeline and turn our public land over exclusively to cattle grazing. Note: Sierra Club is supporting this but it will not result in any wilderness protection as the BLM intends to run cattle on our public lands, they just don’t want any horses there. Read http://humaneobserver.blogspot.com/ for evidence that our wild horses are in excellent shape, until they get to the BLM holding pens. Aside from the “handling†deaths, they are dying because they can’t tolerate the food. See the before and after pictures and weep.
What you can do:
Go to the demo on MARCH 25th in Washington DC or find someone in the area you know and get them to go for you. We need lots of people and lots of press – http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/
Get updates and Action alerts from the Cloud Foundation and stay involved and tell your friends – http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/
Join the Cloud Foundation on Facebook
Get observations from the field of the ongoing calico roundup tragedy – http://humaneobserver.blogspot.com/
Learn about the SalaZoo plan – http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/301-public-opposes-salazars-request-for-millions-to-move-mustangs-east-3110
Write, email, and call your senators (202 456 1111) and Obama (202 224 3121) – Protest the removal of mustangs, say absolutely no to Salazars Mustang Zoos. We want a moratorium on all roundups and we want them to uphold the provisions of the laws in place to protect and preserve our wild horses in the wild.
Call every week and get your friends to call.
Write letters to the editor giving people action items and websites for info.
Get this out to the media, press and TV.
Don’t stop and don’t give up.
MANIFEST FOR THE MUSTANGS – Start imagining a good outcome by focusing on the “feel†– Imagine what it would feel like if we can horse people all over the world acting on this. Imagine what it would feel like to have the holding center in Nevada surrounded by protesters. Imagine what it would feel like to have 500,000 people in DC protesting on March 25. Go with the feel of winning this victory and getting the wild horses back, safe and free.…. What you feel becomes real.
Background:
Here is a good blog for background on what the BLM has been doing with our money and our horses and the outright lies they have been telling: http://americanherds.blogspot.com/
The Wild Horses and Burro Act of 1971 specifies the protection and preservation of America’s wild herds. Since its passage the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has removed over 270,000 horses from the western range and taken away 20 million acres from horses for cattle. Only 37,000 wild horses remain on public lands but millions of cattle graze our PUBLIC lands. On July 17, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed H.R. 1018, The Restore Our American Mustangs Act which was meant to further protect our wild horses. Obama and Salazar are not acting in accordance with these laws.
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That was a gnarly one but I think it is best to lead by example in situations like this. If I saw that the horse had injured herself I would catch her, hose the leg and bathe with salty water, spray on some iodine or something similar, and put her back in the paddock. If you do it as a matter of course – which it should be! – the trainer would be unlikely to object and might even be shamed into doing something him/herself. You could check on the horse the next day and repeat the treatment. If the trainer said something, or became annoyed, of course you would have to stop.
But it’s amazing how, if you do the right think cheerfully, other people just fall into line!
Anne
Re: gnarly situation-
Wow, sounds like my life! As Vet Tech at an equine referral hospital, I see this all too often. It’s heartbreaking. Of course, the doctors I work with don’t think in terms of energy, communication, natural healing, etc. so I’m the “alien” in the world of science and allopatic medicine. Like the vistors on “V”, I just try to fit in, follow the doctors’ orders, and then compliment the science as best I can with communication, Reiki, and light massage – things I offer directly to my patients. Many of the doctors I work with don’t even believe in massage. I have to be careful and be sure to ask the horse permission in everything I offer them. It’s amazing how many of them letterally beg me to talk with them, help them, and be an advocate for them!
Some of the very saddest cases are those horses who are suffering and ready to transition, but their people can’t let go. In one such case, a grossly pregnant mare had a ruptured pre pubic artery. She was bleeding out, in shock, and moaning the most painful mournful sound I’ve ever heard. Her “owner” REFUSED to euthanize her and insisted we continue to sedate her for hours on end…and offer her carrots! I was SO enraged !!!! The owner refused to come to the hospital to see her horse suffering. It was too painful for HER! So there I was watching this horse dying a slow and excruciatingly painful death and feeling COMPLETELY helpless. The doctors hands were tied since the owner explicitly refused to give permission to euthanize. It was one of the most horrific and inhumane acts I’ve personally experienced.
SO- having said all that, it’s a VERY sad fact that horses (animals) are considered property from a legal stand point. And unfortunatly, just like children, you don’t have to have any license, training, humanity, or even common sense to “own” them. Sending energy, intention, talking with them in a comforting and supportive conversation, and “feeling” (not just visualizing) the release of their pain and situation are the only things that I know of to offer. These offerings are between you and the horse (or whatever animal you are working with), and as far as I’m concerned they are not the business of cruel and incompetant “owners”, or anyone else. This is what I offered the mare mentioned earlier. It didn’t end her suffering, and it’s not likely to heal a wound without supportive care, but it’s all I know to offer.
Obviously, in my situation, staging a protest of some sort is not really appropriate, or an option. I’m a bit of a rebel, but I havn’t found public protests to be that effective in cases such as this. I’ll be VERY interested to see others respond to this topic.
In this gnarly situation obviously the person anxious to help needed to use EXTREME tact! If she knew the stable owner was into Natural remediesshe could have taken a really good natural healing remedy round, someone suggested calendular, excellent, told the trainer that she had noticed the horse and had this very good NATURAL remedy which they were offering in case the owner had none, even offer to put it on. Obviously (for the horse’s sake) this needed a total abence of any censure for the trainer, whatever was felt. Yes – alas – a lot of psychology has to be employed (on humans) so often to help animals!
Thanks for the comments. Wow, Felicia, what a dreadful situation for that horse, and for you. I understand some of what you might have felt, having gone through this. I’m glad you were there for her.
Ann Walker: you nailed it, extreme tact was called for, and that’s where I made my biggest mistake out of several. I started out that way, but as I grew more frustrated, and the horse was more miserable daily, I lost that. I am friendly with the person so it got more heated than it might have with a stranger.
My two biggest issues with this:
1) She was boarding the horse while there for training. She put herself and the horse at risk by treating the horse with her own methods without the owner’s knowledge. The owner should have had the right to choose the treatment course. That she didn’t know that upset me, as she takes care of my horse, too. Would she know what to do if there was an emergency?
2) There is no reason to leave a horse in pain. There are natural pain relievers, if one doesn’t want to use bute or aspirin. Her methods allowed the infection to worsen, so in essence she opened the door for more pain, and then didn’t treat it. This is a bit like Felicia’s owner allowing the horse to suffer but then being unwilling to come see her and take responsibility for the choice she’d made.
A friend helped me understand that my upset was contributing to the horse’s suffering. When I realized this, I went over and apologized to her and asked her to forgive me. She blew into my nostrils, something she’d never done, a horsey greeting and a clear and gracious reply. It was beautiful…I cried all the way home.
I’ve loved animals all of my life and seeing one suffer like this while basically having my hands tied was really hard. I did give her Reiki, and she knew I was trying to help her, so at least she wasn’t totally alone through this. It was my lobbying that finally got the antibiotics she needed, and that’s when she turned the corner. So, a mixed bag: some success, along with some hard lessons learned for next time.
Difficult situation, I also found out that sometimes people expect a miracle from me, and they don’t want to change a thing.
If I had been in the situation I would have urged to this man to warn the owner at instant. And when I had known she was the natural healing kind I would have tried to find some natural treatments. Google the net, ask friends in what they know about the natural healing. And than ask ‘the situation’ what the best treatment would be.
I would have started talking with the horse and asking what the horse wanted me to do.
There is a lot possible, bach, (chinese) herbs etc, something like a teatree product for the cleaning, I donot know if you can use that on a horse etc
Further more I would have send Reiki to both the animal and to the situation, in order to try to get more cooperation and understanding of the others.
But I know that talking about this afterwards is a lot easier than being right in the situation.
Hi Everyone
Great comments so far. Just to jump in … ofcourse the best is to take the high road, talk, be friendly, cheerfully just do what needs doing etc… if that works great. If not on to other options. FYI the TeaPro is designed for horses and is safe to put on any kind of wound, open etc, and is all natural… And it totally works….like magic. So get some and try it. BTW Im not getting anything for promoting it. LOL. Re protesting… this can be a very effectve tactic it just takes more courage and that is why a lot of people shy away from it. Its scary to stand up make noise, go to the authorities or go up against them etc. And it puts you in a more vulnerable position. But it can work! I am thinking of a young girl who went and took a horse away from an abusive trainer and then called the owner to tell what she had done. She didnt think ….she was so mad and worried about the horse she just took it and hand walked it off the property. Took guts and it worked. Do realize that there are trainers who kill horses, flip them and outright kill them. Not uncommon. Sometimes you just have to do what is best for the animal. But yes some of these actions could get you arrested so you need to be mindful of that and make that decision consciously not by default.