Animal Reiki Relaxation & Rebalance

02/27/2026

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02/10/2026

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01/27/2026

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Knowing the whole horse is not simple. It is not a small body of knowledge you can tick off and be done with. It is an entire living system, layered and complex, shaped by biology, evolution, nervous system, learning theory, environment, relationships, history, trauma, soundness, pain, nutrition, social needs, movement, and so much more.

There is physiology and biomechanics.
There is behaviour and ethology.
There is the nervous system and emotional regulation.
There is training theory and learning science.
There is welfare, husbandry, nutrition, feet, teeth, saddle fit, social dynamics, pasture management, and the invisible emotional worlds horses carry.

And then there is the individual.
The personality.
The past experiences.
The sensitivities that no textbook can fully map.

No wonder people feel overwhelmed. No wonder they scroll through social media, read one post about ulcers, another about bit pressure, a third about polyvagal theory, and feel like they are failing their horse because they cannot hold it all at once.

Something we don't talk about enough is that people who seem to know everything do not. They know their corner deeply. The vet knows medicine but may not understand training theory. The biomechanics specialist may not focus on emotional regulation. The trauma informed trainer may refer out for bodywork. Even those who have dedicated their entire lives to horses are still learning, still being humbled, still discovering new layers.

This is not a weakness friends, this is the reality of working with a sentient, complex being whose body, mind, emotions, and nervous system are inseparable.

To truly understand horses takes years. Not weeks. Not a course. Not a certification. Years of daily observation, listening, making mistakes, unlearning what you thought you knew, refining, watching how bodies respond, how nervous systems shift, how behaviour changes under different conditions. And even then, every new horse will teach you something you did not realise you were missing.

You are not meant to master every domain at once. It is okay, more than okay, to be strong in one area and still learning in others. It is okay to be a generalist, and it is okay to be a specialist. It is okay to say, I do not know yet, and mean it without shame.

What matters is not knowing everything. What matters is staying curious, humble, and willing to keep learning.

A few ways to grow without the overwhelm:

• Choose one layer at a time. You do not need to study everything simultaneously. Perhaps this year you focus on the nervous system. Next year on hoof health. Then on social dynamics. Learning becomes richer and more integrated when it unfolds gradually, not when it is forced.

• Let the horse in front of you be your greatest teacher. Watch more than you analyse. Notice patterns without rushing to label them. Regulation, stress, ease, and curiosity all show themselves in the body long before they become behaviour.

• Learn from multiple perspectives, but do not drown in them. No single framework holds the whole truth. Biology informs behaviour. Behaviour reflects emotional state. Training affects the body. Welfare ties it all together. You do not need to know every method. You need to understand how the pieces connect for the individual horse in front of you.

• Build a network, not a pedestal. Surround yourself with people who know what you do not. Vets, bodyworkers, farriers, trainers, behaviourists, and other horse people with different strengths. You are not meant to carry the whole horse alone.

• Release the pressure to be an expert. True expertise is not certainty or having all the answers. It is depth, nuance, humility, and respect for complexity. It is knowing what you do not know and being willing to keep learning.

• Trust that what you are doing now matters. Every kind interaction, every moment of listening, every effort to reduce stress, every improvement in comfort, every question you ask, every time you seek help, all of it is already part of caring for the whole horse.

You do not need to know everything to be a good guardian, trainer, or companion to a horse. You only need to stay open, keep learning, and meet each horse with presence, humility, and care.

The whole horse is not a destination my friends!

It is a lifelong relationship with understanding, one that deepens not because you finally know it all, but because you keep showing up, curious and willing, day after day.

12/07/2025

I want to take a moment to thank The Whole Horse Journey for this invaluable piece they’ve written and shared with us. 🙏
It hit my heart hard—yet with so much love and compassion.
My heart horse, Benny, who has been running free for some years now, also lost his mother at birth. Reading this piece felt as though it was written about him. Every bit of it. I imagine many others may feel the same connection.
Benny taught me so much about communication, about trauma, and about the scars and challenges he carried throughout his life on earth.
We all know how sh*tty it feels to have our emotions dismissed or ignored. I can’t imagine any parent finding it easy to watch their children go through that—especially over and over again. And the damage it can create in a human child…
Honestly, it’s no different for horses or any other animals.
I am beyond grateful that more people are bringing attention to this. 🙏
Understanding how animals communicate is crucial. Listening is everything. Having a conversation with them is life-changing.
I am eternally grateful for Benny and for all the animals in my life whom I love so deeply.
Our animals are our greatest teachers.

Today I want to share a case that teaches us so much about what happens when early development, attachment loss, and a dysregulated nervous system collide inside a horse’s body.
Not to diagnose him. Not to “fix” him. But to help people see behaviour through a lens that honours physiology, emotion, history, and unmet needs.

Meet Khalid (not his real name but he is a real case study of ours), a young Arab gelding who lost his mother at birth and was hand-reared by humans. Beautiful. Sensitive. Intelligent. And struggling.

Presenting Behaviours:

Chasing other horses
Biting at them with intensity
High arousal at the smallest trigger
And when overwhelmed…
he bites himself
For many people, this looks like dominance, aggression, or “bad manners.” But when you look deeper, a completely different picture emerges.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN HIS BODY?

1. A Nervous System That Never Learned How to Come Down

Foals regulate through their mothers.
They match her breath, her rhythms, her calm, her pauses.
When that is lost at birth, a foal grows up without:
Somatic co-regulation
Emotional buffering
A template for safety
A model for social behaviour
So Khalid’s body doesn’t know how to downshift once it goes up.
There is activation, activation, activation… then overflow.

2. Sympathetic Overload Disguised as ‘Aggression’

Chasing and biting are often misunderstood. In Khalid’s case, this isn’t dominance. This is a sympathetic system with no internal brakes. Fight energy isn’t a choice for him - it’s where his body goes when it cannot find a path back to baseline.

3. Self-Biting as an Overflow Valve

This is the part that tells the real story. When his internal arousal gets too big, too fast, and too intense, his system overrides itself in a desperate attempt to interrupt the surge.
Self-biting can look like:
A shock response
A self-stimulatory behaviour
A grounding attempt
A trauma echo from early disruption
It’s not a behavioural issue.
It’s an emotional emergency.

DEVELOPMENTAL PIECES AT PLAY
4. Social Literacy That Never Formed

Horses learn 90% of their social behaviour from other horses -
especially mares and low-conflict, well-regulated herd members.
Hand-reared youngsters often:
Misread social cues
Escalate too fast
Apply too much pressure
Struggle with boundaries
Don’t understand how to pause, soften, or end an interaction safely
Khalid isn’t trying to be bossy. He simply missed the education that only horses can give.

5. Attachment Wounds Held in the Body

Early loss leaves a somatic imprint.
For horses raised without mothers, we often see:
Hypervigilance
Difficulty settling
Sensitivity to transitions
Fragmented self-regulation
A constant searching for “something” they don’t know how to name. His body remembers a world that felt unsafe before he even took his first steps.

THE DEEPER LESSON: BEHAVIOUR IS ALWAYS COMMUNICATION
When a horse bites himself, it is not misbehaviour. It is not “nasty.” It is not disrespect. It is the body expressing a level of distress it cannot manage any other way. Khalid shows us that behaviour is never just behaviour.

It is:
physiology
history
attachment
environment
unmet needs

and a nervous system trying its best with the map it was given
These patterns don’t appear out of nowhere. They come from somewhere. And when we can trace the thread back to its source, we stop judging the horse and start understanding him.

WHERE THIS STORY GOES FROM HERE
For horses like Khalid, the path forward is never about “getting after him” or shutting down the behaviour.
That only increases the overwhelm.

Instead, it’s about:
Reading his thresholds
Understanding the spikes before they erupt
Supporting the body he lives in
Rebuilding the regulation he never received
Re-teaching social safety slowly and carefully
Helping him find a sense of ground inside himself
That process is deep, sensitive, slow, and entirely individual to the horse.
And it requires attunement more than technique.

Khalid is not a problem horse.
Khalid is a horse whose early life was shaped by loss, absence, and survival - and his behaviour makes perfect sense once you see it through that lens. If you have a horse who reminds you of Khalid,
or if your horse’s behaviour feels confusing, contradictory, or “bigger” than expected, there is always a story underneath it.

There is always a reason.
There is always a nervous system trying to be heard.
You don’t have to navigate that alone.
Sometimes all that’s needed is someone who can translate what the horse has been carrying in silence.

08/28/2025

My Nephew and Niece sharing a calm and compassionate space with my love and greatest teacher🙏💕🦄

I loved watching all three of them connect so deeply. It was incredibly inspiring.

02/08/2024

01/30/2024

💕My Journey with Energy Work💕

There are many things in our lives that negatively affect us. Stress, anxiety, and trauma are just a few. Any of these can disrupt the flow of our “Life- force energy,” When this happens, our bodies begin to fall out of balance leading to a greater chance of illness and disease and of course, pain.

When I was seventeen I began developing certain ailments. While multiple surgeries improved a few, the remaining ones couldn’t be helped by western medicine, including my seven year journey with Fibromyalgia.

I began receiving acupuncture treatments, a Chinese form of energy healing.
Most of my ailments were so deep rooted, and while none of my other family members experienced them, we came to the realization they had developed due to past traumas.

It’s the same for animals. However, animals don’t have the ability to seek out their own treatment like we can. Instead, they come to us when they need help. It’s important that we listen and understand what and how they are trying to tell us. Behavioral changes, refusal to eat or drink, body tension are signs something is negatively affecting them.

All animals deserve to live a happy life. I empathize with them, especially when they are not at their best. I am beyond grateful to be able to share reiki with so many different kinds of animals and to make a difference in their lives.

In this video, Gem and I are sharing reiki. You might notice her head begin to lower as she becomes more and more relaxed. There’s also the movement of her ears and behind her eyelids and the quivering of her lips. This is the processing stage when the energy begins flowing to where it’s needed most. When Gem licks her lips and yawns that is when the release occurs bringing balance to her body.

💕This page was created on Dec 4th, the three year anniversary of my horse, Benny’s passing. Today, I am celebrating his 17th birthday and sharing this special journey with you. While I wish I could have shared reiki with him, I know he is by my side on this journey with me.

I hope you’d like to learn more about this work and how it could help your animals. Follow for more ❤️

To Benny, my greatest teacher.💕🦄💕

01/02/2024

I’m honored to share this recent blog post by, Kathleen Prasad, the founder of Animal Reiki Source and the Let Animals Lead® method.

“As our animals face their final chapter in this physical life, our role as Animal Reiki practitioners has never been more precious or important and we can help them transition by offering Animal Reiki as end-of-life support. The Animal Reiki space that we can hold for them, using our Let Animals Lead® method pillars of practice, can create a peaceful, harmonious gateway for our beloved animals to walk through as they transition to the next realm.”

As our animals face their final chapter in this physical life, our role as Animal Reiki practitioners has never been more precious or important and we can help them transition by offering Animal Reiki as end-of-life support. The Animal Reiki space that we can hold for them, using our Let Animals Lea...

01/01/2024

Hands-off reiki is just as effective as hands on. This sweet girl chose hands off to start. I was just happy she wanted to reiki with me.

01/01/2024

💕I always knew my kids would have fur💕

01/01/2024

💕The “Heart to Heart,” connection 💕
With a very special boy.

The connection we shared during this reiki session moved me so deeply.