SARA Group Reiki July 17, 2010

SARA Group Reiki

Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 10:00am
Traveller's Rest Equine Elders Sanctuary
Spotsylvania, VA

TREES is a founding shelter member of the Shelter Animal Reiki Association. Practitioners participating in the SARA @ TREES program gather at the sanctuary once each month to offer healing to residents. Participating practitioners are also invited to work individually with sanctuary residents as their schedules allow.


For more info on the SARA program at Traveller's Rest, please contact Janet Dobbs at janet@animalparadisecommunication.com

Henry's Miracle

Much to our chagrin, a recent visitor mentioned that we never "talk" about Henry on the blog.  She's right.  Henry's arrival was not a dramatic one.  No starvation.  No neglect. No abandonment.  But Henry's story has developed into a noteable one.

Henry, a retired eventer, arrived at Traveller's Rest about four years ago when his owner encountered very serious family difficulties.  The big chestnut Thoroughbred cross actually came here on what was supposed to be a temporary stopover on his way to another sanctuary.  Watching his reaction to a big change in his life, however, led us to offer Henry permanent sanctuary here rather then subject him to another move in a short time. 

Henry - August 2005

We really didn't know what to think of Henry at first.  In most situations, he was a very kind, affectionate horse, but two aspects of his personality were troubling. The first was that he pinned his ears in a very threatening manner every time someone approached with food.  (Very odd, we thought.  Most horses celebrate the approach of food.) 

The second problem was Henry's behavior around other horses.  He was extremely aggressive, more so with mares than with geldings, and on two occasions drove horses into corners and attacked.  After several attempts, over two years, to find just the right companion, we resigned ourselves to the idea that Henry didn't possess even basic equine social skills that allow most horses to live in herds.  He was set up with his own paddock, with "fence buddies" on three sides, and a shed he could share with other horses, but with separate access doors and a partition between himself and the others.

Two years after his arrival, Henry was diagnosed with Cushings disease.  Was that part of the problem?  We've seen no published information on this, but have observed more than once that extreme irritability in a previously good-natured horse is one of the first signs of Cushings.  Before "the coat."  Before the weight gain.  Before most other observable symptoms. 

Henry before pergolide - March 2006

Henry was started on Pergolide, and seemed to respond in terms of physical symptoms, but he was still very irritated by other horses in close proximity.  At this point, we were very leery of putting another horse's safety at risk and decided Henry was going to be a loner for whatever years he had left.  He seemed content enough on his own, but not entirely happy.

Then, almost a year ago, Henry met a new friend.  A wonderful lady named Carole came into Henry's life.  Carole has attended Reiki workshops at TREES and was attracted to Henry from her first visit.  The two formed a friendship that even observers new to horses noticed. 

When TREES later became a founding shelter member of SARA (Shelter Animal Reiki Association,) Carole signed up as a volunteer and began visiting Henry every week.  The practice of Reiki in human hospitals has been shown to promote healing though relaxation and stress reduction techniques.  Those same techinques helped Henry heal whatever mental or emotional issues he dealt with for several years. 

There was no instant "fix."  No flash of light or fanfare. Carole has been working with Henry for several months.  Gently, steadily, consistently helping him relax and accept things previously deemed out of the question.

The result?

Henry, left, and Josh, right

No matter how you look at Reiki, the results for Henry have been life-changing.  We're forever grateful to Carole for sticking with Henry and giving him the ultimate gift.  He's no longer just content.  He's happy.


For more information on Reiki, see "What is (and isn't) Reiki?"  (Be sure to scroll down to the Fact/Myth chart.)

We Are Thankful......

(In no particular order, for TREES only functions if ALL the pieces, large, small, and in between, are in place……….)

We are thankful for all the support, moral, financial, physical and spiritual, that allows TREES to fill its niche in the world of horse welfare.

We are thankful for being able to work with a veterinary practice, Rappahannock Equine Veterinary Clinic, that not only understands the needs of geriatric equine, but also offers TREES’ residents the same level of customer service that is offered to show barns and top of the line breeders.

We are thankful for every single individual that offers TREES the gift of time, whether he or she comes to the farm weekly, monthly, or occasionally, or staffs special events, spends time researching funding or PR opportunities, works at home, hauls horses, picks up supplies, photographs residents, you name it. You ALL make it work.

We are thankful for Meredith Barlow, of Equidentistry, for her skill in finding whatever loose, fractured, infected, or oddly formed tooth might be causing an otherwise healthy resident to “go off his feed.”

We are thankful for students of all ages, who choose senior horse issues as the focus of field trips, community service or research projects.

We are thankful for animal control officers in surrounding counties who see the line “he’s skinny because he’s old” for the myth it is.

We are thankful for owners of elder horses who ask for advice rather than fall for that same myth.

We are thankful for Ernie Haynes' weekly farrier visits, and his patience with residents who may not be able to lift a leg as high as they did when younger, or who need a little break between feet.

We are thankful for continuing support from “non-traditional” care providers like Jill Deming of Integrated Animal Therapies, Janet Dobbs of Animal Paradise Communication & Healing, and the many volunteers of our Shelter Animal Reiki Association program.

We are thankful to Snow Hill Farm for delivering what seems like a mountain of Triple Crown Senior feed and forage cubes.

We are thankful for the Equine Rescue League (who will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year,) for inspiring the founding of TREES.

We are thankful for area businesses like Tractor Supply Company and Dover Saddlery, that support horse welfare efforts.

We are thankful for Scarlett Grove Stables for retraining a returnee and networking to find the prefect family for her.

We are thankful for all of TREES’ Facebook fans, and blog and web site visitors who help spread the word

We are thankful for Greg Flynn, at Desyne.com for hosting our current web site and for the new layout.

And we are thankful for all of the new friends we meet every year, whether human or equine, veteran horseman or beginner, young or mature. You inspire us with your ideas, motivation and support.

Thank you all. Happy Holidays.

Horses are only as dirty as you make them

Today, TREES was blessed to have a group of Shelter Animal Reiki Association volunteers working with several of the horses. We love having SARA volunteers here and can see changes in several of the residents as a result of the SARA program.

This morning, though, one volunteer asked a question that I responded to with a very clear “non-answer,” and for that, I would like to apologize. As we stood in Nathan’s shed talking, I scooted a manure pile against a nearby wall and threw on some uneaten hay that had been tromped into the mud. One volunteer asked why I did that, and I began to explain about Nate’s battle with foot infections and our efforts to keep his foot as clean as possible. Yes, the volunteer nodded, but how did I know he wouldn’t eat that hay? I replied “Oh, he won’t eat it.” That was not an answer and I apologize for so glibly glossing over a valid question.

Before I tackle an explanation, I must admit that I don’t “know” what any given horse may or may not do under any given circumstances. I can make some educated predictions, based on what I know about that horse and its past actions, but that doesn’t mean those predictions will pan out.

Hence I will try to explain why I assumed Nate would not eat the soiled hay.

I assumed Nate would leave the dirty hay right where it was because horses are, by nature, very clean animals if given a choice.

Will horses stand in a shed with a floor layer of solid manure? Yes they will, if that is the only shelter they have.

Do horses spend time loafing where they urinate? Not often unless they are confined to stalls with urine-soaked bedding.

Will a horse drink water so murky that the bottom of the tank cannot be seen? Yes they will, if that’s the only available water source.

Will a horse eat moldy or dirty hay? You bet, if that’s the only thing they are offered.

However….most horses, if given a choice, choose to be clean. Our residents, for the most part, choose certain areas of their fields, paddocks and shed in which they deposit the majority of their manure. They also select specific area for urination. Interestingly, manure areas are always farther from eating areas than are urination areas. Natural means of parasite control, perhaps? On the other hand, if the manure areas are not cleaned on a frequent basis, the horses begin to avoid those areas and drop manure over other sections of the field until few clean areas remain. A good number of our residents even go outside their loafing sheds to answer Nature’s call, and then go back in the shed to resume napping.

Horses will also, obviously, choose clean water over filthy water. Who wouldn’t? Have you ever smelled a stagnant hundred-gallon water tank that hasn’t been scrubbed for a week in the summer? It’s nauseating to many humans. Imagine what it smells like to a horse! We dump and clean our tanks every 2-3 days and, even under those circumstances, have some horses come running to get that first drink of clean water as it flows into the tank. So, are horses forced to drink dirty water really consuming the amounts they need? Maybe not.

The same principles seem to apply to hay and pasture. Horses will not normally graze where there is manure. They will graze those areas if they have no alternative, but given a choice will search out clean grass to eat. Nor will they eat dirty hay if clean hay is available. Do horses with only dirty hay available consume adequate amounts of roughage? Maybe not.

It goes against a horse’s nature to eat, drink, or live in filth if they have other choices. It is my personal theory that people who believe horses are dirty animals feel that way only because they have never observed horses living with the choice to be clean.

And so…..again with apologies for my non-answer of this morning….. having a choice is why I assumed Nate would not eat the soiled hay over the pile of manure before we could pick everything up. He, like the other horses here, has learned that there are always several piles of hay available at all times. He simply sought another, cleaner, area in which to eat.

More about Saturday's SARA Orientation

Inaugural orientation class for the Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA) program will be held at Traveller's Rest Equine Elders Sanctuary (TREES) in Spotsylvania, VA on Saturday, June 20th from 10am-noon. (Additional orientation sessions will be held as the program grows.)

From Janet Dobbs, founding SARA member:

I hope that you will be able to join us. The only requirement to become a TREES/SARA volunteer is you must be at least a Reiki level one practitioner and love animals. :-)

Traveller's Rest is a founding SARA shelter/rescue. I am very happy to be helping to get this program up and running, but we need you to make it happen. The more Animal Reiki volunteers we have the more successful the program will be and the animals will thrive.

To participate in the program you will need to attend a TREES/SARA orientation. Then you will be able to volunteer at Traveller's Rest, as a SARA participant, by offering Reiki sessions to the horses. Most of the residents of TREES have been participating in the Reiki level one and two courses for over one year and just love Reiki.

Let me tell you a little bit about SARA. Some of SARA's goals are:

- To teach and foster an understanding of energy healing
- Teach an ethical approach when working with Reiki and animals
- To document the effects of Animal Reiki on individual animals as well as shelters as a whole via the first ever database of its kind

- To serve as a world-wide information and referral resource for Reiki practitioners, shelters, sanctuaries as well as other facilities that assist animals in need that wish to incorporate an Animal Reiki program
- To educate the public, shelters, sanctuaries and other animal facilities on the benefits that Animal Reiki can provide for both animals in need and the humans that care for them.

To me one of the most important ideals of SARA is we teach people how to work with Reiki and animals in an ethical way and promote the highest standard of professional Shelter Reiki programs around the world.

Please let me know if you will be attending so I can send you directions and further details. If you know of someone that might be interested in this program or interested in offering Reiki to the residents at TREES please forward this email to them.

I look forward to seeing you soon.
All my best - Janet
SARA founding member
Animal Paradise - Communication & Healing, LLC
http://www.animalparadisecommunication.com/
janet@animalparadisecommunication.com

Thank You’s and other Tidbits

We have a lot of short updates and want to thank a lot of people today, so we’ll try to do it all in one post and hope we don’t leave anyone out.

We’d like to remind local Reiki practitioners that the first Shelter Animal Reiki Association orientation for the TREES program will be this weekend, Saturday, June 20, 10AM – noon. To participate, or for more information, please contact Janet Dobbs

The next Reiki workshop will be Reiki I, for both humans and animals, July 11-12. Saturday will be in McLean, VA, Sunday at Traveller’s Rest in Spotsylvania. For more information.

Our first resident update concerns Jubal. He’s back out with his “herd” (Fitz, Emma and Josh) and seems to be doing just fine. The wound on his fetlock is almost completely healed and almost all of the puffiness gone. Whew!

Lizzie is still gaining weight and doing well. She has settled in to the group including Sonny, Rienzi, Val, Marye and Wade. We’ve discovered she prefers to be called just Liz (not to be confused with “Just Jack” for Will and Grace fans.) Call “LIZ!” and she comes at a trot, but call “LIZZIE,” and she barely acknowledges your presence.

Josh is moving up in the pecking order in his field. Yesterday we noted that Fitz, who towers over Josh and outweighs him by several hundred pounds, was waiting in line behind Josh for a turn at the water tank. (The two boys and Emma all go for a drink immediately after eating a meal.)

Marye is still doing well and has not needed another Aeromask treatment yet this spring. Fingers crossed!

Now, the thank you’s!

First, thank you to Rennie, Gene, Carol, Michaele and Jim for coming to the sanctuary last weekend to help dry the place out after our freakish rainfall. It’s rained a few more times since, but nothing like the approximately 9 inches we got in about 24 hours that week.)

Thank you, too, to Gene and Carol for dropping off a new Wet Vac in case the weird wet weather continues.

Thank you to our neighbor, Patty, for arriving with a smorgasbord of seeds and grains about ten minutes after learning of Elmer’s arrival.

Thank you to COTH’s “Oldenburg Mom” for the gift of ~ 900 pounds of luscious smelling hay and to Samantha for coming along to help unload. Thank you, COTH’s “Nootka” for posting TREES’ contact information, making this donation possible.

Thank you, “Janet’s Dad” for a roll of quilt batting to use as leg wraps.

Thank you to Janet Dobbs’ students all, both Reiki and Animal Communication, who participate in workshops at TREES. It’s always fun to watch people’s faces as they come to understand that all things in nature are connected.

Thank you to everyone who sent prayers and support when Forrest arrived then departed in too short a time. Special thanks to Dr. Amanda Blanton who spent a good portion of her holiday weekend here. Thank you, again, to Gene and Carol for taking over the farm chores so we could focus on Forrest. Thank you Sam for transporting this determined old gentleman. Thank you, Janet, for being with Forrest as he crossed, and to Nelson, for bringing your backhoe out on Memorial Day, then returning a few days later with a donation. It seems Forrest touched a lot of hearts in the few days he was here.

We are continually (and gratefully) overwhelmed by the people who want to help offer retirement/hospice care to special needs elder equine. The horses, though, always feel there should be more visitors (more admirers.) If you’d like to visit and meet our special residents, please email us at info@equineelders.org or call 540-972-0936 (but remember that we’re somewhat telephonically challenged until Verizon comes June 24.)

Orientation: Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA)

June 20, 2009

Orientation for the Shelter Animal Reiki Association program at Traveller's Rest.

If interested in participating, or for more information, please contact Janet Dobbs at Animal Paradise Communication & Healing

TREES joins Shelter Animal Reiki Association

Traveller's Rest Equine Elders Sanctuary is proud to announce that the sanctuary has been welcomed into the Shelter Animal Reiki Association as a founding shelter member. We are very much looking forward to working with SARA to promote the use of Reiki in animal shelters and sanctuaries.

What is Reiki?
In Japanese, the word "Reiki" means "spritual energy." It is not a religion, but a practice involving meditation, focus, and exercises intended to balance energy needed to maintain good physical and mental health. Reiki is used in numerous hospitals to support human patients. The benefits observed can also apply to animals:

1) Stress-relief and relaxation;
2) Physical healing;
3) Mental/emotional
healing; and
4) Spiritual healing (Reiki also supports the dying
process).

Reiki is not offered as a replacement for veterinary or other forms of animal care, but as a compliment to that care, to help prepare shelter animals for adoption into new homes.

What is the Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA)?

SARA's goals are to:
1) teach and foster an understanding of energy healing;
2) teach the ethical approach to use when working with Reiki and animals;
3) provide a standardized approach to implementing professional Animal Reiki programs for shelters, sanctuaries and other facilities that assist animals in need;
4) document the effects of Animal Reiki on individual animals and the possible effects on shelter and rescue statistics as a whole;
5) serve as a world-wide information and referral resource for Reiki practitioners, shelters, sanctuaries and other facilities that assist animals in need that wish to incorporate an Animal Reiki program;
6) educate the public, shelters, sanctuaries,and other facilities that assist animals in need on the benefits Animal Reiki can provide to animals in need and their human
caretakers.

SARA hopes to build a database documenting Reiki's benefits in shelter animals, encouraging further use of animal Reiki worldwide. Reiki practitioners, working as SARA volunteers, will closely follow an Animal Reiki Practitioner Code of Ethics.

Code of Ethics
SARA members follow the Animal Reiki Practitioner Code of Ethics as developed by Kathleen Prasad, Founder of SARA and Animal Reiki Source :

Guiding Principles:
I believe the animals are equal partners in the healing process.
I honor the animals as being not only my clients, but also my teachers in the journey of healing.
I understand that all animals have physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects, to which Reiki can bring profound healing responses.
I believe that bringing Reiki to the human/animal relationship is transformational to the human view of the animal kingdom.
I dedicate myself to the virtues of humility, integrity, compassion and gratitude in my Reiki practice.

In working on myself, I follow these practices:
I incorporate the Five Reiki Precepts into my daily life and Reiki practice.
I commit myself to a daily practice of self-healing and spiritual development so that I can be a clear and strong channel for healing energy.
I nurture a belief in the sacred nature of all beings, and in the value and depth of animalkind as our partners on this planet.
I listen to the wisdom of my heart, remembering that we are all One.

In working in the community, I hold the following goals:
I model the values of partnership, compassion, humility, gentleness and gratitude in my life and with the animals, teaching by example.
I work to create professional alliances and cooperative relationships with other Reiki practitioners/teachers, animal health-care providers and animal welfare organizations in my community.
I strive to educate my community in its understanding of the benefits of Reiki for animals.
I continually educate myself to maintain and enhance my professional competence so that I uphold the integrity of the profession.
I consider myself an ally to the veterinary and animal health community. I work to support their efforts in achieving animal wellness and balance. I honor other disciplines and their practitioners.

In working with the human companions of the animals, I will
Share information before the treatment about my healing philosophy, the Reiki healing system and what to expect in a typical treatment, as well as possible outcomes, including the possibility of healing reactions.
Provide a clear policy ahead of time regarding fees, length of treatment and cancellation policy, as well as "postponement" policy, should the animal not want the treatment that day.
Never diagnose. I will always refer clients to a licensed veterinarian when appropriate.
Honor the privacy of the animals and their human companions.
Share intuition received during Reiki treatments, with compassion and humility, for the purpose of supporting their understanding of the healing process.
Respect the human companion's right to choose the animal's healing journey, selecting the methods, both holistic and/or conventional that he or she deems most appropriate, with the support and advice of a trusted veterinarian.

In working with the animals, I follow these guidelines:
I work in partnership with the animal.
I always ask permission of the animal before beginning, and respect his or her decision to accept or refuse any treatment. I listen intuitively and observe the animal's body language in determining the response.
I allow each animal to choose how to receive his or her treatment; thus each treatment could be a combination of hands-on, short distance and/or distant healing, depending on the animal's preference.
I let go of my expectations about how the treatment should progress and/or how the animal should behave during the treatment, and simply trust Reiki.
I accept the results of the treatment without judgment and with gratitude toward Reiki and the animal's openness and participation in the process

Traveller's Rest welcomes Janet Dobbs, a founding member of SARA, as our first SARA volunteer practitioner. We hope other Reiki pracitioners will join us as SARA and its programs grow. Please contact Janet if you are in our area and would like to learn more about participating in this new venture.