In Caroline’s own words:

I woke up on a very cold day to howling winds and rain falling hard against my window. I was going to Remus and I needed to bundle up: when doing Reiki healing outdoors, you can quickly become too cold and start focusing on your own discomfort rather than the Reiki.

It was raining so hard that a river had burst its banks and the road to Remus was flooded. I kept thinking about the animals I was going to get to work with – there are so many wonderful animals at Remus including pigs, horses, goats, sheep, and cats.

I met up with Sue, founder of Remus. Remus is very open to holistic therapies, especially Reiki. Sometimes, Sue sends me a text message asking me to send Reiki to an animal or a situation. One of the many wonderful qualities of Reiki is that it can help even when I can’t be present in person.

We talked about the past week and I asked if any of the animals needed Reiki. Sue said, yes, three of the sheep, Guiness, Mum Sheep and Peep, were not well. All three were old and frail and suffering from chronic arthritis. As sheep are farm animals and part of the food chain, they don’t often reach old age, but these three had been lucky enough to end up at Remus and allowed to grow old with dignity. People think sheep are all the same and cannot think for themselves. I can assure you that they are all individuals with big or small characters. It is such a misconception that a herd of sheep are all the same.

I have offered Reiki to the sheep many times before, and they are very clear about accepting it or not. When I entered the sheep shed, all 20 sheep were looking at me as I walked through them to the sheep I was going to work on. The three of them lay in a circle in the middle of the shed. I’m not sure if they knew I was going to offer them Reiki or if this is what sheep do when they feeling poorly. Lying down is a vulnerable position for all prey animals.

I closed my eyes and asked them if they would allow me to offer Reiki. My intuition came back with a resounding yes; these three sheep were definitely in need of Reiki.

I centered myself and offered healing support to the animals, allowing them to take whatever energy they needed. While the Reiki was flowing, many of the other sheep entered this healing circle, staying for a short or longer time depending on their needs. Peep, Guinness, and Mum Sheep, lay peacefully in the energy while it ebbed and flowed. At one point Mum Sheep lay her head gently on the floor sighing as she lay. The Reiki treatment session went on for about 40 minutes. Naturally each sheep got up one by one and moved away from the energy.

It is important to remember that it is the animal who is in charge of their healing and not to force the Reiki onto the animal even though you have best intentions. Observing the animals’ body language and behaviour are also a key part of having a successful Reiki session.

Each time I have visited Remus, I have offered Reiki to the above sheep. I have observed that whilst offering Reiki, the other sheep have become more inquisitive of the energy and are quite happy to bask in the Reiki. They seem less fearful of my presence in their company and more accepting of the lovely Reiki energy.

Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute:
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Over 20 years ago, Nancy Zidonis and Marie Soderberg began Equine Acupressure. They were offering acupressure to dressage riders and one day a rider asked if they could work on her horse since he needed it as much as she did. This was the beginning of research, study and the development of their first to handbook on equine acupressure and later another on canine acupressure.

In 1998, Nancy Zidonis and Amy Snow joined forces with the intention of expanding Equine Acupressure and writing new books on equine, canine and feline acupressure. Within two years three books were written and published by Tallgrass Publishers, LLC, Nancy and Amy’s publishing company: Equine Acupressure: A Working Manual, The Well-Connected Dog: A Guide To Canine Acupressure and Acu-Cat: A Guide to Feline Acupressure. They went on to create new meridian charts and DVDs for horses, dogs, and which are now offered on their website: www.animalacupressure.com

The new books and articles in publications generated a lot of interest in animal acupressure. Nancy and Amy spent the next few years developing a comprehensive acupressure training program. Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute offers both online and hands-on courses worldwide. Participants begin with introductory courses and build their depth of knowledge moving through the 320 hour Practitioner Certification Program. This program delves deeply into Traditional Chinese Medicine and graduates are adept at utilizing eastern assessment tools, point selection, and the acupressure session protocol.

Rather than building a “brick and mortar” training facility, Amy and Nancy decided to invest in traveling to a geographically diverse market. Hands-on courses are offered throughout the United States, England, Australia, Canada, and Israel. There are Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Practitioners all over the world. Thankfully, animals are benefiting from this ancient healing modality and the pace of people joining in this life-long learning adventure is constantly increasing.

As the pioneers in the field of animal acupressure, Nancy and Amy felt a strong commitment to providing the most in depth education possible so that the Tallgrass practitioners would be recognized as skilled and knowledgeable. Both Nancy and Amy went to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) School and have built their training program on the Chinese model of acupressure/acupuncture, not on other forms of bodywork. They felt that going back to the basics to grasp the concepts underlying acupressure would yield a well educated practitioner. The 320-hour Tallgrass program is demanding, but all participants that become practitioners are grateful for truly understanding the work that they are performing.

It has taken years to develop the Tallgrass highly interactive program. From the first Introductory level courses through the advanced Acupoint Energetics and Landmark Anatomy, Tallgrass continuously strives to provide the highest level of education for our participants. As the demand for animal acupressure continues to increase, we continue to meet the needs by offering more advanced courses in Equine and Canine Pathology, Tui Na, Acupoint Combinations and other courses in the development stages.

The Tallgrass instructors in the US, Australia, and England are actively involved in continuous education by attending TCM schools or working directly with TCM Doctors. Our instructors all need to have a teaching background as well. Furthermore, we require that all instructors are fully trained by spending a year assisting in courses, participating in a training program for instructors. Once they have attended the Instructor Training course, they spend the following year serving as an instructor-in-training to be able to teach the introductory hands-on course and then another year to be able to teach the intermediate courses. It is a rigorous program, but there is so much to learn, and we would not be serving our participants nor the animals if we did not provide a firm grounding in teaching and acupressure.

The future calls for continuous learning tools, expansion of courses, and new instructors worldwide. The founders of Tallgrass, Amy and Nancy, look forward to seeing their legacy in offering health through acupressure for animals become the legacy of many people to come.

All of the Tallgrass courses are approved for Continuing Education (CE) by the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB). The online courses are approved for CEs by the United States Dressage Federation University. Additionally, Tallgrass is an approved Higher Education Vocational School by the State of Colorado Department of Education.

Buddy, the Lab, Goes Blind
Pawspoint Reflexology to the Rescue
By Yvette Eastman

Recently, my friend called me in a panic. “My dog is bumping into things. I think he is going blind. It happened so suddenly. Buddy is only seven years old! He is grumpy and growls at other dogs and he never used to.” My immediate reaction was to do a body scan using muscle checking. The answers were indefinite. I got answers but they led nowhere. No, it was not a stroke, nor glaucoma, nor cataracts. It was not an allergy. My suggestion was to take him to an eye specialist for dogs, which she did. And found out that it was an inflammation and infection of the optic nerve. She was given medication to reduce the inflammation and the infection. Now that we knew the problem, it was time to use Reflexology and other complementary techniques. Even before he was diagnosed, I gave my friend a variety of things to do to help Buddy.

Little by little, over 4 days, Buddy’s eyes improved. He knocked into objects less and he once again reclaimed his good mood.

The first was Rescue Remedy, (a Bach Flower Remedy) which I had suggested from the beginning. “Put some in his water. Put some in a spray bottle and spray around him.” This is my suggestion for any trauma whether for an animal or a human. It helped his mood and his discomfort immediately. He relaxed.

“Now do the figure 8 energy, just using your hand along his eyes in a figure 8 that is “lying down” (called a Lazy 8). That will help with the inflammation, the swelling as well as starting the healing.”

Next I told her to work on his toe pads, gently and often. Work on the dew-claw, I told her, just in case we are dealing with the brain and nerve damage. Work at the base of the dew-claw for his neck. It could be that he sustained an injury and that there is vertebral compression. Since you don’t know for sure, work it anyway. For dogs without dewclaws, either because they are missing or were removed, work on the little bump where the dewclaw would be if he had one. Since so much of our work deals with energy, the body/mind will understand!

Work on the Solar plexus, to release stress and improve his blood pressure. Work along the diaphragm to release it and induce deep breathing and therefore good oxygenation to the eyes.

Pinch gently on both sides of the webbing, just below (and between) the toe pads. This is for the lymph vessels, to help clear any toxins. And work on the toes and between them, along the sides of each toe for the eyes and to assist the Eustachian tube in moving toxins away from the eyes.

Two more important areas. Work the reflex to the Liver to filter out toxins from the blood, and work the entire Large Intestine to improve elimination

Now do the quick meridian repair to insure that all the meridian energies are flowing as they should.
1. Stoke from cheeks over the back, to the outside of the hind feet.
2. Stroke from the inside back feet under the belly to the chest.
3. Stroke from the chest down the inside of the arms to the “hands”.
4. Stroke from the outside of the “hands” to the cheek.
5. Repeat 1-4 3 X.
6. Stroke from base of tail to upper lip over the back, and from under the tail up the centre of the belly to the lower lip. Repeat 3 X.

This story bespeaks the need for “blended medicine”. It is not a good idea to eliminate allopathic medicine. It gives you diagnoses and useful medication. And, once you have that, now you can go on your personal warpath against toxins and do what is needed to rebuild the terrain. The result? Buddy’s right eye is totally healed, the left eye is vastly improved and still healing. The original prognosis? “We are so sorry, but this is a grave situation and he may become totally blind in both eyes.” It really pays to use blended medicine – to use appropriate chemicals and to complement them with every bit of energy work and bodywork you know!