The Story of Duchess

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I was in Reno, Nevada, in August, 2006, to teach a Spirit of the Organs class. When I am in Reno I stay at a ranch with my friend Gayle.

Wednesday night before the training started, Gayle and I had dinner with Lynn (the co-owner), Chrisanne, (her partner and a vet), and some other folks. Dinner with Lynn and Chrisanne is always fun and lively. That night it was a bit somber because a neighbor had brought her horse, who was very sick with colic, to be cared for by Chrisanne. Chrisanne had tapped her belly and there was blood in it and Chrisanne knew by that sign and others that the horse would have to be put down that night. She decided to do it early so everyone could get a good night’s sleep and went downstairs to the stable. In about 15 minutes she came back and said that though the horse was very sick, Duchess was chewing on hay and looking at her in the eye and Chrisanne couldn’t do it, and so she would probably have to do it in the middle of the night. She left the room.

I started asking Lynn about colic and horses and found that colic is descriptive of something being wrong in the horse’s digestive tract, not a real diagnosis, and not like the colic that babies get. One of the helpers came up a few minutes later and said Duchess was doing much worse and we should go right down and look at her. I asked Lynn if I could put my hands on her to see what she felt like. Lynn said yes.

When we went down I decided that first I needed to put my hands on a well horse so that my hands had a basis of comparison. I checked her cranial rhythm and then went over to see Duchess. The first thing I noticed about Duchess was that she was bone cold. It felt like rigor mortis was setting in. It was a shocking feeling. Then she looked at me with big brown limpid eyes and we fell in love. (Any good story needs a romantic interest.) I put my hands on her nasal bones and noticed that there was no cranial rhythm. I kept them there just to be with Duchess, not that there was anything I could do. After awhile I noticed that the cranial rhythm had started up. We were getting ready to leave and I went back to the first horse to check her cranial rhythm to see how different it was from Duchess’. It was pretty similar. Then I told Lynn I just wanted to put my hands on Duchess once more.

My first impression then was that Duchess was warmer, but thought it was just my imagination. Then Lynn said, “Judith, I think that Duchess feels warmer, what do you think?” Soon after, the rest of the folks came down from dinner and we all just held Duchess. She stood there without moving while we had our hands on her. Chrisanne came down and said that Duchess was resting well, but probably wouldn’t make it until morning.

At 7 AM Chrisanne called me and said that Duchess was still alive, which in itself was pretty amazing. I celebrated internally! Chrisanne said that the horse had peritonitis and that peritonitis was very dangerous for an adult in a hospital with surgical intervention and drugs. Chrisanne was doing no surgical intervention but was giving her heavy-duty antibiotics and pain medication. I asked her if she minded if the class worked with Duchess a bit every day and she said it would be fine.

That day, I told the class about Duchess and she became our extra-curricular project. We took the class work we had done that day on the organs, found a good horse anatomy book and then worked on Duchess in the evening. Not only did we do the organ work and Zero Balancing, but we threw in anything else we knew as well. Some students did Reiki, Healing Touch, etc. Bodie and Sue who are both bodyworkers and horsewomen and who also do massage on horses made sure we didn’t get stepped on as they shared their wisdom with us. However, Duchess was still whenever we were there working with her.

One day Bodie asked if pulling her tail would be a good idea (Pulling a horse’s tail in a certain way is doing a ZB fulcrum called a half-moon vector.) I thought it would be fine, so Bodie pulled her tail. We would wait for the horse to let us know when to stop (this is called “working signs”), so at the appropriate moment, big breath, fart, chewing, Bodie let go.

We thought we were done for the day and stepped out of the stall and were standing around the stall talking. Duchess turned and backed up with her rear end towards the door. Bodie and I looked at each other. “Well,” Bodie said, “do you think she wants more?” “Yep,” I replied. And Bodie took Duchess’ tail and pulled. And Duchess leaned into it and pulled back, squishing Bodie up against the door. I grabbed on to Bodie and others grabbed on to me creating a chain. We must have held that for about 10 minutes. When Duchess was finished she relaxed out of position.

On the third day of the class, Duchess was outside grazing in the grass when we arrived. We all worked on her, sharing different energy techniques as well as mobilizing the organs and working with her structure and energy. Duchess and I had developed So she went over to the water trough, looked at it and then looked at me; looked at it and then walked away. I swear she rolled her eyes. I went over to her and again told her that she needed to drink water. She dropped her head and went over and drank the water. Honest.

After the last class, four of us went over and worked on her one more time. I walked her a bit. It was interesting to see how her energy would go up and down. It was important to walk her and also important for her not to lose too much energy because walking made her tired.

On Monday, Gayle and I met Lynn and Chrisanne for lunch before my plane left. Chrisanne said that Duchess would be going home the next day.

This was a case of both good conventional and complementary health care, and also taught me the importance of presence and compassion in the healing relationship. I was just there for Duchess as was everyone else. I had no illusions that anything I could do would help her that first evening. It seems that something energetic shifted which opened the potential for healing and allowed the structure to change.

In recent reports I have heard that Duchess is doing well. She agreed to give me a ride the next time I’m in Reno.