Day One of My Equine Reiki Study: Murph & Perry

Today officially marked day one of my Equine Reiki study!

I’ve spent the last few weeks getting ready for this, figuring out what I want to track, revisiting some of my old Reiki coursework and books, working on my own daily Reiki and meditation practice, and most importantly, trying to create a system that keeps me from seeing what I want to see.

The question behind this study is pretty simple:

What are the effects of consistent Reiki sessions on horses with tangible, ongoing issues over time?

I believe in Reiki. I practice it, I teach it, and I’ve seen some really interesting things happen with horses during sessions. But for this experiment, I want to document what actually happens—even if the answer sometimes ends up being nothing.

Today, Murph and Perry officially had their first sessions.

Murph

Murph is a mare who has struggled with chronic sensitivity around her girth area.

That gives us something pretty specific to follow throughout her sessions rather than relying only on whether she “seems more relaxed.”

Before beginning Reiki, Murph's respiratory rate was 24 breaths per minute.

We started at 12:29 PM and finished at 12:43 PM, making her first session 14 minutes long.

Afterward, her respiratory rate was 23 breaths per minute.

That's only a change of one breath per minute, so I'm not reading much into it yet—and that's kind of the point.

This is Day One. I'm much more interested in what happens after multiple sessions than trying to find meaning in one number.

Over time, we'll also continue watching her sensitivity and her owner's observations to see whether anything begins to change.

The owner will report back to me in two weeks regarding her sensitivity to the girth. But I think I accidentally found an answer today… a nerve branch of the brachial plexus!

Perry

Of course, my own horse had to be part of this.

Perry has dealt with chronic hip and SI-area issues, along with a history of gastric ulcers that we're currently working hard to keep at bay. Treated for this spring and no recurrence so far!

Because he's my horse and I have much more regular access to him, Perry will receive Reiki at a higher frequency than some of the other horses in the study. One of the things I'm curious about is whether frequency of treatment makes any noticeable difference over the full study period.

Perry's starting respiratory rate was 18 breaths per minute.

His Reiki session began at 1:05 PM and ended at 1:12 PM, for a total of 7 minutes.

Interestingly, his respiratory rate afterward was 24 breaths per minute—an increase of six.

I'm documenting that exactly as it happened.

I'm not going to label an increased respiratory rate as good or bad, or try to explain why it happened. There are plenty of things that can influence respiration, and one session certainly isn't enough information to draw a conclusion.

Actually, having two horses respond differently on the very first day is exactly why I wanted to collect objective information alongside my own observations!

Now We Watch

One of my biggest goals with this experiment is to stay curious instead of trying to prove myself right.

I obviously believe Reiki has value, otherwise I wouldn't practice or teach it. But I don't want every yawn, lick, lowered head, respiratory change, or behavioral response to automatically become “proof that Reiki worked.”

I want to look for patterns over time.

Does Murph's girth sensitivity change?

Do Perry's chronic areas change?

Do respiratory rates consistently move in one direction—or do they not?

Do owners notice changes between sessions?

Does treatment frequency seem to make a difference?

And maybe some things won't change at all… but that has value as well.

By the end, I'll have weeks of session notes, before-and-after measurements, photos, owner check-ins, session lengths, and observations to look back on rather than relying on my memory of how I thought each horse responded.

For now, though, there's nothing to conclude.

Day One is simply our baseline.

And I'm really excited to see what Murph, Perry, and the rest of the horses teach me over the next several weeks.

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