First Results From The Reiki Study
I finally have the first two-week check-in from my Equine Reiki Study, and I have to say, the results so far are really interesting.
I don't want to share too much yet because we're still very early in the study and I really want to let this play out before I start picking apart the results. I'm tracking several horses at different Reiki frequencies, documenting their original issue, changes over time, owner observations, and anything else happening in their lives that could potentially influence what we're seeing.
But one horse has already had enough of a change that I wanted to share a little bit of it.
For now, I'm keeping the horses anonymous while the study is underway.
The issue we're tracking
This particular horse is receiving Reiki every two weeks, and the main issue we're following is cinch sensitivity.
At the beginning of the study, her owner rated the issue as a 5/10 while walking and an 8/10 while standing. This wasn't just a horse occasionally making a face while being cinched. Her owner described a pretty significant reaction, even when simply reaching underneath her belly to grab the loose cinch before actually tightening it.
At her first two-week check-in, those numbers had changed to 0/10 while walking and 3/10 while standing.
That's a pretty big difference in a very short period of time.
During the first week, her owner was still seeing the cinchiness pretty consistently, roughly four out of four times she was cinched. It was during the second week that things really started changing. Her owner noticed that she cared less and less about reaching underneath her belly for the cinch, and by the end of the second week the original issue was described as nearly completely gone.
Her attitude toward the saddle and cinch has improved as well. Something I found especially interesting is that the change doesn't seem to be limited to the cinch itself. Her owner also noticed that she's less bothered by blanket and fly-sheet straps touching her belly, which wasn't something we originally set out to track.
Another person who regularly handles the horse has noticed the change too and described her as much more relaxed.
What else has changed?
One of the things I'm trying to be really mindful of with this study is documenting what else is happening in each horse's life. Horses obviously don't exist in a bubble, and if we're going to talk about changes happening during a Reiki study, I think it's important to acknowledge other things that could influence those changes too.
For this horse, her owner reported nothing out of the ordinary during the first two weeks. There were no significant changes in workload, exercise, turnout, environment, routine, feed, supplements, medications, veterinary care, or other therapies. There was also no illness, injury, travel, or unusual stress reported.
Her owner said it took about a week before she really started noticing a meaningful difference, and from there the improvement seemed to continue.
Does that mean I can say Reiki caused it? No. This is still a case study, we're only two weeks in, and there are plenty of things we can't control for in a real-world setting like this.
But is it interesting?
Absolutely.
Especially considering this horse has had this issue for a year, and absolutely nothing else has worked.
I work with Reiki regularly and I've seen changes that have made me stop and think, but I wanted to do something more organized than simply saying, “This horse seemed better after Reiki.” I wanted to choose specific issues, establish a baseline, use different treatment frequencies, check in with owners throughout the process, and actually document what happens over time.
Some horses may improve. Some may not change at all. We may see improvements that disappear again later. We may even see completely unexpected changes, like we're already beginning to see with this horse's sensitivity to blanket straps.
That's the part I'm interested in.
We're still at the very beginning, so I'm going to keep some of the details to myself until I have more data to share. But if the first check-in is any indication, I think this is going to be a really interesting study to follow.
I'll keep sharing updates as we go.
Want to learn Equine Reiki?
If you've been following the study and it's made you curious about learning Reiki for yourself or your horse, you can check out my Whole Horse Reiki Certification here:
https://spottedhorseequinesllc.thinkific.com/products/courses/EquineReikiCertification
