Seventeen years ago, when I was editing a California horse magazine, I received a proposal for a column from a writer with an interest in holistic care for horses. Judging from the samples of her past published work that she included with her proposal, Diana Thompson was a very good writer with in-depth knowledge of horses and a wide variety of holistic treatments. As excited as I was about the prospect of working with this writer, I had to laugh at some of her proposed topics. I mean, come on! Massage and acupuncture is one thing, but Reiki? Homeopathy? Flower essences? Animal communicators? Sheesh!
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It didn’t happen overnight, but in the five years that she wrote the column for me, Diana sold me on those topics and many more, including some that seemed even more far out. In the beginning, it was Diana’s competence at using some of these techniques on horses in our photo shoots that opened my eyes. Frequently we would find ourselves in a stable somewhere with a horse, with Diana demonstrating the techniques she had written about, and me trying to take pictures of an impatient or unruly equine model. Diana would calmly assess the situation, apply acupressure to a few points on the horse, mist him with flower essences, and before I knew it, the formerly fidgety or feisty horse would be calmly standing before us with big, soft eyes and a pliant, sleepy new attitude.
Later, I was influenced by letters we received from readers, thanking us for helping them foster stronger and better working relationships with their horses – and even, occasionally, thanking us for saving their horses lives with a supplement, an herbal remedy, a homeopathic treatment, or some other alternative or complementary treatment they had read about in Diana’s column.
Eventually, that column developed into its own magazine, Whole Horse Journal, which Diana founded and sold to Belvoir Media Group. I left my original job and went to work for Diana, then for Belvoir, and later took the helm of Belvoir’s brainchild, Whole Dog Journal. The horse magazine was discontinued after five years of publication, but after 11 years Whole Dog Journal is still going strong. (So is Diana, incidentally. She’s been working for years on a magnificent book about acupressure for horses, which will be published this year. See handsonhorsecare.com for more information.)
I’ve learned about some pretty far out holistic healthcare practices while editing Whole Dog Journal, and I must say that the modalities that employ some form of “energy medicine” are the most difficult to describe or to believe in. Starting in this issue, longtime contributor CJ Puotinen will be trying her hand at describing a number of these healing tools; she already firmly believes in them, having used a good many of them on her dogs, herself, and her husband over the years. I’ve used a few of them, too, and all I can say is that sometimes, when used as part of a holistic healthcare program, they really work. But you might have to see it to believe it.
-Nancy Kerns
