By Diane Mathews

Last week my horse choked. In 30+ years of being around horses I'd never seen it before. Often a horse eats too much of something (hay cubes or pellets -- not naturally available foods, usually) that expands in his throat, which is a lot longer than ours, and then it gets stuck. It's much like a choke in humans -- horses may choke more often than we know, but the times we notice it are serious. Choking can prevent the horse from breathing, because his neck/swallow muscles spasm and won't release; it can cause food-substances to go into the horse's lungs (pneumonia) ... it's often a veterinary emergency.

I fed him some supplements that come in pelleted form and evidently he ate them too fast. He did this weird heaving/hard to breathe thing that stuck around for more than a few minutes, so I started tapping. I checked capillary refill on his gums after almost every round, and only once was it slow to refill. That probably doesn't have anything to do with the relief that EFT gave him, right? :-)

At first I didn't realize what the problem was, so I tapped (for him):

Even though...
I have a wad in my throat...
My muscles are tight...
I can't breathe very well...
It hurts like heck...
It won't move...
It's stuck...
I'm afraid...
I can't relax...

and anything else that seemed to fit the way he was acting.

Most of the blob of pellets came back up through his nose (very common) in less than 15 minutes. I finally realized what the problem was and also added some homeopathic (spray) and TTouch between tappings. While these things may have helped, it was clear to me that EFT tapping was the main catalyst. Mind you, some of those tappings were for me and my fear too, not just him. He was having a hard time swallowing, but he was trying. I kept tapping:

Even though...
It still hurts
There's more in there
My throat won't relax
I have a knot halfway down
Goobs are coming out of my nose
I can't vomit (horses are physiologically unable to vomit)
It's still not moving much
My sinuses are filled with gook
I have a raw, sore spot in my throat
It hurts to swallow

In about 1/2 hour the knot/spasms in his throat were not visible, the gook out of his nose was turning normal mucousy-looking, and he was getting impatient to go back out with his buddies in the field. I kept him in a pen, and made sure the barn keepers checked on him regularly. I wanted to see him swallow some of the water I left for him, easily, before I left but I couldn't stay.

I came back in the afternoon and he was fine in every way that I could measure. He took a long leisurely drink from the water tank just as I let him go, and he kicked up his heels and dashed away.

It was only after I got home, and did some more research, that I realized how serious (and expen$$$ive) a problem this could have been! From his behavior it might as well never have happened.

Diane Mathews