Author Nancy Crowe

An itch, a scratch and a real doorbuster

Nancy Crowe

This is Tuff, a 23-year-old quarter horse I work with regularly in my animal communication and Let Animals Lead® practice. He’d been scratching his itchy back end against his metal stall door, popping the door loose at least once.

Please scratch on the post instead, his carers requested. I passed that along and got only a sigh, but for the next month or so I didn’t hear about any more door busting from the humans.   

One day I was at the other end of the barn and heard a rattling thunk, thunk, thunk. All I could see was Tuff’s door bending into the aisle with each scratch.

I hurried over and asked Tuff to stop. He did, then proceeded to take a very splashy drink of water. (You know you’re in the right line of work when getting dribbled on by a huge mammal makes you laugh.)

Tuff’s itch was treated and a staff member put a butt-high brush in his stall for those inevitable scratching needs. He was reportedly doing better about leaving his door alone. Then what did he do the next time I stood outside his stall? I’ll tell you what I did – I stepped out of the way of the stall door bending into the aisle.

Maybe that was Tuff’s way of telling me to cut the conversation and get on with the calming meditation. Next time I’ll try that. Or I may have to explain to him why he has something worthy of a medieval Scottish castle in place of his stall door. Stay tuned.

(Photo by Nancy Crowe)

What makes Let Animals Lead® different from ‘people’ Reiki

Nancy Crowe 1 Comment
Woman on massage table in Reiki session
Rescued horse after Reiki session

Relaxation helps the two-legged and four-legged alike feel and function better. That’s what Reiki, a Japanese stress relief modality, is all about. However, the method I practice, Let Animals Lead®, is different from what you’ll experience in human clinics and hospitals.

The hand positions I learned in my “people” Reiki classes don’t apply, and not because of different anatomies. It’s because animals are much more sensitive to physical space and presence. Touch is unnecessary, even invasive, for them. A person can feel energy from the practitioner’s hands, but a horse can feel energy from a person standing across a pasture. 

When I began studying Reiki years ago, I used the hand positions with my dog Ellie. If she had a hot spot on her foot, I lightly held her foot or placed my hand near it. More often than not, she’d get up and leave. I now understand that was too much for her. 

But when I sat quietly and meditated, and ditched any expectation about the “problem” or fixing it, Ellie was more likely to lie down nearby. (She was also more likely to quit licking that hot spot.) 

My teacher, Kathleen Prasad, had a similar experience with her dog. That’s how she developed the Let Animals Lead® method. The animal is free to get up and move around, fall asleep, or decline to participate.

Animals understand energy better than we do. A horse senses the presence of a predator in the distance. A cat curls up next to someone who is sick. The kids’ new puppy stays away from Mom because he’s the only one in the house who knows how angry she is. 

Just don’t ask that puppy to stay still for the practitioner. He doesn’t have to … and Mom is welcome to join in.

Permission is key in animal communication, meditation

Nancy Crowe
Photo by Unlaw on Pixabay

I’m a stickler about permission, both from the animals I work with and their people.

An animal is free, at any time, to choose not to communicate with me or participate in a Let Animals Lead® meditation session. We can try again another time (sometimes a few minutes is all it takes) or I can issue a refund.

Regardless of who pays, I must have permission of the animal’s owner for an animal communication or meditation session. By owner (or guardian) I mean the person who is legally responsible for the animal, whether that is an individual or an organization such as a shelter, rescue or nonprofit. 

Having permission from the person who is legally responsible for the animal:

• Keeps everything above board, which naturally brings better outcomes.

• Respects boundaries. Put another way: Say you have a child, or an adult for whom you are legally responsible. Barring an emergency, you would not want someone to arrange a counseling session or alternative treatment for that person without your permission.

• Is in keeping with the codes of ethics I follow for animal communicators and Let Animals Lead® practitioners. 

What if there’s an animal you want to support with animal communication or Let Animals Lead® and they’re not technically yours? 

Talk with the animal’s person or rescue director and share a link to my website; they are welcome to contact me with questions. You could offer an animal communication session as a gift to support the animal (and them). If the answer is yes, I am honored to help. If the answer is no, that is absolutely fine.

Maintaining trust lets us all speak, and most importantly listen, more freely.