In 2000 I married my husband, and in the summer of 2001 I got back into horses after a 12 year absence. I saw Sage as a very green two year old and felt that she was perfect for me within the first 10 minutes of seeing her. She had a really nice temperament, but mostly something just clicked for me. I knew she was "the one". I had only looked at one other horse before settling on Sage. Oddly enough, I had driven an hour with my husband after seeing an internet ad about her that did not even show a picture of her.

After a month long wait and a clean vet check, Sage was delivered to the barn near my home. She arrived with loose stools after her 45 minute long trailer ride; this was the beginning of a chronic diarrhea problem that would prove to be both exasperating and enlightening. I did all the worming and worm checks and blood tests and dumped lots of probiotics into her daily.

After a few months, I was able to change her from being stalled in a closed box stall (since I strongly suspected she did not like being closed in); the owner of the barn let me put her in a stall with an attached small pasture. Her diarrhea cleared up, but then she suffered impaction colic after a hay change.

Nothing To Lose, Everything To Gain

It was several days of touch and go, two veterinary emergency visits, and finally a recommendation by the vet for colic surgery. I was 9 months pregnant and would be leaving my job, so financially the surgery was something we could not do.

Besides, horses do not always come through colic surgery alive.

I pulled out Dr. Mary Brennan's book, Complete Holistic Care and Healing for Horses: The Owner's Veterinary Guide to Alternative Methods and Remedies (purchased months before due to the interest sparked by Dr. Goldstein's book), raced out to buy the suggested homeopathic pills for $5 from a local naturopath, and I did some acupressure on the recommended points.

I was completely amazed at the response.

Within 30 minutes of the pills and acupressure, Sage wanted to graze, then to drink, had a bowel movement, and then trotted around the round pen. I was stunned, and I just had to learn more about these little homeopathic pills as well as acupressure.

Sage continued to have episodes of diarrhea, so I have learned how to look at her (and by default, the rest of my family of people and pets) with holistic eyes to try to figure out what is/was going on. In the summer of 2007 I was enlightened by a holistic health practitioner to the fact that Sage most likely had ulcers and had probably had them since she was a foal (a possibility not even mentioned to me by any of the 5 or more different veterinarians that she has seen in 6 years).

Make sure that you read the page on Sage's most recent developments from May of 2009. This explains the challenges that I inherited when I brought Sage home as a 2 year old in the summer of 2001.

And I don't regret a single one of them.

"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity" ~ Hippocrates

In addition to my experiences with Sage and many other companion animals, I have several years of horse experience from my teen and college years. I also have a bachelors degree in Zoology from the University of California, Davis.

Below, I am riding beloved Quarter Horse Obie Gitano many years ago while in high school at a California State Horsemastership competition.

"Maybe because having a horse meant your life had been touched by a beautiful mystery."

Susan Richards, author of Chosen by a Horse