05/27/2025
Ghandi is attributed to saying, “ The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
When we can view animals as being worthy of our care, nurturing, and protection, we have transcended.
I was listening to an older lecture Caroline Ingraham did for the BBC and decided some of her ideas were worthy of re-sharing with the digital world. The more this information is out there and available, the more we can start changing the way we think about our animal friends.
Caroline was talking about the differences when nonverbal language is your primary form of communication.
“When animals are allowed to choose their own medicine, they are able to alleviate so much unnecessary suffering.”
In the world that is flooded with dis – ease, it is more crucial than ever to provide beings with opportunities to heal before a problem ever manifests into something nastier and thus harder to treat . For students at my barn, we learn how to read suffering in the eyes, muscle, shoulders, etc. and once you can see it, it is hard to see when/where it occurs.
Caroline talks about the “silent suffering behind their eyes”. So many of our behavior problems are actually caused by underlying and undiagnosed physical issues. That often have relatively easy fix that doesn’t require a veterinary intervention if we catch it early enough. Animals are so often forced to accept varying degrees of suffering, our Horses often getting it the worst as we still largely perceive them as machines here to do work for us since they are expensive and therefore owe us something. They have eyes that suffer more than anyone I meet and when they know you can see them, they pour their souls into you. 
Contrarily, it also makes our hearts filled with so much gratitude when we come across animals that are free from this and living in a state of balance and happiness.
“ It’s an incredibly special moment when an animal realizes that you are listening “
” for sentient beings, it must be incredibly frustrating not to be listened to… I took my mind back to working with babies and young children. They responded well… Could it be when verbal language is not fully understood, smell is the dominant form of communication”🐈🐴🐺
❤️🩹”… just because an animals language isn’t the same as ours, is this a sufficient reason to deny them choice”
Nonverbal language is still a language. I don’t know why our culture under values other forms of communication simply because they do not use words. Energy, body language, aren’t these completely viable forms of communication?
 This got me thinking about my youngest son Christian. As many of you know, he has a very complicated medical diagnosis that baffle his team of doctors. The medical opinion was that he could not learn to walk or communicate in any form. For those that have visited my farm and laugh, watching me chase after him we know that he can most certainly walk and run. His language has been something else. As a special educator trained in linguistics, I knew that he had language within him. His issue seems to be getting it out in a way that most humans can understand. The animals understand him, which makes me think that he is using language the way that they do.
Moreover, I noticed early on that Christian was very drawn to my wall of herbs and pile of essential oils. He wanted to frequently engage with them, which I allowed him to do so. At first, I thought his selections  were random.  But when I suspended judgment and slowed down to observe, I noticed patterns emerging - Christian was consistently selecting herbs and oils associated with neurological development, central nervous system, communication, heart, and circulation. All of these are systems that are compromised because of his diagnosis. 
Could it be that Christian was tapping into his sense of smell and innate awareness of remedies that could help him grow strong and heal  just like our animals?
After making selections, Christian would do better, feel better. It was noticeable, even to others. I was asked what services I was providing to him, with most people thinking that we were providing medication or OT/PT services. He rides his pony, plays outside , but these herbs were huge.
 Christian was selecting for himself and in doing so healing. That is pretty powerful for a little boy who cannot speak for himself, but in this way, he could.
 Should we not also allow our animals that we love so much the same opportunity? 

Not long ago many humans in our society were thought to be incapable of making choices. “Animals, too, are capable of making choices and have the strong desire to do so”.
 Just because someone, whether it’s an animal or a tiny human, does not speak the same way you expect them to, it does not mean, they lack intelligence, feeling, for the ability to know. If we can change our way we think about our silent friends, so much can be accomplished and our world can be a happier place for everyone to live in. This will change the global energy into one of positivity where everyone can thrive. 
I have seen how frustrating it is for animals, and some of our children to not be heard. I’ve also seen how empowered they are when given opportunities to share their world with us and make choices over their own being.

🐾Self medicating within our animal counterparts is not new. We are only just beginning to notice . 🌱

Here’s a funny visual and story to go along with this diatribe :
Nova choked on something while drinking water. After I wiggled his throat loose, his breathing concerned me. After offering a few oils, I felt compelled to bring in Eucalyptus, which I rarely use. I accidentally spilled half the bottle (or universe nudged my hand) on the wall, where you see the stain. Nova dashed inside and popped his nose right above this stain and stood there licking chewing, yawning and deeply processing- the eyes blinking, nose twitching- for 20 min. Then he left the stall. Atlas later did similar but for less time. Pony and donks also took a turn.
