Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Horse Healer

     I wanted to post another folklore post but Putin got in the way. I had to make a statement on Putin.

     I was recently sent for some physiotherapy and I began thinking about physiotherapists being healers. 

     I was reminded of a horse healer.

     My great grandfather was known as a horse healer. He would look into the sick horse's face and eyes and the horse quite often was healed. Sick horses were brought to him all the time. Two days before he died they brought a sick horse to the house steps. Great Grandpa came out and took a look at the horse. The horse got better but Great Grandpa died two days later.

    Now this healing ability was hereditary. It would skip a generation and show up in the opposite sex. So one of Great Grandpa's grand daughters would have had healing power on horses. Now I don't know if any of these women every realized they had this power or used it.

    My great Grandpa was a very influential man. He was a leader. He brought all of his adult children and their families to home stead in Canada in 1905. Also many of his children's in-laws came. Since the Lutheran church was not organized and they had no pastors , he was the lay reader. 

   I believe this must have been an old German folk lore belief. I've tried to find information on this belief but came up blank. 

   Does anybody else know about healing horses by looking at them and then passing  their ability to heal horses to a family member in the next generation?  Are there any other folk lore situations where the power is hereditary?

41 comments:

  1. I have heard people can look in a horses eyes and see what ails him.

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    1. There's some good science on this one.

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  2. wow, what a neat bit of family history. no, i've not heard of it before.

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    1. This was a very well known and trusted part of our family story.

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  3. Yep - I have heard of this and I don't think it is unreal.
    Some people have an infinity with horses, in this case, and it is not beyond the realms of the impossible.
    Interesting for readers to ponder - I think the old brigade of race-horse trainers were good at this. These people knew their horses back to front - a sick horse made a remarkable recovery -whether by chance or by love???
    Who knows?

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    1. This idea was firmly believed and practised.

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  4. Wow! That's remarkable! I've never heard of this. I've seen Horse Whisperer but this is beyond that.

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  5. I think that there is little doubt that there are people with such powers. I do find it hard to believe though.
    I could do with a weather healer.

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    1. Well, there are lots of old guys here who think they can influence the weather...lots of rain makers!

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  6. It would be a great world if we could simply look international conflict in the eyes and it would go away.

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    1. Now you're really thinking here! Let's have a little transfer.

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  7. Oh Red he sounds like a wonderful man. B

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    1. His grandchildren spoke very highly of their Grandpa.

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  8. I do believe that we can communicate with animals on the deepest level if have a deep connection with them.

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    1. Some people have a much stronger relationship to animals than many of us. For me, animals train me not the other way around.

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  9. I hope somebody comments in here who knows more about this, since I never heard of it, but it's fascinating, Red. :-)

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    1. I was looking for some comments on this situation. It was well known in my family. My family were Germans who came from the Ukraine.

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    1. I think we are too separated in time from the old people who had these beliefs.

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  11. That's pretty cool info about "horse healing". I had never heard of that either.

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  12. I have never heard about this but find it fascinating and can actually believe it.

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    1. I was hoping to find related areas and stories.

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  13. This is all news to me. I've never heard of horse healers. I wonder if there are horses out there that can cure people.

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    1. Now you've got something there...horses to cure people. I wonder if they'd charge the same fees as our doctors.

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  14. I've never heard of this either, but enjoyed the post. I wish my Mother was around so I could ask her.

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    1. I think for most people they don't go back far enough to know what the old people did. My great Grandpa was born in 1842.

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  15. Fascinating, Red. My first husband's father had a similar reputation but with cows. He was a dairy farmer and his look and thoughts were believed to heal ailing udders and other(udder?) bovine concerns. Human beings, his son and myself included, also unexpectedly reaped the benefits of his ability.

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    1. There you go again with a sharp play on words! Now your story is an example of what I was looking for.

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  16. Because of busy times and virusses I haven't been very active on my blog and the blogs of others last few weeks. I am sorry for that :-)

    You posted some nice work lately! I enjoyed reading your posts Red!! :-)

    Greetings from the Netherlands! ;-)
    Gert Jan Hermus
    dzjiedzjee.blogspot.com

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  17. I too saw the horse whisperer. It was a great movie. As to Putin the long range effect may be the final crumbling of the nation state. Every ethnic/language group get their own little tribal entity after several hundred years of "civil war." Crimea and Sudan set the trend. The Quebec follows? I don't think any of this is going to be good...:(

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    1. I don't see it as that black. The Quebecois talk about it. When you visit Quebec you meet very few people who favor separation. They wouldn't fight about it.

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  18. Never really heard of healing just by looking but there are things in this world that are unexplainable and maybe it would serve us all if we always kept an open mind toward what we don't understand. If I were one of the women I'd want to know it was possible I might have the ability. Interesting post Red.

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    1. It's interesting that in the next generation of women probably none of them had anything to do with horses.

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  19. You post reminded me that my great-grand father was also supposed to be a horse healer as well (but the story has it that he would put his hands on the horse). I remember him as the prototype of the Victorian father, very stern and commanding. All his children were in awe of him.

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    1. I'm not sure if my great grandpa touched the horses or not. The notes I have say he looked at the horse.

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  20. I have never heard of this but I think it is wonderful. Maybe the horse could recognize a kind and loving spirit that made them feel happy and in turn, get better....

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    1. Our health condition can be greatly influenced by a strong positive attitude from care givers.

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  21. Very interesting Red, if it is part of your family history then it is so...I guess you were the skipped generation. Darn. I will venture to say that some people wouldn't have talked about it because it would seem to "crazy" or far fetched.
    My Grandparents and on the other side of the family a Aunt...heard Angels singing when people close to them died. I believe it happened.

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