THE SURVIVAL OF MAXI

This is the story of Maxi's survival as a direct result of the intervention of Anne Dee. The extracts are taken from the Equestrian publication (August 2004).

Personally, I believe I know the difference between a good horseman/woman, a great trainer and a horse whisperer. I regard myself as a good horsewoman. I am fortunate to be intuitive. I am sensitive to my ponies needs, how they are feeling; if they are happy, healthy, contented or worried. This little bit of 6th sense stands me in good stead and I am never far removed from the routine day to day and urgent needs of my equine family.

?My experience with Anne Dee brought home an entirely new dimension to communicating with horses. In 1998 I met Anne when my pony, Maxi, was dying from an undiagnosed illness. She had suffered a serious number of problems and complications two weeks prior to foaling. After foaling, she had no milk and her colt foal, Thomas Troy, had to be hand reared. The veterinary practice had no idea what was wrong with her and we were preparing ourselves for the worst outcome. A chance phone call led us to a search for Anne’s telephone number around some of the leading competition yards in Scotland, following a trail of recently converted cynics and disbelievers.

By the time Anne answered our call, Maxi had hours to live. Anne was told nothing of the problem, as the illness had every horse expert and vet baffled for a 50 miles radius, she was simply told that the pony did not have time to wait and we desperately needed her help. 

The pony had not eaten, drank or managed to dung for days on end. She was racked with colic pain and was now so weak she could barely stand. Maxi was lying next to her foal by the time Anne arrived. Immediately Anne knelt down next to the pony and stroked her neck very gently. She spoke softly to the mare, introducing herself and telling the pony why she was there. Anne listened and reported back the following, sharing a three way conversation with Maxi, her guides and Maxi’s carers.

‘I’m sorry to tell you that Maxi believes that she’s dying. She is exhausted and cannot go on much longer. She is starving. She’s not been able to eat for as many days now. In fact she has now gone beyond hunger. She has been living off of her reserves.’ 

‘She is so very tired. She is afraid to go to sleep. She is very afraid when her Mummy is not with her. She is scared to be left on her own. She feels she will die if she goes to sleep.’ 

‘She loves her foal. She tried so hard to be a good Mother for him. He was hurting her inside. But she held on as long as she could to give him time to be born safely. Now that he is born she’s prepared to die with dignity.’ 

‘She feels as if food is stuck inside her. She would love to be able to burp. She feels so sick. So sick and so bloated. She has a blockage. She needs something to get the blockage moving through her.’ 

‘Maxi does not have to die’, Anne assured us. ‘She has to go to hospital, but you will have to fight the vet to get her there. It is not going to be easy but if you get her there she still has a chance, but you do not have time on your hand, she must go straight away. Thomas must go with his Mum as he is her reason to live’. 

‘No my angel, you don’t have to die, you don’t have to go to heaven’, Anne tells Maxi who was afraid the vet would put her to sleep.

Anne tells Maxi she has to go to hospital. ‘Mum will fight to get her there and Thomas and Mum will come with you’. Maxi was told that she’d likely need an operation but if she was brave and fought all the way she would live. 

‘You have a beautiful baby and you have to stay her to bring him up. Who is going to teach him all the things he needs to learn’? Anne asked. ‘She wants to stay with her son’, Anne tells us,  

but no more babies’. Anne comforts Maxi and listens. 

‘Maxi is showing me the doctor giving her medicine’. Anne describes the treatment Maxi has received unaware of the rope noose still attached to the rafters that the saline treatment bag had hung from. 

‘Mum has been feeding me and wetting my mouth’, Maxi said. Have you been using a squeezy bottle to feed her? - Yes we had. 

‘You have to keep feeding her Anne tells us’. 

Anne gives Maxi healing to strengthen her for the journey to hospital and shows us where there is a large blockage below her flank. 

Anne asks Maxi to give her a sign that she is prepared to fight. Will she stand up for her and show us that she wants to live? 

Maxi got up from the bed and walked over to the grass bucket and nibbled a few strands of grass. She then stepped towards the water and took a tiny sip.

Anne was correct in every respect. She identified the starving pony, the lack of food and water intake. The fact that the mare was starving for weeks and had been living off her reserves. The severe colic attacks. The vet being prepared to put her to sleep. The type of medical treatment she’d received. The care we had provided for the pony. The position of the blockage in her large colon, a fact confirmed to the exact spot at the Vet hospital following an x ray. That I’d have to fight to get her admitted to hospital, which I did. The fact that if she fought this, she would have a chance of life and she did.

Maxi and Thomas were safely delivered to Glasgow Vet School within a couple of hours of Anne’s visit. The vets there did not expect her to survive more than 48 hours but gave her a chance due to her foal. Maxi spent five weeks in Glasgow Vet school and took two years to fully recover from all symptoms and effects of chronic grass sickness. At the time, she was the only recorded mare, ever, to produce a living foal whilst suffering from Chronic Grass Sickness.

Anne Dee saved Maxi and Thomas’s lives. Without her intervention, conventional treatment and opinion will have ruled the day and she would have been put to sleep. Albeit the veterinary treatments were the cause of Maxi’s recovery, but Ann was the catalyst, the inspiration and the only provider of hope.

The gift Anne has is truly remarkable and one that has to be experienced to be appreciated and believed. I accept that each of us require to experience our ‘own truths’ to accept that horses have souls and gifted people like Anne can communicate direct to this soul. I would like to add that Anne Dee is not a horse expert. In fact she knows nothing about them in real terms. She is a complete horse novice. Never owned one, never sat on one, only speaks to them. Even with her most remarkable gift, and having helped thousands of horses over the past years, Anne does not call herself a Horse Whisperer. She refers to herself as a horse communicator.

If ever there was a qualified individual, who can honestly say, yes, I am a Horse Whisperer. I can communicate with horses, hear what they have to say, feel what they are feeling, see images from their past, tell you what their fears are, what their illnesses are, their likes and dislikes, what their concerns are, tell you what they need you to know about them, then it is Anne Dee.