Second Hug a Horse Day at Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue

DOVER PLAINS — Lucky Orphans Horse Rescue (LOHR) in Dover hosted its second annual Hug a Horse Day on Saturday, July 15. Coinciding with National I Love Horses Day, which falls each year on July 15, the event was free to attend and featured a variety of local vendors as well as various demonstrations of health practices involving horses.

LOHR is a sanctuary for rescued horses that also provides educational programming, youth development, and various horse-assisted therapies.

One highlight of the event was a demonstration of equine-assisted reiki, led by reiki master Willow Diana Pressler of Poughkeepsie. She routinely practices Reiki at LOHR with the help of their equine residents.

“[Reiki is] a healing modality that works on your energy centers,” Pressler said in an interview. “When we say ‘equine-assisted reiki,’ I’m doing a session on a human, and the horses, because they are healing animals, they assist me with their healing energies.”

Overall, Pressler said that Pokey — the Arabian/Welsh pony cross who assisted her with the session — did a great job as a part of the demonstration, despite appearing distracted by the spectators on the other side of the fence.

“He was a very good boy,” Pressler said. “ … even though he did move away from the client to visit people on the fence, there was a point where I was letting the client know what I was getting in a certain area of the body. Pokey … gave me validation on the information I was giving the client.”

In addition to the reiki session, the event also featured an animal healing demonstration by Julianne Roshan Dow, founder and director of Dow Integrative Medicine in Kent, Connecticut. Dow practices a variety of techniques including deep breathing, therapeutic touch, and Jin Shin Jyutsu, which she describes as “similar to Chinese acupuncture but without the needles.” She noted that she started practicing on animals when her dog developed a tumor on his neck.

“I did Jin Shin Jyutsu with him and, to my surprise, in fact, a week and a half later, the tumor was gone,” Dow said in an interview.

As for her connection to LOHR, Dow noted that she was looking for an animal sanctuary to work with and was inspired by the LOHR mission. “It is a place where they work with people, horses are helping people heal themselves, and I liked that concept,” she said.

For her demonstration in the indoor ring at Hug a Horse Day, Dow enlisted the help of miniature horse Carmella.

Another highlight of the event was a performance by Frisbee dog group the Pawstars outside on the lawn. The group, run by Kara Steffensen and LOHR property manager Erich Steffensen, is made up of the couple’s personal rescue dogs. Six dogs participated in the event one at a time, running up and down the lawn and jumping into the air to catch the Frisbees that Erich threw.

Adding to the canine festivities, Deputy Sheriff Michael DeRosa and his K-9 partner Scout attended the event to represent the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office’s K-9 program, taking photos, answering questions and giving lots of cuddles.

The event also featured numerous booths with various products for sale, including jewelry, candles, popcorn, and flatbreads. One vendor, Coast to Coast Dog Treats of Stormville, announced that all of its proceeds from the event would be donated to LOHR.