‘Seeing this horse with all his problems, seeing him go right, that’s my reward’

As a masseur at the La Costa Spa for men, Don Childs spends his days kneading and pounding the backs of affluent clients. In his spare time, the 40-year-old Vista resident is similarly occupied, but then it’s on horses. For 10 years, Childs has been performing shiatsu--a Japanese form of acupressure--on horses, mostly thoroughbreds and jumpers. Although his unorthodox methods have met with resistance from veterinarians and horse trainers, Childs says what works on humans can work on horses, and vice versa. The Chicago native has been doing massage on humans for nearly 20 years, and his work with horses has taken him all over Europe and across this country as well. Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed Childs at the Rancho Sante Fe Riding Club, and Barbara Martin Pinhero photographed him.

I had never been around a horse until 1974. I was working at La Costa as a masseur for men, and a gentleman from Atlanta wanted me to go back with him to continue his program. I went to Atlanta for what was supposed to be three months and wound up staying five years.

Well, he had a daughter with a pony, and I would go with her to the stables every day. Then I went to shows with her. We went to one show where they had the horses jumping big fences, and, watching that, I decided right then and there that show jumping was what I wanted to do.

From Atlanta, I went to the Yorkshire Riding Center in England so I could learn how to jump and ride. I had to take care of an event horse. He was difficult; he had a problem with his back. I had been a masseur before, so I thought, “Hell, we’ve got to do something to calm him down.” So I started massaging his back, using shiatsu and different methods, and I saw the horse responding.

After England, I went to Belgium and worked as a groom. There were some very difficult horses there, and I found different ways of calming them down. I do some strange things, but it gets results.

I look at the expression on the horse’s face and see if I can find the problem. With Michael here, you can see how tight his face is; he has these depressions around his eyes. That means the energy that travels in channels throughout his body is not able to make a complete cycle from front to back. I have to be able to trace each channel and find where the block is, the muscle spasm that is squeezing the channel. I have to relax that particular area so the energy can flow freely again.

The first thing I’ve got to do is get the energy flowing. In order to do that, I need to add a little more into the horse’s system. I do this through extension. I bring up some earth energy and mix it with some cosmic energy, and I bring the two energies into the horse and mix it counterclockwise.

When there is no energy flowing, the slightest touch burns. It’s like pouring hot water on them. Horses learn to live with it, they have a pretty high pain tolerance. But I do a little work on them at a time, then allow them to heal. Once the horse is aware of what’s going on, he’ll heal himself.

It’s funny. One day I was here, working on two horses at once because I was in a hurry, and I had my eyes closed. I heard someone say, “What’s he doing?” It was two little ladies standing here, and one of them answered, “Well, I don’t know, but it certainly looks ungodly.”

I found that horses actually communicate through mental telepathy. I’ll be working a horse and do something and wonder why I did it. After a while, the horse will tell you where he hurts. One horse I was working with pinned me against the wall and wouldn’t let me out until I found the exact place where he was hurting.

It’s interesting because you can run into some problem on a human and you’ve already had the same problem on a horse. It works the opposite, too. Horses have taught me a lot. I’m still learning.

Seeing this horse with all his problems, seeing him go right, that’s my reward. Seeing him comfortable, seeing him happy and not miserable anymore.