I'm an American living in Germany and have followed with interest all the developments in Energy Psychology in the last 3 years since I first came in contact with your homepage. I have a B.A. in Psychology (U. of Ill.), am a Heilpraktikerin for Psychology and a Heilpraktikerin and Acupuncturist for animals in Germany. I not telling you this to impress you - I mention it only to make clear why the development of EFT in regard to animals is of particular interest to me.
Even though animals do have meridians and points, the best way to do EFT for animals supposedly is by surrogate or proxy tapping. This means you tap on yourself to make the changes in the animal happen. (I'm sure that you're familiar with all of this by now.) Even though the animal doesn't even have to be near you or connected to you in anyway, supposedly the 2 energy systems are connected. This supports a basic idea of TCM in that "one's every action influences everyone and everything else in the world", I can't argue with that.
However, I don't believe in the Easter Bunny anymore either and the whole idea always seemed pretty far-fetched to me. Even though some people who can talk to animals and read their minds have wonderful successes with this process, most of us just can't connect. Also, in this day and age, it's pretty hard convincing people that they should tap on themselves and their horse will magically stop biting, kicking, rearing, bucking and/or throwing them out of the saddle. In any case, this is what happened to me - my grown-up customers don't even believe in Santa Claus. In cases with problem horses, people want results, and fast, because nasty horses are dangerous. I don't wish a cat that sprays on anyone, that's bad enough, but we all know what happened to the former Superman.
So, I thought, why can't we tap on the animals themselves, horses in any case? The important points are easy to find, horses rarely object to the tapping, and the tapping shows RESULTS. The tapping can cure behavioural problems and sicknesses, make a horse rideable, take away pain and stiffness, stimulate the immune system, etc., etc., etc., just like Acupressure or Acupuncture. WHY NOT TAP ON THE HORSE?
There are certain points on every meridian that balances the meridian on humans, also on horses/dogs/cats. Horses also have all the endpoints of the meridians close to the hoof; they can also be balanced here. One can balance the Shu- or Mu-points in the same way. It gets really interesting when one can test which points need to be stimulated.
When one is capable of testing which points are needed, one can also choose out of, for example, 7-8 Acupressure points which deal with FEAR. There are also certain points which have a direct influence on aggression, anxiety, jealousy, overeating (there's also horses that have an eating problem) and other problems. I'd like to tell everyone what these points are; they can effectively be used as a support to the "basic recipe". The basic points are a must; they encompass the balancing of the energy system. Some unenlightened people just don't care if the energy system is balanced; they want a solution to their problem. I can somehow understand this when one has a dog that destroys the house when the owner is gone!
To illustrate my point, I just got called to visit a horse that was driving his owner crazy. She always wanted to ride alone with her horse in the forest; the only problem was that her boy-horse was in love with a girl-horse. This in itself isn't bad, however, in this case, the boy-horse always flipped out when it was separated from the girl-horse (she didn't seem to mind at all). The flipping-out got so bad that both of them always came back from a ride in the forest soaking wet, angry and very agitated. The rider was disgusted and not a little afraid, as the horse tended to turn around and run back to the barn (over busy streets) and his lady.
We (the owner and I) tapped the basic routine on the horse with the horse-points and then added extra points for "fear of being alone". The exasperated owner tapped on herself because of her fears, impatience, anger and hopelessness (he'll never change! Why is he so unreasonable! Why can't he learn anything! Other horses aren't so stupid!)
Well, a lot a tension was released in this tapping session and once again the horse was "saved from the butcher" as we say here in Germany. Both parties were greatly relieved, which was a major improvement, as the owner usually was quite aggressive and ready to explode when she came back from her "leisurely" ride in the forest.
The next day we tapped before she left the barn with the horse and you could already see the improvement. With daily tapping, I was told; the horse showed steady improvement and is today a "joy to ride". One shouldn't expect immediate miracles, one has to be realistic, patient, and know that this horse had learned how to get his way and had trained his owner accordingly. Both sides of the coin had to be "rewired".
LaVaughn Hengst