Photo by Bill Green Lorrie Bracaloni works with Turk, a thoroughbred who was injured during a race, at HorseNet Horse Rescue in Mount Airy. As a certified equine practioner, Bracaloni uses stress point therapy, acupressure massage and other natural methods to help relieve pain caused by injury, age and disabilities.

Lorrie Bracaloni, a certified equine practitioner, tries to help horses, and humans, restore their natural balance. She does this by going back to nature with her horse and human clients.

The treatments are simple, but Elle Williams, owner of HorseNet Horse Rescue in Mount Airy , said her horses move better and seem happier after her sessions with Bracaloni.

Bracaloni, who lives in Boonsboro, volunteers her time with some of the 50 horses at HorseNet's farm on Mattie Haines Road. These horses have seen better days, either in competition or as someone's pet.

"I get the ones nobody else will take," Williams said. Owners want a horse they can ride, and Bracaloni said her work simply gets the horse back in tune with its body.

Bracaloni and Williams hope to start a program for troubled teens, bringing them in touch with abused and neglected horses and helping both to learn from each other.

For now, Bracaloni does consultations with humans and equines on preventive, natural health care. She does paid consultations when she can, but she spends one day a week at the rescue.

Bracaloni's message is basic: The body is designed to heal itself. Eat a healthy, natural, whole-foods diet, and chemical imbalances will slowly right themselves. Get rid of stress, get back to simple pleasures, and life becomes less complex and better.

Bracaloni, 51, started working with horses because she's owned or ridden horses most of her life. She grew up riding, and later trained horses. Her daughter is a jockey at Charles Town.

Much of what she teaches is common sense, she said. One-third of her equine clients have spinal misalignments, which can result from something as simple as putting a saddle in the wrong place.

Bracaloni also tries to listen to the horse, to learn whether it's confused or defensive or lonely. "Everything is stored in memory patterns," she said.

Little Troy had been put out to pasture after she was born with deformed legs, a result of bad positioning in the womb. "They fed her and that was about it," she said. The horse, a standardbred, could not race or breed.

Bracaloni touches her, using the Bio Energy Analysis Technique developed by Regan Golob, a holistic chiropractor in Washington state. Her methods, however, are rooted in nature. She leaned against Little Troy and said the term that came to mind was "jovial."

Afterward, she walked her in circles, moving first right, then left. That is good for clearing the mind, whether human or horse, she said. "Walking in circles stimulates the brain," she said. Babies crawl in circles naturally, stimulating both sides of their brain.

The horses at HorseNet often come to the rescue because their owners have given up on them. "They want a job," Bracaloni said. "They want something to do. They want someone to love them. They don't know why their owners gave them up."

Horses, like people, can benefit from natural health treatments. Bracaloni said she's not suggesting people not call their veterinarian, but try natural treatments when they can.

When all else fails, she said, "Why not try alternative methods?"

Horses, like people, often eat diets high in simple sugars. These foods are quick to fix and taste good. But they often leave the body fighting toxins that were never meant to find their way into the organs of humans or pets.

Corn oil is commonly given to horses, although they do not have the gall bladders needed to process corn oil, she said. "Horses and animals do not get sick by design," she said. "They get sick by environment. All I'm doing is removing the interference."

While Little Troy will never be a riding horse, she can run and buck, and would make a good companion horse. Williams rehabilitates horses, and tries to find them new homes. Turk, a racehorse who bowed a tendon at Bowie Training Center, has healed from natural treatments, Bracaloni said. He will make a nice riding horse once he is trained, she said.

Bracaloni uses acupressure, chiropractic applications and reiki along with herbs and homeopathic remedies.

"I did everything the conventional way for years," she said. "I had a gut feeling I wasn't doing right by my horses." Eight years ago, she had a 3-year-old thoroughbred, Romeo, who died of colic.

"Two weeks after that, I went to a holistic seminar," she said. "I came home and dumped out everything I was feeding, and I've been natural ever since."

She read up on the subject and took seminars. She does some work with race horses.

"Horses are designed to go 20 miles a day, and a lot of trainers now take their horses home for some pasture time," she said. "It makes them much better mentally."