Sienna, a 5-year-old reining horse, flapped her lips in satisfaction as Bill Turner ran his hands over her, putting pressure on various spots to relieve soreness and make her more grounded and relaxed.

Turner’s work on Sienna pleased her trainer, too.

“It’s kind of new to me, but I’ve seen a big difference with the horses,” said Kurt Pylman, owner and trainer of Pylman Performance Horses in Tumalo. “I think it just makes them feel better. There’s a lot more energy, and mentally they’re ready to go to work.”

Sienna is just one of Pylman’s horses in training who is undergoing energy treatment with Turner, who calls his business Hands on the Horse Guy.

Pylman said he’s only been working with Turner for three months and has already seen changes in the horses mentally and physically. His goal is to eventually have all the horses at his barn in treatment.

“I think anytime anything you’re (doing in) training feels good and everything is working, they’ll give you that much more and try that much harder,” Pylman said.

Turner, a Sisters resident, said a combination of Eastern and Western healing techniques is the key to healthier horses.

“I’m just a piece of the pie,” he said. “My piece of the pie goes real well with other pieces of the pie, which are chiropractic, acupuncture and certainly the veterinarian.”

When performing energy work, he said, he uses Reiki, Chinese ChiGong and Jin Shin. The treatments are used to clear energy blockages within the body and restore balance to bring the body back to a natural state of healing, he said.

“My work is a full-body treatment that begins with the Horse Magnetic Pulsar unit to soften the body, followed by a full-body energy treatment,” he said. “I work the whole horse from the back to the front with my hands. The treatment lasts about an hour and 15 minutes and is very refreshing, yet relaxing to the horse.”

Turner travels to treat many of his clients, but he said people can also haul their horses to West Coast Equestrian Center on Cloverdale Road. He also does energy work with people at Greenridge Physical Therapy and by appointment.

“To help horses or people in an injury situation, I usually recommend three treatments to really build up their energy base to get positive momentum in their life,” he said.

Turner said his energy background stems from his practice of martial arts. When training under a martial arts master, he said, he learned how to fix everything he could break.

Turner said certification and thorough training are important for a healer to have.

“You wouldn’t use a chiropractor that wasn’t certified,” he said.

Since 1983, Turner has been studying the healing arts. He officially started his energy healing business in 2003. He graduated from the Sahaj School of Energy in Bozeman, Mont., in 2009, gaining knowledge he said he applies to both horses and people. He’s spent 28 years studying Chi Gong, he said, and has been a Reiki master for 13 years.

Turner applied his healing principles to his first equine patient, a colt who had been in a trailer wreck, in 1998.

“He was hurt physically and emotionally,” Turner said. “He totally responded (to the treatment).”

Turner said he saw results right away and knew that treatment worked. From there, he pursued the practice as his career and built his clientele based on references.

He initially worked on competition horses in three-day eventing, but entered the Western equine sport world as well, working with trainers such as Phil Rapp, a professional cutting horse trainer based in Texas who has won more than $7 million in prize money and is the leading owner in the National Cutting Horse Association.

Rapp said he started working with Turner in 2008 and has seen his horses’ performance improve.

“I’ve seen him remove pain and muscle soreness,” he said. “What Bill does works for the horses.”

After years of working and traveling to 10 to 12 horse shows a year, Turner said he is ready to localize his practice to Central Oregon. He said he sporadically worked on local clients before, but couldn’t prioritize them because he was following the horse-show circuit.

“I was never home,” he said. “I’d pay my bills and head back out on the road.”

For the past year, Turner said he’s been working locally and plans to make that the new focus of his business. Now, Turner said, he’s working on all kinds of horses, ranging from show horses to ranch horses and older horses in rehabilitation.

“It’s hard to explain to people,” said Tracy Stout, one of Turner’s clients. “It looks like voodoo, but it’s not. It’s a holistic approach to heal the body.”

Turner agreed to answer a few additional questions from The Bulletin.

Q: What is the difference between working on humans versus horses?

A: I feel that both of them have a level of skepticism. The human always seems to have more going on in their head than the horse. The horse seems to relax into the treatment sooner, but the healing energy catches up to them both by the time the treatment is completed.

Q: How much are your sessions?

A: For horses, it’s $125 for an hour session and $75 for a 40-minute tuneup. A human session is $90 for an hour.

Q: What is the most important horse you’ve worked on?

A: I get asked that question a lot, and my answer is always the same: the one I’m working on right now. It doesn’t matter if he’s a world champion or a ranch horse.

Q: Besides your hands, what are some of the tools you use on a horse when doing energy work?

A: I would never put anything on a horse that I wouldn’t use on myself. It’s not just energy work. I also utilize Western technology with machines like the Horse Magnetic Pulsar, which helps to stimulate muscle tissue and relieve pain from soreness. It is also capable of breaking down scar tissue and adhesions. On Sienna, I used a magnetic tool for acupressure. I also used a Gua-Sha tool to help remove toxins from the muscles.

Q: What are the two products you sell?

A: Healin’ Balm and Healin’ Liniment. The Healin’ Balm has been handed down in our family with over 30 years of incredible results, proven on horses with cuts, lacerations, bites and skin irritations. The Healin’ Liniment is an organic apple cider vinegar base, with seven different essential oils all designed for cooling, clearing, detoxifying and decreasing any inflammation in the muscles. I originally created the liniment for my own use in finishing a treatment. Once my clients smelled it and saw the results, I was literally harassed by them until I made some for them to carry in their trailer. Originally known as “VooDoo Juice,” I have changed the name to Healin’ Liniment so that people know what it is, and it does not cause fear in the less open-minded.

Q: What do you do at a horse show?

A: I rent a stall to do my work in. I’m in the background. I’m like a mechanic. At some shows I don’t even get to watch the competition, but that’s OK because I’m helping people do what they do.

The basics

What: Hands on the Horse Guy, energy healing and balancing

Where: Sisters

Employees: One

Phone: 208-720-4375

Website: www.handsonthehorseguy.com