It is too much. I’ll sum up.

I’m in Florida for session two of my acupuncture class. Session one was 22 hours of online lectures on theory. Yesterday started with two hours of review and then two hours of explanation of jing points which are powerful points on the legs that affect the whole body. There was a whole way to figure out what’s what but there is also a color coded chart that I prefer to just look at. Also small animals might rather eat you than let you work on these points on the toes. Those are my take home messages.

After lunch we were broken up into our lab groups. The students are either taking the small animal only track, the horse only track, or mixed animal like me. My lab group consists of five mixed animal people. We started with a horse and a teacher and learned to find 25 points. For the certification test we have to ID 20 points in each species. We have to point to it and give an anatomical explanation of how to find it. We have to learn this for hundreds of points that they will pick the twenty out of for the test. Brain overload.

Our horse was a very good sport. He was a 19 year old Arab who just stood there ground tied while we felt him all over. He got a needle at ST-1 when we all doubted it could be done. That is on the lower eye lid. He seemed surprised at first but then didn’t care.

Then we moved to the dog. We were using a greyhound. I love them. They just lay there like they are drugged and let you do whatever. Ours did get a bit miffed during the tick acupuncture session. She had a very small tick between her toes. The teacher had heard that if you stick a needle through a tick and rotate it counterclockwise three times then they will let go. We had acupuncture needles so we tried. It was a very small tick and easily bent needles so it didn’t work but the dog decided we were all nuts and tried to leave. She was persuaded to stay with a few treats and some belly rubs.

We got to put a few needles in her. She didn’t mind that at all. Sure, you can stick needles in her but pick on her favorite tick and she gets huffy….

Today is two hours of self needling techniques followed by lecture on chinese diagnosis. Then we are back to lab learning points after lunch.