One morning after I let my horse, Peppe, out of his stall, he slowly walked to an enclosed arena and collapsed to the ground. I tried to get him up but to no avail. He could not move. I noticed he had sawdust on his back, which likely meant he had been rolling during the night trying to relieve pain. I knew that an illness with these symptoms is considered fatal if not caught early on. A friend of mine had lost several horses to it under veterinary care.

I called a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful treatment. Having witnessed many healings through prayer of other animals on our farm, I was not alarmed by my horse’s condition. Mary Baker Eddy writes, “The testimony of material sense in relation to existence is false;…” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 218).

Because this condition is the result of an impaction caused by food, my own prayer started with the truth about cause and effect. Mrs. Eddy explains, “Forget not for a moment, that God is All-in-all—therefore, that in reality there is but one cause and effect” (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 154–155). I reasoned that if God is the only cause, then food could not be a cause. And if God, who is Spirit, is All-in-all, then matter has no substance, so there could be no impaction.