NORTH COUNTY -- Carol Albino already had spent hundreds of dollars on X-rays and other medical expenses for her ailing horse when a trainer suggested calling animal communicator Lydia Hiby for help.

"I thought, 'Oh, right,' Albino said, laughing at the memory. "But then I thought, 'I've spent six or seven hundred bucks on this horse, so what's another few bucks?'"

On the day Hiby arrived, she walked into the stable and casually patted the horse, Marty's Enterprise, and talked to Albino, not unlike any other visitor might. But while there was nothing striking about Hiby's demeanor, Albino still remembers how Marty's Enterprise responded.

"I was kind of taken aback at the horse's reaction to her," Albino said, recalling what she believes was evidence of animal communication. "He couldn't believe she could talk to him. He was dumbstruck and tried to hide behind us."

Albino's veterinarian had been unable to diagnose why the horse seemed in pain until the animal "told" Hiby just where it was hurting, she said.

"Lydia pinpointed a place on the horse, and the vet came out the next day and injected it," Albino said. "And then he was fine."

That was 15 years ago, and Albino, an El Cajon resident, now calls on Hiby to visit animals at her River Run Farm in Lakeside about three times a year.

"There are several animal communicators around, but I think her following is probably the greatest," Albino said about Hiby, who moved from Lancaster to Escondido two years ago.

'Everybody has intuition'

At 50, Hiby reportedly has been at it longer than most animal communicators, who also are called animal psychics.

"It's a God-given ability," Hiby said. "Everybody has intuition. We just have to learn how to do it, or just practice at it."

The cover of Hiby's 2000 book, "Conversations with Animals," shows her at age 4 staring directly at a goose, her hands behind her back, as if quietly listening.

"I tell people that all kids can do this, but we forgot as we get older," she said.

Hiby grew up in Staten Island, N.Y., and fell in love with horses by riding ponies at nearby Clove Lake Park at age 3. That love later led to a job at a New Jersey stable, where she would meet her mentor, Beatrice Lydecker, in 1981. Hiby was unimpressed when she first heard that Lydecker, an animal psychic who had been featured on the "Tonight" show with Johnny Carson, was coming to the stable.

"I was a New York skeptic and said, 'Oh, right, and I've got two bridges to sell you,'" she said.

But Hiby was impressed after Lydecker asked her whether she could see a photo of a pet. She handed over a photo of her dog, and said Lydecker told her it had a special relationship with her mother, who had been the one to teach it tricks. Lydecker even knew the family had Oriental rugs at home just by looking at the dog's picture, she said.

"She liked to go in and take her cookies from my mom and eat them on the rug," Hiby said about the dog. "It was like the dog had such taste, she couldn't eat the cookies on the kitchen floor but had to enjoy them on an Oriental rug."

Lydecker said she also was shocked when Hiby told her that "all the horses you work with tell me you communicate with them."

Hiby developed her gift under Lydecker over several years, she said, and estimates she has worked with 60,000 animals so far. She's been featured in major newspapers and on network shows, including the "Tonight" show with Jay Leno and "Late Night with David Letterman."

Talking with the animals

Having studied veterinary technology, Hiby's knowledge of animal anatomy helps her relay to veterinarians what she has learned from psychic communications.

Animal chiropractor Cheryl Ricketts of Escondido said Hiby is almost always correct in pinpointing problems.

"When you're at a loss and don't know where to go, she's definitely a valuable source," she said.

In the last few months, Ricketts said, Hiby helped her diagnose a horse that was having unexplained seizures. At Hiby's suggestion, Ricketts examined the horse's head and found a problem with its jaw.

Ricketts originally was skeptical, but she said that eight years ago she turned to Hiby for help in diagnosing a problem with an aggressive horse. Hiby told Ricketts the horse was blacking out and had no memory of its own aggression, and she could offer no suggestions other than euthanasia. Ricketts said a postmortem exam discovered a brain tumor.

While about two-thirds of her clients own horses, Hiby also works with dogs, cats and exotic animals. Many of those clients are over-the-phone consultations, but on a recent Saturday she visited Albino's River Run Farm to give horse owners personal consultations.

"So what kind of things do you want to ask him?" Hiby said to Theresa Brehl about her horse, Rio Cuervo. Brehl said she wondered why Rio got spooked when being saddled over concrete, but was fine over dirt.

As usual, Hiby used no theatrics and did not verbally ask questions.

Instead, she merely stood next to the horse, stroking his coat.

"You step into the animal and become them," she later said about the way she communicates with animals and sees the world through their eyes. "If it's a Chihuahua, you're low to the ground and everybody's 8 feet tall. If it's a horse, you're looking down on everybody. Sometimes, I get a quick picture of something and I get a physical feeling, like the back of my neck hurts."

Hiby said sometimes she can even taste what an animal has eaten, adding that it's not her favorite part of the job.

A 'flash' of insight

Animals communicate with one another by "flashing" messages to each other in images rather than using words, said Hiby, explaining what she senses.

In Rio's case, Hiby said the horse had a distant memory of a bad experience over concrete from before Brehl owned him, which still triggered skittishness.

In an earlier visit, Brehl said the horse had told Hiby he was worth more than Brehl had paid for him and that he also did not like some of the derogatory names people were jokingly calling him at the stable. Brehl said Hiby had no way of knowing about the taunting names before her visit to the stable.

After her visit with Rio, Hiby then communicated with Cash, a horse owned by Darcey Attig.

"His liver is sort of off-balance," Hiby said, placing her hands on the horse. "He said his last worming was too much."

Hiby said the horse also told her he was afraid he might be sold because of his health problems, but Attig said he didn't need to worry.

Veterinarian Kevin May of El Cajon Valley Veterinary Hospital has used animal communicators to help with difficult diagnoses, and said he has worked with Hiby the longest.

"Sometimes it's just amazing what folks like Lydia come up with," he said. Still, May said a dose of skepticism is good when dealing with someone who claims to be a communicator.

"I'm open to someone proving to me that they have communication skills, but I still want to see some results," he said.

Hiby has proven herself to May several times, and sometimes has discovered ailments animal owners didn't even know about, he said.

Hiby has a Web site at www.LydiaHiby.com. On Feb. 15 and March 29, she will teach a workshop at the Natural Healing Institute of Naturopathy, 543 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. Cost is $350. Call (760) 796-4304.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.