I had a very cool experience with a client's mare last weekend that I thought was well granted for sharing. But first, for better story apprieciation I will start at the begining with a little bit of history...
'Dream' (or 'Magic', as Cathy calls her) is an 11 year old Morgan mare who came for some rehab for physical and emotional stuff. We've got the physical stuff all sorted out, thanks to Blaine, our awesome Chiropractor, and we are now working through the emotional tangles. Once the physical pain is gone, it takes a bit of convincing on your part that things are not going to hurt any more. In most cases, and this is Dream's case as well, the pain has been around for years. It's becomes not only expected, but the responce to anything that caused pain in the first place becomes a reflex responce. So it comes down to you're not only re-programming the brain, you're also reprogramming neuro pathways of the nervous system to associate good feelings and not pain with an action. So with Dream it started with removing the source of the pain, then working through some anger and defensive issues, and then going back to showing her that it didn't hurt, it actually felt good. So how do you work through the emotional stuff? I use a combination of Liberty and on-line work, most days it really honestly to the outside eye looks like nothing, but it almost becomes a form of meditation with the horses. So far in my experiences I've noticed two kinds of this meditation that the horses are willing to offer. One is 'Passive' and one is 'active'. In 'Passive' you sit in their energy with them and just breathe. Things are as they are, you learn to live in the moment, to appreciate things, and eventually you begin being able to 'just let go'. Once you reach this stage you then move into the 'active' meditation, that is, the phase of awareness where you can actually let go of those emotions. This usually involves physical movement, most times in the horses it's licking and chewing, stretching and/or yawning, but sometimes they need to actually move their feet and take you somewhere. Sometimes we are helping them release, and sometimes they are helping us. So this meditation is step one. Sometimes this takes weeks to achieve. Sometimes horses who are already self-aware, it takes only minutes. After you've reached this stage you can then being introducing liberty work. That is, turning the horse loose in a big area, usually an arena, and working with them on their terms. This allows them to fully choose to interact with you and every interaction is on their terms, they have the power to leave you and you have the power to leave them if either of you so choose. For my liberty work I use a combination of a few techniques, mixed in with my own. Most prevalent influences would have to be Carolyn Resnick (http://www.carolynresnickblog.com/) and Carl Reil, a local horse guru from my childhood. I also use a bit of Parelli, Monty Roberts and other training greats including Tommy Dorrance and Ray Hunt. Anyways, getting into that would be an entire novel on it's own... So after the Meditation you move onto the libery work. Once you establish a relationship with the horse using these two, you can move to riding. With Dream, I've spent the last month and a half simply meditating with her and doing liberty work. Yesterday she finally allowed me to ride her and it is an experience I will never forget. We started slowly, with some liberty work, companion walking and just enjoying being in each other's energy. After a while I put the halter back on and we went over to the mounting block. Dream remained happy and relaxed through all of this, which told me that we where ready for the next step. I got on the mounting block, up and down a couple times, like we have been working on. Still she was relaxed and happy, content to just 'be' there in the moment, in the good emotion. Finally I just slid onto her back. She took a few steps forward in almost a rushed, angry energy, so I say calmly and asked her to 'woah' using my voice. We then sat in quiet content for about five minutes. Then finally, when she had brought her energy back down, we proceeded to walk around the arena a few times in each direction. Finally, we stopped, and I could feel that she was projecting something at me, although I could not tell entirely what it was. I had this odd feeling to just take the halter off, and allow her to just be there with me, in that moment, of her own free choice. I'd never had this urge before with any horse other then Arik, whom I trust completely, so I was a bit nervous. I reached down and took the halter off, and to give my panicing false self a bit of a rest, left a neck rope on her. We then proceeded to walk around the arena for another 20 mins, completely in harmony and completely happy. We where content to just 'be' as we where, and as the world went on around us.
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