How our energy affects our horses. Soft training techniques to enter the horses world!

 

I was hired to work with some baby horses at a ranch in Central California some years ago.  It turned out to be a learning experience that would seriously affect all fundamental areas of my working with and training horses.   

One day I had four baby horses in the round pen together.  I was observing their interactions and was having fun watching how they were relating to each other.  Of course, as I watched, I realized that each little horse quite naturally had a very unique personality and way of relating to the other horses.  It is not only very informative to observe horses without interfering but if a person can just watch their actions objectively a lot can be learned and training techniques can be modified and altered to fit each horse's personality.

On this particular day I felt very relaxed myself and the setting of all four little horses together put me at ease inside of myself.  It was early in the morning and we were all just waking up and beginning our day.  I decided to take my relaxed feeling and to consciously work with it to see how it would affect the horses.  Looking back I'm not really sure where such a thought came from but I didn't have a big agenda at that particular time in the morning so I went with my intuition.  I simply went into the round pen and sat on the ground as though I really had no ideas about what should or could happen.  I just quieted myself and became relaxed and soft;  no anxiety or expectations or desires for anything to be other than how it was at that moment.  

I continued to observe the little horses as I sat there, and suddenly I found that as I became relaxed and let's say "empty inside" of my mind churning away - and all that inner noise - suddenly one little horse laid down right at my back - kerplunk.  He was actually leaning against me.  The next thing I knew another little horse plopped down.  I consciously relaxed myself even further and a third little horse and then a fourth plunked down.  

Suddenly there I was, sitting in the round pen, with four little four-month-old horses lying all around me.  As many people know young horses and horses in general will not normally give up their flight mechanism option or go off their feet unless they feel very safe, relaxed.  That's pretty much a rule.  

Since that day I've learned more and more about how horses can and do constantly read our inner world and energy.  I've also learned that horses are incredibly sensitive to energy in general and in particular to human energy.  Many people get themselves into trouble because they either don't understand this fact or because the exercise of consciously working with the inner energy is unfamiliar and/or unknown.  

I've often been called to various situations in which horses are said to be difficult or aggressive or unwilling to do this, that or the other.  The first thing I do is to consciously drop my energy, adopt an unthreatening body posture, consciously manifest feelings in my inner world of admiration, appreciation for the animal in front of me and invariably the horse's attitude and demeanor changes from night to day in an instant.

To further comment on this theory I remember some years ago I was discussing horses and energy with a man who once and operates a therapeutic riding facility in Germany.  He stated that a particular horse would relate totally differently to adults and totally differently to disabled children.  I found this idea quite remarkable and this is where my energy work began with horses.

I urge people who spend time around horses to experiment with this energy work.  I believe that, like me, you will find a treasure chest of possibilities in this area of relating to horses not to mention that the human to horse relationships will blossom and enter dimensions of communication and fulfillment that are new and unbelievably exciting to say the least.  Have fun and enjoy the process of exploration.