Why should your horse want to be with you?

16 years ago, I opened up my farm for rehabilitating horses. 

There was one horse, his name was Nick. He was brought to me all the way from Massachusetts (several thousand kilometers away and across a border). I got a phone call from the woman and she said, "I have this horse..." and she wanted to ride him and learn how to do upper-level dressage movements. And so she was advised to buy him. She bought him ... later she found that he was completely broken.

Feet issues; he had heart bar shoes on. Nobody could figure out his feet. He was in pain constantly. He had stomach ulcers, she couldn't ride him and he couldn't be with other horses.

So she had all these problems with Nick. And unfortunately, she was at a place where she couldn't, and didn't know what to do. So she called me.

We worked on rehabilitating him and within three weeks, he had his heart bar shoes taken off and he was on his well on his way to rehabbing his feet.

He was gradually reduced from the amount of bute that he had until he was on no bute.  His owner could not believe it because she was told that this horse would never get off of the bute.

And then we went about finding the blocks that were in his body. So this horse is one example of how horses have guided me along my journey of learning and healing.

What does your horse want from you?

Your horse only wants to be heard and to be understood.

They want to get along in life. They wanna be able to merge with people in society. It's not about doing stuff. Yes, we need the physical involvement, the techniques we do need that.

When you listen to yourself, then you are able to listen to your horse.

The trust comes from us.

It's not from the horse trusting us initially.

If we can put trust in the horse, then we can co-create our time with our horse. It's not about having a robotic horse that just does what you say. It's about co-creating with our horse where we want to go, how to heal our horse. 

What are our horses showing us on how we can heal them?

It's not about going through your routine, because you've always done it that way, and that's the way it works with other horses. There will be that one horse that comes along that will challenge you, and this is where you will learn that you need to get into the place of being with your horse.

Limiting beliefs

Limiting beliefs that are holding us back ... fear and anxiety or whatever that might be.

Our horses come to us to show us how to be whole, so they show us what needs to be healed. When a rider has subconscious blocks, it shows in their bodies.

An example is a rider who is very fearful about a trauma that's happened in her past. But she hasn't released that, and horses pick up on that instantly...

...when you have a subconscious block because they see your movement, they see the way you are and they pick up on that instantly.

So how do you get blocks?  It's just a misunderstanding. 

Maybe when you were a child, something happened to you that caused you, your body, your mind to protect you.

The issue is that these exist, and so when we can come from a place of understanding rather than misunderstanding, then we can understand about ourselves, and then we can extend that to our horses. 

I wanted to talk about Nick a little bit more. I rehabbed him. He became sound.

Then I started to work with his physical body, and I found that he was extremely blocked in the poll area, both from flection this way and lateral flexion, so vertical and lateral flexion.

And when I found that he was blocked in that way, extremely, we worked in that area of his body and his rider was able to ride him.

So that's what I mean about subconscious blocks. When I worked with that rehab horse, I could tell how he was ridden. I could tell the subconscious blocks that were in his previous riders.

He was showing me very, very clearly what was happening in his physical body, and that had then lead to illness. The mental leads to the physical, which then led to illness.

Nick was rehabilitated, but in the process, I was rehabilitated as well.

I will be with the horse first

He showed me that my promise to horses is that I will be with the horse first, so I will work on myself as much as I possibly can and clear myself as much as I possibly can, so that I can be with my horse...

that's where the work starts. It starts right there,

and until we do that, we're not able to progress further with our horses.

If we don't know how to be kind to ourselves if we don't love ourselves if we don't find that we're worthy, then how can we possibly give that to our horses?

Starts with yourself first and then it goes to the horses. Your horses will guide you along your journey as long as you are open to that.

And this is what I teach in my program. 

What are you going to do, to give you freedom with your horse? And this is what we all want, isn't it? We want freedom.

We want to be able to be with our horses and have the freedom to do it. Because we love our horses and we want to be able to love what we're doing. If it doesn't resonate with you what you're doing. If it feels like it's constantly a battle, that's not going to be something that you love. What things you love doing with your horses.

Do you have any questions, any notes for me, feel free to put them below. And also if you're interested in my program, if this is valuable for you and you like this, then I have more for you... A program that supports you and leads you to find that transformation you’re looking for with your horse.  You are not alone... We are here for you.

MORE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU BUILD YOUR DREAM HORSE