In the beginning of horse liberty work, there are rituals to follow such as:  Sit with your horse. Wait until he/she engages with you. Keep him away from you if he gets too bossy, etc. The idea behind this is what is important: in doing this and the other rituals you are establishing a bond that has the potential to deepen your bond or change it if necessary.

But why does one person succeed in getting that horse to move off and another has trouble doing it? Why is our own personal energy so different?

That is a huge question which we will attempt to find answers to in my upcoming Horses at Liberty Spring Clinic. But for now, it’s something to think about. Recently a  woman who has a wonderful bond with her horses had difficulty getting her horse to walk faster. We started with bodywork to make sure there were no physical issues that she had been concerned about, then transitioned into a liberty ritual. The liberty ritual was designed to deepen the relationship between horse and human, and at the same time re-establish boundaries which were strong, but maybe needed a different approach.

Often I find that a person will have trouble with one of their horses but not any of their others. It can be the horse’s personality that doesn’t quite mesh with the owner’s, but how can we over come these blocks in our understanding of one another? It’s similar to when we meet someone we feel we just can’t connect with. Horses prefer some horses to others too. Why can’t we all just get along? What is that about?

When I was first studying Ortho-Bionomy, I would sometimes find those disconnects and then several hours into the class, the feeling would have disappeared. That was due in large part to the fact that we came together as a group with the instructor’s wonderful energetic help. She knew how to get that cohesiveness in us. Other problems between people were let go. That is a beautiful ability and one I hope to nourish over the rest of my lifetime. But it can also be achieved with horses. The more we know them, acknowledge their who-ness, the more they do the same with us. The more we know about their language, the more we can “speak” it, the more trusting the horse will become, and the more he will want to share with us. Just as we want to share our lives with our best friends.

Sometimes we and horses erect walls based upon our past experiences and hurts. These are self-protective mechanisms that have served to keep us safe in the past, but may no longer be useful in present day life. Those mechanisms get triggered still even though there may not be a real threat. We can work on de-fusing those triggers so they aren’t firing as often, through various ways, bodywork and horse liberty work being two of those ways that I know of. In the horse, once he learns to trust, he won’t react as much. The Ritual work will help with this because it is founded on non-force, taking the resistance out of a horse. Most importantly, it allows the horse the freedom to make his/her own decisions in the beginning of the relationship. It becomes a conversation, not a domination.

And this brings me to the reason that my clinics do not have auditors. Auditors do not have the same energetic investment in the group. They can sit in the bleachers and whisper and comment on what’s going on, without being helpful. Full participation is needed at all my clinics because everyone’s energy is vital to the group. We want to be part of  cooperative communities with our horses. We are modeling this for our horses, and they in turn will do so for us. Everyone has an opportunity to work with the horses, whether they bring one or not. We work with a specific number of horses to ensure that the horses get a good base in the work and that everyone can see the changes in them and what they can achieve. This also gives the participants – both horse and human – a chance to work with different rituals and their energetic responses to them. Hopefully, the humans will notice changes in themselves as well!

To help your horse with body soreness and/or winter conditions, consider signing up for EPR Study Groups will be held in Santa Fe, NM. Look at http://www.orthohorse.info or http://www.eprortho.com for calendar announcements for classes.

Private sessions and gift certificates are available by calling 505.501.2478 or emailing susansmith@orthohorse.info

Click on this flyer to find out about my upcoming Liberty Clinic to be held March 30th in Santa Fe.