The other day I was working with our gelding, Patches, on a liberty ritual that involves a pile of hay and him walking to me rather than to the hay. We then walk to the hay together, and include stops and sometimes backing up on our way there.
“Can you hear me now?” was a phrase in a popular advertisement for cell phones years ago. I recall being at a ride where I had to climb to the top of a big hill to get any connection. The beauty of that was everybody there made one phone call at the end of the day and the rest of the time no one could reach us and we didn’t bother to reach them. Our horses and our friends who were present got all our attention.
Continue reading Can you hear me now? Quality time with your horse
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?
Continue reading Establish an energetic connection with your horse
“Trick or treat – smell my feet – give me something good to eat” – my little five-year-old grandson goes around saying this and thinks he’s very funny. I think it’s rude, and I told him if he’s polite he may get far more treats!
At Halloween the topic of treats comes up of course, but it comes up often with horse work. I don’t want horses sniffing my pockets all the time, getting pushy, over treats. It makes them demanding and disrespectful.
Continue reading Equine trick-or-treat – give me something good to eat…
It’s been many years since I hauled a horse over 500 miles to an event, and generally it was to an endurance ride. This time, Patches (my non-endurance horse) and I just returned from the Carolyn Resnick Waterhole Rituals Clinic held at Spirit Horse Ranch near Oklahoma City. Hosted by certified Carolyn Resnick trainer, Ruella Yates, the two-day Waterhole Rituals clinic was an amazing event for all who attended. The clinic was followed by two days of lessons. The horses and people made great strides under Carolyn’s tutelage. What I love about this method is that there is always something more to learn. Even though I know the rituals, I learn them deeper each time I see Carolyn work or read her blog.
In Ortho-Bionomy study we talk about the study as the “Evolvement of the Original Concept.”
Continue reading Embodiment – understanding at the cellular level
I was reading Carolyn Resnick’s book, Naked Liberty and found this passage which I thought was interesting:
“Although he permitted me to ride him, it was many months before Mustang grew to like me. But once he liked me, I could depend on his support and friendship more than if he were human. Over time, his love for me grew to such an extent that even though the free-range land where he grew up was just few days travel from our ranch, he chose to stay when we finally let him run free.”
I have had this dressage saddle for a number of years, but usually ride in my endurance saddle. Lately I haven’t ridden in it because my right leg kept coming out of the stirrup, particularly at the trot. I was thinking I’d have to sell the saddle even though it fits my mare Zuzka, really well, and I like the feel of it otherwise.
Then I rode in it the other day, and I was happily surprised that the right leg was no longer dropping the stirrup! What I surmised had happened was the femur, the long thigh bone, was not properly seated at the base of the ilium, the big bone of the pelvis, which caused the fibula in the lower leg to lose its place, so the leg flopped out.
It got me thinking about how we/I think that something is going to remain that way forever, once it sets in, sort of like a mindset, where we consider that now the leg is going to drop the stirrup and it will never get any better just because…
Dr. Arthur Lincoln Pauls, founder of Ortho-Bionomy, was interested in addressing what he called “crystallized forms” – where we think there is no choice. He wanted to explore what was beyond those crystallized forms – where could the body go if we allowed it choice, to find its own path of self-correction. Our minds, trauma, all sorts of things, can sometimes stand in the way, blocking the way to breaking down those crystallized forms of our thinking and in turn, what our bodies can and will do.
I receive Ortho-Bionomy on a regular basis. One of the things I tell clients yet forget myself is that many times we come for treatment of one particular ailment, but while that is being addressed, other ailments or problems may fall away. I have not gone to an appointment with the sole purpose of doing anything about my leg, for instance, because I had another saddle to ride in where this didn’t happen. I thought I was probably just getting older (perish the thought) and this was the new normal.
I know I’m not alone in that kind of thinking. It’s natural to tend to the things that are the most problematic. But what if we could achieve what seems beyond the body’s current ability, not shoving it around in a repetitive exercise class or judo, or insisting on lifting 100 bales of hay, but by just giving it time and encouragement to make the corrections it needs to make? And sometimes, I think, by forgetting about a problem, as I had, it gives the body the space to make a change. “Whew, she isn’t eyeballing me any more. Now I can relax.” [body part speaking]
It shows me that so much healing takes place while we’re busy making other plans, sort of like life. If we’re busy healing one part, then the others will join in if they can. We use the pause or “the space between the notes” in Ortho-Bionomy — where we allow a rhythm to continue or establish itself, whatever the case may be, that can lead to healing.
It reminds me too of how in liberty training in the Carolyn Resnick Method, we use “the pause,” and in it, we also sometimes turn away from the horse, find something else to do, so we don’t have all our attention boring down on him. He may find this interesting and come over to check it out. New thought patterns emerge out of curiosity. The horse becomes more of himself, curious, alive, wanting to engage.
So we can see how horses do not like crystallized forms. They want us to be leaders, but true leaders, who are always looking for the best way to communicate. By giving space in the relationship we hear what the horse has to say. We learn true leadership, so that horses want to do activities with us, which is what we would all want in a relationship. Why wouldn’t our horses appreciate that treatment?
If I remain open to possibility, to breaking down those crystallized forms with people and animals, there is a greater chance of touching the unknown, receiving gifts I didn’t know existed – and possibilities beyond my wildest dreams.
