Years ago, when I got my mare Zuzka, the trainer I was working with at the time was so happy when we were able to put her in the same corral space with my gelding Khami. The trainer said it helped her training because the mare would be moved around all day by him.
Liberty work takes on a life of its own. Even when I know the horses involved, they do not always do what I expect.
In Ortho-Bionomy we work with reflexes, and one of them is rebound. If a body does not have rebound then it has little ability to change, to heal itself. We want to reinstate rebound in the body in order to elicit change and the ability to correct itself. That ability can grow in a being and is directly tied into the continuing health of the organism. I seek that self-corrective response in each body I work with….and in my own.
Continue reading Healing the horse and human herd from within
Touch can change heart rates, calm and nourish. Touch is the way we sometimes make contact when nothing else can work. I remember being in the hospital and having someone touch me in a healing way, just touch, not trying to move me, and it made all the difference in the world. 
Continue reading The importance of touch in horse work
The closer we get to horses, the deeper our experience can become. Horses can guide us in remarkable ways. My mare Jazzie came to me in dreams for two years before I brought her home. I am in the process of learning why she wanted to be with me so much. Sometimes (probably more often than not) horses know things that we don’t know yet or that we can’t sense.
Much like people have mantras and chanting for their meditations, horses move and flow rhythmically. If we can watch, feel and be a part of their rhythms rather than imposing our own modern-day rushed rhythms on them, we will find they are much more likely to want to be with us, and will be curious about us.
“Both equines and humans learned to overcome fear and step into trust and love. Hope you enjoy the picture of you and beautiful Starwyn.” – Lisa Malone
“Every time I close my eyes even for a moment I see those beautiful horses faces.” – Lucy Taylor
Someone wrote to me recently telling the story that once they were working with their horses and someone began yelling and hitting a horse nearby. This caused the storyteller to have a bad accident, because it scared her horse.
Continue reading Creating an energetic, mindful bubble for your horse!
I know what I’m about to write is probably controversial to many people. But I believe therapy horses need help.
Until our gelding Patches came to live with us, I didn’t know much about the horses in therapeutic riding programs. I thought they were doing a public service and that was great. Now I see remnants of that experience in our horse and have spent two years helping him get confident again. During the past two years, I’ve spoken to others who have either worked in such programs or who have horses from the programs and have also seen similar problems these horses suffer.
Horse trainers know that repetition is what gets a horse to learn something, and it is true with people too. We can’t learn to play the piano without doing scales, lots of them.
Continue reading Bring joy to repetition in liberty horse training
