Very often we hear about horses that need homes – desperately, right now! They can be horses that are rescues, or horses that have fallen on hard times, just moved from place to place after having had a long life with people who love them. Sometimes the people can’t take care of them any more. This has happened a lot since the economy crashed and more horses ended up without homes. A divorce, serious illness or job loss can be disastrous for much-loved family horses.
This past weekend I attended one day of an animal communication workshop with Leta Worthington, a well known animal communicator who lives in Cerrillos, New Mexico. We were each to bring photos of animals we wanted to work with. I of course, brought my horse pictures, and we worked Patches.
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
Happy New Year!
Between breaking the ice in the water tanks or dealing with tank heaters, regular maintenance such as hoof care and illnesses, there is always something to do for horses in winter. Complicating matters here in the Southwest has been the extreme cold lately. The following is an update of an article I wrote in my newsletter of January/February 2011.
“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
Your horse is the most beautiful, talented horse in the world.
That’s what you think on the way to the barn, while you’re at the barn scooping poop, doctoring a wound, sitting with him, sitting on him. He is as he is in the present moment, with you, a more powerful presence than what he has been and has been through in his life.
