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Riding Through the Senses with Ortho-Bionomy

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I was sitting on my mare Jazzie the other day and thinking about how to present the vast amount of material there is for the Mounted Body Balance™ – In the Saddle classes. Many people ask, well why would I do that if I’m taking a riding lesson? I get a massage regularly, why would I do this?

Well, a riding lesson focuses on you in the saddle, in the most efficient posture to get your horse to do what you would like her to do. It may involve some horse management skills. A good lesson will also work on you psychologically – what you’re bringing to the relationship that may or may not be helpful. A massage is great, but it doesn’t ask you to engage with each part of your body and address how it relates to the animal’s body when you’re in the saddle. Further, it allows you to fall asleep, which is not advisable while in the saddle!

Mounted Body Balance™ is an integrated, wholistic, non-force approach of horse and rider that puts us in touch with our senses. When riding we are connecting spine to spine with the horse. Our spine meets the horse’s at one critical point, where our sit bones and tailbone meet the thoracics of the horse. In bodywork for both horse and rider, we are looking at what is available in each body, and working with enhancing that availability for greater comfort and ease. We can also use that strength that we find in one body to help the other body in that same or another area that may not be as available.

For example, when my neck is tight, perhaps instead of directly working with neck rotations on me,  I can look at my mare’s neck and see if she has any fill or hardness there. Then I can ask my mare to do side bends and release her neck while I’m on her back. As it turns out, this movement can release the tension in my own neck.

Jazzie has tension along her thoracics. While thinking about my upcoming class, I sat in the saddle with the awareness that I am sitting on her mid-thoracics, and I did an technique we call in Ortho-Bionomy©, “disc-fluffing.” (See illustrations in the article). Drop your head forward and pull shoulders forward and cross your arms across your chest. Then press down on and rock your shoulders in this position. This released my thoracic spine.  After we did this exercise on me, Jazzie moved forward more boldly. I noticed the flow of her spine underneath me and the rhythm of her ribcage was more forward as well.

In the saddle, I can reach for the parts of the horse that are accessible. I can work with her sacrum by reaching behind me and feel its preferred position. My touch is always gentle. I can touch my own sternum and reach down and touch hers as well, and ask the question, are our sternums balanced? With a bigger horse, you may have to dismount to access certain parts of the body effectively.

All of us – horse and human – hold tension in our bodies and we also have areas that just don’t speak. We have places that don’t work as well as others. My right leg can get funky in the hip socket, for example. I could sit up there and worry about what a terrible rider I am and I shouldn’t ride because I’m not always symmetrical and blah blah blah, but if I focus on all the dysfunction, then I am missing what my body can do, and how it can support the areas that aren’t working quite so well. My horse has stuff going on in her hips also. I focus on the healing available in her body. And guess what? Even though she has that stuff, she is a beautiful mover. I sit on her, and I feel each part of me and her, and focus on the parts that work really well while holding an awareness of what I’d like to have shift.

When I do that, she comes up to meet me, and she will travel beautifully to support my not-so-perfect-body in a way that works for both of us, without restrictive compensation. It helps my body feel better too.

When the horse knows he or she can influence your body for the greater good, he or she will seek that.

With Ortho-Bionomy© for both horse and rider, we can learn what is holding up the bus. Riding instructors have wonderful ways of encouraging the horse forward, ways for riders’ to hold their legs so that the legs are not being counterproductive for the horse, or to sit correctly so as not to impede the horse’s movement – all of that has to do with the anatomy and the relationship of the two bodies working in sync, or not.

We are often trying to solve certain problems: spooky horse, horse not moving forward, going too fast, short-strided, unbalanced, throwing its head, bucking, anxiety. These problems can be addressed through this form of bodywork.

Many riders hold tension in their upper thoracics while riding. In fact, more experienced riders often have more tension in that region. How does this translate to the horse?  If the horse is dealing with tension in the lumbar but has great strength in his own thoracics, we can work with the horse’s thoracics to help the rider’s. When he can loosen up in that region and flow better – ribs as well – so can his rider.

The horse with lumbar trouble often won’t move forward freely. If we open up the spine, and check the rider’s engagement with the spine, then the horse can move forward more easily. We may also need to check saddle fit with both thoracic and lumbar pain, for both horse and rider.

Certainly, work can be done on some of these issues independently of the horse/rider relationship, and I do that in many cases where a person may need individual table work ahead of a horse/rider session, or the horse needs to receive an entire session on his own. If someone has major back trouble, I’m going to work on that, and same with the horse. But once the bodies are free of great inhibition, we can bring them together and see where they can strengthen and enhance each other, and bring space into the relationship that may have been restricted before.

Simple and very regular preparatory techniques that people do to prepare to ride are great ways of beginning this work. While grooming your horse you can feel along the spine for any irregularities. If you don’t know anatomy, it’s helpful to get a simple equine anatomy book – and a human one while you’re at it! Learn where the bones are. Everything else is related to or attached to the bones in some way, so it’s a great place to start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While this may seem elementary, walk your horse out to check his or her gait. Then check your tack when you tack up. While I was endurance riding, the care of the horse was a high priority. I would trot out my horse the morning of the ride before tacking up to make sure he was going well. I would check all my tack before leaving for the ride and the night before the ride. These are good habits to get into even if you’re just going out for a short ride.

After that I may do a little bit of bodywork on areas I see are not working so well on my horse, and stretch out myself.  You can apply your own exercises, such as qi gong, yoga, Feldenkrais, etc. and in Ortho-Bionomy© we have a lot of self-care exercises for people and ones you can do for your horse. Some of them I have adapted to use in the saddle as well.

This work evolves, so that after awhile you may find you no longer have that trouble with your right knee, for example, and the horse is no longer stiff while crossing over behind to the left, but some other issue has shown itself and so you’ll  need to adapt your program to those changes.

I teach this to people so that they can begin to sense the changes themselves. I can show you how to do many things, but then it’s up to you to figure out when to use them and when you may need to try something else. Figuring this out is a lifelong process, although sometimes we’re lucky enough to have some quick fixes. At the same time, you get better at recognizing areas of strength and how to palpate tissue. This approach can be integrated into your riding lessons, performance or trail riding activity and your more sedentary horse work.

Much thought has been given over centuries to how to ride efficiently and so as to bring out the best in the horse and rider.  With the Mounted Body Balance™ approach, an older horse can move better than he or she ever has and so can her rider.  Life isn’t static so we can’t guarantee that any of us are not going to have some physical challenges, but there is a lot we can solve and make more comfortable with this type of work. A horse may be able to help you with your body issues without impairing his/her own stride or balance. Of course, aging will limit what you can do but why not try to do what you love comfortably for as long as you can? As a physical therapist friend of mine says, “I’m here to help you be able to do what you love for longer.”

I take her words to heart. When we travel down the trail, I can feel Jazzie’s rhythmic strides, I can feel where my body may not be quite right and make the adjustments and I can feel her shift to accommodate or make that easier for me. Our senses are alive as our bodies connect, as we trot along a well-known path, with deepening knowledge of ourselves – together.

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Contact me for private sessions. info@susansmithsantafe.com or through the website.

 

 

Where does our love of horses come from?

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The trail less traveled

animal communication, bodywork, energy work, Equine Body Balance, equines, exercise, fear, healing, herd behavior, herd dynamics, horse training, horsemanship, horses, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Liberty training, trail riding, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

Years ago, I was teachnig in Florida at my friend Anne’s ranch, and her young pig Rosie got into my luggage. She ate face cream, my snack bars, and other stuff from my open suitcase. I caught her at it, and promptly guided her out, walking behind her, as I would with a horse.

“Rosie the Wrecking Ball”

There was a a lot of squealing, turning to face me with upturned, indignant snout, but Rosie the Wrecking Ball did move off to other food sources.

At that time, I had not been around pigs much and had no idea if any of that liberty work would work on a pig, but it did. I think that was how she was trained from that day forward.

A friend who had grown up on a farm said if you could do Liberty Foundations with a chicken, then you could very easily do it with a horse. I’ve not had that experience, although a rooster did come to one of my workshops, tucked lovingly into the jacket of one of the attendees. We had so many horses to work with we didn’t have time to work with the rooster, but it’s on my bucket list!

Anne Daimler working with her mare, Cherokee

The point of all this is, we who practice Liberty Foundations or other alternative forms of horsemanship or training, are traveling a trail less traveled. If you can practice it with a chicken or a pig, you can do it with a horse.  We are giving the horse an opportunity to choose. There are obviously times when we must ask the horse to do something they may not wish to do, like with Rosie, asking her to get out of my luggage.  Or  like our kids must brush their teeth, eat their vegetables, etc. but if they get a choice between certain things at some times, they feel their world open up. It also may be that brushing one’s teeth becomes less onerous because they know that they will get to do something fun afterwards. I used to take my kids to get ice cream after getting immunizations.

The ice cream is more of a reward system, but we have rewards built into liberty as well. Any approach where we are rewarding good behavior and not focusing on bad behavior will give great rewards in terms of connection, communication and lasting work together.

The trail less traveled may be filled with brambles. It may be a bushwhacking trail, where there isn’t a trail but in order not to fall off a cliff you are traversing the side of a mountain and carving out a path so you can ride down into a beautiful valley or other limitless vista. People who follow tried-and-true methods without exploring possible options won’t have this problem because their course is already set.  They pick a place where there isn’t the possibility of lost trail, quicksand or other challenges. It’s challenging enough just to get the basics on the animal, let alone go off into the unknown.

What if it’s like she said, the horse won’t respect me if I don’t get tough?

Well, I ask, what are your convictions? Do you feel okay about what’s happening or do you shrink from the tough work with your horse? Do you feel your point could be made with less force? Do you want an adversarial relationship with your horse because you can get the horse to submit that way?

My other question is, what is your energy like? Feel it in all its glorious dimensions. Is it forward, back, side-side, up-down, does it feel good in all those dimensions or is it missing out somewhere? Is it squishy or dark or inaccessible?

Working with the energetic connection with Glorya and Regalo.

The horse will notice these things. The horse has a veritable PhD in energy. When people say you must work with intention, this energy and dimension stuff all fits into that one word. Your intention can be blocked by the energy in your dimensions without you knowing about it.

So it’s not just about the doing. It’s not about being so scary the horse absolutely has to do what you say. It’s how you are inside.

Many students become intimidated at this stage because they know the teacher has more knowledge than they do, so they better listen, even though their gut is twisting with angst. They feel their horse not want to be near them. While the horse does everything the student wants now, the student feels they have lost their horse.

Where is the fun-loving sweetness and eagerness? The student may try to win the horse back with lots of cookies or pets, but they are nervous and tipped over in the relationship now. Someone else is directing the flow even when the horse and owner are alone. Training by intimidation.

It’s difficult to hold onto your convictions if you know that someone knows more than you. But you have convictions. Think about other areas of your life where you feel very strongly about things: your chosen profession, animal rights, the environment, education, world peace, etc.

There is also the thing where the professional may say, well what you’re doing doesn’t work because you still haven’t accomplished what you set out to do. 

My reply could be, yes, but I have a horse who has light in her eyes, who is still curious about our work together, who meets me at the gate. Whether we meet the goal is less important to me than the process.

In a way it’s like psychotherapy. When I was in therapy, the therapist would always say, it’s a process.

It’s a process, like health is also a process. When I work with horses and people, they become better hopefully, and sometimes they have setbacks or get injured and I see them more often. Sometimes I work with them near death. That’s life.

If I lose my horse’s trust, which has happened to me, I worry that I may not regain it. I have breached a confidence, some understanding we share. I have the greater intellect, so I am responsible for not abusing that. The horse has the greater primal intellect; he knows how to live in nature and by primal rules. His responsibility is to not take advantage of his position also, but may need to learn that in relationship with humans. This is where we offer guidance.

If I demonstrate enough trustworthy behavior I can generally regain the confidence and trust of my horse, unless the horse has been abused a great deal before I came along. But at that point I must continue to offer a good deal, and if I have to ask more of my horse than he wants to do, I reward him greatly for his supreme efforts.

This is the trade-off, this is what makes the trail less traveled different.

The trail less traveled may involve a technique you come up with on-the-fly, that’s not in the handbook, something you have learned by watching your horse. This is wonderful, you are moving into intuitive learning, intuitive training, without steps. Sometimes we need steps like we need a map when we’re unsure of where we’re going, at the beginning.

But after awhile, the concepts become embodied and it is easier. Your convictions become stronger. The voices of the critical world fall away. You are moving along the trail, your horse picking her footing, dropping down off the mountain, heading into switchbacks with sunlight blinding you, skirting deadfall, down into that gorgeous valley where tall grasses tickle your mare’s knees and a thin snow-fed stream gurgles through. You are as one. And nobody can tell you any different.

Nurturing the “Seeking Mechanism” in Horses

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The “seeking mechanism” is a part of most mammals, according to neuroscientist and psychobiologist Jaak Panksepp, author of the book and concept, Affective Neuroscience, the study of  the neural mechanisms of emotion. For the sake of understanding our horses, it is a huge part of what makes us interesting to them. Curiosity about food, what we’re doing, what we might do with them, can help nurture and define our training process.

In nature, horses will seek different types of grasses, seek shelter, water, companionship, safety. Those are basic needs. How do we engage their interest? Is it always with a cookie, or can we engage them in other ways?

At the same time horses spend all day doing repetitive actions, such as moving each other off food, or space, and so that may seem very dull and uninteresting to us. They are moving each other for their health, and to find out what the other horse might be eating that might be more tasty. And that brings us back to the seeking mechanism. With their noses to the ground, they are seeking new plants, smells and experiences.

This type of natural foraging isn’t something we can provide much of in the west. Our grasses get eaten and take awhile to grow back since we have limited rainfall. But when rainfall occurs, grass pops up overnight, and the horses’ excitement about those new shoots is noticeable.

Here are some ways we can foster curiosity in the horse and get him interested in what we might have to offer:

  1. Take an interest in what your horse is interested in. This may not be easy to do if you’ve got limited time, but it can make a huge difference to how the horse views you and how relaxed he feels in your presence.

When you think about other humans, it’s difficult to be in the presence of someone who has no interest in what you’re interested in. In this way, horses are a lot like us.

Jicarita Peak ride, 12,000 feet elevation

2. Change things around. Ride somewhere different, do some of your schooling on the trail or down the road in someone else’s arena. My horses always loved the trail, though I know all horses don’t. I took them everywhere, all over our state and three adjacent states, riding new trails.

 

 

Take the focus off the horse. Kids get so immersed in what they’re doing, horses can often find them fascinating. In order to be more interesting, sometimes I’ll take a piece of tack to repair and sit with the horses, so I’m fully engaged with something other than the horse. In this photo, Kaiden is playing with one of his toys, and Patches wants to be a part of it.  Little did I know at the time that building a fort would be an activity of interest for my young mare, Jazzie.

 

 

 

4. Introduce something new. While my mares are not very interested in toys, my geldings have always enjoyed big exercise balls. You can see the different responses of these four…

Little Gizmo
Fearless Khami
Patches showing off

 

 

 

 

Zuzka is not thrilled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Add laughter to your day.  I’ve had some funny experiences with laughter and horses.  Once in a clinic, we had a very shut down horse who thought humans only wanted him to do things, so he simply went through the motions like a robot. We changed things up and brought him into the arena while we were doing a human energetic exercise. People began laughing as they practiced being horses and played with the idea of moving each other around. This horse Tank was so curious about the people laughing that he came to hang out with us so he could be part of the fun. This changed everything for him. From thereon he began to have fun and got very engaged with each person who worked with him.

Tank wants to be part of the fun

Jaak Panksepp did a lot of research on varying topics, but one I love is the research on laughter in non-human animals. He researched primates, dogs, and rats, but no horses. While I have no clinical research, I think it would be fun to see if horses emit sounds like laughter, and will laugh with us. Certainly sometimes their expressions suggest that they do!

(c) Susan Smith, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Equine Body Balance (TM)

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Tank joining the group

 

 

 

When should I ride my horse?

abused horses, alternative therapies, animal communication, bodywork, energy work, equines, exercise, fear, geriatric horses, healing, herd behavior, herd dynamics, horse training, horsemanship, horses, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, liberty rein, Ortho-Bionomy, performance horses, riding, trail riding, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

This question comes to me often: When can I ride my horse? How much can I ride my horse?

Jazzie_trail

In our society, there is a strong push to get horses back to work after an injury or illness, just as there is with people. If you have a surgery, you can be back to work pretty quickly these days after some procedures. The problem with this is that the body may need longer to recover and may be playing catch-up.

At the same time, movement is essential to the health of the body. The horse may need a gradual curve of gentle techniques and movement exercise before actual work. Surgery interrupts the regular function of  the body. Any injury or surgery affects the entire organism.

The liver controls tendons and ligaments, for example, so when tIMG_0324hose areas are affected, the liver is deficient in fluids and therefore the tendons and ligaments are also not getting vital fluids and don’t move as efficiently.

I use the example of a horse hitting its head really hard and getting stitches. Just because the vet has deemed him “fine” and patched him up, doesn’t mean he is ready to roll. The horse may exhibit strange behavior after the bump on the head, sometimes neurological symptoms such as wobbliness. Or sometimes symptoms take years to manifest.

I’ve often asked clients if their horse has had a head injury at any time, because of something I’ve seen happening (or not happening) in the body. “Oh, yes, ten years ago he hit his head on the trailer but it healed up just fine.”

As we know, our bodies hold a road map of everything that has happened in our lives, and horses’ too. Everything – physical, emotional, you name it, it’s in there. That’s why every injury or illness needs support from within, not just from without.

Usually the vet will have a timeline for when to begin hand-walking, or lunging your horse after an injury. The timelines after specific injuries, such as ligament and tendon injuries, falls, illness, etc. will help you understand how many weeks of one activity you may have and how long to engage in it. You will have to depend on your knowledge of your horse and how he is feeling to know whether the vet’s expectations meet what your observations bear out.

Z_cavalettiWhen I was endurance riding, our ride vets would remind us that we knew more about our horses than they did, in one way. We were around our horses all the time. We knew their habits, and we knew when they were doing fine and when they were not.

My gelding Khami was a funny example of that. He used to like to sleep flat out on the ground, while tied to the trailer, with his eyes wide open, when at an hour-long vet check. The local New Mexico ride vets knew this habit of his and didn’t worry. When we rode in Paonia, Colorado once, he did this and the vet was frantic. He said I must get my horse up, he was worried and couldn’t find any vital signs. Khami got up to see what all the commotion was about, but he was very well rested. His vital signs were fine and he went on to finish a 2-day 100.

The question of when to ride your horse is going to vary with some horses a great deal. It depends on whether they are fit to be ridden, and for how long they can be ridden. It depends on their age, and their temperament and training. The saddle and bridle. The person who is riding them. The owner may have to modify his/her expectations of what the horse can accomplish for awhile.

I look at a lot of factors:

  • What is his facial expression?
  • Can the horse cross over behind?
  • Is he shrinking from touch anywhere on the body?
  • Can he lift his legs?
  • Can he stride forward on all four legs?
  • Any swellings or inflammation, stiff places or obvious injuries?
  • Does the horse hop like a bunny, lope like a giraffe?

Since I have a roller coaster experience with one of my horses — sometimes he’s sound and sometimes he’s not — I’m really tuned into this question. People may say, well, he’ll warm out of it. Maybe yes, maybe no. I want to understand the problem and help him with it, before I ask more of him. I want to ride in such a way, if I’m riding, so that the horse does not become more stiff afterwards. The exercise, whether riding or ground, needs to support and heal rather than set him back.

And when I do ride him, I ride him gently, and therapeutically, going over cavalettis, gentle trots, sometimes on uneven terrain, exercises designed to strengthen his muscles, tendons and ligaments. I must check in with my own body and do a Mounted Body Balance session on myself to make sure my body is not restricting him in any way. I try to focus on the things that feel so good about riding him – he’s so peaceful to ride, I love the way my legs drape down his sides. I love that I can sit his trot, he feels like an ocean liner. I continue to ride and mix it up, doing some Equine Body Balance on him before or after each ride, or in between, which supports the exercise we’re doing.

With the horse who may not want to lift a hind leg but is otherwise sound, yes, you can generally ride the horse, but we need to continue to work on why it’s hard for her to lift that leg. With the horse who can’t disengage behind, there is something more complicated going on that needs to be addressed. Some suppling exercises added to the program of bodywork will help with that in a lot of cases. You can possibly ride that horse in a straight line but not do any lateral work. I may need to look at how the rider’s position may be impinging on the horse’s movement. We may add some gentle suppling ground exercises to increase lateral flexibility. If the horse is having trouble raising a foreleg or striding forward, I want to flex the forelimb to find out where restriction is without causing pain. Sometimes the problem is at the far end of the horse from what appears obvious.

While the body is complicated, with its elegant and efficient network of nerves, blood, bones, lymph, muscles, nerves, tissues, organs, etc., it is possible to support the health in the horse with non-force techniques specific to certain conditions. When we are mounted, we can increase our knowledge of how our bodies affect our horses and how they might also help us so we can be more comfortable and efficient in the saddle. This work plus self-care can do wonders for horses and their owners, making it easier to develop a treatment/ rehab program that best suits their needs.

(c) Susan Smith, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Equine Body Balance (TM)

Related link:  What? No more riding?

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Lost in the Horse

alternative therapies, animal communication, energy work, equines, exercise, fear, geriatric horses, healing, herd behavior, herd dynamics, horse training, horsemanship, horses, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Liberty training, rescue horses, riding, trail riding, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was lying on the massage table receiving physical therapy recently and talking about myself as I was asked to do, past injuries, etc., and then I made a switch to talking about one of my horses. My therapist expertly swung me back to the discussion of “me,” which is why I’m there, and I realized something – not just about me, but many of us who work with horses or love them.

We would prefer to talk about horses than anything else. Horses are like meditation to us.

Screen Shot 2014-06-28 at 12.55.20 PM

They are definitely calming, even when talking about something that isn’t right with them.

But there is another piece to this which may sound wild to some people, but I’ll put it out there: we get lost in the horse. It becomes an “out-of-body-experience” when we need to be in our bodies to experience it. We need to be in our bodies to give the horse her due, and to heal ourselves.

This is the awareness, the eye-opener, that appeared to me on that table, that I want to share with you, because I am so good at doing this myself.

I know I’m talking about several different things, but I’m really talking about the same thing. I’m talking about staying in the moment, in the body. If I am to learn the new way of using my body in physical therapy, then I need to be in the moment to absorb all the nuances of what my practitioner is telling me. It’s not a time to wax eloquent on how far one of my horses has come in his physical or emotional development!

While sometimes the conversation can be helpful for bringing us around to the true story of one’s own body, it can also take us far afield, out of ourselves and pain.

I’m in physical therapy for a reason, because I’m healing from something. Pay attention.

IMG_0630Being “in the moment,“ and “in the body” do take some time and energy to achieve, especially in Western society. We are expected to be out of the body in a lot of our daily interactions with people and in our jobs.

But horses live in the body and in the moment, so they would like our interactions with them to take place there.

I will say that with every horse mishap and accident I’ve had, I’ve been out of my body. My energy has not been centered. People who come to me after horse wrecks tell me all the time, “I knew that I shouldn’t have gotten on…” “I knew the horse wasn’t ready…” because it can be the horse that is not agreeable also, not just the person.

What has helped me to stay in my body has been a variety of things. There will always be things to pull me off course. But these steps help me stay focused:

  • Breathe. Breathe into areas of discomfort if you have them.
  • Pay attention to the horses when you feel out of body. Know when your energy right and when the horse’s energy is too high or not agreeable. It’s okay to say, I don’t think I’ll ride today. Or, this exercise isn’t right for this horse at this time.
  • When you feel yourself being pulled into the horse’s story, pull back and see how you feel in your own body. How does it make you feel? Do you feel empathetic pangs in a corresponding part of your body?
  • There is a difference between an emotional response and a response formed from data collection. Do a small investigation to find out which you’re experiencing. If in doubt, check in with your own body – touch your heart space, and connect up there. Do you need to address the emotional climate or the physical data you’re receiving, or are they intertwined?
  • Walk with your horse if you can. Let him or her graze a little then continue the walk and pay attention to your own body while walking. Where do you put your feet and how do you place them on the ground? What’s the rest of your body doing? How does your horse respond to this?
  • If your horse is excitable, check your own energy and shift it so it goes deep into the ground. Watch and see what your horse’s response is. Then recheck your own energy.

When I work with horses in a healing capacity, if they are trying to avoid my noticing something painful, they will flatten their ears or kick out maybe, or become dull in the eyes. They may move away from me and give me the distinct impression I’m not welcome. Sometimes the mere intention of wanting to heal will make them nervous. I have to arrive in their space with less agenda and give them space. The space may be then filled with part avoidance, but will gradually turn to curiosity as I work in areas that are not so triggered for them.

With the horse, while their natural state is to be in the body all the time, when people are around and trying to help with pain, sometimes they get “out of the body” too, just like us.

[Catherine Sobredo Photography]
[Catherine Sobredo Photography]
Most of them welcome the help. The other day a mare I was working with kept presenting her head to me. You’ve got to do something about my head, I kept getting from her. But at the same time, she didn’t want me to touch it, until I had worked elsewhere. And then it was just in small increments on or around the head, but it made a difference. During this time, I checked with her, and I checked with myself.

Sometimes we know we need help with something, but we are operating with our foot on the brakes and accelerator at the same time because of pain, whether physical or emotional.

Deflecting attention away from the pain can also be a way of not being in the body or the moment.

The horse also knows that we know how to figure out a lot of things. This is one of the things they like about us, and attracts them to us. We may not be as smart as them in some ways such as staying in the moment for such long stretches of time, but we can get aha moments and figure out how to help them because we have the intellect.

What has helped me a lot with the “lost in the horse” issue is to work on something that is my challenge and include one of my horses. For example, the PT work has offered me new ways to walk and sit. I’m applying that new knowledge to my walking with my horse, and my sitting in the saddle. This can best be done with a horse with whom you have a good relationship with, not recommended with one you’re trying out for the first time!

I find my horse – whichever one either comes forward for the task or I feel is the one for that activity – enjoys being helpful and helping me figure it out. The horse will behave much the same way with this helping activity as they do when you introduce new activities for them. The added plus is that they can not only feel a sense of accomplishment from completing the activity, as they do with ones planned for them. But they can feel a sense of accomplishment in helping you solve a problem.img_0320.jpg

All of this helps me stay in the moment. It also gives me something new to talk about when I go to PT and can talk about the progress I have made, still weaving in my horse stories, but now in relationship to the PT work!

(Some of these new insights will be incorporated into this year’s Conformation, Compensation or Both? classes offered in Florida, Santa Fe and Oregon. The relationship work will be detailed in the class Equine Liberty from the Heart, offered in Santa Fe, NM)

(c) Susan Smith, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Equine Body Balance (TM)

Please see my

Events for information on upcoming clinics and workshops.

Be in the moment with horses

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One reason I like to teach Liberty Foundations is because it offers a true reading of the horse, but it also gives a true reading of the person working with the horse.

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When people work with the horses that come to the clinics, they are often working with horses who don’t know the Liberty Foundations at all, and start from scratch. We begin with some dimensional exercises, to be sure we are not carrying unwanted baggage into the workspace with the horse, that may influence how she is responding. This also shows what we need to do to adjust our energy.

Once we are with the horse, we can see what further adjustments need to be made with energy.

I start the horse, then the owner or attendee will work with the horse, and start building the foundations, and in turn, the relationship. What is beautiful is that we work toward the horse being able to transfer her knowledge of one relationship to the next student, and refine that knowledge and connection with each student.

Often people work with horses who are not their own, and this is sometimes freeing in terms of not dealing with an ongoing relationship. It allows students to also experience a number of different horse personalities and energies.

Anne with Cherokee, photo courtesy of Rene Trebling
Anne with Cherokee, photo courtesy of Rene Trebling

If the person has brought their own horse, sometimes the person’s relationship with their own horse is one where the horse takes advantage of some aspect of the person. Or the person is so accustomed to their own horse, that they don’t correct their horse with any show of leadership. Or their energy is too strong for that particular horse.

There is what I call a “tipping point,” where the owner or handler can become uncentered in trying to get their horse to do something. Once they are uncentered, their influence over the horse diminishes. I have had this happen to me, and it’s important to recognize it as it comes out of our desire to effect a change. It also comes out of our desire to have the horse love us and want what we want.

Consider asking these questions:

1. Does your horse step into your space when you are working with her?

2. Does your horse ignore you a large amount of the time?

3. Is your horse agreeable but seems to have no real life in her for the work you’re doing together, or tries to hurry through it?

4. Do you feel yourself tumbling toward your horse, in your eagerness to have her like you and do things with you?

Jazzie_PatOne of the important things about Liberty Foundations is there is essentially no agenda. The steps are sitting with the horse, greeting the horse, moving with the horse, in ways that are common and familiar to the horse. If the horse chooses not to engage, it’s not a big deal.

If the horse continually chooses not to engage, then we aren’t being engaging enough! We can read the intention of the horse and read our own intentions. What do we want? What do we want the horse to do? He refuses to connect!

We are looking for willing participation. In other forms of horsemanship, people can have great results with a lot of horses, but the horses are not always willing participants.

The way we work in Liberty Foundations is in a larger space, a small arena, with corners or even a paddock, where the horse has the freedom to leave any time he or she wants.

Through our sitting with and greeting the horse, the horse learns to accept our presence in the herd. Through our walking behind her, she learns that we can have the same influence as other horses, and can come into rhythm with her. Changing that up to walk beside her, and we are companions, taking a stroll together, looking at the horizon, grazing, spending time like a horse. Moving the horse away and inviting her back, she learns that the relationship has a flow, that some space is necessary in the relationship, but that we will come back to each other with a stronger bond.

Andy mirroring Sam's stride.
Andy mirroring Sam’s stride.

Out of this quiet, focused effort, our horses will want to engage. Their interest in activities we introduce will increase. We’ll learn what their preferences are and be able to make modifications and bring joy. Other training methods will grow organically from these Liberty Foundations as we continue to move along the pathway to introducing what we need in our training programs.

I have included some videos of the work, with myself and students, with horses who are both ridable and not, with horses who have had a lot of Liberty Foundations and those who have had none.

We are seeking a change, a shift in relationship, by allowing it to emerge. We want eyes, ears, gestures, to all point to a soft, willing horse, not one who is just going through the motions.

To get this, we need to be specific in our directions, and not be tipped over into wanting certain responses, seeking love or understanding, seeking a bond that will come if the person just stays centered, breathing, in the moment.

It’s important for the person to increase the amount of time they can stay in the moment, which will naturally increase as they practice this work. The horse always lives in the moment, so she can guide us on this journey.

If you’ve answered “yes,” to any of the questions posed above, see if you can change that around as you work with Liberty Foundations.

Videos:

The Shaping of a Liberty Horse

Prairie Flower with Jazzmine and Lorrin

Transitioning to Riding from Liberty Foundations Groundwork, September 2013 Clinic

(c) Susan Smith, Horses at Liberty Foundation Training, Equine Body Balance (TM)

Please see my

Events for information on upcoming clinics and workshops.

What? No more riding?

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Many people have expressed to me great sadness over not being able to ride a beloved horse anymore. In many cases, it’s not just that they want to ride, they want to ride their own horse, whom they have spent countless hours riding, who is no longer rideable for health or other reasons.IMG_0240

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A new trail on the horse journey

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” Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Zuzka_trail

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The deepening bond between horse and human

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The trail followed the creekbed then crossed it, curving like a snake up the side of the canyon. My horse stopped to drink in the creek, then scaled the rocky side of the canyon and the switchbacks, a steep drop on one side, a canyon wall on the other.

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