Are you afraid of your horse? Being afraid of your horse is nothing to be ashamed about. Many horses are scary, or people have had scary things happen with horses. Sometimes people come to liberty training because they are afraid to ride, or have a horse that is unridable or unmanageable. It’s also good to have a healthy fear or caution when working around horses.
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Tag Archives: energy work
Degrees of working connection in equine liberty training
When people say they have a good “bond” with their horse, it can mean a lot of different things. I have talked in the past about the difference between an emotional bond and a working bond. What we work on developing in liberty training is the working bond. But the degrees of bond or connection people have with their horses when they come to liberty work can be varied. Here are some possibilities, including some not-so-good bonds:
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Safety first in equine liberty training!
Just because we are doing liberty work it doesn’t mean that the horse is at liberty to boss us around. We are working with boundaries, territory, food, all things that are very important to horses.
Secret sauce in horse work: horses have auras
The success of people who work with horses depends a great deal on the energy they bring to the relationship, and recognizing the energy of the horse and how to respond to it. Auras are just one of the tools we can work with in horse work.
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Horses Need Homes – NOW!
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.
Interview with a Paint Horse
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.
Flexible boundaries in horse work
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? Quality time with your horse
“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.
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Establish an energetic connection 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?
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