Welcome to Day 12
In the last two days, you have been deepening the connection that you already had with your horse. Today, we’ll do a simple yet very powerful exercise and use a Quiet Mind to lift your awareness, your connection and your bond with your horse to a new level.
You may find useful to refresh this lesson from the Foundation Principles.
Fast Track – A task for noticing the early warning signal that something is Not Quite Right
There’s an audio (and transcript) of today’s lesson below that you can download and take out to your horse so you can follow along.
Keys to Success
1. Being familiar with the catching exercise that you did in the Not Quite Right lesson, and the way that you personally experience that early warning signal, is necessary to get the most out of today’s task.
2. Don’t settle for anything less than feeling good – excitement, happiness, joy, peacefulness, contentment – as you are doing this exercise, using your early warning feeling that something is Not Quite Right, as a signal that something needs to change.
3. If the answer to what you need to know or do doesn’t flow in the moment – then stop and back away to take the pressure off your horse, decide that you want to know the answer to “Whose is this? What do I need to know or do?” and with soft, smiling ahhh eyes, allow yourself to be gently aware of whatever is going on in your body, pay gentle attention to your out breath and allow the answer to float to the surface of your mind when it’s ready.
4. There’s no need to make a big deal out of the questions and there IS NO FAILURE HERE. You’ve already learned that trying too hard is a major obstacle to a Quiet Mind and to recognizing your unique Feel. If the answer doesn’t float up in your meditative space you might consider backing off further, then just “decide” that you’d like the answer thanks. Then you can get on with whatever pottering around your horse suits you today. You could even sit down out there within view of your horse and read a book (make it something nice and uplifting!) Taking the pressure off yourself and them allows the space for answers to flow.
5. The simplicity of this exercise can be covering up complex emotions and old stresses. So please, do not take it personally, whatever time your horse takes to do this task. Nuno Oliveira, one of the super great old riding Masters, famously said that “the solution to every problem is in the foundation”. The answer to uncovering every layer of a deeper connection and a greater “feel good” bond with our horse is in the foundation of the everyday routine things that we do with them that are often very simple.
It is well worth whatever time it takes in this meditative state, for your horse to release whatever old stresses and tensions that they have been holding around this task. You can use the meditation from Day 11 to help, if you need to.
5. Don’t underestimate the value of the time you spend waiting for your horse to Chew – when the chewing comes with yawning, it is a signal that your horse is releasing old stress and tension. We’ll be talking more about the profound opportunities for healing that can be involved in waiting for your horse to Chew – in the next lesson. We’re laying all these pieces in one by one! When the lick and chew and maybe even the stretch and yawn happens, don’t forget to soften your eyes and smile and take some time to soak up and appreciate how good you both feel.
Exercise Day 12
(Having trouble playing the audio? Click here)
Written Version of the Day 12 Exercise
To use this deeper connection that you have been developing, just listen inside yourself like you’ve been learning this last week while developing your Quiet Mind and inner awareness. Notice your outward breath, feel your heartbeat if you can, notice any movement of energy flowing in your body, or any physical feelings, notice any emotions and allow any thoughts and ideas to flow across your mind – allow your attention to be aware of everything that is going on inside your body. Then look at your horse and notice what changes inside yourself – just allow your attention to keep wandering over YOUR OWN body, noticing anything that changes. Those changes will be your horse.
Pause and really soak up and appreciate how good it feels to be feeling your horse like this. These feelings give you the opportunity to understand your horse at a deeper level, to be able to figure out what to know or do to help them live a life filled with well being and to help them to give us what we are wanting from them too.
Today we’re going to learn what to do with those feelings – how to use them to help our horse.
Provided you can approach your horse and feel good the whole way, then today’s exercise is simply to hold the halter out and invite your horse to put their head in it. Don’t put it over their head first – simply stand in that haltering place beside them, hold the noseband open and invite them to drop their head into it.
Don’t worry that I am sending you back to the beginning – you are not being asked to start your horsemanship journey again. Nuno Oliveira very wisely said that the solution for every problem is to be found in the foundation. And inviting your horse to put their head in the halter is right there in the foundation of things that have to be filled with joy to allow that joy to spread to the rest of your interactions with your horse once the halter is on.
Does that make sense?
Be prepared to follow the joyful feelings, be prepared to notice any and all feelings that something is Not Quite Right so that you can can ask yourself “Whose is this?” and “What do I need to know or do about it?” to stop what you’re doing, retreat and wait for the understanding to flow and for your horse to Chew.
And if the answers don’t flow easily in the moment, then stand or sit there in the Quiet Mind space that you have been getting deeper all this week and allow the answers to come floating up when they’re ready.
ENJOY that feeling of connection to your horse and the power and freedom that comes from being able to understand your horse to a whole new level like this.
Don’t restrict your rewards to your horse to when they do what you ask. Make the good feeling itself be the reward – every time you notice good feelings, allow yourself to be aware of everything that is going on in your body as you soak up all those good feelings and appreciate them.
Just pause on that idea for a moment, because this is a very big deal.
Make the good feeling itself be the reward – THAT will create a habit for yourself and your horse to be seeking feeling good together. And after all, isn’t that the biggest thing that we want?
Enjoy this little task today and I look forward to hearing how it goes.
Lesson Resources
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Exercise |
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| Download audio (MP3) | Right click (PC) or Cmd click (Mac) here and Save | |
| Download transcript (PDF) | Right click (PC) or Cmd click (Mac) here and Save | |
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Additional Resources |
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| Revisit Day 11 Meditation | Click here | |
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Program Support |
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| Email Jenny | Click here |
Up Next
There’s another natural pause place at the end of this 3 day series – BUT the next lesson is about the profound opportunities to heal that are in the horse – human relationship and may shed light on any difficulties you’re having with this exercise.
And if this “inviting them into the halter” continues to turn out to be a really big deal, use the “email me” at the bottom of every page, to ask for help.