Foundation Principles – an opportunity for profound healing

Waiting for our horse to lick and chew is an opportunity for profound healing

One of the blessings of the way that we work here, is the possibility of healing – sometimes profound and extraordinary healing – for both horse and rider, that happens with the simple release of emotional stress and tension.

Waiting for the simple lick and chew that I talk about below, I’ve seen horse’s backs improve in front of my eyes. I’ve supervised joint healing, chronic lameness and watched chronic muscular tension systematically drop away. This philosophy and action doesn’t fix everything, but it is a darned good place to start and sooo easy to do.

And don’t even get me started on the possibilities for the human, you don’t have enough time right now to hear it all, because this is another of the wonderful gifts that horses bring us. 🙂

The action I’m talking about, is waiting for your horse to lick and chew, no matter how long it takes.  Here’s how it fits in.

 

Your blueprint so far

You’re beginning using your conscious connection to your horse and if that’s not clear yet, come into a Live Event and work with me.

You’re aware that everything you are feeling is not yours – that in your natural connection to your horse that you can Feel them, in all kinds of ways that will be unique to you.

You are at the very beginning of seeing the benefits of taking action on what you’re hearing / feeling.

You’re starting to notice the different ways that YOU FEEL your horse is out of their Comfort Zone – you’re using your early warning signal that something is Not Quite Right.

Then you’re taking action on that Not Quite Right so that your horse can get back to their Comfort Zone – at this stage of your journey that involves physically backing off.

Now you’re waiting for your horse to process and to let you know that they’ve finished processing, by licking and chewing and all the other ways that they’ll express the release of that tension.

And in the release of that tension, you are setting up the opportunity for profound healing as all the cells in the body, organs, the muscles, the joints, even the bones, react positively to the release of that stress and tension.

 

While they are processing in this RELEASE stage, they will often have a sleepy look on their face. You will notice small uncontrolled muscle movements, even tiny jerks of their body, their head may drop a little suddenly every now and again. If they were a sleeping person you would think that they were dreaming and maybe that’s kind of what’s happening as they let the tension go.

It’s about waiting for your horse to lick and chew no matter how long that takes and when you take however long it takes, they RELEASE that stress or tension forever… forever… Do you get how exciting this is?

At this RELEASE stage they’ll often do a big yawn as well as the lick and chew.

While I’m waiting for The Chew, I don’t pat them, don’t feed them, or any way disturb the thinking and processing. I don’t even like to think about what I’m going to cook for dinner. I’ve found that just being Present with them, being aware of what’s going on in MY body, smiling softly, filled with gratitude about what’s happening, is the most effective way to be with my horse while they’re processing.

 

The most valuable time you’ll ever spend with your horse

This time waiting for The Chew is the most valuable time you’ll ever spend with your horse.

If they take a long time to chew, smile with your eyes, notice the changes that happen to their muscles, to their shape, to their entire body as they release that tension – it is extraordinary. Even physically and emotionally damaged horses will make phenomenal progress using this simple formula.

Even inexperienced people can help their horses RELEASE the emotional and even the physical aspects of stress and tension that is stored in their body over time by simply taking the pressure off, backing away when you feel a Not Quite Right and waiting for your horse to lick and chew, yawn and stretch, itch and scratch and however else this horse is letting off the physical tension that goes with processing their emotional release.

 

Story after story after wonderful story

I have story after story after story  of the powerful and profound healing opportunities within the relationship of the horse and human – both from students and in my own personal experience, that I’ve seen with my own eyes in clinics and lessons.

Reuben & Sue

Reuben had had some kind of nervous breakdown because of his dealings with humans.  He would run panicked through fences to get away at something as simple as a strange car coming into their property.  Sue had to go to extraordinary lengths to help him develop a Comfort Zone – even setting up a way for him to escape off the property and away into the surrounding bush safely.

When Sue and her husband moved to a smaller property 100’s of kilometres away, Reuben was given the choice of coming with them  and the rest of the herd or staying there (with arrangements made for his care with the new owners).   We use words like extraordinary so easily, but the changes he had made by then were simply extraordinary.

He loaded on the truck completely at liberty.  This second photo is early days at the new farm.  Look at the whole different energy and comfortable posture.

Milly and Sandra

Milly had been experiencing such life threatening colics, multiple times that eventually the vet suggested putting her down. We don’t have time for the detail here, but there’s a direct relationship between spinal bones that are jammed tight and each of the major organs of the body – and they’re all adversely effected by the build up of tension that’s caused by old emotional stress.

Sandra was already a lovely rider – these old stresses and tensions probably had nothing to do with her at all.  But the solution… THAT was in her hands.

These two photos are six weeks apart (still a work in progress as Sandra commented when she sent me the photos).  What they achieved was using the profound healing that is possible within the horse / human relationship.  Milly released the emotional stress, the spine released and the colics stopped.

Years and years later, there’s still not been another colic attack.

Pye and Melanie

I don’t know of anyone who has ever rehabbed a horse from damage like Pye’s back with body work alone or even body work and muscle strengthening work.  His recovery is a testament to the profound healing opportunities withing the horse human relationship.  Even after his rescue, Pye was still carrying the physical and emotional scars of what had happened to him and he was dangerous – biting and kicking at any perceived provocation.

Tissue alert.  I still get emotional when I see this video, all these years later.  And I’ll have to change the ending when I get time, because the 9 keys don’t exist any more. I replaced them with the Key to the Kingdom of Horses video.