Hi Jenny, How are you?
It’s M… – I haven’t been on any seminars for a while, although sometimes I listen to the recordings, but I’m enjoying the emailbook, and what I learnt with you on the fast track course still influences me. The last time I was in touch, M… and me did your 3 week course about willingness.
I’ve been studying the Trust Technique and really getting into that. I’m doing the practitioner training. I like that it’s a structured practice which gets me into that other zone with the horses where I’m slowed down enough to connect with them, and from there what happens is unique to the relationship. I’m finding that there are some similarities with that and the way you work.
I am just trying to give you a bit of an idea of where I’m at, but really I am getting in touch because Rambo, my 12 yr old gypsy cob, has very painful knees. They are swollen and lumpy, and he has got to the point lately where I can’t pick out his front feet. (He’s very obliging with the back ones, because they don’t hurt.) I don’t want to force him to lift his feet but sometimes I do because I just want to clean them out. But he is in a lot of pain, and it’s getting worse as the years go by. I’m asking you for any help you can give because he’s on a slippery slope.
I would love to help him recover. He’s not had a great start, which has resulted in this problem – he was shod in heavy shoes as a 1 yr old and then spent a couple of years pulling a cart. When I got him, when he was three, his feet were way too long with the heavy shoes still on there, which made him pick his feet up high when he walked which I guess is the desired effect. Anyway, I am sure this is an emotional issue for him and I don’t know if it’s wishful thinking but it feels like if he has any chance at recovery it will be through some kind of miracle – there’s nothing that the vet can do, apart from tell me it’s arthritis and incurable and offer painkillers. I don’t have money for expensive supplements or treatments – although he gets good quality varied grazing, feed and extra vitamins and minerals, not to mention lots of love and care and stability and his friend Jack is with him all the time.
In the past I’ve given him turmeric paste, and I’ve tried dried nettles and other herbs but no miracle cure so far – I feel sure the only one who can heal him is him, but how to help him? It feels like there must be a magic word or something that could give him a second chance!
Any thoughts welcome. I’d really like to give this lovely being a chance to be free of pain. I feel he’s still holding on to trauma from his early years.
Warm wishes, M
Why people think arthritis isn’t fixable
Bummer that you missed the clinic we did in February, but luckily we have a Masterclass coming up. And yes arthritis is fixable. I know why people despair about it, because all the meds, all the treatment, all the vitamins and minerals in the world can’t actually fix arthritis without this missing … let’s call it a missing ingredient, but it’s not a physical ingredient, it’s a mental and emotional one.
Healing arthritis even as bad as you describe, has been done many times before by ordinary people who do this work here. Liberty in the photo above had some of the swelling go down in his knees in just a few days of the clinic where this photo was taken and it kept reducing as she continued what she’d learned, at home. She may well have not wanted him to do any high performance work after such horrific swelling and joint damage, but last I heard he was poking along quite happily. Where you see this horse and person with their legs in sync, they were in sync in their minds – deeply connected with two way communication that gave him confidence in being heard.
THAT’s the start of the healing process.
I had a bit of a reflection and came up with this for you. Knees blow out because they’re downhill, i.e. not engaging the hind end properly, and that happens when they’re not in their comfort zone and of course that pattern was established long before you got him.
I know I’ve just dropped a huge concept in there in just a few words – when they’re on their front ends they’re not in their comfort zone – but think of this. It’s pretty much the same for us – their bodies work like this lovely flowing spring – when all the angles are working perfectly for smooth operation of the muscles and joints, then the body can heal the way it was designed. When there’s tension locked in their bodies, that flowing spring thing isn’t happening, their movement is jarring to the joints which aren’t working at their optimum angles for smooth movement and the healing CAN’T happen in those circumstances. They hollow their back (which means our weight makes that worse), stick their head in the air, clench their jaw, their ribs get a bit clenched too, they don’t breathe well. They drop over the sternum, which puts more weight on their front legs and knees.
I could go on and on, but it’s all utterly fixable and for those who want that for their horse, it’s a journey that brings wonderful stuff for horse and person both. In fact, I’d go so far as to say there’s actually a gift in the problem – I see that gift unfold with people and horses all the time.
Go back to Fast Track and meticulously do the Release Relearn and Re-Program on every Not Quite Right that you get, from first approach to haltering (bet there’s some big stuff in there!), rugging, saddling even if he’s not being ridden you want to release that crap. When you’ve attended to the basics, which will include everything from going through gates in his comfort zone, to picking up feet, you may get drawn to simulate the harness with that lesson from Oliver’s Diaries.
Let me know how you go. Take before pictures of his whole body from the side and close ups of his knees. I think you’ll be blown away by the comparison afterwards.
I could feel you were overwhelmed at the “task” ahead of you. It’s not a great big long list to get through, it’s a simple “noticing each Not Quite Right” as it happens in your daily routine and doing something about it in that moment. Because it’s about getting his comfort zone deeper and deeper about all kinds of things. Being in his comfort zone WILL get him off that excessive knee pressure that he’s doing and that will give him a new way of carrying himself that will allow his body to do the healing it was designed to do.
And the side benefit – YOU’ll be experiencing more and more inner peace and happiness while you’re helping him.
The Masterclass
AND of course, we’ve got the online Masterclass starting after Easter that would both speed things up and give you guidance along the way. You can work on whatever you like in that clinic and this problem is perfect for it. You have the skills to join in that class.
For everyone else: The subjects being worked on by people who’ve already joined the Masterclass are as diverse as someone wanting to get their body back, like I talked about in the blog about my dramatic weight loss with no wrinkles (lol!), healing for themselves, more knowledge, how to deal with overwhelm of worry, anxiety and other emotions a LOT more easily and lots more. <3
To join the Masterclass you need an understanding of your Inner Guidance system. I do have time to help one person who doesn’t yet have that understanding, to get up to speed in order to join in this clinic happily. Just a thought…
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