I remember listening to Frederic Pignon talking about what bothered horses the most. They told him that it wasn’t all the crappy things that are done to them. It wasn’t even abuse. It was being misunderstood that upset them the most. (If you’re not familiar with Frederic Pignon, he’s one of the greatest horsemen in the world who knows how to be with horses with joy AND he hears/ feels horses VERY clearly.)
Sooo many horses are misunderstood.
And far too many are misunderstood all the way to the ruination of their lives and sometimes even the human’s life as well.
When I’m brought in to help people solve the health and behavior problems with horses, I can FEEL their desperation to be listened to – to be heard and to be understood. I can FEEL their despair when their efforts to be understood, to show people there’s a better way, are being made “wrong”.
Horses can deal with all kinds of stuff while we’re fumbling around getting good at listening to them – IF we’re working at at listening to them.
That makes our efforts at listening and understanding incredibly important.
As your mind is starting to get a little quieter, today’s lesson brings in another level of feeling and listening.
This is a subtle connection for most people the first time. The connection – the “Feel”of the connection – gets more and more easy to notice and easier to use with practice. Practicing that reverse breathing and relaxing into the pause at the bottom of your breath is a great way to start the conscious connection with your horse.
Don’t worry if you don’t get this straight away – I’ve never met anyone I couldn’t teach this to. We’re all utterly unique and we can’t copy someone else’s way of doing it. Sometimes it takes practice and sometimes it takes someone like me pointing it out to you. You can either add some private sessions OR join in a Live Event when I’m teaching this connection and Feel for your horse thing. The first Live Event on Feel is always a gift from me to you. I’ll send you an email when there’s one coming up.
The Lesson
If you have a photo of your horse easily available, then go and have it with you when you listen to the audio. Or you may prefer to download this Lesson to your mobile device or even print it out and then go out to your horse and do the Lesson there.
Remember the vacuum cleaner metaphor? That we can’t hear the telephone ringing when the loud sound of the vacuum cleaner drowns out the sound of the ringing phone? Do your breathing and awareness exercise from the Quiet Mind work, THAT will dial down the sound of the vacuum cleaner (the background noise) THEN start this connection work. Have fun!
There’s also a Written Version of the Audio below.
Up Next:
If you haven’t done it already, don’t forget to go back to your email and click the button to get the next lesson, which is about some truly magic questions…
WRITTEN VERSION OF THE AUDIO
You are already connected to your horse. You ALREADY experience that connection to your horse, everyday.
MY job is to get you to NOTICE how you experience that connection, so that you can start to use that connection deliberately to be a really good rider and to be really good with your horse.
In this exercise, I am looking for you to notice in great detail how YOU feel so that when you connect to your horse, you will notice the difference.
So starting at your head, scan your body from your head to your feet, noticing how you feel.
Do that now while you are listening to me. Take your attention to your head and slowly work your way down, notice your head, move your jaw a little and notice how it feels, move your neck a little and notice how that feels. Check your shoulders, notice any tension there.
Move your back just a little bit and notice how that feels. Wriggle your hips a little and notice everything about how your pelvis feels.
Feel your legs and then your knees, bend them a little and feel them and then wriggle your feet a little – noticing everything about how they feel.
Now, keeping your attention still on your own body, that’s the key to this – keeping your attention on your own body – either close your eyes and picture your horse in your mind or look at that photo or look at your horse in front of you.
Now notice anything that changes in your own body.
Allow your attention to wander over your body noticing even the subtle ways in which you feel different.
That change will be you feeling the connection to your horse.
Horses most commonly communicate feelings. Whatever change you are experiencing though, whether feelings or tension or pain, that change IS you feeling your horse.
Now if this was your first time, you may not be sure whether you noticed any change at all.
Chill out. I have taught this to hundreds and hundreds of people and I have NEVER met anyone who couldn’t get it.
This is a VERY short audio and LOTS of you will need longer than this few minutes to really get this.
And some of you will find this exercise easier when you are actually with your horse because you can see them lick and chew in response to you and that will give you the validation that you are looking for.
This is important, especially for those of you who haven’t read my books – your horse licks and chews when they understand you, they lick and chew when you understand them. It’s a physical signal of shared communication. And pay attention to that from now on!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deliberately do this connection exercise EVERY TIME you are around your horse until it becomes second nature to notice your horse.
Take this audio or the written version of this audio out to your horse and practise and if you still have trouble noticing the difference, then contact me for some help.
Noticing this connection is the first step in increasing your understanding of your horse. And this understanding is the foundation for being a better rider and being really good with your horse much faster.
And I’ll look forward to hearing about how this conscious connection adds to your Quiet Mind and your Feel.