I found this comment from Sue on another blog and specially with the laughs it brought me, it’s worthy of a blog all by itself.
She wrote:
This is for all those sceptics out there, who, if they did happen to stray onto the Health and Happiness website shuddered and thought, as I did “I can’t be coping with all that warm, fuzzy, airy fairy stuff.”
Now you cannot get much more down to earth than I am. I live in the bush and use my horses for work around the property. My idea of relaxation is to head off on a three or four day ride, on little used historic bush tracks. I have never had a riding lesson in my life and know nothing about the correct seat, leg or hand position! However I am a horse lover and wish to do and be the very best I can for my horses.
When one of them had recurring bouts of what I call the heaves , but is maybe better known as COPD ( chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), the prognosis did not seem great. The vet told me he would get progressively worse with age and could not be cured or even helped with drugs, long term. This horse was my mate and had much more knowledge of the tracks than I did, I was not ready to give up on him, so decided to search the web.
My search lead me to alternative, natural approaches.
The long and the short of it was he was over breathing, thereby reducing the carbon dioxide levels in his blood, which in turn was having a detrimental effect on his physiology. He needed to reduce his in and out breathe to optional levels, in order to build up carbon dioxide, thus enabling the biological imbalances in his system to heal.
Fixing this turned out to be not so difficult and drug free, however it did require me to spend a lot of time with him each day, helping him to correct his breathing. When we were doing this I noticed that the rest of the herd would gather around and spontaneously slow down their breathing and fall into the same relaxed state as the horse I was working with. What is more I found myself doing the same thing. After experimenting a bit, I discovered that this was a much better state of mind for all of us to be in, when working on a range of things such as de spooking, learning new skills, trimming and even backing. There was much more relaxation and understanding between the horses and myself, but it was patchy and at times frustrating.
I went back to the internet for help and my search kept turning up various articles and blogs by Jenny Pearce. However when I had a look at her site it made me a bit uncomfortable, it sounded far too new age and mystical for me.( The fella’s I rode with did not talk about such things) Never the less I got the nine keys (updated with the Key to the Kingdom of Horses videos), read them and thought ” this sounds reasonable but basic , I need more than this.” So I put them aside and did no more.
The horses however had different ideas, they wanted something from me, kept pushing me to step up a notch, the wild eyed terror even suggested I rode him for goodness sake !! So I bit the bullet and decided with much trepidation to put my name up for a clinic.( if there was any wand waving being done, I wanted to see it)
BEST THING I EVER DID. Let me tell you folks that there are no fairies at the bottom of Jenny Pearce’s garden , or at least if there are she keeps them well hidden. This lady is all about basic common sense, she has the means to find the ability in you and your horse and to help you to utilize it in the best possible way. Providing clear practical lessons which give you everything you need to succeed. She helps you to develop what I call your horse feel, that elusive something that all the best riders and horse people in the world have, that thing we all long for but though only the chosen few were given.
What is more you decide how you wish to do this….by attending clinics, having private lessons, receiving lessons by email, joining online clinics, sharing in discussion groups and online seminars, the options are endless. You even have a choice of teachers and can chose the one most suited to your needs. Best of all this comes without BLAME,CRITICISM or JUDGEMENT, all of which abound in the world of horses.
It does not matter what discipline , level, age, creed, ability or speed of learning you have; you can mix and match, take this, leave that, revisit later, whatever is right for you and your horse on the day.
If this is your goal……TO BE THE VERY BEST YOU CAN BE FOR YOU AND YOUR HORSE ….. then look no further, you need what Jenny has in bucketful’s. Join in and begin the journey to excellence, I promise you will never look back.
Sue
NB Just one thing , now you know it is not magic , you must be prepared to put in the time with your horse.
Jenny again:
Oh my goodness Sue – this made me laugh and laugh – thanks! THAT is the big deal isn’t? The practical-ness of what otherwise looks like airy fairy. It makes me smile too, how often in recent times, science has proved what we already knew that might have been thought of as airy fairy previously. Just one recent example of many, is the study that showed the effect that the proximity of a horse has on our heart rate and blood pressure and breathing. I think our success here is because it’s not just words, we actually teach you HOW to achieve those things that are usually just pretty words.
Too, I hadn’t noticed until I read this post of yours, that we really DO have a complete mix of all kinds of different ways that people can achieve what they want to do – well noticed – thanks!
Sue did a clinic here and then the on line program Fast Track to Brilliant Riding. We even put her on staff until her home commitments changed. <3
