Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

In the last clinic we had a beautiful thing happen that brought a whopping hit between the eyes insight for me and for everyone else there too, I think.

It has made me think that it may be possible to work with a group of horses at the same time, on the same issue, by working with just one horse.

“They” say that horses can’t learn by watching other horses.  And I think they’re right, that horses in the “oh shit I’m dead zone” either can’t or don’t want to learn by watching.  Nor do they learn anything from a horse who is being taught anything in the “oh shit zone” or the chronic stress and tension of the long term, “not too sure zone”.  Why would they want to learn anything that’s causing another horse that much stress or tension or even fear?  And of course they can’t learn if they themselves are in the “oh shit zone”, they can only react.

So lets have a look at why I think “they” might be wrong.

At the Tanjio South clinic last week, we worked with young Boots with saddling as a demonstration and his saddle fell off and gave him a bit of a fright and we needed to work through that with him to get it OK – and while he was doing that, every horse in the clinic went into processing stuff, i.e. giving physical signals of releasing old resistance and/or trauma. (That’s one of the effects of working with the Zen Connection with Horses philosophy.)

It would take ages to describe the step by step how we got that, but the incredible reactions of the other horses to that saddling was what made me wonder if it was possible…

I have 9 horses here at the moment and they are all asking for the work needed to have them in their deep comfort zones about everything that they have to do routinely. And yes that’s a perfectly reasonable thing for them to want. However, how the heck do I find the time to meticulously work with each horse? I have trouble finding enough time to consistently work with ONE horse, let alone nine!

So I was wide open for this new idea.

Then yesterday, I sprayed all the horses with fly spray (whole body and faces) and was doing it all at liberty in a six acre paddock. And because of the clinic experience with Boots and saddling and all the other horses finding their deep comfort zone without anybody else doing anything, I thought I would have a go at doing it differently.

So I connected to my whole herd at the same time, deliberately, and started working with Boots again. And when he was sprayed the Zen Connection way, went on to Mel’s horse Buck and then Bobby. And a couple of the horses who normally really hate it just stood there and enjoyed it at liberty.

And while I was spraying Sunny, I was explaining to her how she can run away instead of fight me when I push her too far and then Sunny found the comfort to play with me over the spraying – leaping and rearing and playing with a freedom that was just stunning in its beauty.  And within that play, she co-operated at liberty to get sprayed.

I’m sitting at the computer this morning crying just remembering it.

The whole morning was just filled with such joyfulness getting all these horses sprayed.

Anyway, the experiment is to see if this is as re-producable like I think it is.

So, anybody who has access to more than one horse (even if they are not your own) could have a go.

You could maybe connect with a bunch of horses and let one horse choose to work with you like this and do it about getting their feet picked up.  E.g. Our feet trimmer, Cat Wyley, has already identified for us about how few horses
are deep in their comfort zone with their feet being trimmed and they have to have that done regularly, so that’s a great one to work on. But you could choose to work on anything.

Just to clarify Cat’s comment about how few horses are deep in their comfort zone having their feet trimmed, she says that most horses feel a little tight and “guarded” in their legs – even when they are being generous enough or obedient enough to stand still politely while it’s being done. And she noticed this because of the completely different physical feel horses have had when they have been worked with all the way to the deep comfort zone with their feet, like we’ve been doing with a couple of them who were not so generous or obedient.

For the spraying, my horses were all standing in fairly close proximity, they were all loose with no halters on, including the horse that was being worked on.

For the saddling demo, the little horse that released the most trauma was being held by his person, one was completely loose and no human at all and another two were at liberty but standing with their people. And we didn’t even do the saddle up to get those stunning results.

But in both cases the horse being worked on was being worked on at liberty, so that they had the ultimate ability to leave if I pushed them too far. I think that might be important, that the horse being worked on is at liberty and is really allowed to leave if it gets too much for them.  Although since then, we’ve done it again with a saddling at another clinic, where the horse being saddled was haltered – but he was worked with very, very carefully – listening to the feeling of Not Quite Right and retreating at that point and waiting for the Chew meticulously.)

Not Quite Right is explained and explored in great detail in Zen Connection, but it’s exactly what it sounds like – when you “feel” that something is Not Quite Right with your horse, before they get really scared or angry or frustrated.

So, here’s the experiment – you could connect with all your horses and get one horse’s feet being lifted up into their deep comfort zone over as many sessions as was needed to do that effectively. And then see how much the other horses have improved.

Now I don’t think there’s much value about talking about techniques here, because you’ll be connected to your own horses and responding with what they are looking for.  If you need to know how to do that click here to get “Zen Connection with Horses”

But here are some of what I think were the keys to my success yesterday:

• when they needed to move or leave me I just “mirrored” what they were doing, it was 100% OK for them to leave me. i.e with Bobby I walked with him with my hand over his back, with Sunny she’s still not safe enough under all situations so I mirrored her from a distance – walking when she walked, running when she ran, head down, head up when she did, flexing when she did - I mirrored every little thing that they did.
• I encouraged Bobby to move when I felt a Not Quite Right (remember he’s the one who freezes if he gets upset) and then just mirrored him.
• I was working for the comfort zone and listened carefully and acted on every tiny feeling of Not Quite Right.
• I bubble connected to the whole herd at the same time and had an intention of working with all of them on the same issue (spraying) at the same time.
• Imagine it, baby steps, listening and acting on every Not Quite Right and waiting until the horse is ready to go on, are on auto pilot now. 

For those of you who are working with Zen Connection with Horses, have a go and come back and tell us what happened.

For those of you who haven’t read it yet, think of some creative ways of joining in with this experiment.  Maybe you have a horse who is hard to catch.  So use the Zen Connection with Horses approach to get a different horse (even someobody else’s) in its deep comfort zone about being caught.  And have your horse where they can see what’s happening if they want to.  Then see how much your horse improves. And come back and tell us! 

You can get Zen Connection with Horses the printed version or download the e-book version and be reading it in minutes, with the audio lessons for your MP3 player following by snail mail. Click here to get the book.

This is BIG…. Jen