Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

I had an email from Pam who has an Arabian mare who is an aggressive horse and beating up the other horse in her pasture.  She says the mare “has a bad attitude and is very mean to the other horse who is always being chased around and has bite marks all over him”.

Pam’s question had some great timing to it, because we have just had a second aggressive / dominant horse change his ways here in our herd and stop beating up on the other horses and I had been doing some thinking about what it was that caused him to change.

So here are my thoughts on that.  Click here for the rest of this story…

Here is an email from Heidi about Tilly’s dramatic float loading problem, the accident when Tilly was forced on the float with ropes,  the terror that Tilly experiences now and the subsequent threat to her life. 

We have decided to set up Heidi’s emails and my replies about Tilly’s dramatic float loading problem as an on-going lesson here on the blog, so that others may benefit from the on-going lesson.

Click here for Heidi’s email and my reply.

I have had very large shift in perspective in the last few weeks that has had a major impact on my life in and out of horses – and I just love the fact that horses are such a catalyst for powerful changes like this!

Click here for the rest of this article that brings a new perspective to problems with our horses.

Do you know, anyone who still thinks of horses as dumb animals in this day and age , should have been out riding with me yesterday.   My friend Jane’s horse Shea, systematically worked on me, physically worked on me, loosening up my “bad” knee and the cause of my bad knee, up higher in my pelvis – and last night was the best night’s sleep that I had with this sore knee in weeks.

I was happy to be able to help Shea in return, with a noisy dam water drainage pipe under the road that she had a fear of, by doing that approach and retreat and then  just sit there and wait for the Chew exercise that I describe discovering with Bobby in Bobby’s Diaries – Straight from the Horse’s Mouth to You. 

For those of you who haven’t read that book, I discovered (Bobby told me!) this brilliant method of dealing with things that my horse is afraid of when I am out riding 

Click here for the rest of this article

Wouldn’t it be great if there was actually a golden thread that you could follow, knowing that it was leading you exactly on the path that you needed to take with you and your horse and that you would be “led” to each and every person, place and event that was absolutely perfect for the both of you together? 

Well, guess what?  There IS a golden thread.  It is called “Synchronicity”, but Anita Wheeler likes to think of it as “Power Flow”.

Click here to read Anita Wheeler’s article about following  the golden thread.  It doesn’t make mention of the word “horse” once, but it might have been written just for us and our horses anyway!  At the bottom of Anita’s article, I bring this excellent concept back to relate to you and your horse again.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Jazz, our 13 year old chestnut mare, has lived with us for 5 years.  During this time we have always trucked her but before she came to us she was floated.  Unfortunately when we moved to town I could no longer afford to keep the truck so had to downsize to a float.

All went well the first few times until out of the blue, Jazz went down as I slowly turned in a circle in a paddock preparing to park.  She had her tail hanging out the back at the time and wrenched it upwards as she fell.  She may have suffered a small fracture which we were unaware of at the time. 

The next time we tried to float her she walked in no trouble at all but was scrambling / falling over virtually immediately.  She was too scared to back out of the float. 

Click here for the rest of this story and a discussion on why Alison and Vanessa were successful in solving this problem.

Well, I’ve got to tell you, I am as surprised as anything I have ever been surprised about. For those of you who have read Zen Connection with Horses, you might remember our racehorse, Desert Moon (aka Sunny) as being a horse who fights when she is afraid. (You know, there are horses who run when they are afraid, horses who freeze and horses who fight.)  Click here for another article about horses’s who freeze when they are afraid.

Well, it turns out that the fight reflex was not genetic like I thought it was.  It was imprinted into her by humans who cornered her – trapped her in a small space when she was young (a foal by the feel of it). 

It is such a normal thing for us humans to do, I have done it dozens and dozens of times myself in the old days before I knew a different way.  You get the horse in a corner where they can’t get out and catch them when they give up.

Click here to read the rest of this story with its surprise ending.

Hey everyone, if you have ever been confused about where to set the boundaries with your horse (either yours or theirs) you have just got to check out Carolyn Resnick’s blog  this morning – it shines a whole new understanding on the subject – brilliant!  Carolyn slips in the really big punch line without much emphasis, so read carefully.

If you are brand new to the concept of boundaries, it is about when you say “no” or “no thankyou” to your horse – and it is a completely personal thing. 

It might be about how close he or she is allowed to come to you while you are putting the feed in the feedbin.  It might be wanting your horse to stand in one place while you you tack up, as a manners thing.  (If they were moving away because they were afraid or uncomfortable in the tack, then that would not be a manners / boundary issue.)   It might be about how close that you are happy for them to be when they are jumping and rearing and playing about (which I love to watch and be part of, but not too close to me, thanks).

When your horse was young, someone set boundaries (hopefully!!) that said it was not OK to kick or bite the human. Also hopefully, they set these boundaries clearly and without traumatising or confusing the foal.  Click here for a great story about solving a problem with a really badly biting horse.

Our horse has boundaries too – which many of us humans go trampling all over in our size 9 boots, which doesn’t do much for our relationship with our horse (and there is the understatement of the year). 

Here is a REALLY big question for you to think about.  What do you think are boundary issues for a horse?  How does your horse tell you that you are trampling all over his or her boundaries?  How does your horse tell you when you are crossing or about to cross the line?

Think about that and then come back to the comments button below this article and tell me what you think.

You can probably tell that I much admire Carolyn Resnick’s work, you only have to look at the way horses move with her, to know that she is a brilliant horsewoman.  Our book “Zen Connection with Horses” fits with and adds to Carolyn’s work by teaching “feel” really well - by teaching you the following things:

• how to know when it’s time to do something,
• how to figure out what to do, which technique (if any) to use,
• how to know when it’s time to back away,
• how to know when it’s time to take a break,
• how to know when it’s time to stop,
• how to know when it’s time to start again,
• and much, much….  much more. 

Zen Connection with Horses, the book which comes with audio lessons, takes you step by step through developing a really close connection and communication with your horse – and then you add that “feel” and timing and philosophy to get great results from everything that you do.

Click here to go to the bookshop for Zen Connection with Horses  Or browse around People’s Stories and Readers Letters (see the buttons on the right hand side of this page) to see the wonderful results that people are getting from this book and this way of being with horses.

I have just finished another wonderful clinic at Tonimbuk, with a bunch of wonderful people getting wonderful progress with their horses.  And I’m back here at home, all excited to share with you an insight that completes the picture of how our horse works together with us, that I started to get in Zen Connection with Horses.

Click here to get a new perspective on your horse’s motivation when it seems like they are not doing what you asked them to do.

If you’re wondering whether this book will really give you what you and your horse are looking for, then have a look at this email.  I understandably love to hear these really lovely stories.

Click here to read this moving story.