Bobby’s Diaries has a chapter in it about how we solved a really bad, long term, biting horse, that is absolutely brilliant.
I’ve just made an excecutive decision to put that chapter up on the website. Trouble is, the chapter uses eye opening concepts that are explained in great detail earlier in the book. But I suspect you will still get heaps of value out of it and of course, you can always buy the book.
This last clinic in New Zealand has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I wonder if that’s always going to be the case from now on.
You don’t have to have a problem horse to get a significant improvement in your relationship with your horse, but the problem horses do make the most spectacular stories!
Shade, a Welsh thoroughbred cross, came into the clinic with his lovely owner Crystal desperate to solve his incredibly dangerous problems. He was a nightmare to ride in company, running backwards at high speed to attack other horses. He would double barrel them, getting them from 10 metres away, frequently connecting with the riders at the same time. A very unpleasant character to go out riding with.
No matter how fond people were of Crystal, nobody wanted to ride with her any more - and who could blame them.
Click here for the rest of the story about what Shade was REALLY doing and how Crystal fixed this.
Cheryl, our New Zealand clinic host at Wainuiomata has a very peaceful herd of horses. They usually run together and the humans can walk amongst them all in absolute safety with all the horses kind of mooching around quietly as the humans move amongst them. I noticed this particularly on my first visit to her place. In my herd, I have to insist that nobody play dominance games when humans are in the paddock, but Cheryl and her horses have created this lovely safe and feeling safe environment. (I think I’m going to have to figure out how she does that and create it here at home too!)
During the clinic, it was much easier to put the new horse, little Nugget, who had been elsewhere on the property for a week by now, with his mate Apples into the paddock with Whisky. ”Promise me you’ll look after him” Cheryl said. And Whisky agreed. Cheryl has been working on excellent communication with Whisky for some time now.
So, they put Nugget into the paddock and within a minute or two, Whisky had asked Nugget to move, Nugget said “no”, turned around, backed up to Whisky and kicked out. Then the thud of hooves smacking into flesh could be heard and felt from clear across the paddock as Whisky gave young Nugget a hiding.
Becx, Nuggets owner, was wringing her hands in distress at her baby being on the receiving end of such violence and Cheryl was upset too at what she saw as Whisky breaking his promise. “But, Whisky”, she said, “you promised to look after him!”
“I AM looking after him” said Whisky.
Then the pennies started dropping into place. Becx had been in the paddock with her children who had always been safe amongst this herd that never pushed each other around or played games amongst the humans, when Nugget had chased another horse towards one of the children. It only stopped in time because of its own effort to not run over the child.
“Oh my God”, said Becx, as she realised that Whisky was actually protecting her and the children by establishing the ground rules of this herd in this really special place. “Thank you Whiskey!”
You know, we say everything happens for a reason, but sometimes it’s from a kind of empty place, with no real hope of knowing what the reason was. In this extraordinary communication with our horses, we develop the ability to find out what the reason really is. Like Cheryl and Becx did, with Whisky and Nugget that day.
Now, you might think that this story is a bit “out there”, but there are more and more people who are “hearing” their horses in this extraordinary way … consciously and deliberately. “If you want to hear your horse like Cheryl and Becx and learn the secrets of the great horsepeople of the world click here to buy Bobby’s Diaries right now
Yesterday we finished a private clinic here at Tanjil South that featured an amazing lady and her Friesian “soul connection” - her horse for those of you who don’t talk like that yet! This little horse (not so little, really) had been really intimidating. He would barge straight in on you, had had HEAPS of training costing lots of money and the only way she could get hin to stand off her was to be REALLY hard on him - which didn’t fit with who she was, who she wanted to be or with the relationship that she wanted with her horse.
We pretty quickly made the discovery that there was a connection with his “oh shit I’m dead” zone and his barging. (See the electronic Bobby’s Diaries - Straight From the Horse’s Mouth to You” for an explanation of that concept click here to buy it now.) And nobody learns anything in the oh shit zone except survival reactions. So we went about establishing a place of deep comfort for this lad and then introduced our need to have him stand off us in the “not too sure zone” where all thinking learning takes place.
We made the discovery that most if not all of his training had taken place in the “oh shit I’m dead zone” and that although he deeply wanted to be close to his person and be with them, he was terribly afraid of what would happen when he got close (whacked for barging on top of them!) - thus he lived his life in a constant and awful fear of humans.
We realised that Friesians had been war horses and as such had been selected for their ability to keep going ahead through fear and even pain (that’s where the barging comes from), and for their devotion to their person. (Lots of other characteristics too I’m sure, but these were the ones that were particularly noticeable throughout the clinic!)
We learned the art of having major breakthroughs by not doing very much at all. (And that’s the understatement of the year)
We learned that a HORSE’S heart can sing and almost burst with joy too when us slow humans “get it”.
We had the most amazing days in the most gentle and connected space.
That was my week, what was yours?
This beautiful horse’s training was based on the electronic book “Bobby’s Diaries - Straight from the Horses Mouth to You”. This book contains the secrets of great horsemen (even if they don’t realise it yet!) Click here to get this book through the most secure financial website in the world - you could be reading it in five minutes.
If you’re committed to a horse whose reactions are such that you think breeding budgies is beginning to look like an excellent alternative to riding horses then this wonderful new book “Bobby’s Diaries - Straight from the Horse’s Mouth to You” might just have the information that you are looking for.
In the meantime, click here for a “taste” of the book with this article and see if you think it’s for you and your four legged “would be” friend.
Apples is a sweet, generous and very quiet standardbred, used by my New Zealand host Cheryl McCullagh as the mainstay of her Ponyblue program, bringing troubled kids and police together. Apples is that horse that you can have kids crawling around in perfect confidence because he’s both kindly aware of them and consummately gentle.
I did a healing session on Apples as part of my thankyou to Cheryl for hosting the clinic. And I was about half way through the session, just about to do a Bowen move on him when he kicked me. It was a sharp, shocking kick, but not hard enough to leave a mark and there was no warning that I noticed.
Click here to read about why he did that and what I learned.
Here’s a forum to discuss problems with horses not wanting to get on the float, (that’s what we call a horse trailer in Australia) or having trouble travelling, scrambling, pawing, kicking, falling down in the float or truck and any other floating problems.
Scroll down to “Leave a reply” and write your question or leave a comment.
Breaking news!
We’ve decided to use the comments section of these pages as a horse problem solving question and answer section.
So if you have a question about some kind of problem or training issue, scroll down from here to find “leave a reply” write your question and you’ll be able to see the answer to your question next time you come into our site. I’ll do my best to be prompt, given my working schedule.
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, there’s a button on the right hand side to subscribe to this site, under the heading “Feed it”. This will keep you posted with anything new.
Anybody reading the question, feel free to explore the issue as well and contribute.
While you’re here, there’s a whole book full of beautiful answers that give you the secrets of great horsemen and women (even if they don’t know it!) The electronic book, “Bobby’s Diaries - Straight from the Horse’s Mouth to You”. Click here for more information about this simple, practical book that is written with an earthy sense of humour.
