Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

This may seem silly to some, but this morning I picked up my own book Zen Connection with Horses and was touched again by the feelings that I had as I was writing it.  It was a profound and exciting book to write.

For those who haven’t read it yet, I thought that I would print the introduction here, so that you could have a “taste” of the treat that I think you are in for when you read it.

Here it is.

You know, if you were here with me, here in my house right now, we’d maybe have a cuppa’ while I talked about this stuff and you’d see the look on my face and be touched by me when I’d laugh a bit and cry a bit when I tell you about the wonder of the things that I’ve experienced and seen other people experience when they experience this mind connection and communication with their horse.   

Some of the things people have experienced with this extraordinary communication have been practical achievements like riders dancing with their horses in just days or a rider becoming a better rider or a “problem”, even dangerous horse co-operating kindly and happily. Others have been emotional achievements where a frightened horse or a frightened person has found a freedom from fear.  One of my most beautiful clinic experiences was being privileged to help a wonderful guy who was beating up on his horses discover how to get a handle on his rage. 

I’d tell you about the healing work I’ve been doing with horses and people for the last fourteen years, about how much I’ve grown in that time, about the other books I’ve written and the five day camps where I show people how to get an extraordinary connection with their horse and how to use that connection to work beautifully together and even bigger, how to experience pure joy with their horse. 

And if you had experienced the pleasure of reading and using “Bobby’s Diaries”, a book that I’ve already published, then I’d be shaking my head and telling you that you’re in for a serious treat because “Zen Connection with Horses” is so much deeper and bigger and more comprehensive – that you’ll feel like “Bobby’s Diaries” was kindergarten. 

Then we’d go outside and I’d introduce you to the horses (we have 11 at the moment).  And because they’re used to being heard, they would quickly give you the validation that you’ll probably need before you can really accept what I’m telling you.  If you’d been here and known these horses before, you’d notice the difference in some of them – even in just the last few months as I’ve come to understand just how deep and how big this is. 

Maybe you’d still be here when my three year old granddaughter came in to play with the horses and maybe you’d notice how even though she’s only just turned three years old, she makes herself safe and has fun moving the horses around.  Or maybe you’d watch someone here for a lesson and you would envy them for the beauty of what they’re getting with their horse. 

And you couldn’t help but wonder if you could have a bit of that for you and your horse. 

Well, not only can you have a bit of that, you can have all of that. 

We present to you this book – “Zen Connection with Horses” which draws together threads from everything I know and everything that I am and brings it all together to give you “all of that”, in a way that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. 

Click here to go to the shop if you want that too…

My heartfelt gratitude goes to my horse Bobby who had (and still has) the courage to hold out for the best that we can be, to Matt and Celtic Peace who showed me how big this is, to Desert Moon who is increasing my practical and theoretical skills exponentially and last but not least, to all those students and their horses who brought pieces of the puzzle to me.

Click here to have a look at the 3 day, five day and 12 day super clinics clinics available

You know what you want you and your horse to look like and what you want to achieve together  (if you are like me, that may change from time to time).  But right now, you have a picture in your mind and you probably already know that you can’t get there if you use force of any kind. 

If you are a dressage rider, then that picture is probably of a powerful collection, a rhythm, a cadence, a dance with you and your horse in complete mental, emotional, physical and maybe even spiritual harmony together.  Others of you will have other goals.

So if using force of any kind completely stuffs up that picture, then how can you get there? 

• Clear, gentle communication as a consistent norm. 
• A complete absence of any fear or resistance from you or your horse. 
• Heaps of happy co-operation from your horse.  
• A complete willingness of your horse to help you get what it is that you both want or need.
• A connection with your horse so strong that they tell you how to get what you want.
• Consistent growth of yourself as a rider.

Oh yeah?  That’s easy to say, but for those of us who have struggled with one or more aspects of those things (isn’t that all of us?) how can we have all of that?

Every person who reads this, including you, are already connected to their horse.

But most of you do not yet know how to use that connection deliberately to get what you and your horse want from each other.

Whether you are a Grand Prix rider looking for another way, or an enthusiastic beginner, the book and audio lesson set “Zen Connection with Horses” will show you how to use that connection, consciously and deliberately to get what you and your horse want and need from each other.

The book sets the scene.  Then the CD contains eight simple little audio lessons that you download into your MP3 player and take out to your horse, where I take you step by step through a process of understanding how you experience your connection with your horse and set you up to take that into the future with everything that you do together.

While working with those audio lessons, you will have the opportunity to release old fears and resistances from you and your horse that will bring incredible joyfulness to you and your horse.

I have a student who confessed to me once that she read my stuff about joyfulness with her horse and thought that I was being a bit “over the top” and exaggerating.  She found it in day 2 or 3 of her clinic with me – with  tears from both of us. 

We find that joyfulness for ourselves when we gift it to our horse.  And we start that gift to our horse by releasing them and us from old fear and resistances.

There are no doubt many  paths to your dream of a powerful dance with your horse  – Zen Connection with Horses is one of them.

It appears that I am to come out of the closet even further than I already have…  and I thought that I had come pretty far out of the closet with my books “Bobby’s Diaries, Straight From the Horse’s Mouth to You” and then even further with “Zen Connection with Horses”.

We have a wonderful worldwide movement gaining ground, where the mental, emotional and physical well being of the horse is being promoted and abuse of horses in all kinds of ways is being changed.  The changes range from dramatic neglect and torturous practices to practices that were considered normal, but are now no longer acceptable to thinking horse people. 

There’s a whole bunch of people out there almost simultaneously developing beautiful ways of being with horses.  It is a cascading effect of wonderful things happening in the horse world.

It makes the contrast of the shocking abuse stories that we see, even more shocking. 

So here’s a thought from me about how we (you reading this article and me writing it) how we ordinary people can help these horses change their destiny.

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In “ Bobby’s Diaries – Straight From the Horse’s Mouth to You” and again in “Zen Connection with Horses”, we (yes the royal “we” of my horse Bobby and myself!) wrote about how there was a simple way to get leadership with horses.  You get it given to you by your horse when you  ”control speed and direction with the right attitude”.

I thought that I knew what the right attitude was, but I have discovered that it is an ever unfolding and wonderfully complex part of leadership.  

Us humans generally and even  me specifically, have still had way too much emphasis on gaining leadership, which is often confused with the alpha horse (who is dominant and not the actual leader). 

But here is a thought.  Just like many horses, some people are never going to have leadership over their horses.   Not every horse wants or is even capable of being the herd leader and there is nothing in the slightest bit wrong about  that.  Some, maybe even many, humans will never be leaders of their horses and there is nothing wrong with that either.  

So here is a bunch of questions that are much more important than leadership.   

• “How do we get the consistent co-operation of our horses when we are not the leader?”
• “How do we get consistent co-operation from our horses while we are working to become the leader if leadership is what we choose to work on?”
• “Who are we now and who do we want to be with our horses?” (I have noticed that the answer to that question is constantly growing.)
• “How can we be safe with our horses?”
• “How can we enjoy our horses while all this other stuff is going on?” 

Answering all of those questions at the same time, over time, may become leadership … or not. 

But the leadership won’t matter if we are enjoying that journey.  And enjoying the journey for me is happening as I think about those questions above and make conscious decisions about them.  Enjoying that journey is happening as my horses generally turn themselves inside out to give me what it is that I am asking for.

And of course, the answers are unique to that horse and that rider.

I watch with pleasure, readers and students of all different levels of skill, enjoying their journey with their horses in ways that they never believed were possible, in ways that were so simple when they got given the keys.  You can have the keys too.  Click here for the bookshop for Bobby’s Diaries or Zen Connection with Horses. where all my books have my personal  “love this book or get your money back” guarantee  or click here to have a look at the beautiful clinics that we run based around the insights in those books.