Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

Here is my reply to a one time student’s request to know how to lay a horse down.

Laying a horse down can be basically done with two completely opposite attitudes:

• One is as a dominance technique – then when the person lets them up, they give them back their defence capacity, their legs, their escape mechanism and take the credit for being a hero.  At one time I would have given anything to be able to be able to do this task, even with the dominance attitude.  But with what I know about horses now – their dignity, their amazing energy, their desire to co-operate when they are not afraid or taught to be defensive or resistant, their capacity to give to us not always brilliant humans – I personally find this dominance option distasteful.  It can also cause physical problems - torn or over strained muscles.
• The second option is achieved with the horse having an attitude of “yes please, you delicious human, I would love to lay down for you.”   Needless to say, this is my preference.

One way to get your horse laying down with a great attitude, is using a series of baby steps that when added together make up a horse who will willingly and happily lay down when you ask. 

Another one time student in New Zealand, laid down 5 horses at the same time,  using the mental connection alone.  I think it was 5 horses, it may have been more because it was a while ago.  All her horses one by one, buckled at the knees and laid down around her – just because they wanted to do what she wanted them to do.  That was an extraordinary thing that I have never heard of before or since.

Lucky that I am one of those teachers who gets enjoyment from a student being better at something than I am, or I would have been green with envy!  (Yes, I was, momentarily!)

If laying your horse down is something that you would like to work towards, then start off the process of laying your horse down by being able to walk up to them when they are laying down for themselves and just be with them. 

Use the feeling that something is Not Quite Right that I write about and teach about in the audio lessons that are attached to the book Zen Connection with Horses, to know when to stop walking forwards towards your laying down horse and start walking backwards and when to stop backing up and just sit down at that distance and be with him really peacefully, doing nothing for as long as you can. 

I’ve written about Not Quite Right in articles on this website.  Click here if you would like to read one of those.

By the time you’ve backed off and just sat out there or laid out there (depending on the weather!) for a few times (maybe not even very many, who knows) you will be able to lay down beside him and just be with him, doing nothing at all while he is sleeping.  Maybe you can take turns at being the sentinel horse who looks out for the other one while they are sleeping.

While this is going on, you can watch them and pay attention to all the little nuances / breakdowns of each step of how your horse lays down when they are by themselves and think about how you are going to ask for each one of those baby steps. 

See how they drop their head, how they position their legs, which part of their body moves first and in what direction.  Each of those parts is a baby step.

When you can walk up to him whenever they are laying down and just lay down there with them and when you have been doing this for long enough that it feels quite normal and quite delicious, then you are ready for the next step.

Picture  one of those baby steps, in your mind and then ask for your horse to move in that direction first with your mind and then with your hand in a way that makes sense, i.e in the direction that you need that part of his body to move.  Hold your hand for the yield in an explaining kind of way. 

For example, if I was asking them to drop their head as the first baby step of that communication together, then I would put some gentle pressure (absolutely no “push”) on my horse’s head or neck in a downwards direction.  If he didn’t know what I meant, I would “explain” what I wanted by a little rhythmic sliding kind of downwards movement in the same place (just a few times.)   

Whether he gives it to you or not, stop, and wait for The Chew. Maybe you might ask again that day, maybe not, maybe just hang around and ask nothing else for a while – whatever feels right to you. 

When that  baby step is reliable, then work on a new baby step, again in isolation, by itself.  And when that is reliable, work on the next one and so on until you have each of the individual baby steps reliable.

A new baby step might be the picking up of all feet, really easily and reliably and happily.

Another baby step may be bringing the front leg backwards a little.

Another baby step may be getting both front legs to bend individually.

And so on…

And then you can start putting the baby steps back together – having a very clear big picture in your mind of what you want, the big picture of the process of your horse laying down. 

The keys to success are -

• Spending lots of time in between, doing nothing, asking nothing, just hanging out.
• Stopping whether you get what you want or not and waiting for The Chew – NO MATTER HOW LONG THAT TAKES – really chill out while you are waiting for The Chew, enjoy the time it takes, honor the time it takes and BE with them for the time it takes.
• Use the feeling that something is Not Quite Right as  you learned in your clinic and in Zen Connection with Horses to know when to stop for the day or when to take a break. 
• Breaking down the task into tiny baby steps, that, after they have been learned in isolation, can then be put back together into the whole task.
• Having a very clear picture in your mind of what it is that you want – each baby step when you are working on baby steps – the big picture when you are ready to put the task back together again.

Above all - have fun - develop and focus on holding onto a sense of peacefulness and joyfulness with your horse.  Enjoy each tiny bit of the journey to that peacefulness and joyfulness – because that is what is the real deal here. 

What ever the task is that you are wanting to do – that peacefulness and joyfulness and co-operation in the relationship with each other, IS what you are looking for – the task itself is secondary…

Browse around People’s Stories and Reader’s Letters for some heart warming stories of people and horses working with this lovely way of being with horses that I take you through  step by step in the book and audio lesson set, Zen Connection with Horses.   Or click here to go to the bookshop now with my personal “love this book or get your money back” guarantee.