Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

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. I rang for a vet to come and sedate her, but he was half an hour away. She scrambled this entire time.

In panic she was trying to barge out the front.  However, she was held in place by her love for my two daughters whom she would never hurt. Even in her fear she did not harm any of us or the other horse that was in the float with her.

I got her out in the end, with the hard, but most effective way I had. I became more scary than the float and her fears. Believe me a mother faced with a horse freaking out in a confined space with her daughters in the way is a force to be reckoned with!

So we had a problem. Champion show hunter – can’t take her anywhere. We asked everyone we knew for help. Some very experienced horse people. No one had any advice at all other than sedation every time she traveled which is not an option I would take.

Jazz is such a wonderful willing to please horse that everytime we asked her she would climb the ramp and go inside her deepest fear – the float. Then she would fall, scramble up the walls and hurt herself repeatedly until we forced her to back out. This is without the float even moving or the car engine turned on!

My eldest daughter Adelle found Jenny’s website one night and I wrote to tell Jenny of our problem. We were so fortunate that she sent us over her book. (Me: Every now and again I like to gift a book to a kid who sounds like they need it desperately.  In this case it was Zen Connection with Horses that I sent them.)

Firstly we waited 2 months for Jazz to completely get over her injury. I worked with my own horse using Jenny’s techniques and we managed to float her (there’s another story) so now Vanessa (Jazz’s rider) had something to ride for the season and the pressure was off Jazz completely.

We began to work with Jazz. It took a lot of time with big gaps between each session due to other commitments and rethinking of our plan.  

The biggest thing I took from the recordings was the permission Jenny gave to walk away when it wasn’t going well. (Me: She is talking about the audio lessons on the CD that is in the back of the book Zen Connection with Horses.)

When it got too scary for me (Not Quite Right) then I took the pressure off and then I didn’t feel like we weren’t getting anywhere, like I had before.  I didn’t feel we hadn’t “won” just because I stopped.  We just came back at another time with another method until we got there. We learned that there is no use doing something which is making you feel uncomfortable.

Me:  This is a really big deal.  I used to think that if I didn’t get what I wanted, that the horse had “won” and if they didn’t do what I wanted that it implied that I had “lost” and also that if they weren’t doing what I wanted, that they were likely being disrespectful.  And all of this could not be further from the truth!

My two daughters and I worked with Jazz as she trusted us. We began to pinpoint the exact problems, and there were more than a few!

Vanessa went into the float with her and held her gaze, attention and thoughts, giving her confidence and reassurance. Jazz learnt that when Vanessa gave her the signal it would be safe to back off the float. She trusted myself and Adelle to touch her tail while she was in the float, working up to being touched by the bar and then finally the ramp.  (Me: We talk about working with these “baby steps” in the book when there is a big issue.)

You will be pleased to hear that she is now floating happily again. All thanks to Jenny and her generosity. (Me:  I think it’s much more thanks to your commitment to her emotional and physical well-being and the hard work you put in!) 

Her first big outing was to a local showhunter day and she came home with a champion ribbon and a big bag of feed. She is so worth all the time and effort we have put into her recovery.

Since then she has traveled further and I now trust her to travel with my other horses in the float too. In fact I think she is the best floater of them all because she is so careful and obedient about everything to do with floating.

Vanessa, would like to add that she really thought the waiting for The Chew helped her to understand what we were doing. It is a physical sign from the horse that she could understand. She is now using this and Jenny’s other techniques in her everyday situations with horses.

When we listened to Jazz, we noticed that she had a problem with the centre partition – so we modified it. It is now basically just a single bar so she can spread her legs and balance.

We also got another tip from a friend which I’d like to pass on to you. Lavender essential oil. A dab behind each ear and on a cloth inside the float and that also helped us to have a relaxed calm horse.

Vanessa traveled inside the float with Jazz in the beginning (Me: Australian Occupational Health and Safety rules would frown on travelling inside the float under most circumstances even though it is wonderful that it worked for Vanessa and Jazz) and she said when ever Jazz looked a little nervous, she would sniff the cloth and it obviously was helping her.

Sniffing lavender is also helpful for nervous horses when they are traveling to new places, new situations or with strangers. They arrive calm about their environment.

But beware! A horse which is not nervous will arrive virtually asleep. Do not use lavender when traveling two horses of different personalities.

So a big thankyou for all your help from my daughters, myself and Jazz. No one else had any ideas how to help us and I asked a lot of very experienced horse people. Our problem was unique but still was able to be fixed.

I hope you continue with your work helping the misunderstood gee-gees in the world.

Kind regards, Alison Choppin

Thames, New Zealand

p.s.  One thing I haven’t added is that I could never have afforded to buy the book.  You gifted it to me and I am very grateful. I’m a solo mum with two teenagers.   I believe the values horses have instilled in my daughters over the years have been well worth the expense of them.  I have don’t take much for myself and give it all to my children and horses. Because of this commitment I have two confident, responsible and unfazeable daughters who will always think of others when making decisions.

Me:  You’re welcome and good job!

Let’s re-cap what brought success in this story.

• Alison and Vanessa listened to their horse and worked co-operatively with Jazz to solve the problem.  In my experience, horses will almost always work co-operatively with you.
• They used their listening to Jazz to understand the practical things that they could change, like the divider in the float and the lavender to help Jazz.
• Alison and Vanessa listened to the early warning signal when something was Not Quite Right and took the pressure off Jazz while they figured out what it was that they had to change. 
• Four incredibly important things – noticing how they experience the early warning signal that something is Not Quite Right (because everyone is different), taking the pressure off as soon as they have that feeling of Not Quite Right,  figuring out and then taking action on what it is that they had to change, is what is behind Alison and Vanessa’s success here.  The audio lessons on the CD at the back of the book Zen Connection with Horses takes you step by step through this process for some simple practical things like catching and haltering.  Then you can apply that approach to other things, like Alison and Vanessa did with Jazz’s floating problems.
• Alison and Vanessa threw away the concept of winning and losing when working with Jazz on this floating problem.  When you are dominating a horse and you don’t win when you ask them to do something, then it IS possible for you to ”lose”.  You have to be really good with horses to win all the time with dominance techniques.  But this way of “being” with your horse that I talk about in Zen Connection with Horses, is not a dominance technique.  It’s a method so that even beginners can get awesome co-operation from their horse.  And with co-operation, there are no winners or losers – just horses and humans winning together, every time.

If you haven’t read Zen Connection with Horses yet, you are in for a treat.  You can click here and go to the shop with the confidence that comes from my personal “love this book or get your money back” guarantee.