Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

For some of you who are reading this, this fact is going to come as a surprise -  whether we are talking about horses or whether we are talking about humans, just about every illness or condition is either caused by emotions or made worse by emotions – and that specially includes chronic founder, insulin resistance and Cushings disease.

So how does it happen that emotions can have such a huge physical effect?  I’ll talk about humans first, because once we have related it to ourselves, it will be easier to understand our horse.

In humans, the front part of the brain is where we process emotions consciously.  It’s where we can act on the first early warning signal that something is Not Quite Right and we can resolve the  “problem” deliberately and consciously.  Very few of us have been taught to deal with our emotions in this part of the brain, but it is quite liberating when we learn how.  And yes that is a massive understatement.

If we don’t understand it and act on it there, the brain shifts the emotion to the limbic system where we feel the emotion more intensely.  Again, specially in Western society, many of us don’t deal with it specially well here either.  You know how it is – “I don’t like feeling crappy like that, I don’t want to feel like crappy like this, I don’t have time to be upset, I don’t want anyone else to see that I am upset, I don’t have time to cry or it’s not nice to be angry, or I am supposed to be brave, get back on that horse,  just because you just got buckled off, there is nothing to be afraid of, canter on!” 

And just in case that didn’t translate so clearly, yes I was being gently sarcastic.

If we don’t understand and act on our emotions in the limbic system, the brain shifts them down to the reptilian brain, to the back of the brain where we get the opportunity to do the emotion physically – e.g., kick the cat (I am kidding) throw the dinner at the husband (I am not kidding), punch someone’s lights out (hopefully not) slam the door, throw a tantrum, dance it off, use a punching bag, run until we drop and with some very gracious horses we can ride it off – you get the idea I think.

And if we haven’t understood and acted on our emotions in any of these three places in the brain, then the reptilian brain’s job is to bury the emotion, bury the emotion in our body. 

It’s an ingenious mechanism, because it clears the decks so that we don’t go mad.  Imagine what it would be like with all those emotions running around at the same time – ugh!  So in one way, it’s a good deal that we bury it.

The trouble is, that these emotions don’t stay buried – they intensify the emotions that we feel next time – making them much bigger – turning anger into rage, fear into terror, sadness into despair for example and all of them eventually into depression.

The buried emotions are cumulative, each fear adding on to the old fears, each anger adding on to the old angers, until we can have a relatively minor incident and yet have a volcano of emotion go off.  Is this starting to explain some of what happens to you?

Eventually the physical effect of burying the emotions in our bodies catches up with us, causing all kinds of physical problems – everything from a sore back to arthritis to cancer – if it’s not caused by buried emotion, it is made worse by buried emotion. 

Yes I know that is a big statement.  But I have been working with sick people and sick animals, specially horses, for 14 years now and I have personally seen this to be true.  In some cases, buried emotions have played such a huge part in the problem, that complete healing has been achieved by working on emotions and nothing else. 

And so it is for our horses - if it’s not caused by buried emotion, it is made worse by buried emotion. 

When they cannot take action on their fear or anger or frustration, when they are restrained by gear, by tack, by us and by our behaviour, when they are cornered, locked up, tied up, tied down or otherwise stopped from understanding what’s happening or acting with their flight reflex, then they too have no choice but to bury the emotion in their body.

And with our horses too, the buried emotions either cause or make worse, all kinds of problems from sore backs to arthritis to chronic founder, to insulin resistance to Cushings disease – (more conditions too but this is what I am writing about right here.)

Have you ever noticed that almost all the horses with chronic founder, bad insulin resistance and Cushings disease are the quiet ones?  These are the horses like our miniature pony Blondie, who rarely run when they are afraid, who tend to freeze, who make such brilliant kids ponies and beginners horses because of their reluctance to run off when they are afraid.  There are a couple of great articles about these type of horses here on the website. I will give you the links at the end of the article.

The trouble with these generous and very special horses is that most of us have no idea how afraid they are, because of this tendency to freeze when they are afraid instead of run.  This makes them more likely to have routinely buried more emotion and trauma than the horses who run away.  This is what makes them more susceptible to health problems like chronic founder, insulin resistance and Cushings disease in horses.

Buried emotions are not the only cause of these conditions.  Food and the sugar in the grass play a significant part too, as do the other physical causes of laminitis.  But the buried emotions are what takes the condition from a physical response to a physical problem that is happening now – to a chronic problem that you are always battling even when the conditions have changed.

So what can we do about it, how can we help them?

In Zen Connection with Horses, I describe in great detail how you can help your horse release old buried emotion, even old emotional trauma. 

I was looking for extracts from Zen Connection with Horses to give you the technique, but there are too many threads to understand it fully and I would have to put half the book in here.  It is a simple process though, which involves using our connection to them to notice that something is Not Quite Right with them, instead of waiting for them to actually feel fear and /or anxiety.  The goal is to get them all the way to their deep comfort zone, working with no fear at all and wait for them to chew, while they process and release the old buried emotion and/or trauma.

The 8 audio lessons that you download to your MP3 player that are part of the book and CD set that is Zen Connection with Horses, take you step by step through understanding how you experience your connection to your horse (people can experience this connection quite differently) and how to release this old buried emotion and or trauma as a routine part of helping your horse find a place of deep comfort without any fear at all

I have such a commitment to your horses mental and emotional health, that if you decide to buy this book and help your horse with Cushings, disease, insulin resistance or chronic founder, I have decided to give you a 25% discount.  You can buy the book first and then  email me, letting me know that your horse has one or all of these conditions and I will refund you the 25%.  Or if you prefer, take 25% off the price of the book (not the postage portion) and use the donation button at the bottom of the shop page to pay for your book.

You can buy Zen Connection with Horses  with confidence, with my personal “love this book or get your money back” guarantee.  Click here to go to the bookshop.

Here are the links to the article about horses that freeze:

“The greatest kids ponies and best beginners horses – a different perspective” click here 

“Update on one of the ten scaredest horses I ever met” click here for article