Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

Last but definitely not least, Cheryl and her horse Whiskas … I mean Whisky.  Yes, the slip was absolutely deliberate and supposed to be funny.  In Australia, there’s a brand of cat food called Whiskas, which is where the pussy cat comes in!  It kind of loses the joke to have to explain it, doesn’t it?

When I left, Cheryl was going to publish the photo of all of us at the end of the clinic under the caption of “we all touched Whisky”.  Whisky had quite a reputation locally for not being able to be touched by people.  I think just about everyone who was at the clinic had given him a “thankyou” pat before the end of the week.

Normally I don’t pick up someone else’s horse to work with them.  I find that it takes away the joy that they experience when it’s them that their horse connects with for the first time.  However, before the clinic, I needed to do some muscle work on Whisky and to do that I needed to be able to touch him.  And to touch him I needed to connect with him.  In the first five minutes of meeting Whisky, this incredibly intelligent and incredibly sensitive and incredibly scared horse was moving off my mind alone.  I turned to Cheryl and said “Oh my, what a gift this horse is”.

And over the course of the clinic, Whisky showed us all what a gift he is.  He stepped up significantly into my horse Bobby’s normal role in a clinic, both by supporting horses who were struggling to get through to their owners and by making sure that I, as the teacher, got the messages that I needed to get to support everyone to to success.  I’m getting emotional just thinking about him while I’m writing this.

Cheryl also displayed the most lovely, absolute patience to lay each baby step into Whisky’s comfort zone before going on to the next – a huge deal considering that this horse had lived vast amounts of his life with humans in the “oh shit I’m dead” zone.

Cheryl’s feeling for when Whisky moved into the “not too sure” zone, her willingness to to listen when he needed time to process (he parked her on the verandah a few times) and her progress was an inspiration to us all.  Hey, you need to know that it was not all roses along the way.  Cheryl got incredibly frustrated a few times when she hit brick walls that had stopped her progress in the past.  The difference is, that this time, she had the tools to break down those brick walls, permanently…. And did.

I see Cheryl and Whisky bringing everything they’ve learned about fear producing outrageously “bad” behaviour into her Ponyblue program (using horses to build bridges bewteen troubled kids and the police).  What a great concept!

For those of you who know Whisky, not only can Cheryl catch him, he walks up to her confidently.  Not only can she put a saddle on him, but she can do it confidently – while he’s standing loose, not even haltered, in a yard.  And when I left, they were taking huge strides towards getting on – standing loose.  In the clinic, Cheryl identified that because of his past trauma, this supposedly damaged and dangerous horse just needs stuff in his DEEP comfort zone.  So she worked until every baby step in the horse human relationship was deep in his comfort zone.

I can just hear some of you reading this “Crikey,  five days  and she’s just getting on!”  Well, we are talking here about one of the most dangerously frightened horses I have ever seen.  And in five measly days, Cheryl has changed that, forever.  And we’re not talking about a Ken Faulkner one of the best horsemen in the world here doing such a great job with this horse.  Cheryl is an ordinary rider, even though she’s an extraordinary person!  She is single handedly responsible for bringing peace with a human to this wonderful horse.  There were quite a few joyful tears watching the pair of them progress – and I wasn’t the only one.

If you want to read about the unique approach that made this great relationship possible, then click here to read more about Bobby’s Diaries – Straight From the Horse’s Mouth to You”

Thankyou Whisky, and thank you Cheryl, for bringing me to New Zealand and such a wonderful experience!