A Voice for Horses - Issue 4 (Energy) - Online

EDITORIAL

Energy–It's What Your Horse Responds to First! 

Have you ever noticed how when you are in a good mood and looking forward to the time with your horses, your horse want to be with you and when you come in a less than good mood and hide the anger or frustration under a mask of happiness your horse will prefer to stay with the herd on the pasture or mirror your feelings back to you? 

Are we any different? Not really. Why are we attracted to certain people and not others? Initially, we might say it’s how they look, when in fact it’s what they radiate out into the world that attracts us. It’s how we feel in their presence.

While lunging Riverdance, she would unexpectedly change gait or direction, and I would correct her every time until I saw the connection between her behavior and my thoughts. If my focus stayed on her, things went smoothly. Whenever my thoughts drifted away from her, our connection was broken and she went off and did her own thing. If someone was watching us, they would see no change in my body language, only in the horse’s behavior and thus tell me to correct the horse.

What if we begin to place more focus on what our thoughts, inner pictures, and emotions–all forms of energy–and begin to notice how our horses respond to our energy.

What if we could be open to the idea that while a certain technique can be correct, our horse will initially respond to our energy and how it feels to be in our presence.

Hence it is so important that our horse is free to express itself and not be punished for doing so and instead we learn to become curious and wanting to better understand our horse’s behavior.

Horses do not require us to be perfect, what they seek is congruence–that our energies align: how we think, feel and act. This is what they know and how they communicate with one another.