Podcast: Communion With Horses

A friend of mine recently had to have her horse’s eye removed. It is an older, gentle mare, and she is doing well so far. The one-eyed horses I’ve known in the past compensated and went on to live normal lives, one, even as an active (and winning) 4-H game horse. That suggests, to me, that horses rely a lot on all their senses.

I recently read an article in the NY Times about evaluating your health based upon some tests you can do at home, Are You Aging Well? One of the tests is standing on one leg for ten seconds. It reminds me of a pose in my yoga routine, The Dancer. But they threw in a caveat: it’s even better if you can do it with your eyes closed. Yikes.  I tried it, and began to fall over. Taking away my sense of sight threw everything off. 

I was listening to the author of Sacred Spaces, Susan Fay, interviewed on the podcast, Mulemanship. (Here’s the link to the show on YouTube Mulemanship.) It is an excellent, and long, interview about her philosophy and book. GREAT conversation. In fact, one of the best horsey podcasts I’ve ever heard.

In it, and probably the book, too, she recommends closing your eyes to help feel your horse’s energy. Take one sense away so that your other’s are heightened.

I got to thinking about ways I could practice closing my eyes and trying to sense Tumbleweed’s energy, and a lightbulb went off—Masterson Method work and TTouch! (I should have done this on DAY ONE.)

I started with the MM, and closed my eyes a lot while waiting for his releases. I could feel his energy way up, it wasn’t difficult!, and he kept chewing on the rope and shuffling around. 

I took a little break, and then switched to TTouch, which he seemed to enjoy more. I felt his energy come way down. 

I wonder if it’s because he associates human touch with relaxation. He has been handled a lot since he was born. Cowboy sure enjoyed it, too. Surprise, surprise, he was an orphan foal, bottle fed and hand-raised by humans.  All my memories of doing TTouch with Cowboy came flooding back. Sweet moments.

When I wonder how I got Cowboy to the point of being a heart horse, the TTouch method deserves some of the credit. The practitioner I learned from was very good and would come to the house every week. She got us going independently, and he absolutely loved it.

By the time I got to Tweed’s legwork I was able to drop the rope. He had switched over to the parasympathetic state. (In the podcast, Susan Fay said domestic horses spend most of their time in the sympathetic state.)

When we were done, I let him roll in the round pen, but tried to keep him in his relaxed state. I closed my eyes and listened for his energy as he approached, then explored the pen, then approached again. 

The energy was easy to feel when my eyes were closed. The nervous energy in the barn was bristling, while the relaxed energy in the round pen was more like gentle waves that even calmed my own mind. We were getting on the same wavelength. 

If you listen to the podcast, they will briefly touch on these concepts which are mostly, but not all, from the book:

Communion

Congruency

Make-believe

Productive Contemplation 

Energy (Alpha/Beta)

Visualization 

Breathing

Everday is a new day  

Do not focus on the past or even dwell on past stories

Positive aspects to fear: you do what it needs to take to overcome what you’re afraid of, both with your horse and yourself. Getting beyond your skill set, exceeding your skill set can cause you to step back. Fear can keep you alive and inspire you to do something about it.

They tried to deliver our second load of sand yesterday, but got stuck in the mud and couldn’t make it to the arena. (Cry cry cry). My arena is uneven now, and we have to wait until it freezes again to get a truck up there.

We’ll spread out what we have today and try to make the best of it.