Thoughts On TTouch & Working from the Parasympathetic

After Back to Work Day 7, where Tumbleweed was so chill after TTouch and basic bladder meridian releases, we hit day 8 and some real emotion about being away from the herd. 

Susan Fay talks a lot about identifying your emotions during these moments, but I’m not sure what mine were. Is resolve an emotion? When I see his energy / emotion get up like that, I tend to push mine down and continue to direct his feet. I’ve seen this show enough to know how quickly they can change once they get their naughtiness out.

Soon enough, he’s tuned in and respectful, but as we did work closer up, I could feel his energy rising again when he looked over at his buddies gathered at the round bale. We had more work to do, and we did it. 

Working at home has always been the hardest for us. My arena has a clear shot to the main turnout where he can see his buddies having fun and eating. On one hand, it is a worthy cause to push those herd bound buttons, as it will payoff on the trail someday. But on the other hand, it seems like 2 steps forward, 1 step back. 

I did some research into TTouch versus Masterson Method and found out why TTouch might be better for us at this juncture for pre-arena work:

TTouch and the Masterson Method are both gentle, non-invasive equine therapies that improve horse wellness, but differ in focus: TTouch uses circular touches and groundwork to activate the nervous system and build body awareness, while the Masterson Method uses light-touch, interactive techniques to release tension in key joints.

In other words, TTouch is good at getting them to operate in the parasympathetic nervous system. 

While I don’t mind Tweed working his emotions out on the line, I would like to see if I can help him deal with those in other ways first. 

Today, I’m going to combine day 7 TTouch bodywork with Day 8 long line work, and see if getting him, first, into the parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t shave off some of the emotional, herd bound stuff in the arena. 

To be continued.