Working with Horses – Reactive to Relaxed
Equestrian Case Study
Background
George is 13 year old 16 hands Hanoverian x Thoroughbred whom Sharon has owned for 7 years. Sharon has been riding for 17 years and has competed George at Elementary Level Dressage but feels he should be much further on than they are.
He is a ‘stressy’ horse prone to spooking which can result in some extremely sharp movements as well as broncing and bucking. Consequently Sharon has fallen off on a number of occasions.
George has had stomach ulcers which despite treatment are still in evidence albeit low grade which probably explains much of his behaviour and issues.
Our first meeting
I first met Sharon a few months ago when she was interested in trying a treeless saddle and she had what was meant to be a one-off lesson with me to test the saddle. She travelled for three quarters of an hour for the session to where I teach in Shifnal, Telford on a monthly basis.
On the day, George was extremely uptight and tense both mentally and physically and found it incredibly difficult to relax and concentrate. He was mentally on high alert and had a worried look in his eye.
George’s Odd Explosive Moments
During this first lesson, I used some reiki with him whilst also working on Sharon’s seat and posture based on classical principles of equitation. Sharon, quite understandably, had unknowingly become a little tense in her own seat due to not knowing quite what George might do next, so we worked on her relaxation and how she could use that to lead George into a more relaxed state of being. We did get some softening and results but then out of nowhere George would have the odd explosive moment. George struggled to trot in a forward manner and tended to cycle on the backend and not engage his abdominals.
Sharon decided though to continue having some lessons with me as it did seem to help George relax more. We had a couple more lessons on the basis of above and then I asked if I could try using the Inner Repatterning (IR) technique I had started to use whilst riding and she agreed.
First Inner Repatterning Session
A week before this session Sharon had fallen off and was nervous about coming because she thought he would be very tense and spooky as he had not been to the yard for some time. (There had also been some very difficult and emotional issues on Sharon’s yard which had been difficult for both of them and had left George upset as he was on his own)
George was tense although I noted his muscle tone & suppleness was a bit better than it had been when we first started. When Sharon got on he was his usual uptight self, very choppy striding. He was also ‘napping’ at certain places around the arena and wasn’t settled.
We started by discussing any tensions that could be felt within Sharon and also within George and discussed the thoughts and feelings she had around this.
I then showed Sharon how to get into peripheral vision and how this also matches the horses’ energy more accurately and all the benefits of peripheral vision for learning and calming the mind.
Once Sharon felt comfortable with this, we then developed deep breathing, matching the horse walking rhythms as we breathed deeply in and out.
After practising this for some time, we noted that George was a bit more relaxed but still napping and on fairly high alert.
I then asked Sharon what she was experiencing and we went through the Inner Repatterning (IR) process of breathing out each thought, experience and feeling as they arose. Sharon started by releasing any tensions within herself and then any consequent thoughts are feelings.
Moving in Synchronization
Sharon’s seat relaxed deeply and she was moving in better synchronization with the horse as a consequence of this. She felt relaxed until one corner of the ménage and so we then released the thought that he was going to nap in the corner and George had a bit of cough. Sharon said she now felt really relaxed and calm but that George still felt a bit tense. So I asked what colour would allow George to let go of that tension and she said yellow. So I got Sharon to breathe yellow into herself and then through into George using the IR colour flush procedure. At this point I just started spontaneously tapping on my thymus point with the intention of letting go for George, which I felt somehow gave quite a powerful energy to the session. We did this for a few minutes and then released and accepted the thoughts and feelings that arose from both George and within herself.
Coughing and Ulcers?
George suddenly started coughing really deeply and this got more intense for a few minutes. You could see the cough was almost coming from his belly and very deep from within side himself. Finally he gave a big sigh and then was completely relaxed. ( Of interest : I have witnessed this kind of deep coughing from horses when my chiro / massage friend has performed deep muscular release and manipulations in the horse as they let go of the tension. However I have never seen it continue for such a long time. There is some thought from some professionals that the ulcers create scar tissue that needs to be released in order to allow the horse to start using their stomach muscles properly. )
We did a little more work on Sharon who had some tension in her left groin area, using the usual breathe and release technique as well as colour flushing with red but whilst this improved it would not shift completely in the timescales, so will be something we may go on to work on in another lesson. Her seat overall was much softer, she was absorbing the movement of the horse well and her hands were more stable and allowing. She also felt relaxed and calm.
Started to Use His Abdominal’s
George stayed relaxed throughout and proceeded to do everything that was asked of him, standing still completely relaxed, doing exercises whilst stood still and then doing the best trot work I have seen him do and actually starting to use his abdominal’s and work from behind showing off his true potential.
Sharon commented she could not believe quite how relaxed he had become and so quickly as this was very unusual especially as it only took around 20 minutes to get to this point of deep relaxation.
She Didn’t Dare Believe
She didn’t quite dare believe that he would stay relaxed throughout the lesson but he did – the look in his eye had significantly changed and he had lost his normal high alert worried look and was just happy to take it all in his stride. His attention on what was being asked of him increased to probably about 95% compared to what I would consider his usual variance of 15-30% concentration levels.
Sharon was very please with the outcome. I suspect there may be some more work to do here but I think this bodes well for the future and if Sharon permits I will continue to report any outcomes and changes.
