Equine Leadership Fifth Edition

EQUINE LEADERSHIP a model of peaceful and positive living for all

Fifth edition March 2020

In Memory Of Before we get started with this edition, we would like to take a moment and honour two beautiful souls who wrote for our premier edition and have since left this world. Their passion and dedication to inspiring others through the horse human connection was and still remains profound. ~*~Your lives have touched many and you live on in our connection with horses. ~*~

Wendy Golding April 7th, 1951 to March 20th, 2019 Wendy’s Words of Wisdom: “Horses operate from their hearts and ask us to do the same. There is no better way to live.”

Jody Raven July 13th, 1963 to September 7th, 2017 Jody’s Words of Wisdom: “The horses, those master teachers, will always lead us back to our true nature, our authenticity and our hearts.”

Equine Leadership

Editor’s note Five years ago, I published the 1st issue of Equine Leadership. Now, we are thrilled to welcome you to Equine Leadership’s 5th Edition (EL5). This magazine has been a team effort for 3 years now and for that team I am truly grateful. Pat Hutchinson & Becci Godfrey, thank you! Of course, I would be remiss to not include the authors, horses and you the reader, in team gratitude’s. Almost 50 authors from around the world have contributed at this time in the evolution of Equine Leadership. I am always moved by the lives that EL touches.

I have just read Brené Brown’s book, Rising Strong and in it she poses a question: “Is wisdom derived from experience more or less valuable than data produced by controlled research?” a perfect question to describe this year’s theme: The Horse/Human Relationship: The Science & The Magic. Each article contains a bit of each, whichever suits you best, the research or the wonder, or a bit of both. There is plenty of each within these pages. All sharing in the vision of Equine Leadership: We believe that horses, living as close to nature as possible, can provide a model of living that is clear, authentic and heart-based. Equine Leadership aims to share the equine model of living for a peaceful and positive future; a model that can assist humanity in creating a brighter future.

And so, our magical line up for this year.

Esteemed artist Kim McElroy starts us off and shares her inspiration in The Art of Making Marks and how “horses are catalysts for the human creative impulse”. Debbie La-Haye shares how hanging out with the herd can change our lives in The Ultimate in ‘Less is More’. One of our fellow authors, Graeme Green is back again and shares how the horses give us feedback on the stories we tell ourselves in The Horse’s Journey. Science, horses, spirituality and yoga - Fotini Chandrika Walton connects these all in Equine-imity. Gabriela Ostendorfer moves us through an equine guided activity and into our heart spaces in The Field of Heart Connection. And that is just the first half! On we go to Nikki Kagan’s piece entitled, Getting Real. Nikki shares with us how horses can help us to stop hiding from some of those internal truths we so often don’t want to face. In Kim Hallin’s first article for Equine Leadership, Equine Herd Relationships, she shares how, when horses are able to live free in herd communities, they can offer us ‘guiding tenets’ for healthy human relationships. Next, we are thrilled to have Georgie McBurney authoring Free Your Inner Child. She shares the science, the wonder and the magic of how horses teach us about our on-going choice to be present. Also, returning to write again is Wendy Price. In her article, Equine Assisted Therapy, The Science of the Magic, we learn how horses react to our energy and how they teach us to shift that energy to transform our lives. And finally, closing out the articles is yours truly. In, Some need the Science, Some need the Magic – We all need the horses, a deep dive into why some folks connect with the science and some resonate with the magic. Whichever the case, we all need the horses!

And so, the magical journey continues. The horses are calling to each and every one of us.

They are calling us to fill our hearts with compassion and kindness for ourselves and each other. If you are here, then they are calling you. Read on and then contact an author or two to learn more.

The horses are waiting for you to connect with them and with yourself.

As always, from my heart to yours! Lynda Watson & the EL Team

Equine Leadership

Table of contents

The Art of Making Marks 7

By: Kim McElroy

The Ultimate in ‘Less is More’ By: Debbie La-Haye

11

The Horse’s Journey 15

By: Graeme Green

Equine-imity By: Fotini Walton

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The Field of Heart Connection 23

By: Gabriella Ostendorfer

CONTRIBUTOR BIOS 27

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Get Real By: Nikki Kagan

33

Herd Relationships 36

By: Kim Hallin

Free Your Inner Child By: Georgie McBurney

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39

Equine Assisted Therapy, The Science of the Magic By: Wendy Firmin-Price

Some Need the Science, Some Need the Magic By: Lynda Watson

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All photos in articles are taken by the author unless other photo credit is stated. Photos in: The Field of Heart Connection, Front & Back covers and full-page layouts are taken by editor.

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N.B. Where necessary client names have been changed to protect privacy Page | - 5 -

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THE ART OF MAKING MARKS By: Kim McElroy

“(Prehistoric) People didn’t one day invent making pictures. What happened was that people were familiar with the images that their brains were producing which were being projected onto cave walls and ceilings. And they wanted to nail down and make permanent those images, those visions that they saw.” David Lewis-Williams

Our species has been making marks for eons.

Long before we had language or written communication, we had drawings and symbols.

It is in our DNA to make marks.

I was born loving horses, and from the moment I could hold a crayon and make any marks that were recognizable, I was drawing them. I always knew I’d be an artist, but somewhere along the

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way, I lost touch with drawing horses. Then, in my early twenties, horses and art once again intersected and I’ve been painting them ever since. The drawings that first sparked this creative epiphany happened when I was in the presence of horses running free, and those drawings looked different than any art I had created of horses before; they looked like cave paintings.

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WHY HORSES? Cézanne once said that it was the artist’s task to become concentric with nature. Horses taught me what this means. The epiphany that occurred to me when I began drawing horses again was one that I also return to time and again, which is to seek answers to the question, “Why Horses?”

This question has prompted me to go beyond pursuing my creative impulses to devising techniques to inspire them in others.

Horses are catalysts for the human creative impulse. I believe this is because we have an evolutionary and intuitive kinship with horses that inspires us. Horses communicate with each other in mysterious ways that arouses our curiosity about subtle forms of expression. Art is one of these forms. In their beauty and their ways of expressing their emotions through their body language, horses seem to tap into the nonverbal part of us that also happens to be the place from which art emerges; a place where we leave our linear verbal brain behind and begin to think in pictures.

It is human nature to want to record thoughts, feelings and experiences, but in our culture drawing is relegated to a skill that you are born with, or you aren’t. That issue becomes irrelevant when we consider how long humans have been compelled to create. We knew that Homo Sapiens created what we commonly refer to as cave paintings, but recent findings have proven that even our more “primitive” relatives, the Neanderthals who existed over 64,000 years ago were also creating drawings of abstract symbolic concepts, and human and animal images.

These drawings, made on the only “canvas” that was available in nature, took planning, thought, and time, and held deep importance for the creators and for the people who continue to experience them. The Horse accompanied us then, as they do now. In the book “The Horse – The Epic History of Our Noble Companion,” Wendy Williams writes about early paleolithic art saying, “Horses are the most frequently

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represented animal in the twenty-thousand-year period that preceded the advent of farming and what we call civilization.“ Scientists still debate about the meanings of cave paintings, and whether they had ritualistic or religious symbolism. When I read about cave paintings in Carl Jung’s 1964 book “Man and his Symbols”, I resonated with the words of Jung’s associate, Aniela Jaffé when she wrote, “The [cave] drawings express a form of sympathetic magic which is based on the reality of a double represented in the drawing. This means that the paleolithic peoples held a strong sense of identification between a living being and its image, which was considered to be the being’s soul.”

Master’s Peace Horses preceded us in evolution by millions of years. It seems they have a lot to say – or express – about what is relevant today. Horses have an intrinsic ability to affect us on many levels. If we allow our state of mind to become quiet in the presence of horses, we have access to more information.

Emulating the qualities of the right or creative side of our brain, horses are non-verbal and perceptual. They are also intuitive, nontemporal, and spatial, and they perceive through synthesis rather than analysis. When we reclaim March 2020

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the choice to use our right brain, to release the human need to talk or even think in words, we can emulate the horse by perceiving, holistically, our inner and outer states of mind.

Horses seek relationship and to unify their relationships and their environments. With their guidance, we can learn to relate to everything in the sphere of our inquiry as it exists in relationship, rather than in isolation. When there is relationship, there is synchronicity, and that is a necessary aspect of inspiration.

I can imagine what it must have been like for our ancestors entering those caves for the first time and seeing the dancing fire of flickering torches casting shadows on the walls. Shadows that often-looked like animals. The womb-like cave atmosphere in and of itself must have evoked the meditative and visionary experiences that naturally precede the desire to create.

THE CAVE OF YOUR INNER SELF The horse inspires you to enter the cave of your inner self. In asking questions of that inner landscape, you can begin to receive visual or kinesthetic answers in your mind’s eye or body consciousness. Attend to a feeling or thought, and then pick up a tool, and instead of putting words to the feeling, draw some form of it, in line, or color, or shape. Witness the process rather than trying to control it. It doesn’t have to look like anything representational because these marks are for you alone. They are your new language, your new symbols that offer a way of recording and authenticating your feelings.

Now stop for a moment before your next thought surfaces, which might be, “I can’t draw.” When we denigrate our ability to draw, there is one common saying we all repeat, and it goes something like, “I can only draw stick figures.”

Aren’t those exactly what cave paintings are? We think of cave paintings as being evocative and mysterious because of their age and their significance to our evolutionary origins. If we didn’t know what cave paintings were, and we drew something similar and shared it in a Facebook post, do you think people would celebrate our skill? It is the context of the sharing, the act, and the sacredness of the experience behind the drawing that evokes the feeling of it being profound.

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RECORDING It is natural for us to want to record the fleeting experiential images that pass through our minds as meaning and metaphor, or that come and go or across the screen behind our closed eyes. If we go back to the beginning, back to holding a tool, and record a feeling or thought as some form of artistic expression, we can tap into the ancient experience of making marks.

I learned early on in my art, that what I was drawing wasn’t the form of the horse, but rather its energy. Just like in the fine art of Sumi painting. Sumi artists spend a lifetime learning to create a perfect line. They believe that the line conveys the Chi - or primal life energy of the subject. As an artist, making marks is a process of trusting that one’s intent, combined with the flow of the energy or Chi, will create a work of art that will convey an experience of the subject’s power.

Once while I was attending an equine experiential workshop, I joined a group of three women and entered a horse paddock with three horses. We were instructed to act as a human herd and see how the horses would interact with us. Two of the horses were curious and friendly, but one mare was particularly aloof. I tried to figure out what I, as one of her human herd members, could offer her in her perfectly natural world that would be interesting to her.

Instinctively, I picked up a stick and started drawing swirls and lines in the dirt. Suddenly I felt the presence of the mare close behind me.

She had her head low to the ground and was clearly riveted by what I was doing. Somehow my focus and intent made me interesting. What's even more intriguing is that later, I watched her pick up a stick, and it seemed to me that she wanted to draw lines in the dirt too.

Before we bridled and domesticated horses, they provided humanity with inspiration that was of such profound importance that the drawings they inspired continue to touch us, and teach us, tens of thousands of years later. Now that humankind itself has become bridled and domesticated, through our unique ability to make marks, horses can help offer us a way back to nature, back to our inner nature, and the canvas of our spirit. ~*~

The Blessing

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THE ULTIMATE IN ‘LESS is MORE’ How hanging out with the herd can change our lives.

By: Debbie La-Haye

The veteran whose parachute didn’t open on his last jump is left with a broken body, his identity shattered along with his leg. In constant pain, he is haunted by memories of the mental demands of his active service – the dual life of spending normal family time as a loving father interspersed with missions to kill the enemy. Without the support of his comrades, where is he to find peace now?

Come through our gate into the green sanctuary of the Buckinghamshire countryside. Let’s sit in a field with no agenda other than to share space with our herd of six horses. There is no mission, there doesn’t have to be a conclusion. There are no boxes to tick, no targets to meet. Let’s throw away our human pressures, plans and expectations, and enter the horses’ world for a while.

SHARED SPACE First of all, let’s settle on the ground. There’s something very special about being in contact with the earth’s March 2020

energy, just like our unshod horses, feeling it literally grounding us. Maybe we’ll sit in the embrace of the trees.

Research from the University of Exeter (1) has shown that spending just two hours a week in nature is the minimum needed for seeing an improvement in our health and wellbeing. Those two hours are our gift right now. Let’s start with some time to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings. Perhaps a bit of cloud gazing first, slow our breathing, ease ourselves onto the horses’ wavelength. We want to share space – not appear as predators staring down their prey. Let’s hang out with the herd.

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movement restricted by paddock fences. We might strive to do the best for our horses (a carefully designed track system, barefoot, sugar-free) but there will still be compromises – a manmade group instead of family bonds, neutered horses with no chance to breed, fields that are fenced with a human in charge of the boundaries. Freedom lost. As the ones responsible for our horses’ lifestyle, we speak honestly to our fellow herd watchers about the challenges we encounter.

Louis, Amee and friends are dotted around the pasture.

As we spot each herd member, it’s fun to think of what life would be like for them as a band of wild horses.

Although I’ve known Dollar and Goldie all their lives, those wild horse instincts are not far from their domesticated surface. The wild horses of our dreams live in their bodies in front of us, perfectly equipped physically to cope with life as a prey animal. Eyes that scan the horizon, satellite dish ears, nostrils assessing the familiar and the unfamiliar. All their senses perfectly tuned to give the best chance of surviving the constant threat of being someone’s dinner. It seems amazing that they can live with that level of danger while calmly grazing with an awareness that doesn’t tip into hypervigilance.

While we’re wrestling with the bigger picture, we’re also asking what small changes we can make here and now to improve things – somewhere to roll, freedom to scratch with a friend. For many of our visitors living with long term mental health issues, this is a situation they are familiar with – living in conditions that are less than ideal, trapped in a welfare system that cannot always meet their needs.

Jemma, a highly sensitive person who struggles to hold down a full-time job in a society full of sensory overload, is housed in a small flat in the energetic chaos of urban life. Instead of recovery, she feels worse, and assumes it’s her own fault for not coping. When we talk about horses getting stressed or depressed by being shut in a stable, it doesn’t seem like weakness. It’s an obvious result of living in an inappropriate environment. Now Jemma can try to find the small changes that will make a difference for her. She’s starting with houseplants and a walk in the park.

One day I sat with a gentle lady, admiring the beauty of the herd. As a carer for her elderly father approaching the end of his life, she carried the stress of his emergency hospital visits in the form of anxiety and chest pain and had come to our farm for some respite. As she watched Bilbo graze, a carrier bag rustled in the hedgerow and he galloped off, tail streaming, before spinning round to check the danger. Satisfied the herd was safe, he dropped his head back down to the grass. What a lightbulb moment as my friend saw how easily the adrenaline was shaken off! She gave herself a motto – “Graze, plastic bag, graze.” From then on, the hospital trips were the plastic bags of life, but she remembered to go back to grazing in between.

DOMESTICATION

JOY OF THE HERD

Of course, we’re not actually looking at a herd of wild horses. Domestication brings compromises – a diet with limited opportunities to forage and self-medicate,

Today, the joy of the herd is in front of us, bringing us back to the here and now. Spending time with our horse family while making no demands on them reveals so

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much about their characters – who stays away from conflict, who enjoys rough play, who is friends with whom, who is first to check out a scary object.

I enjoy seeing the horses through other peoples’ eyes. I am not the expert here – I may have day to day knowledge of the horses which gives me understanding of the context of some of their actions, but I also have emotional connections with each of the horses which can colour my views. Our website does not have descriptions of the horses’ characters, so people can meet them with no preconceptions. If they have read about Buddy the wise one, or Dollar’s sense of humour, they will view them through that lens. People with previous horse knowledge are also often trapped by that knowledge, seeing a herd of labels, ‘that one looks like a fabulous jumper, what a lovely cob, they’re always such fun, oh a chestnut mare…’. It’s so interesting to sit with people who know nothing about horses, because very often they immediately get a feel for the individual spirit within the horse, not the outside packaging.

As we sit here, time passes, while on the surface nothing much has happened. But, in the stillness, more layers are revealed. We become aware of the subtlety of herd communication. We know that Goldie may be on the other side of the field from Tashunka, but now we notice their movements are in sync. We become aware of the invisible energy web that links each individual herd member, however scattered they are.

In times of danger, an energy jolt will immediately unite the herd. I remember the day I experienced this for the first time. I was out in the field among the grazing horses,

doing the daily job of clearing the droppings, my mind in the meditative state that a repetitive task can bring, when I felt a shockwave hit the nerve centre of my solar plexus. Immediately, as one, the horses were running past me, away from some perceived threat. Although I’d read about emerging studies in energetic communication (2), I realised with amazement that I had just been right in the middle of one of those energy exchanges, and had the privilege of a first-hand experience of this non-verbal and very immediate way of sharing information. While herd watching, we can reach this same state of receptive being where we start to feel the tug of the energy strands too. We begin to feel what the horses feel – the position of the sun, the direction of the breeze, the tiny bird moving in the hedgerow. We feel less like observers and more like a part of the herd.

Now the horses make their way over to where we are sitting, and choose a spot to stand calmly close by, seeking out our company, no longer them and us. Today the energy feels companionable. Other days it might be curious or protective, but it always seems like together we are part of something bigger, the wholeness of the natural world. I remember one of our clients, joining me in the field. Her self-esteem crushed by multiple sclerosis; she was overwhelmed when Buddy chose to stand close to her. When I met her a few years later, she straightaway reminded me of that magical day “It was better than winning the lottery!”

We’ve been out in the field for a couple of hours now.

Surrounded by birdsong, our veteran friend eases himself back to his feet. New connections have been forged, a sense that there’s a life worth rebuilding.

Surrounded by new comrades of the four-legged variety, he’s felt the support of the herd – the peace he craves is within reach. He stretches and smiles.

“After all the death and destruction of war, I feel like I can breathe again.” ~*~ 1.University of Exeter. "Two hours a week is key dose of nature for health and wellbeing." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 June 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190613095227.htm>.

2.http://www.equusatori.com/wordpress1/?p=206 “Horses, Humans, and the Frequencies of Connection” by Lisa Walters and Dr Ann Baldwin

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THE HORSEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S JOURNEY Narrative as Creator of Experience By: Graeme Green

In 1996 someone bought a tape measure. They paid almost $46,000.

Really! OK it was a Tiffany tape measure, but still.

So, what happened? Well it was once owned by John Fitzgerald Kennedy. That was enough. The story of its provenance established a different measure of value, for at least one person. Some of you might say an irrational value.

Narrative has far more influence than assigning value. It helps us to locate ourselves, to make sense of the world and to retain information.

When we weave the adventures of heroes and heroines into them, we engage, we empathise, inspire and even give hope. In a scientific world of facts and repeatable proofs we too quickly forget the magic of stories.

At a primitive level narrative gets us from place to place. It carries the route we need to follow, be it to a supermarket or to a water hole.

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What has all this got to do with horses?

Whether horses tell themselves stories is a discussion for another day. However, we certainly do, and for centuries those stories have involved horses.

When we work alongside horses, effective interaction is a reflection of how we are. And how we are is so often influenced by the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the horses.

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How often have I heard “the horse doesn't like me", “the horse is bored now", or “the horse will never do that"? I am sure other practitioners will have many to add to this list. The thing is, these stories set our expectation and so influence our action, for better or worse.

If I don’t believe the horse will undertake what I ask of it, it will almost definitely not do it. Why should it?

LETS STEP BACK IN TIME We have always told ourselves stories.

Traditionally they carried the knowledge of cultures and communities through generations. They made sense of the world around us. When we look into these stories, they are not just engaging but they have woven into them the wisdom of generations and ancestry. Myths such as those of Gilgamesh, Hercules or Osiris carry the keys to make sense of both the world around and the heavens above. They also carry the wisdom and histories of a culture and its ancestry.

And these stories – like much of human history – are replete with horses; Slepnir, Pegasus, The Unicorn etc. This deep connection with the equine is as much a part of being human as these tales themselves. Not only in our stories, but deep in our language through popular idiom and metaphor. The fascination is ancient, just take yourself to the images on the cave walls in Lascaux or Chauvet (1). The title of this article is an acknowledgement of Joseph Campbell's insight. Campbell studied myths of the world and drew out what he called “The Hero’s Journey” – a cycle of challenge, exploration and Page | - 16 -

enlightenment played out within the tales of ancient and traditional cultures around the world. A model that continues to be replayed for our entertainment to this day in modern narratives like Star Wars or Harry Potter.

Beside the horse we can be the hero of our adventure, sharing an atavistic cross specie connection that deeply resonates with who we are. As scientist Rupert Sheldrake might say, we are with horses in “the presence of the past", somewhere in that moment there is morphic resonance(2), an implicit connection with things that have always inspired and engaged humans.

And now, we might - in context - be turning to our horse as a facilitator seeking coaching or therapeutic insight, but in doing so we turn to a part of ourselves and our own lineage. The place that the horse holds within the collective human heart is a reflection of our shared stories, from a child's dream of ponies, to the farm, to the battlefield.

STUCK IN TRAFFIC I try to avoid asking too much about clients’ challenges. Wherever possible I prefer to leave them within their own narrative. The stories we tell ourselves affect how we are, and how we approach things, to the extent that it influences those around us. Enter the horses.

One client became stuck in the middle of an obstacle with my horse Ernie. Ernie refused at any cost to move. After quite some time had elapsed, I was compelled to ask her, “where are we?”. It turned out this was the M25. A notorious, persistent traffic jam which encircles London (for all you non-UK residents).

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Stories very often work at deeper levels than just the words we hear, and so beside the horses it is more than just the observed phenomena. In this case, the client felt the commute was superficially a huge drain on time and energy.

Ernie also drew out the real plot, which was that her work role had become increasingly unsatisfactory for her.

limited by the idea that “how things are now", will be as they shall be hereafter. In the metaphor of the story, there is hope beyond the challenge, the hero eventually moves on.

Within the story we might recognise that this is but one chapter. We are not here in perpetuity, and this hope can change our experience and so our behaviour.

Did she actually ever want to get there at all?

When we tell ourselves a story where movement becomes impossible or undesirable, suddenly we cease to be able to move forward even in open space – and in our way this becomes our instruction to the horse. My client needed to shift her story. Only when she did, were they able to revisit the exercise with success.

Narratives so often, and often unintentionally, influence our reality and behaviour.

REWRITING THE STORY Experiential learning places the individual at the heart of their own learning, like the hero at the centre of their narrative or journey. Like the hero

Tyler was getting close to his last chance. He was at a Pupil Referral Unit and this was his last chance of getting an education. His goal was to stay in his class for the whole lesson.

It seemed easy, but it was not. Whenever he was corrected by the teacher he would be overcome and have to leave the classroom to smoke. He knew this was not helpful and it was compromising any chance of achievement.

Tyler needed an appropriate narrative to help him move beyond those moments of challenge.

We created a physical journey for Tyler and the pony Blue. A maze of jump poles, weaving it’s way around the arena. It represented his lesson.

The corners in the maze those moments of correction.

In the first attempts, the connection between the two of them broke down in these corners.

Blue quickly picking up that Tyler’s emotions were essentially “getting the most of him" and moving away.

we can see ourselves in dark and challenging places, but in the mythology the hero overcomes and moves on, stronger and wiser. When we step into their challenges there is hope.

Too often when we face a challenge it consumes us, and we cannot see beyond it. We feel stuck or trapped within. Our brains are too easily March 2020

We talked. We breathed. We created stories and set strategies that aligned to his intention. We worked with that maze a lot. Tyler’s challenge to get through it and back without giving up (without “metaphorically" leaving for the cigarette). In time he could walk through it with Blue without any lead rope or aids, turn around and return without stopping, or disconnecting from Blue.

Tyler learned to see beyond difficulty. Most importantly he learned the resilience to reconnect with his intention and continue, even in those moments when the going got tough.

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in class. Tyler learned to continue with his intended journey without falling at each hurdle.

THE HERO'S RETURN The implicit strength of the Hero's journey is that it helps us to recognise the bigger picture, we can step back from the apparent consuming challenges of the moment. We can, as they say, play the long-game. The Horse and Human journey here is the same. How might we see beyond the challenge? How might we keep our vision upon the path ahead of us? The right story offers hope, and so belief. And therein is a foundation of resilience.

behaviours that the situations give rise to within us. The horse’s role is to shine a light upon those behaviours.

It really is about us and what we ultimately choose to do with the awareness that we are offered in the interaction. In changing the story, we can change the behaviour. But first we must be willing to create that different and more appropriate narrative.

In the end, we are all both the narrators and heroes of our own stories. The horses provide us the page onto which we might write it. ~*~

Equine Facilitated Learning is not about the horse, nor about the way the horse engages with some exercise or obstacle. It is about the stories that arise within us as we walk beside them, and the emotions and

“The place that the horse holds within the collective human heart is a reflection of our shared stories…”

1.https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1426/ 2.https://www.sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance

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EQUINE-IMITY The Science and Spirituality of Equine Guided Yoga By: Fotini Chandrika Walton

Horses have gifted the spiritual practice of Yoga with a direct path to the science of the Heart. The Horses lead us to our inner compass where we can access our innate ability to live a life of connection, clarity and creativity. This innate way of Being supports a sense of equanimity that helps humans cope with the demands of modern-day life.

In the eyes of the Horse, the lines between our strength and our weakness become blurred in the present moment where wounds become wisdom and we are seen through the eyes of keen awareness and non-judgment. The literal meaning of Yoga in Sanskrit (the language of yoga) is “unity” and it is in this moment, this sense of being seen from the space of the Heart, that we truly experience a union with the Natural World. In commune with the Natural World, we experience the true essence of Life!

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In relationship with the Horses in my care, I have experienced friendship, support, encouragement and, ultimately, “samadhi” or “awakening”. In our evolution as partners in Equine Guided Yoga, the Horses have generously extended these offerings to me and the many clients whom we have served together, helping them create lasting, positive change in their lives. The word “ashva” means “horse” in Sanskrit, but it can also be translated as “not yesterday and not tomorrow.”

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FOND CONNECTIONS I didn’t grow up with Horses. The stories of my early life are surrounded by concrete jungles and a lot of dark places. Inside and outside. Animals were my fondest connections. With them I felt loved, understood and seen. The more they provided me the opportunity to dream, the more I wanted to be with them, listen to them, love them.

From as far back as I can remember, I was fascinated by Horses. Where I grew up, Horses were few and far between until I came across Riverdale Park, which was home to two Clydesdale Horses. They became my best friends.

Reliant on my own resources since the age of 15, my time was spent focused solely on survival and working hard to complete an education. Having moved more times than my years (at that time) and attended almost a dozen schools, it was difficult to make steady, lasting friendships with humans. In between school and work, I would ride my bike to see my new and treasured equine friends. I would sit on the ground beneath their muzzles giggling from my heart space at their curiosity and character. My friendship with the Horses was easy, simple and pure. It wouldn’t be long before I would move again, but the memories of the Horses would remain in my Heart forever.

Horses became the “dristi” or “focal point” of my mind’s eye during times of stress and anxiety. I would see them running wild and free and it

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would give me hope that one day I would know freedom from the hardships of my young and challenging life.

As an adult, I began a regular practice of Yoga to heal from the trauma I held in my body from the earlier years. Life was good now, but my body still believed that I was somehow unsafe. I had long since seen my Clydesdale friends but was now in a position with a vehicle and a good job after college, to begin to explore this vision that I held so close in my “ajna” or mind’s eye. The vision of Horses.

The timing of exploring Horses while diving deep into a Yoga practice was not by accident. It would form the groundwork for an Equine Guided Yoga modality that married the science and synchronicities of both being with Horses and practicing Yoga. I was fascinated by the way the Horses were quickly able to guide me to a place of equanimity; a state of being that is the entire premise of the Yoga practice. Horses brought the somatic nature of Yoga off the mat by their nonpredatory way of being that offers a sense of clarity, deep connection, encourages creativity and gently demands present moment awareness.

HOW THE HORSES I am in awe of how the Horses, are able to identify the areas of imbalance in a human and to so gracefully bring them to the surface for exploration and expression. It is no wonder that the spirituality of Horses is honored in many ancient texts, including the Baghavad Gita with Krishna arriving in a chariot pulled by two white horses. And the Qu-ran, where it is said that for “every barley corn given to a Horse, Allah would forgive one sin.”

It is apparent that we have recognized the true meaning of “Horse Power” for thousands and thousands of years, honoring the unspoken, unexplainable magic that Horses have offered human evolution. In an extension to studies conducted by the HeartMath Institute (1), Dr.

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Equine Leadership

Ellen Kaye Gehrke concludes that the “calmness and autonomic state of horses has a greater influence on the human response rather than the other way around.” Horses can effortlessly bring us to a place of calm, coherent, connection that can offer clarity of insights and opportunity for creative expression.

and fresh perspectives that reflects in every area of their lives. The Horses guide the experience as they invite each unique individual to walk from their Heart.

The Horses have also long encouraged us to express ourselves by guiding us to the areas in the brain where we gain clear access to our Self.

Many sketches and sculptures created by humans , like the “Horse of Lourdes”, carved out of mammoth tusk an estimated 15,000 years ago, found in a cave in France, are ancient depictions of the beautiful Equine beast.

This is a commonality within the Yoga practice with ancient Yogis sharing the fruits of their practice through poetry, art and music. We create together, Horses and Humans. A harmonious world through Heart connection.

The Horses lead us to dance with self-expression through the creative arts.

In their book Talent Development III, authors, John Ruscio and Teresa Amabileit state, “We summarize our research on motivation and its impact on creativity by what we call the intrinsic motivation principle of creativity: People will be most creative where they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and personal challenge of the work itself and not by external pressures. People are most creative when they are primarily intrinsically motivated rather than primarily extrinsically motivated.” In their calm connection, Horses release external pressure on Humans and offer the opportunity for expression from the Heart. It is clear that Horses are conducive to creativity by the influence of their “calmness and autonomic state.”

FROM THE HEART I have witnessed many clients leave their time with the Horses in a state of higher awareness

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A year ago, I met with Sharon, a middle-aged woman at a crossroads in her path. Her head was telling her to stay at her job for sake of security and stability, but her Heart was asking her to leave her job in order to pursue her dreams of sharing her art with the world. She felt stuck and unsure which way to turn. When she arrived on the farm, our mare Isa, was waiting for Sharon at the gate, facing the driveway. Sharon felt this reflected her current situation. I invited her to envision the post about 15 metres away as her “dream” and asked Isa to provide some clarity.

Sharon haltered Isa and began to walk to the post. Isa became anxious, making circles around Sharon and not moving forward. It was clear she and Isa had lost their connection. I invited her to remove the halter and continue to walk toward her “dream”. She walked forward, without

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Equine Leadership

looking back. When she arrived at the post, she looked back to see that Isa had closely followed her. She had let go of the tight grip of fear and control. She was leading from her Heart, experiencing pure connection and the clarity of her creative “dream”.

Just a few weeks ago, I received an email from Sharon: “The experience of being with Isa has been life changing/life centering and became my anchor point in life. Words can’t really express the experience but I felt as though it guided me back to truly know what it is to rest in stillness and in my centre and get out of my head. I knew what I needed to do which was to honour what my body, heart and soul were telling me and I retired a few months later. I really don’t know if I would have found the clarity and the peace to make that decision without the session with Isa.”

I, along with my family, have found a place of freedom within where we, both Horses and Humans, can experience connection, clarity and creativity. Horses remind us we can choose to connect with the beauty, grace and courage within others and ourselves, even in times of challenge and change. They remind us to take a deep breath and be in the clarity of our bodies’ wisdom, rather than become stuck in the rat race in our minds. They remind us to let go of the heaviness of our emotions and dance with them through creative self-expression. Not yesterday.

Not tomorrow. In the present moment, here and now. In the equanimous space of the present moment. Together with the Horses. ~*~

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0737080610005514

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Equine Leadership

THE FIELD OF HEART CONNECTION Connecting the Equine and Human Heart through Movement

By: Gabriela Ostendorfer

The stillness in the arena is almost palpable as though time has stopped. We are a group of strangers standing together in a circle with an unfamiliar sense of intimacy. We have come to explore the magic of music and movement, in the presence of horses. We have come to deepen our understanding of Human/Horse Heart connection within a field of energy.

The stage is set: two round pens await our presence. We are invited to embody a beginner’s mind to set our intention for the session. Can we let everything we know fall away and surrender to what is? Surrender to what may happen? Can we allow Curiosity to lead us?

As meditative music reaches our ears, the words of the facilitator begin…

“Slowly finding your place - either inside the round pen or outside of it. There is no decision to make, just begin walking and your body will let you know when you have arrived. I invite you to ground yourself beginning with your feet, rooted to the earth. Sense that feeling of being connected to the earth in more than just a physicality. Connected with all your senses and intelligences… mental, emotional and spiritual.

Be generous and give yourself the time you need.

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Move your awareness to your breath, the partner who is always there for you, with you.

Just notice its rhythm: the inhale, turning point, exhale and pause. No need to change it. Just notice. When you are ready, bring your awareness to your heart. Check in with its beat, its emotions, its messages. You may wish to actually touch your chest to create a tangible connection to your heart, perhaps using a tender, loving massage motion. Be curious. Is your heart ready to receive your breath? Breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Take a few steady, deep breaths. Exhale through your Heart, through your belly and finally exhale through your feet into the earth.

What are you experiencing in your body right now?” The facilitator’s voice is soft, and I notice my own body soften.

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Equine Leadership

We move deeper into the session, inviting a beginner’s mind through curiosity and openness.

Finding our own presence through physically grounding into Mother Earth. Exploring our breath through noticing its rhythmic flow.

than the brain. “The Heart radiates an electromagnetic field affecting each other’s moods, attitudes and feelings - whether we are conscious or not.” (2008 Global Coherence Initiative, Institute of HeartMath)

Opening our heart to what message is there.

My entire body is now moving with the flow of the music. My arms are reaching out into space and I am overcome with a sudden feeling of joyfulness. The horse is coming closer and I, too, move closer with a cautious intention. My arms and hands make caressing motions along the horse, no physical touch but within the horse’s energy field. I see the horse’s eyes soften yet its ears signal a friendly alertness. ‘Ahh, this flow feels wonderful. I am dancing with you.’

The music changes its tempo and my body wants to move, to explore the space within this field of energy. I begin to notice the horse presence within the round pen and its steadiness arouses a sense of safety within me. A gentle nicker. Wait, I hear a message in my heart from the horse, ‘It is safe to move and open your energy channels.

Let go of thinking.’

The horse’s behaviour is loud and clear. Ears flickering this way and that. Body turning, slowing taking one step, then another, then more, then standing still. Head turning toward me, ‘I feel you and I feel your energy. Listen to your heart. Can you hear it? I do. Can we make a heart connection?’

The effects of music on people may not be fully understood on a scientific level, however studies have shown that when people hear music they like, their brain actually releases a chemical called dopamine which can produce positive effects on mood. Music can move us. It can make us feel strong emotions, such as joy, sadness, or fear, and according to some researchers, music may even have the power to improve our health and well-being. Studies have shown the benefits of music are numerous: reduces stress, lessens anxiety, improves mood and can create happiness and relaxation. (1)

The research conducted by the Institute of HeartMath suggests that the heart’s field is an important carrier of information. Our hearts have an electromagnetic field that not only envelops all the cells of our body but extends out into the space around us. The Institute of HeartMath has released research that shows the heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in the human body. The heart’s electrical field is 60 times greater in amplitude than the brain. The heart’s magnetic field is 5,000 times stronger

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Equine Leadership

The tempo of the music changes again with a faster beat and, mysteriously, it becomes easier to express my emotions through movement. I am moving around the horse feeling its eyes follow me. What is that sensation of weight in my torso? My hands join together and slowly rub my torso with kindness. What if I let my thoughts go and explore this weight with curiosity? A tinge of sadness arising, perhaps? I recall the facilitator’s words, to feel the emotion fully, to use the breath to explore what is there.

The horse presence remains strong and solid and gives me confidence to feel the sadness.

At times the horse may move and then stop.

A signal for me?

‘Pause. Pay attention to your feeling. Is there a message for you?’

The horse may adopt certain positions or may even lie down.

‘I am vulnerable…won’t you be vulnerable, too?’

Combining music with movement can bring a new aliveness and interest in our bodies.

Movement opens the flow of stagnant energy within our body - it wakes up our organs, our tissues, bones and fluids.

Movement also has numerous benefits for wellbeing. It can reduce stress, it is good for heart health, it enhances the immune system, and is good for most medical conditions such as blood pressure, cholesterol, digestive issues, bone strength, sleep, memory and it supports stability. (2) When we are open, we can receive the messages of our heart through the horse and use intuition to connect with our higher self. This is the authentic voice that is spiritual and allows access to a state of higher consciousness, a collective wisdom that holds infinite knowledge and a deep inner knowing.

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I notice the sensation of wetness on my face. I taste the saltiness of tears with my tongue. I trust my breath to guide me. I feel the earth below me.

I am cleansed.

The music is slowing down inviting a heartfelt, meditative quality. My breath begins to slow. My movements also slow to a softer, more gentle flow through the space. My awareness returns to the round pen, the horses, the other participants.

I sense the temperature of the air on my skin. I sense the embrace of the ground holding me. I hear the soft sigh of relaxation emanating from one horse’s nostrils. Then the horses licking and chewing. A smile slowly transforms my face.

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‘I am so present with you now. I am calm and content. We are One.’

deeper, embodied presence within the energy field of the human and equine Heart.

Our bodies are always speaking to us. We often have not learned how to listen, or we just aren’t always ready to listen. Music can invite opportunity for direct experience. The use of movement, presence and breath can open pathways of energy to explore and experience a

My Heart beats out its message of unconditional love for myself. I savour it like a warm hug and hold it close to my chest. The sigh of relaxation becomes a gentle breathing sound. I sense the horse standing next to me holding space for this moment of deep connection. We are One in a Field of Heart Connection. ~*~

We need to be fully present, place our trust in the horse, allow and honor their trust in us

1. https://www.gethealthystayhealthy.com/articles/10-health-benefits-of-music 2. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/physical-activity-its-important

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Contributor bios

Equine Leadership

Debbie La-Haye It was something of a shock for her animal-free family when Debbie entered the world as a fully formed horse lover. Early years were spent watching ‘White Horses’ and ‘The Virginian’ while her big brother provided pretend pony rides round the lounge. Her 4 year-old self was determined to read in order to enter the magical world of ‘Jill’s Gymkhana’. As her childhood independence grew, so did her ability to stalk every horse-owner in the neighbourhood. When the beyond beautiful palomino Rosa entered her 12 year old life, she would never again be without a four-legged friend.

Life became an unplanned meandering of horses, poetry, dogs, picnics, university (chosen for being near moorland, wild ponies and the sea), and occasionally sensibly working in an office.

Horses Helping People is part of that journey, an independent therapeutic horsemanship centre set up in 2006 with partner, Dave Johnson, and son, Morgan. The aim is simply to share the happiness of spending time with their lovely horses, with no agenda other than being kind to each other. It’s a safe space for the sensitive, the vulnerable, the misunderstood, both two and four legged. Career highlights include being paid by the council to meditate with horses (a 3-year Mindfulness with Horses Development Programme) and, above all, the succession of wonderful horses that live at Sunrise Farm. Being lucky enough to live in a field surrounded by horses and wild creature friends, sharing moonlight meditations, keeps her inner 4 yearold filled with wonder. Debbie can be reached through www.horseshelpingpeople.co.uk

Gabriela Ostendorfer Gabriela is a Seeker, Explorer and Heart Whisperer. Gabriela’s curiosity about body-mind-spirit connection drew her attention to her body and its messages. Over the past years she discovered 2 modalities that invited this deeper connection on more intimate, spiritual levels. Core Connexion Transformational Arts® is a movement/dance practice based on embodiment and presence.

Her training as a Facilitator opened new learning about how stress, trauma and injury may be held in the body and how movement, breathwork and presence are resources in healing.

Through a series of synchronicities, Gabriela discovered the FEEL program (Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning) and heard her Higher Self-affirm the feeling she had returned home.

Gabriela had the typical experiences with horses as a young girl - trail riding and summer camps.

As she did not own a horse, becoming involved in the spiritual horse world required courage and persistence. Her training as a FEEL Practitioner allowed her to enter the world of horses as teachers and healers and learn how Presence and Heart Connection can help people open their Hearts and access infinite energy. Gabriela brings curiosity and a beginner’s mind for others to explore the dancing energy and aliveness in the Body as a Core Connexion Facilitator and the infinite energy and consciousness of the Heart as a FEEL Practitioner. Gabriela lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Contact: (403)918-6175 gabrielao@shaw.ca www.gabrielao.ca

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Equine Leadership

Contributor bios

Fotini Walton Fotini Chandrika Walton is the caregiver to four Horses with whom she partners with at their shared home, The Big Red Barn Creativity and Wellness Centre. Fotini has professional training in the fields of Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda, Equine Facilitated Learning, Expressive Arts, Vedic Counseling, Aromatherapy, AddHeart Facilitation, and Energy Healing. She is a born empath and has lived in close communication with the Natural world since as far back as she can remember. Fotini and the Herd have cocreated a unique modality, Horse Wisdom Yoga®, where her extensive personal and professional adventures of self-discovery and healing combine with the ancestral wisdom of Horses to deliver an experience that will raise intuition, awareness and coherence while partnering with Horses for holistic wellbeing. Horse Wisdom Yoga® offers opportunity for individuals, partners and groups to engage in connection, creativity and compassion through intuitively guided experiences, partnered with the Horse as Teacher.

Fotini and her Horses also offer training opportunities in the areas of Yoga, Energy Healing and Animal Communication. They also offer a 5 day Horse Wisdom Yoga® Teacher Certification for Yoga Teachers to deepen their intuition and expand their practice to include partnership with the Horse as Teacher.

For more information, please visit www.TheBigRedBarn.ca and www.HorseWisdomYoga.com.

Georgie McBurney Georgie is a Humanistic Integrative Counsellor specialising in Psychospiritual, Transactional Analysis and Gestalt. She is currently studying Shamanism and CBT to add to her practice in Weymouth. Georgie facilitates an Inner Child Therapy Group and MIND Out and works as a freelance counsellor at Dorset MIND for Blue Line Clients. After careers in the Army and police, she studied BSc (Hons) in Animal Science (Behaviour & Welfare), and set up her first business supporting animals using Essential Oil Therapy, kinesiology and Reiki. Georgie also gained a PGCE in Secondary Biology, which led into a career in teaching and lecturing. Whilst lecturing Georgie wrote and managed a BTEC in Equine Management which introduced Monty Roberts Horsemanship into a traditional equine establishment.

Due to her sister’s psychosis, Georgie became a kinship foster carer which became full time when her niece was paralysed by a spinal stroke. Their pony Jac was pivotal in her niece’s rehabilitation and resilience which inspired Georgie to train in Equine Facilitated Therapy (LEAP model). Georgie supports Caroline Crane at Furzedown Holistic Human & Animal Rehabilitation & Education Ltd (Fhare Ltd), and offers various workshops and walk and talk counselling which invites clients to be in nature, feeling the elements and silently connecting with the herd. JuniperCounsellingandTherapies.co.uk

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Contributor bios

Equine Leadership

Graeme Green Graeme is firmly committed to the benefits that meditation brings to people. He runs mindfulness programmes for a UK based mental health charity, as well as supporting its development in the workplace and for those around animals. He runs workshops and retreats around the UK and Europe, introducing people to the beneficial experience and insight to be gained through mediation – sometimes with, sometimes without horses. Those workshops are often supported by traditional drum work.

For 2019 Graeme is very excited to be building a new partnership with Athena (www.athenaherd.co.uk) in Kent, in the South East of England. A place where there is a real opportunity to develop and build on the horse focused foundation of his work.

Graeme has a broad collection of skills, he is Reiki drum master, an animal/human reiki practitioner and a qualified equine energy healer. He also works as a Business coach and trainer and an NLP practitioner. He is a director of Equilibrium for Life CIC which supports therapeutic interventions for vulnerable groups in the North Kent area. He also delivers Equine Assisted Action Learning programmes for local business teams.

To find out more about Graeme and his work visit the Mindful Horse’s website or his CIC. www.themindfulhorse.org

Kim Hallin Kim Hallin is a naturally gifted personal guide and a lifelong student of the horse. She is the founder of Unbridled, an observation-centered experiential learning program with horses in Ravenel, South Carolina (USA). Kim loves working with “everyday adults” looking for new ways to tackle some of the most common personal challenges in today’s world: co-dependency, self-esteem, boundaries, trust, communication, self-care and honing in on one’s personal purpose. By sharing openly about her own personal growth and experiences, including how horses woke her up to many of the ways she was holding herself back in her own life, Kim creates immediate trust and rapport with the “human herd” she lovingly supports.

Driven by a strong belief that every individual is born with an innate calling, Kim draws on her own story of awakening to help others recognize and answer their own calling and to achieve greater personal fulfillment in this lifetime. Her promise to those she works with is to help them re-connect with their inner truth and their most authentic selves. A staunch advocate for the horse, Kim’s top priority is to facilitate in a way that nurtures empathy and ensures that all interactions between humans and horses are voluntary and mutually beneficial. To learn more about Kim and her work, visit www.unbridled.guru

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Equine Leadership

Contributor bios

Kim McElroy For over 3 decades, Kim McElroy has been renowned for her visionary equine art. The horse is her muse, ever inspiring her to find new ways to awaken humanity to their healing gifts. Through her incredible mastery of pastels, and her talent in writing about her artistic insights, Kim conveys the power and beauty of the horse’s form; yet more than that, she offers a timeless glimpse of its soul.

Kim’s portraits of horses go beyond mere likenesses to become living works of art. She also creates Soul Essence portraits in which she intuitively connects with the horse to express her interpretation of the horse’s spiritual purpose in their person’s lives.

One of Kim’s horse teachers is her mare Darma. In seeking to understand Darma’s complexities and her own artistic purpose, Kim has pursued many avenues of personal growth and healing work. Her studies with Linda Kohanov evolved into their co-creation of the Way of the Horse Book and Card Set. Subsequently this learning allowed her to expand upon her artistic skills and begin teaching. Kim has co-facilitated equine inspired workshops Drawn to Horses, Drawn to Wild Horses, and Vision Horse with her talented friend Sandra Wallin. Kim and Sandra are in the process of creating a new horse-inspired card deck (TBA).

Kim and her husband Rod live on their beautiful 8-acre SkyeLandeSea sanctuary, where they enjoy the company of 3 horses, a herd of wild but well-fed deer, and two capricious housecats.

Art & gifts website: www.spiritofhorse.com Animated eCards: www.spiritofhorsecards.com

Nikki Kagan Nikki L. Kagan is founder of HorseSense International, an organization devoted to cultivating and strengthening personal and professional leadership consciousness through self-awareness and self-development. In her 30 years as a corporate coach and facilitator, she has found the most successful and personally fulfilled leaders are those who are brave enough to explore their own ‘truths’ and courageously express them to others. Nikki found a way to combine her professional path with her passion for horses, and in fact, her personal approach to leadership is largely inspired by horses. For her, they personify the behaviors of successful leaders and in their presence, people seem called upon to bring forth the very best of who they are. Nikki recently published her first book, entitled “Instinctive Leadership” which reveals the strong connection between leadership and horses.

Horses’ psychological and physical well-being is also a top priority for Nikki. As a certified instructor of the Masterson Method® form of equine bodywork, and a practitioner of Equine Reiki and Acupressure, Nikki helps horses release tension and create greater ease of movement. She also works with OSCAR® therapy—‘a primal teaching format based on techniques that SAFELY redirect an animal’s choice’, creating and generating talent, skill and confidence. Email: KaganMR@gmail.com website: www.horsesenseinternational.com

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Contributor bios

Equine Leadership

Becci Godfrey Becci is a lifelong learner from horses. After growing up with them her whole life, she soon realised they had given her many life skills that no other training could give.

Now she takes that learning and makes it available to others through workshops, networking sessions, one to one’s and professional development days.

A meditation teacher, Reiki Master and mind-body expert, Becci and the HorseSense UK herd combine their skills to make a difference to businesses and individuals alike.

Becci’s particular passion is discovering your true self. A deep believer that all life problems dissolve when you know who you are, Becci works alongside the horses to help people to discover for themselves their inner brilliance, gifts and talents.

Her and her herd of horses are currently writing a question and answer book together, capturing the horse’s wisdom for future generations. www.HorseSenseUK.com and www.beccigodfrey.com.

Wendy Firmin-Price As award-winning author, spiritual life-coaching-counsellor, qualified metaphysical teacher and HEART equine-assisted therapist, Wendy transforms people’s lives, relationships and confidence levels through the healing power of horses.

Combining her 5 step H.E.A.R.T formula for successful communication, spiritual principles, the importance of self-love and spending time with her herd of horses, Wendy transports you on a journey of Self Discovery and Self Mastery with magical and life-changing results in all areas of your life.

By conquering her own difficult life challenges through understanding Spiritual laws of the Universe and how horses reflected her mindset, Wendy used her success to pioneer equineassisted therapy in 1990. Since then Wendy has helped thousands overcome crippling fears and increase their confidence through her therapeutic-coaching programmes enabling children, families, businesses and adults to transform even the most severe and seemingly hopeless situations. Her highly acclaimed work has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s ALL in the Mind, Daily Mail, magazines and she is a regular speaker at expos and other events. Her award-winning book The HEART of Stable relationships, 12 ways the Healing Power of Horses can Transform Your Life, is available on Amazon.

Wendy runs courses, private sessions and seminars. For more advanced students who complete her spiritual equine assisted personal growth programme (the HEART Foundation Course) they are able to go on to become HEART equine-assisted therapeutic coaches.

Wendy’s passion for helping people comes through in her unique style of warmth, wit and Wendyisms! wendy@theheartcentreuk.com www.theheartcentreuk.com / www.theholistichorseandponycentre.com

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Equine Leadership

Contributor bios

Pat Hutchinson Pat is an Advanced Certified FEEL Practitioner working in the Durham Region. She discovered the world of horses after retiring early from a management position in the Provincial Government.

She intuitively knew there could be more to the horse/human relationship then she ever suspected. She took the time to developed the knowledge and tools to access the ‘more’. Pat observed their innate strategies to manage their stress reactions.

Stress management was Pat’s passion so seeing this in the horses stoked the flames! Horses had a way of being that was so completely in the moment, a skill that normally takes a lifetime to learn to practice consistently.

After experiencing in herself and others, the powerful effects of unmanaged, negative stress, Pat became passionate about empowering others to self manage the stress in their lives.

Knowing the effects nutrition can have on stress, Pat obtained her Bachelor of Applied Science in Nutrition. While practicing part-time, she developed and taught stress management workshops part-time, until she retired. Then she recorded her workshop material so it was accessible to others without them needing her to present. Horses point us in a direction of self-empowerment, self-knowledge and self-respect through their willing co-operation and collaboration. Their teachings are gentle, subtle, rapid, extremely effective and always authentic. Horse & Human = Power & Presence. Pat can be reached through her FaceBook page or email: pmshanti20@gmail.com

Lynda Watson Lynda Watson is a passionate and joyful human being. Life couldn’t be fuller and she is grateful for every minute of it. Along with her Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) business, HorseTouch Life Design she founded the community organization, Dreamation that bring the values and skills learned from the horses to diverse audiences in various social settings. At the time of this publication Lynda’s day job is with the Canadian Red Cross. A role she fulfills with great honour and respect. Lynda has enjoyed many fabulous adventures on her journey through life so far. These include; mother, equestrian coach with her own farm for 20 years, equine photographer, avid traveller and lifelong learner in the field of human potential.

This past year she is adding author to that list with the start of several new book projects. She also works as a professional facilitator with positions such as senior facilitator with the Canadian Red Cross. Lynda’s life mission is: Inspiring Compassion and Enhancing the Evolution of the Human Heart. To do that she endeavours to make positive and peaceful change in the world while inspiring & supporting others to do the same. ‘Equine Leadership’ is one exciting endeavour she adds to her always growing list. www.horsetouch.ca/ Lynda.horsetouch@gmail.com www.dreamation.ca.

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Equine Leadership

‘Getting Real’ How horses help us look at those (hard) truths we’d rather not face.

By: Nikki Kagan

Maybe you’ve heard the expression “Get real!” Maybe you’ve even said it yourself! If someone tells you to get real, they’re likely telling you to perform a reality check and stop ‘pretending’. Sometimes we act as if we’re fearless when we’re really feeling afraid—or we act tough when we’re actually feeling vulnerable, or we say we’re ‘fine’ when in truth, we’re pretty frustrated.

Horses are great at getting us to face the truth of who we are in each moment. They have a way of luring us from our sometimes-stilted way of seeing things that don’t serve us, demanding that we get real. Sometimes we box ourselves in, repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Sometimes we’re simply emotionally blind, completely out of touch with our feelings.

Sometimes our ego tells us there’s just one “right” way and it’s too dangerous to deviate from it. When we find ourselves truly stuck, it

March 2020

seems no amount of talking can move us forward. But an encounter, a touch, or even just a glance from a horse can often penetrate our greatest attempts at concealing our truth.

TRUE FEELINGS “Mary” and her team came to spend the day with our horses. As Team Leader, she entered the enclosure, choosing to work with a specific mare.

After successfully getting the mare to move

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Equine Leadership

around, the horse entered a corner and stood with her hind end facing Mary. Unable to move her from the corner, Mary became quite agitated and more forceful in her attempts while her team watched silently from the sidelines. Within five minutes Mary, now in tears, left the mare and approached her team. “I’m so sorry…” she said. “I am just now realizing that this is what I do to you all. When I don’t get what I want—when I feel like I’ve lost control, I lose my temper until you retreat and ignore me—and I don’t blame you… I don’t mean to be this way …”

In getting ‘real’ and acknowledging her true feelings, her team felt compelled to respond with understanding and support.

With Jen, the situation was slightly different.

During a simple leading exercise, Tom, the horse she chose to lead, came to a standstill. No amount of coaxing helped. Jen tried pulling Tom’s lead, then approached him to gently stroke his neck, commenting on what a good boy he was. She repeated this sequence multiple times, but Tom remained rooted to the spot.

I approached her. “How’s it going?” I asked. “Not so well.” she replied. “Are you getting the results you want?” “No!—He won’t move!” I told her I was curious as to why she was stroking him, telling him he was a good boy even though he wouldn’t move. She replied, “I thought if I was nice to him, he would comply, but it isn’t working!” I asked her how she was feeling about his behavior and she responded “FRUSTRATED!”.

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desired outcome, and then just proceed with confidence that he would follow. To her amazement, he did!

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT So, what is it about horses that leads us to admit to and honor our true thoughts and feelings?

Horses are extremely relational and perceptive beings. They have no personas and are always 100% congruent. For this reason, horses are uncomfortable when we are NOT congruent, and as my stories show, they will often communicate that discomfort by disengaging.

When we identify too closely with the beliefs and personas, we create about ourselves, we lose touch with who we are and behave in a way we think we “should”.

This leads to a mismatch between our “inner” and “outer” energies. To a horse, this sends the message “This person doesn’t know himself and therefore cannot be trusted.” After all, as a herd, they live together in complete congruence. Congruence means safety. Incongruence means something’s fishy.

Why are we incongruent? Sometimes, we feel concerned about whether the horse will “like” us.

As a result, we suppress any negative thoughts and feelings. This leads to incongruence, because our thoughts (I’m frustrated!) and actions (gently stroking the horse’s neck), don’t match; as was the case with Jen. Other times, we can mask our fears (like Mary’s fear of losing control) with aggression, which again, is incongruent to how we are really feeling.

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Equine Leadership

Sometimes “getting real” is about owning our inner turmoil or acknowledging our fears.

Sometimes it’s about getting grounded in who we are in the moment rather than getting stuck in the past or fretting about the future.

GO TO NEUTRAL Getting real can also be about being fully present in the moment. There have been days I’ve come to the horses with a mind full of distracting thoughts. I enter the herd because I’ve carved out time to do whatever I’ve committed to with them, even though a million other things are competing for my time and attention. Although I’m physically present and going through the motions, I’m not fully emotionally or psychologically there. It has consequences. The horses are not as responsive as I’d like. I become impatient. They don’t want to engage. Of course, they don’t! Then it hits me. “Breathe”, I say to myself. “Go to neutral and just let go.” I take deep breaths, releasing the tension in my mind and body, and sink to the ground under a tree.

Within minutes, they slowly approach as if to say “That’s much better. Thanks for showing up and being present!”

It’s also about facing those truths we’re so good at hiding.

After all, we learned to protect ourselves that way from an early age. Remember the saying “Never let them see you sweat.”? Hiding our truths inadvertently creates wariness in horses because they know there’s more that’s not being disclosed. (Actually, we too, can typically tell when someone isn’t being completely honest with us and that renders them not entirely trustworthy!)

Horses require us to show up in our nakedness.

They test us to see if we can protect our boundaries, if we’re prepared to own our emotions and respond honestly in each moment.

They encourage us to engage with and own our vulnerability, because that’s what they do. And when we show up authentically, those around us are encouraged to do the same.

When we spend time with horses, observing how they respond to their environment, to each other, and to us, when we pay attention to how what we do, how we move, what we say and how what we THINK influences their responses, everything becomes clear. When we “get real”, the path reveals itself…

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it isn’t going away.” Elvis Presley ~*~ “Teaching Horse: Rediscovering Leadership” by June Gunther “Living in Congruence: When the Inside and the Outside Become One”, Dan Entmatcher, PsychotherapistNovember, 2015.

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EQUINE HERD RELATIONSHIP The Guiding Tenant for Healthy Human Relationships By: Kim Hallin

My farm is an unusual place. The horses have no job except to be their authentic selves. The humans who visit are given no responsibility except to learn how to honor the horses (and themselves) for who they are. In the quiet space that accompanies this type of curiosity and empathy, a deep and humbling recognition emerges: We are all one.

Different, yet the same.

Distinct individuals, but only within the context of the whole.

What visitors learn from this experience is that the key to living in healthy relationship lies in understanding that boundaries are necessary in order to define where one individual ends, and another begins.

CO-DEPENDENCE

happiness over to someone or something outside of ourselves. He calls this an addiction to looking elsewhere, and it has become so prevalent in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s society that one can easily go an entire lifetime without ever seeing (let alone experiencing) a truly healthy interpersonal relationship.

In his book Co-Dependence: Healing the Human Condition, Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., explains that human beings become co-dependent when we turn our responsibility for our life and

As human beings, our training to look outside of ourselves for validation (which causes us to lose touch with the boundaries that define our own identity) usually begins in early childhood. This

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Equine Leadership

co-dependent mindset then continues to be reinforced throughout our lives, often by our parents, our siblings, our teachers, our friends, our coaches, our bosses, the media, and so on. A person’s value is measured, far too often, by their ability to conform to expectations, traditions and cultural norms. In fact, the entire domestic world is based on this type of conformity.

The human domestic world would like us to believe that conformity is necessary for civilized communal existence. Horses have shown me that this is not necessarily true. In fact, conformity and the addiction to looking outside of ourselves for validation come at a great cost.

The magnitude of this cost is becoming more and more evident as humanity’s collective emotional, physical and spiritual health deteriorates.

Horses and other domestic animals often pay a high price for our co-dependent mindset. We tend to apply the same criteria to our relationships with them as we do with one another: “How well are YOU able to conform to MY expectations?” This creates a tremendous

amount of physical and emotional stress – but not just for the animals. When we link our own success or happiness to our horse’s ability to excel in domestic pursuits, we ourselves fall even deeper into co-dependency.

FREEDOM Afforded the freedom to live autonomously in herd communities, horses will immediately start to shed the learned coping behaviors that help them navigate in our co-dependent world.

Unlike humans, horses don’t measure their core worth and happiness in relation to someone else’s opinions and expectations of them.

Horses feel most at ease and centered in their own relationships when there is clarity and constant communication about boundaries and personal space. In other words, horses feel safest and most confident when they know exactly where they stand. This knowing is the foundation upon which healthy respect is built, both for ourselves and toward others. When we understand and honor the difference between what’s mine to own and what’s yours to own, our relationships take on a different tone and feel.

We become more empowered to express our own opinions.

We stop feeling entitled to enter someone else’s personal space without permission.

We pay more attention to how (and what, and why) we’re communicating.

We welcome honest feedback because it’s seen as helpful information.

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Equine Leadership

BART Initially, my horses were terrified of this little pig.

They had never seen or smelled a pig before.

very different types of animals taught me that there is one overarching and universal “guiding tenet” that simply can’t fail to create healthy relationships:

Every individual is responsible for knowing, honoring and communicating his/her own personal space boundaries, and for honoring the personal space boundaries of others.

Meanwhile, the baby pig was strangely confident – bold even – around the horses. There was no logical reason why this tiny pig suddenly showed up on our dead-end road, in the middle of the afternoon, many miles away from the nearest pig farm. Even more bizarre was his obvious commitment to befriending the giant-sized horses that nearly attacked him in their initial confusion and frenzy.

The interactions that followed between these most unlikely of comrades stunned me. More importantly, through their example, these two

For reasons that remain a mystery to me, since that day when Bartholomew the Pig (aka Bart) first arrived on my property, he has never once considered leaving. Equally mysterious is the reason why my five horses happily welcomed him into their herd. I’ve always been told that pigs are very smart. I don’t know whether Bart arrived already well versed in the guiding tenet for healthy relationships or whether my horses mentored him, but I do know this: All living beings (including humans) are innately attracted to healthy relationships. It just feels amazing. It’s the antithesis of co-dependency.

Whenever I see my horses and my pig together, I can almost hear them saying.

“I am enough, you are enough.

Just as we each are, right here, right now.

I don’t need anything from you, You don’t need anything from me.

We are both perfect and complete.”

Yes, my farm is an unusual place.

But it shouldn’t be. ~*~

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Equine Leadership

FREEING YOUR INNER CHILD By: Georgie McBurney

Your inner child has a choice, to stay wounded or to heal. Your inner parent has a choice, continue wounding or start supporting. You have a choice, you can be elsewhere or you can be present, witnessing, like the horse.

Five years ago, a little grey pony called Jac came into my life and he reflected back these choices.

With his help and guidance, I have made many inner journeys to heal and when I am ready, he will present another opportunity. When life is challenging, and I have gone back into survival mode, he has waited for those circumstances to pass, without judgement, and we resume work together. He has taught me a great deal about connection to all that is. I have a knowing that Jac and I have met before in other lifetimes, and I am grateful that he is present in this one. In saying I am grateful, I have to accept the hard times that entered my life before and after his arrival, as I would not have met him without them. I also March 2020

would not have had the journeys I have had, those that gave opportunities for great learning and encouraged me to step out of hiding. Jac's equine friends, from herds he has been with since we met, have also added to my understanding of the horse as an individual, and as a collective wisdom which has encouraged me to look again at our intuition, our knowing and our connectedness.

As Dr Evelyn Hanggi (Equine Research Foundation) puts it, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Traditionally, horses have rarely been classified as intelligent, even today gaps in knowledge, myths, misconceptions and limited research affect how horses are Page | - 39 -

Equine Leadership

understood or misunderstood by the public, the horse industry, and even the scientific community."

Properties of the brain assumed to be relevant for intelligence include the relative size of the brain. The horse’s brain is similar in size and weight to ours when we were about twelve, therefore some scientists estimate a horse’s intelligence to be relatively similar to a 12-year-old human [1].

why and try to find the logical explanation for their outburst. I myself have been reduced to tears during my training. One horse placed its nose on my stomach, witnessed my inner wounding. I didn't need to exhaust myself in explaining

WONDER AND MAGIC Those of us that spend time with horses, and other species, have the opportunity to look at them again with our sense of wonder and belief in magic. Magic being the things we don't have scientific explanations for yet, and wonder being an attribute of our free child archetype. Our child is adapted to the adults that were around us in our childhood. We adapted to make bonds and attachments for survival purposes, as unlike other mammals we would not survive without adults for many years to come. Our adaptations include suppressing our innate feelings; our intuition (if logic is more acceptable in your society) and we hide our free child under layers of defence mechanisms. Our inner parent continues to repeat criticisms or fears. Unless life presents opportunity to look inwards, we don't challenge these limiting childhood beliefs.

The horse will challenge them however, and they will see past our defence layers to witness our free child. A horseman once said, “they know if you know, and they know if you don't' so they may be gentle with you, or not. Either way, their challenge can be a powerful experience”. In my Equine Facilitated Counselling work I have witnessed people bursting into tears whilst approaching a herd of horses. Most don't know Page | - 40 -

to the horse to be understood, he knew, and I just cried it out.

Horses sense our energy, intentions and boundaries. If trust and respect are in a relationship from both sides, this presents an opportunity for the human to be comfortable with being seen. As a relationship develops between human and equine there is also an opportunity to use our intuition. This helps us to connect and communicate with equines on a different level. Some of us may need to challenge another part that logically informs us that we are 'making it up' if we use intuition. Using our intuition helps balance out our masculine (logical) and feminine (intuitive) energies.

TWO JOURNEYS In every indigenous culture there was a spiritual knowing about the inward 'feminine' journey and the outward 'masculine' journey and that in our lifetimes we need to explore both. Fairy tales often give us the same message. It is only when the two journeys have been experienced that there is the 'happy ever after'. Furthermore, we March 2020

Equine Leadership

are all connected to each other and all that is, so our unexplored inner journeys that are not acknowledged, will instead be mirrored in the outside world until we awaken to journey them.

Whatever we hide collectively is shown on the world stage for all to see and there are some huge challenges facing humanity. If we collectively heal and support our free child, we may find that we can heal and support our planet too.

“The Great Web that connects all life: it is vital that you learn how to make contact with that form that links us all. Be reconnected to everything, end that state of fragmentation that exists in you and that is everywhere in your world” – The Sidhe In essence the horse links us back to our ancient ancestor’s way of well being, a way of being in connection with ourselves, each other and with our planet. Known in some cultures as the medicine wheel it comprises of Mind (Air), Love (Water), Service (Ether/Spirit), Creativity/ Warrior (Fire) and Body (Earth). In the UK, our modern-day equivalent is known as 'Five Ways to Wellness', which are Learn, Connect, Give, Take Notice/Awareness and Be Active [2]. Maybe it is not intelligence we should be measuring, but wisdom, as an individual and as a collective.

Horses show us their connection, their roles in the herd, their roles for humanity, their unique gifts and talents and how to be seen. This can trigger a fear response in a human (who is too scared to allow their free-child to do the same) and consequently they shut down the horse as they shut their free-child down.

Those inspired to follow the horses lead, receive the horses unconditional love as we begin to March 2020

make the transition from fear-based motivation to love. We begin to shine as we realise that only love is real.

If horses are able to be themselves, they show us how they express emotions and how they move emotions out of their body by rolling, stretching, shaking, and running. Rolling also connects horses to the planet. Horses can reflect our blocked energies back to us, some may act out a behaviour or may present with a dis-ease that it is for you to acknowledge about yourself. Our minds are invested in time; past or future which connect us to our pain and our stories, but they are not who we are in essence. Horses remind us to be in the present, as when we are here witnessing, there is peace.

INTUITION At the time of writing this article it is autumn in England, and Jac is intuitively selecting blackberries and rosehips from the hedgerows.

He is canny because he has me doing a lot of the hard work whilst he gives me the odd nudge to reach further in or higher as we walk along side by side. Both are rich in vitamin C, which supports the immune system to get ready for the forthcoming winter. His way of being makes me mindful that I need to become more seasonal with my diet and vary it. I eat the odd blackberry whilst picking for him. Animals, even domesticated, have not lost their innate ability

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Equine Leadership

to self-select for food and medicinal purposes.

Most humans have become disconnected to this innate ability [3]. I wonder if by following his lead, I can relearn to intuitively listen to what my body needs to stay healthy, and to heal. To

journey down the hedgerows of life, connecting with the Earth, the seasons and the Great Web that connects all life.

I guess I have a choice. We all have a choice. ~*~

1. Roth & Dicke, 2005, Evolution of the brain and intelligence.

2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/five-ways-to-mental-wellbeing 3.Cindy Engle, Wild Health

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EQUINE ASSISTED THERAPY The Science of the Magic By: Wendy Firmin-Price

For anyone who has truly experienced the magical and miraculous life changing effects of equine assisted therapy and coaching, the common question asked is, “how does it work?”

There are many guesses, theories and assumptions. My personal theory, as a Metaphysical Equine Assisted Practitioner, working with horses and humans for over 30 years, is that it all boils down to energy and the strict laws of the Universe (and a little bit of magical mystery).

according to the underlying emotion or thought process behind it.

We know from Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawkins that the whole Universe is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies giving the appearance of things solid, fluid, visible or invisible. Alongside that there are very precise laws like Cause & Effect, Law of Attraction, Law of Reflection, Law of Mental Equivalents to mention but a few. It is these Universal Laws that are pertinent in Equine Assisted Therapy, Learning and Coaching.

To go straight into an example to illustrate, one of my clients came to me to change the pattern of attracting Mr Wrong all the time. She was invited to choose a horse to work with. Five times she chose a horse that was unavailable, unhealthy or unsuitable either through lameness, being a livery (privately-owned) horse or some other reason. When asked what pattern these choices may have been highlighting for her, she realised she was always going for men that were unavailable, unhealthy or unsuitable.

So how did that happen? It happened because her energy field was sending out the vibration of unavailability, the Law of Attraction and Reflection kicked in to draw her to horses (and men) who were unavailable. She attracted the

MAGNETIC VIBRATION Every belief, emotion, assumption, coping strategy, behaviour, pattern, programming etc. carries a certain magnetic vibration to it,

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“You can fool humans, but you cannot fool horses, they feel the humans hidden thoughts and reflect them in their demeanour!”

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Equine Leadership

lame ducks, the addicts, the commitment phobes, the married ones, and others who were generally dysfunctional in some physical or emotional way. The choices she was making with the horses became a massive metaphor as the horses mirrored her energy field back to her, in no uncertain terms.

With further support from the horses, we explored how to release her root cause fears of having an available, healthy and functional relationship. We also explored how to raise her vibration to attract these into her life. This was illustrated by my client working with Caesar, a horse that had trust issues too. By noticing what she had to change about her posture, thought process and energetic vibration to get Caesar to trust her, she could see and more importantly feel, what her new programming needed to feel like in her body.

ENERGETIC RESONANCE Time and time again I see clients that have been abused in some way become attracted to the horses that have come from abusive backgrounds as well. Once more, the scientific rationale is that there is an energetic resonation at work here. In an unhealed situation the emotional trauma physically resides at the cellular level in the body of the human or the horse, thus giving off a certain vibration. The Law of Attraction manifests as like energy to like energy.

The law of attraction is completely impersonal, so will always give precise feedback of what yours, your clients or other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy field is emitting. Coming back to the horses, because it is their innate nature to read and respond to energy fields all the time, can give you an accurate forensic readout of your energy.

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Another client was recently working with me doing some inner shadow work with 3 horses that represented 3 parts of herself that she was struggling to integrate (the good, the bad and the ugly). We explored what beliefs, vows and programming were preventing her from loving and accepting herself unconditionally. The horses were mainly at liberty in a grassy arena (so completely free to go where they wanted).

My client assigned walking over a tarpaulin with Billy, one of the horses, to represent changing the belief about herself.

Initially Billy was going nowhere! No amount of bribery, cajoling or coercing would make Billy move. However, as my client really delved into her root cause programming, and then learned how to change it, she was able to imagine what it would be like to love and accept herself fully.

At this point, not only did Billy move forward, but also Rosie and Bill who had been happily munching the grass, suddenly with no prompting at all, miraculously came over and followed Billy over the tarpaulin. Naturally my client was blown away.

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So, what may have happened scientifically with that magical experience? The lower the vibration you are coming from, the more your energy field emits blocks to that flow.

Perhaps think of it like thick sludge trying to flow down a river. It would move slowly, feel dense, easily be stopped or redirected by obstacles in the river.

As you get into alignment with Truth and Love, your energy field vibrates faster, lighter, higher and has more flow to it. Now think of that sludge turning to pure water and how quickly it can now flow around and over obstacles.

Going back to the Law of Attraction and Reflection, when my client aligned her vibration to love, that is when the horses’ energy field was magnetically attracted to that higher attunement. That loving energy then embraced everything around it and drew like to like.

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE Working with horses and clients to heal their past, create a new future or learn how to get

present in the now, is truly the most thrilling, astonishing job I have ever had the privilege to do. I have numerous stories and memories similar to the earlier examples I shared, but for me, just as a magician wows the audience with the ‘not knowing how it’s done’, so too, I just love being in the magic of transformation with the horses without letting my metaphysical scientific head take over! When you are in alignment with Truth and Authenticity, miracles happen.

What is your vibration like today?

Go and chat with a horse.

They will let you know! ~*~

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Equine Leadership

SOME NEED THE SCIENCE, SOME NEED THE MAGIC: WE ALL NEED THE HORSES By: Lynda Watson

We go to the horses to find answers that we think might be outside of us only to have them turn us around and point us back inside ourselves to find they were there all along.

One might come to the horses thinking they know what they want out of their time with them, but I can guarantee the horse knows what a human needs, and they have no problem reflecting that to those that seek their wisdom.

There is huge value in science as well as magic and we are well suited to find a balance between the two. The science is in the levels, rates, waves, etc., and how they affect change in the human.

The magic lies in that which we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t explain or quantify. How does a horse know to walk over to a human being, lay their soft warm muzzle on that personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heart and create space for the tears to flow? These are tears that have been

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held in by that human for far too many years.

And how does the horse do it? Ready? Here is the pure magic. They do it just by being a horse.

So, let us delve a bit deeper into both of these and explore our reflections.

SCIENCE Shall we start with the Science? Some folks may be sceptical without scientific evidence. The magic lives in our bodies but we are inclined to start in our heads. Many a session starts with the science, an explanation of the facts. Why horses?

How can a horse help me with my critical March 2020

Equine Leadership

thinking, grief, anxiety, etc.? Really, a horse? It has been my experience with folks that are new to the field (pun intended), the ‘how does it all work?’ question looms forward in their mind.

Presenting current research prior to an experience with a horse, is to start to clarify questions. The person can then understand, cognitively and will be able to tell themselves, ‘ok, its safe body, off you go and have the experience’.

Joe Dispenza says, in regard to our ancestors and our present day lives, “…when a lion was chasing your ancestors, the stress response was doing what it was designed to do — protect them from their outer environment. That’s adaptive. But if, for days on end, you fret about your promotion, over focus on your presentation to upper management, or worry about your mother being in the hospital, these situations create the same chemicals as though you were being chased by a lion.”(1) I quote this piece as it clearly explains the effect our present day lives can have on us.

What we used to be like, what we are like and then how horses can show us the way back.

Many studies show us what effect ongoing stress has on our bodies. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA tells us that: “…stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your

behavior…Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.” And the list goes on and on…immune system disfunction, mental health issues, and chronic pain. Spending time with horses in their natural environment helps us reduce that stress.

We become once again adaptive instead of maladaptive. Not always in a state of flight or fight. Horses can be in a state of hypervigilance yet fully relaxed. I’ll get to that in a bit.

Let’s start with the physiology of a horse in comparison to humans.

Vital

Horse

Human

28 -40 beats/min 8-12 breaths/min 37.2 – 38.3C / 99-101F

60-100 beats/min 12-20 breaths/min 37C / 98.6F

(adult resting)

Heart Breath Temperature

As you can see from the table, a horse’s heart and breath rate are slower than that of a human and their temperature is higher. Science has shown that when we spend time with horses, we synchronize with them. Therefore, when we stand beside a horse or quietly, mindfully groom them, our heart and breath slow and we ‘feel the warmth’.

I spent many a moment as a teenager with my hands wrapped around a horse’s neck and my face buried into their mane unaware what science was happening. I only knew at that time that I would relax, calm and feel much better for time spent just being quiet and close to my horse. I have been witness to many folks doing the same.

A deep breath coming from the depths of a highly anxious individual or a moment of ‘feeling’ from a client that hadn’t felt anything for years due to generational trauma. Felt like magic. Magic backed by science.

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Equine Leadership

In the study entitled: The Bond Between a Horse and a Human by Debbie Crews of Arizona State University, 2009 (2), interesting results were found regarding the equine-human relationship.

Using an EEG to measure and record results, it was found that the act of grooming a horse created the most synchronized states between horse and human. “This is an important finding for humans whose internal state may not be operating in a synchronized manner…It is possible that the horse, as an outside influence can influence EEG patterns and the state of the human.” There you go! This is some of the science behind the magic of the horse human relationship.

and humans would synchronize when together.

With the focus on the human offering gratitude and asking permission, it was found that the horses would affect the humans HRV and assist the body in coming to a state of synchronicity.

The human could experience excitement without emotional stress. Look back to our Joe Dispenza quote and how humans tend to live in that state of stress. Spending time with horses can bring us to a state of reducing emotional duress. With a great facilitator alongside the horses we can learn to bring that body/mind knowledge back to our everyday life.

TOP 3 There are numerous reasons that spending time with horses can be such a powerful experience.

In 2018 I posed a question to a large group of Equine Facilitated Learning professionals asking them: what are the top 3 things folks have learned alongside the horses? The responses were: #1. Non-verbal communication #2 Authenticity #3 Presence.

Let’s see ‘why horses?’ using those 3 skills. Why is it that spending time with horses can be so transformational for us humans? It is science as well as Nature! Horses are doing what comes naturally to them in their natural environment and that is when we can learn the most about ourselves.

Dr. Anna Baldwin conducted horse human research in partnership with The Heart Math Institute to see if the heart rate variability (Heart rate – average beats per minute, heart rate variability (HRV) - the changes in time or variability between heart beats) between horses Page | - 48 -

#1. They are fully non-verbal (except for the occasional nicker or whinny). We as humans use non-verbal communication 93% of the time yet we tend to dismiss that aspect of our communication. Horses bring us back to that, back to our body. When we spend time with the horses and watch how they communicate with each other and us, we become more aware of our own non-verbal communication as a human.

In turn, we take that back to our daily lives being more aware of the verbal and non-verbal language we are speaking and that others are communicating to us. This ties into energy and electromagnetic fields (3). What happens when we are in the proximity of one person in comparison to another person? How do we March 2020

Equine Leadership

communicate our feelings, etc.?

Imagine the expanse of the horse’s electro-magnetic field and what it communicates to us. #2. Another reason horse time can be so influential to humans is their ability to see us as we are. They pass no judgement on who we are, where we are from, what we have done or not done. For so many people that is such a special and unique place to be.

To be with another being that makes no judgement, has no expectations and who makes no demands on us.

Magical! The only thing the horse asks is that you be you. When we show up in their space, with inauthenticity/incongruency our blood pressure is elevated. We are immediately not a safe being to be around. We create uncertainty in that environment. #3. Horses live fully in the moment, fully present and fully aware of who we are at that exact time and in that space. It might be different, a day or a year from that moment. They see us in the present time. They need to…their life depends on it. This takes us back to the quote about the lion chasing our ancestor. A horse needs to be hypervigilant yet needs to save its energy to run if needed. If it is in a state of constant stress, then it will not have the energy to move quickly when the enemy presents itself.

In fact, each of these 3 qualities are vital to the survival of the species as a collective, and individually. They must be present to ‘feel’ the energy of the herd (the non-verbal). They must be authentic. In fact, when in their natural environment they are nothing but authentic.

These qualities all tie into the science of how it all works.

We enter their environment. They read us just like they read any being that enters their space.

They show us, in a very short time whether they March 2020

feel safe with us or not. Are we a friend or a foe?

If we are willing to listen, really, really listen to their signals and cues and adjust ourselves accordingly, then and only then will they accept us as friend and let us join the herd.

That in itself is truly magical. And on that, I would like to finish with a scientifically magical story.

MAGIC I was farm sitting a while back and had decided to go and spend some quiet time in the field with one of the herds. It was a warm summer day and this particular herd had decided it would rest in the warm sun.

It was a small herd with most of them curled up on the cool grass. One horse in particular would often be the sentinel for this herd, watching the horizon and environment for any potential threats. I was drawn to go and stand with him. I approached with a calm breath and was aware Page | - 49 -

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of his signals as to how close I could stand and what was safe for him. He gave me permission to come in close. I stood about 3 feet away from him at his neck, facing the same direction that he was. I wanted to see the environment as he saw it.

He stood strong and calm. As we scanned the environment together, we watched the other herd on the property quietly grazing. On the farm next door, we watched a tractor move along the fields. It was something to watch but not something to fear. We kept â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;an eyeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the world around us. We both stood hypervigilant yet fully relaxed for some time. I could feel his

breath and heart beat. In that moment I understood how present a horse needs to be. He was watching yet not stressed over the tractor that might or might not pose a threat. Not tipping off the herd unnecessarily. The horses lay quietly, enjoying the sun, in synchronization with his and my, heartbeat and HRV. Fully present, fully alert yet not emotionally stressed one bit.

The science was all there but the moment was magical! In that time and space, I felt honoured to have my calm nature reflected back to me and the sentinel affirm that. I was one with the herd and one with myself. I could stand calm and strong! What a magical reflection.

We learn from the science and the magic.

We find the answers within when we allow the horses to turn us around and face ourselves.

We ALL need the horses! ~*~

1.Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One, Joe Dispenza 2.http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3454/version/1/files/npre20093454-1.pdf 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyfm5_LLxow

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Gratitudes With my utmost appreciation to: Everyone who assisted in making Equine Leadership’s 5th Edition a reality.

The EL5 team: Pat Hutchinson and Becci Godfrey.

Thank you for your time, your passion and your shared vision.

The authors that took the time share the stories of their own lives, their client’s stories and to ultimately listen to the horses and share their profound wisdom.

All of the photographers that captured the magic of the horses in images for this edition. Stunning! A picture can convey one deeply resonant feeling that connects to our soul forever.

A special thank you to the numerous models that patiently went along with my crazy ideas in creating that perfect shot.

Thank you to Jasmine Chomski and her herd for that front cover shot.

And YOU, the reader. Thank you for hearing the horses.

AND of course, ALL of the horses from around the globe and beyond.

Thank you for offering us a model of peaceful and positive living that can change the world!

From my heart to yours, Lynda Watson Lynda.horsetouch@gmail.com

Murray Bruce (Author of back cover quote) Murray (18) is from Oxforshire, UK. He has a diagnosis of autism, severe apraxia and is non-verbal. He had no real form of communication until 10 when it was discovered that Murray had taught himself to read and write. He was then introduced to typing as a way of speaking his thoughts. An incredible moment of unlocking his mind and his writings become important means of teaching others what it was like to have autism, how it affects him and those like him. Murray is proud to be Autism Ambassador f or Horses Helping People, where he has visited for the 11 years.

Being with horses is an intrinsic part of his life: “I feel peace and only happiness in the calm, warm breath of a friendly, mindful being that is the special soul which a horse is born with. I am a different and sane person with them around me. It is an autistic and wearying world for me without the opportunity that I have going to Horses Helping People, where the horses are a soothing addition to a hectic life, and I am forever grateful that they allow me to breathe their air”. Murray advocates through poetry and poignant life observations. He writes with incredible insight, telling of his frustrations of being “silent” and how he perceives the sensory world so many live in. He’s also a campaigner for changing the minds of those who associate non-verbal with non intelligent. His writings, often used by professionals who quote him as an example of always assuming competence. Recently awarded the title of Learning Disability and Autism Leader for Advocacy, Policy and Media by Dimensions UK. www.dimensions-

uk.org/get-involved/campaign/leaders_list/advocacy-murray-bruce-2019/

March 2020

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Equine Leadership

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sometimes I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to ride but just be in the same area as the horses because they breathe understanding into the air and it fills me with warmth and immunity against ignorance. The horses are dear souls in an autistic world.â&#x20AC;?

Murray Bruce

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March 2020