Hello all,
I've been absent from the forum for a long while, for various reasons. But life with horses goes on... I've been inspired by Carolyn Resnick's Waterhole Rituals & have been having a great time practising them with Hero & all the other horses.
Thought I'd share this post I made on her blog site today... I hope you enjoy the story.
Dear Carolyn & all,
I wanted to share this story because it is a testament to how much ‘connection’ I have learned through doing the WRs.
There is one horse where I have Hero agisted who was badly hurt (beaten) in his past life, so he is very skeptical of people, hard to approach & sometimes bites! I could sense his hurt, so I have made a big effort to befriend him, by letting him call the shots… it’s taken a long time & 3 bites, but we got there in the end.
He is a very powerful 15.3hh Appy x Andalusian rig, called Brandy Snap.
Anyway, today I found him with both front legs caught & tangled in a wire fence (not barbed, thank goodness!) He was frozen & trembling in fear, I don’t know how long he’d been caught there.
At first I thought I should call someone for help, but then a voice inside said “no, you can do this, just trust him, he needs you.â€
So I took a deep breath & calmed myself to find my ‘centre’. Then I called his name softly, asking him if he wanted me to help him. The look in his eyes said ‘yes, please hurry, I think I might explode soon!’
Hero tried to follow me, but I asked him ‘no, not now, you stay there.’ He did.
The situation was made harder because Brandy has an abcess in one hoof at present!
I stood close, put my hands on his wither & heart zone and quietly told him what I was going to do. I could feel the ‘electricity’ coming off his body!
It took a few attempts to untangle one leg, then the other, but he lifted each foot & let me hold it while I pulled the wire away with my other hand.
I know it hurt him a lot to put all his weight on the sore foot, but he let me!
When he was free he just stood there… still upset & pounding adrenalin, I guess.
I leant into his shoulder & just breathed with him, telling him ‘it’s all OK now Brandy, your free.’
Then, something so beautiful happened, I am still quite emotional…
he turned his head round & tucked his nose under my armpit, against my chest & sighed… a very deep sigh. We stayed like that for a minute or so, then I very softly asked him to take a step backwards, so that he could really feel that the wires were gone. Then I left him alone to recover his composure.
The WRs have helped me so much… 6 months ago I would not have had the faith in my own abilities with horses to try something like this, with any horse… let alone this ‘mountain’ of terrified horse!
So, thank you Carolyn, from my heart to yours…
Your greatest lessons for me are faith & trust, if we can achieve these 2 things, then all things are possible.
Much love & whinneys,
Moyna