The Feedback Loop

• I've had a couple people and horses that I've been doing some coaching with that have had their mounts refuse to move forward.  First and foremost we check the horses out to make sure there is no pain.  In both these horses, work needed to be done on their backs.  Once given the all clear we started back to see if the resistance still existed.  Even though the physical pain was gone there was something blocking forward movement.  Was it coming from the horse or the person? Sometimes we will never know the exact details but in my experience it works as a feedback loop.  The horse heals the person and the person heals the horse.  In both these cases the people had an unhealthy relationship with their dominant nature.  They judged the dominance quality of people as a negative trait.   The horses can sense this lack of wholeness in their riders and reacted to it.  What does healing look like?  Keeping both the horse and the rider present is important.  Both these horses were high sensitives and learned to disassociate in order to endure things that stressed them out.  Keeping things very slow and making sure that each lesson is embodied and no one is unconsciously pushed to far out of their comfort zone.  Each lesson has to be finished with both horse and rider feeling relaxed and confident.  For the one horse and rider it meant only walking for two or three weeks. Me supporting both from the ground.  Only stepping in to help reinforce safety or the learning curve of the rider on how to use her dominance through the use of her own energy in a non predatory way.  We want to teach a horse to have communication with us, but not in a defensive move.  Just like people, horses develop coping mechanisms.  They develop neuropathways from the brain to the body that cause them to just react.  We need to retrain the horse out of it's reactive response, whether it was caused from past pain or bad training.  The rider also needs to learn to feel into the horse and respond appropriately. If you have a fear of being bucked off it's programed into your body. Slowly with good support and positive experiences a trust and confidence can build in the rider and horse.  They feed off each other in a conscious way. I'm happy to say that both these horses and owners are enjoying each other and the freedom of movement.  The horses actually now ask for the permission to move forward and it is with joy.