I didn't know what I was doing.
Not then.
It just made sense to follow the recommendations of this long lost master. That when riders were aboard my school horses that they knew better than interact. No throwing heads, no nasty looks, no nibbling at each other. If a rider was on they were to ignore each other.
Amazingly how easy this was to teach them. It seemed all it took was a single "No, I don't think so." and usually they were okay with that. Of course, that ease might have been because they were our school horses, but once introduced no horse that came on the property seemed to have a problem with it either and quickly picked up that it was fine to stand there together resting while their riders listened to the long explanation from the instructor.
Of course, we expected the same while on a lead rope. And not okay to get cranky with the horse in the stall next to you if a rider was in the stall with you. That one was a little harder. I think in part because this was where they were fed, but even here we insisted especially if it meant the riders would be kept safe.
And I didn't realize what this meant to the horses.
As I said I didn't know what I was doing.
But unknowingly I was laying the base for the conscious herd.
Many talk about the conscious horse, few are aware of the difference it makes when you have a conscious herd.
Once you've worked with a conscious herd, you come to understand why we insist that any facilitated program needs to have one. We know deem this so important that it becomes the first lesson that that we start with.
More than that, we train our teachers on how to evaluate a herd, a test we ask all that join us to take before they start or re-start their facilitated programs. A requirement that we make necessary for all that participate.
So what is so brilliant, so important about the Conscious Herd?
There is another dimension, another level these horses are at that will change what happens when you help your clients experience being with the horses. Almost instantly feeling a beautiful calmness and you feel there is something here. And you are surprised at how easy it is for us to feel it. The horses easing us into connection with all living things that is with us in this moment. A different connection that usually isn't available here in a man-made herd. And we don't even miss it because we haven't experienced it before to know that it should be missed.
Hard to put down into words what it feels like. The connection, the calm, how everything just looks a little more beautiful. How the horses are calmer, more at ease, more gentle, more settled. Putting up with nonsense from man and beast because there is a peace within them. There is a calm in the herd that all the horse's share in. A connection that isn't just in the herd but on the very property that they live on. You feel it as you open the car door to step out. This is a place of magic. A place of healing. Only possible because of the horse that live here. This is when you can't deny the connection, the relationship between horses, the place, and every life that lives here.
So what does that have to do with telling two horses to ignore each other when riders are on their backs?
Because if this is something that we want, need to have to create a place of serenity and healing then the question is. How can we make this happen? Is this something that we have control over? And if this something that we can create, is this something that we can hurt, destroy inadvertently?
And unknowingly this is what I began to create when I said to the two horses behave yourselves.
Not because I took charge. Not because I became the dominant one, which I know some will think is the answer.
But for a very different reason.
When we protect one from the other, tell all that they need to behave better with each other, they feel safe, taken care of and nothing makes a greater change in an animal that is a flight animal that needs to be on alert at all times to stay alive.
Safety brings peace, helps the adrenaline settle. Calmer, better settled... this is the beginning of the change.
Not saying this is the only thing, but it starts something.
Later we will discuss how we can evaluate the level of health of a conscious herd.
And the exercises that we can employ to help the horses understand that they are safe here. That this place is special.
