This beautiful lady (in the picture below) lost her mom when she was only 8 weeks old Since then, she's had to say goodbye to her horse friends, who either died, were sold or moved away.
All this time she was living with feelings of being unsafe, helplessness and unloved until she met her current owner, who asked me to come and help her release (some of) the negative emotions and trauma.

The owner of the horse told me that she'd never seen such a bad case of separation anxiety/barn sourness. In the horse's world there's really no such thing as barn sourness or buddy sourness. Either the horse is feeling anxious, or he is not. What we call it is up to us, but for the horse and my assessment it doesn't really matter. What does matter is the fact that even the simplest things can become a disaster when a horse is not feeling safe, about the environment or about the future. Horses that have endured trauma are more susceptible for changes in their lives and surroundings, they're always triple-checking everything before they can truly settle in or down.

But this horse had attached herself to her friends, looking for safety and stability after losing so many of her horse friends and family members. It was almost impossible to even make a connection with her when she wasn't near her equine friends, she always had to make sure she could hear, see and smell them. Even during our healing session, she occasionally walked over to (one of) her friends to ask for support while I helped her release some trauma. 

Many abused horses arrive at rescues underweight and scared. It will probably come as no surprise to learn that it's often hard work or seemingly impossible to put weight on them. 

Feelings of being unsure, not knowing what will happen to them next weakens their stomach. Even if they are able to chew down -some of- their food, when it's to be digested in an out-of-balance body it can still lead to ulcers, cribbing or eventually biting. 

ℹWist je dat luchtzuigen, slokdarmverstoppingen en zelfs bokken niet altijd een fysieke oorzaak hoeft te hebben?

Deze en andere (gedrags)problemen kunnen het resultaat zijn van blokkades in niet de fysieke, maar emotionele laag. Een paard dat bijvoorbeeld bijna altijd op stal staat en gaat kribbebijten of luchtzuigen, doet dit niet alleen uit verveling maar ook uit pure frustratie. Uiteindelijk wordt de stal geassocieerd met deze negatieve emoties en wordt de kans om bijvoorbeeld goed uit te rusten (REM slaap) steeds kleiner. Ze raken steeds prikkelbaarder en zelfs onvoorspelbaar. Geheel misplaatst worden dit soort paarden vervolgens gelabeld als "vals" of "dominant".

MY VISION AND BELIEFS:
When I started working with horses, I was inspired by the old masters like Ray Hunt, Mark Rashid and Buck Brannaman. Their way of not "working" - but connecting with their horses felt so pure and true, I could feel it in my bones. I thought; 'This is what I want to learn, this is what I will pursue.' Now, over 10 years later, I have a passion. To help those who otherwise cannot be heard, to give them a voice and give them their lives back. 

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Setting yourself up for succes or failure

Horses are too spiritual and too pure to just grab them, hop on their backs and ask for something without ever giving anything in return, like partnership, comfort, respect and an appropriate environment to live in. Somehow, along the way, we've lost our ability to emphatize, to put someone else's needs before our own. We do this when we have children, we make the best choices possible and put our own lives on hold, just to support them. So why not with horses? 


When you're setting goals, or having dreams for your horse, how long does it take you to get to the things that really matter? It's not about the lessons, your tack, your fancy outfit and brand new trailer. It's about making sure your horse is willing and able to do the things you ask from him. Not afraid of the consequences when he fails, but asking for guidance when things get tough. Like true partners. 




Working & living with horses: More than our eyes can see

Over the years, while working with all kinds of horses in The Netherlands and USA, I have tested my theories (yes, I have many!) about partnership as the main ingredient during my rehabilitation program. These horses all had different backgrounds, like racehorses, cutting horses, hunter jumpers, reining horses, warmbloods, coldbloods, thoroughbreds. All with often one thing in common: a complicated and heart-breaking past, which has made them either angry at - or afraid of - people.


Just physical training and care aren't the right tools for these horses. They'll need much more support and guidance on an emotional and spiritual level. Like humans and other animals, horses have several energy fields. Humans have four (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual), horses have three: physical, emotional and spiritual. Each layer has a cellular memory, in which all kinds of impressions are being stored during their lives. 


The physical layer is their body, with the cellular memory of wounds, trauma and disease. 
The emotional layer exists a little outside the body, and carries feelings, emotions and emotional trauma.
The spiritual layer is the most distant, with humans this is the layer that carries our karmic lessons and trauma we're carrying from a life we've lived before. Since horses don't carry anything with them from past lives, this layer represents the Spirit itself, the horse's gift to the world. It's the horse in his highest, purest form.



As you can see, horses do not have a mental layer. So why is that? 
Horses are not able to have negative thoughts or feelings about themselves, or limitative thoughts. They don't hold grudges, they just forgive and let go. However. Horses àre able to carry guilt, fear, all empathetically taken on from the humans it serves. Which means that when you're buying a new horse, they might have some energy blockages due to taking over the emotions from their previous owner(s). Since horses, like most animals, are more grounded than us humans, they are masters in empathetically taking on a humans emotion and then release and clear it very quickly. But if the horse's own needs aren't met, like lack of interaction with other horses, the wrong diet or even neglect/abuse, it gets harder and harder to channel all that (negative) energy. At this point, you'll have a horse that is (either) physically, emotionally or spiritually out of balance. These horses always show typical behavior like cribbing, biting, bolting, shoving, not cooperating, low energy, rearing, bucking or sometimes even attacking. 

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Integrated Energy Therapy

A great tool (for me) while working with these types of horses, is Integrated Energy Therapy (IET). This is a beautiful and safe way (since I don't necessarily need to be near the horse)to get the energy in their cellular memories flowing again. 

For example, a little insight in IET from one of my study books:
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De kunst is om dit "Energetische Gesprek" regelmatig te voeren, om te zien of en waar er nog "rommel" zit die ruimte mag maken voor nieuwe, betere dingen.

Bekijk hieronder een video waarbij een IET sessie doe met een paard dat al een paar mensen heeft gebeten;

Liefs, Zoë