Horses Whispering:

HORSES WHISPERING –selections

My favorite Chardy quote was “Every hair on the horse is like a feedback antenna.” Her rapport with the horses was complete. Although she was herself an outstanding horse whisperer, her concept was that the horses were whispering to us! This is her story.

For whatever we are longing, the kind horse strives to fill the void.

Equus: Horses, ponies, donkeys, zebras... and dare not forget the mule! Partnered with humans for thousands of years, equines have generated enough stories and memories to title every star in the universe. Is there a person who cannot recall at least one equus-connected tale? For some, one tale is one too many; yet for countless others there is a longing to connect with equus in some meaningful way, to become horsepeople. Relatively few people are lucky enough (recognizing that there are those who would say “stupid enough”) to live closely with equus. Today, however, horses, ponies, donkeys, zebras, and mules are more accessible to more people as friend, partner, teacher and therapist than perhaps ever before. A remarkably growing share of those seeking these relationships are adults, people who may have ridden as children and who then took other journeys, people who have only dreamed of riding or of simply being close to a horse, and people who have sought (or been prescribed) a therapeutic riding relationship of some kind. For many, their journey with equus is transforming, an adventure of self-discovery and personal empowerment.

Working effectively with adult riders requires a significantly different approach from that required when teaching youngsters. Adults take all their responsibilities into the riding experience. Those responsibilities, usually their careers, often pay for their horse-related activities. Adults feel a certain wariness that children rarely have. Adults bring a number of other realities to riding as well: the residual scarring of old injuries, both physical and emotional; conflicts of available time; demands of family; stress problems due to, for example, lack of adequate sleep, erratic health habits, chronic (but not disabling) disease, or job-related problems. Yet riders are typically coping people, motivated to do well and to learn. The problems in their lives are like potholes, something to skirt or fix, rather than a place to get stuck. Adult riders provide an exciting journey for their instructors, both a collegial journey and a student/teacher relationship, which is ever-challenging and full of discoveries.

Horses Whispering is not a how-to book about teaching riding, but a lantern to help light the way of instructors fortunate enough to share the path with their adult students. For adult riders, Horses Whispering is encouragement to initiate or continue the never-ending conversation with equus. For the countless others to whom the equus/human partnership is at best an enigma, Horses Whispering may shed some light of understanding—at least a little!

What are the greatest needs for new or returning (and, not infrequently, more experienced) adult riders as they describe them?

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• To overcome or “manage” fear, and resolve past emotional “baggage”
• To further education; to improve understanding (“why…?”)
• To have fun and to know the delight of “letting go”
• To have a sense of purpose and intent, and to set realistic goals
• To improve body flexibility and strength; balance and coordination; a “better seat”
• Individuals may have significant, undisclosed old wounds, both physical and emotional; the riding process may leave them feeling vulnerable yet defensive about disclosure, and increasingly tense and fatigued...or riding can bring great relief.
• In an analysis of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator done on forty randomly selected adult riders who participated in the SCRT Workshops, 80% were introverts; the remainder were extroverts. While people vary considerably in the degree of introspection, other phenomena common to this personality aspect are reticence, a tendency to focus on the past, a tendency to hold grudges, and a need for privacy. In addition introspective people often lack helpful communication skills. In the population at large, approximately one third are introverts and the balance are extroverts. One can surmise that horse people as a group tend to have felt like a minority in sometimes painful ways from their earliest memories, a common observation among introspective individuals.
• Riding often evokes profound emotions. The horse’s back, even saddled, interfaces with the most intimate aspects of the human body, energizing the rider’s own nervous, vascular, lymph and muscle systems that in non-riding humans may be dormant or at best under-stimulated. Moreover the horse is flooding the rider with the energy from its own substantial muscle, cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems.

Riding is often a profoundly spiritual experience for riders, and yes, even for horses. Mere words fail to describe adequately the emotional breadth and depth, the richness and satisfaction possible in the horse/ rider partnership. Regardless therefore of the rider’s personal struggles or questions of whatever kind and to whatever degree, the riding instructor has the enviable position of having an ally, a shared partner with the student, the appropriate horse, who without guile and as a splendid intermediary, can facilitate both the teacher’s message and the rider’s progress. Let the fun begin!

“Have a plan; dreams aren’t enough.”

We leap now from the timeless questions of the spiritual to the pragmatic: tools, techniques and tips that can assist the adult rider in enhancing their exploration of Self through equus. Legions of print, audio, and visual media have emerged over centuries to help riders, trainers and instructors achieve their goals in whatever endeavor they choose, from fighting battles, to racing, to driving, to mounted police patrols, equine assisted therapy, dressage, reining—the list of activities is virtually endless.

In this transformational process, the student moves from total self-consciousness to other-consciousness; that is, the student gradually comes to realize that their riding partner is also a complex, living being with a personality, history, and needs not unlike their own. Not all students care to acknowledge this.

The SCRT workshops have provided an opportunity for adult riders to challenge themselves, become familiar with a number of techniques that can enhance their quality of life (riding or not), and to gain a sense of direction and confidence in moving on with their riding endeavors.

Gradually, often reluctantly, the aspiring rider is led into a necessary passage of self-discovery: letting go is another way of latching on. Releasing tension, giving up on the struggle to succeed, surrendering the driving of drivenness, far from courting failure, opens up different pathways to the goal.