Elsa’s journey
My Equine Shiatsu journey made it possible for me to work at the Holistic Horse and Pony Centre run by Wendy Firmin-Price in Surrey from 2008. The further insight into horse behaviour and, therefore, communication from Sue Gardner’s Applied Equine Behaviour course meant that, after years of offering Shiatsu to her horses and ponies, when Wendy suggested I train with her to be an Equine Assisted Facilitator, I was enthralled.
Qualified!
The 2-year course finished in me gaining the H.E.A.R.T. Certificate as an Equine Assisted Facilitator in November 2018.This journey opened my eyes even further to the behaviour, communication and understanding the horse has of our emotional communication.
Wendy’s websiteHow it works
When we walk our walk and talk our talk the horse will be happily willing to come with or follow us. When, however, we hide how we are truly feeling and ask something of the horse we find that it can be ‘stubborn’, ‘unwilling’ and maybe even ‘grumpy’ with us. We may be trying really hard to appear happy, leaving our troubles at the yard gates, putting on a brave face, which, interestingly, might fool other people but the horse knows.
When we do not express exactly how we are feeling the horse is alerted to this ‘lie’ and is disquieted. The horse feels safe when the beings around it are congruent, meaning there is consistency in the messages being given out.
If a bad feeling from within is being masked by a false outward presentation the horse senses this conflict of information and will not be at ease. It is always worth being truthful to your horse even if it is not the right thing to do for the other people around you at the time. Once you speak the truth to your horse it can feel safe and calm as your energies will become congruent.
How Facilitation can help you
Using this innate ability of the horse they are fantastic at assisting someone to come to a deeper understanding of themselves and their blocks or self-sabotage techniques employed as defensive strategies in life situations.
As we grow in life experience, we call upon our belief systems of how we are and what is expected from us from the way we were brought up in our family, social, cultural and environmental setting. There may be ideas and beliefs that guide us throughout our life without our consciously being aware of them, let alone, the why of them!
Horses can point out when you articulate something that is deeply embedded, bringing it into consciousness to be discussed and either found to be useful or decidedly out-dated! Once this deeper understanding is realised and dealt with other thoughts can surface and start to sort things out for you.
What a session looks like:
A session takes about one hour. A short chat as to what issue you’d like to address takes place and then the horse is approached. There might be certain tasks to be done with the horse and, depending on the outcome, further discussion enables the unravelling of the situation. What tends to happen is that the horse appears not to be interested in doing what you ask of it, or not in the way you want. The way in which the horse ‘refuses’ to co-operate can mirror what you find happens in the everyday situation. As the Facilitator I can interpret the horse’s behaviour and ask you pertinent questions to assist you in getting to the hub of the matter. Once you speak the ‘truth’ the horse can spontaneously ‘do’ the task! It’s quite amazing, being sometimes really challenging, emotional and also fun!
We can use your horse as the therapist, if you have one, borrow a friend’s horse or we can go to the Holistic Horse and Pony centre in Surrey.
