HORSES AND ENERGY

 

It is important when dealing with herd animals, that we understand a very simple concept, as previously mentioned, about how they react to energy. Herd animals move each other around and communicate using body language and energy. When a herd member wants another member to move, they will begin to approach, making minor gestures such as a tail flick or head shake to drive another member away. If the other herd member doesn’t respond, the approaching member will increase their energy and efforts to drive them by making their intentions clearer such as pinning ears back and moving faster towards them. Once there is a reaction and other member responds by moving away, the approaching member will stop increasing their energy. Basically herd animals use energy created through movement and gestures to communicate with each other and will do it in phases. Always offering the lowest phase, such as a flick or a head shake and will only go to a higher phase such as a kick or bite if the situation requires it. Herd animals are masters at conserving energy for when they most need it like running away, so they are sensitive to minute changes in energy expressed with body language and movement. They hardly make physical contact as this uses a lot of energy, and is a high phase. This is why horses prefer to follow a passive leader because they use very low phasing to communicate with others and keeps the herd’s energy low. Once we understand this very simple concept that herd animals move away from energy and use phasing to communicate, it makes sense. Think about why it is possible for us to ride horses. We use pressure such as leg yields and pulling of the reins to get a response from the horse. This requires energy from us, so the horse naturally reacts by moving away from this energy. For example when we apply pressure with left leg, the horse will be inclined to move away to right where they feel no energy and vice versa. The horse is moving away from our energy, but unfortunately most people think that horses only respond to physical pressure, which is only one of many ways to create energy with our body, and a very limited one too. This kind of energy is a high phase gesture, meaning in a scale of softness from 1 to 10, a leg yield is an 8, which is not very soft. The softest phase, which would be a 1, is to use only your breath to tell the horse which part of its body to move, and using the positioning of your body to direct their energy. This will be explained further on in your training and put into practise with a horse, but first you need to learn how to create and direct energy without depending on tools, just using your body.    

In this video you will see how I ride Dreamer (Spanish mare) with only the use of a stick to generate energy and using the positioning of my body (head, shoulders, arms, knees, hips and bum) to direct that energy to where I would like the horse to move towards.  I use the stick only to communicate with Dreamer and never touch her with it. Once the horse responds it is very important for me to stop asking and to be aware that I do not unconsciously continue to wave the stick.  The horse understands what I am asking when the stimulus is removed and no longer feels my energy.  Just like another horse would drive a herd member I am using phasing to increase or decrease my energy making my intentions clear and help me stay in flow with the horse, so that, I go with her energy not against it.