Coached by a horse
About half a year ago, one of my dearest friends wrote me an email about her life in Boulder, Colorado where she and her husband bought a ranch. She explained that they will start an ‘equine assisted psychotherapy’ center there. This means that a person connects with a horse and the horse mirrors the person, giving deep insights in the emotions and behavior of the person.
I knew that a horse whisperer had trained my friend and I was intrigued by this coaching technique with horses. In addition my friend expressed that she lost many pounds because of her hard work removing weeds from the many acres of ground she owns. I felt a longing to help her pick the weeds and was thinking that I wanted to know more about the coaching work with horses. However, with my busy life and her in the US…I never did take action besides thinking about it…
Now…listen to this amazing story. A few weeks ago, a new neighbor, next to my garden house, settled in for her business: Practice for personal and relational development, including training/therapy/coaching with horses….
I was stunned by the ‘coincidence’ an excited to get to know this person better. Gaudia and I exchanged mobile telephone numbers so that we could get together sometime. Yesterday morning she sent me a text if I wanted to join her and her colleague later that day seeing how they work with the horses. Off course I said Yes! What a great opportunity.
We connected very well immediately with our shared spiritual and personal development history. We couldn’t believe how special it was to meet like this.
Her colleague started first to work with a 3 year Frisian horse. While he was walking free in the paddock, she guided the horses into action (like trot or gallop), changing direction, stand still merely by body language! There was no rope attached to the horse, no whip. She did not talk to him apart from her body language. She explained how she was taking over the role of the leading stallion and the leading mare. And even though she hardly new this horse…the horse understood exactly what he had to do. It was amazing, wonderful and very loving!
In the afternoon we did a coaching session with the 27 year old horse of my new friend Gaudia. While the three of us stood in the middle of a round pen, her horse was walking free in a peaceful way. We grounded ourselves and started to become aware of various parts of our body under instruction of Gaudia.
While doing this, the horse deliberately walks up to me, indicating she wanted to work with me. She stood very close to me, touching even while I was sensing my body. I felt a bit depleted in my chest and moving towards my stomach area I could feel my tummy softening and energy starting to move while tears flow down my cheeks. I let it be there whilst the horse changes position, this time bringing her head so close to my head that her eye was right by my eye. I felt completely safe and touched by the love of this horse. Initially I felt a tendency to lean forward, to connect to the horse like symbiosis, wanting to melt together. But then the horse slightly change her posture where helping me stand more upright, without losing the connection though! Her eye was right there and I could feel her on my skin, this time I was on my own two feet, letting the emotion of sadness (missing the unconditional love of my diseased parents) flow through me. Then she moved around, placing me in the position of the Fall, she representing my mother. Glaudia told me to follow my intuition, what I wanted to do and that her horse would let me know how far I could go. So I embraced her, which she lovingly allowed. Then, when I leaned on her too much, she gently altered her position to bring me standing on my own feet again. There we stood, my stomach touching her stomach, connect to my emotions and to her loving presence. After a little while a peaceful feeling came over me and I felt we were ready.
Wow, wow, wow! To understand that a horse can help is one thing…but to experience it is a completely other level! More incredible things happened in the following coaching session. Later that afternoon Gaudia mentioned that she needed to remove a lot of weeds from the paddock….and guess what I was more than willing to help. I got exactly what I asked for J
May this true story inspire you!
Follow this link to read more about the beautiful work Gaudia and her horse Blanche do. http://www.paardenbloemen.nl/
