Horses as Healers - Meet the 4-legged therapists

[Spirithorse]

As my forum name suggests I love horses, sadly though I don't have any in my life at the moment.

With growing interest I have been researching alternative ways of being and working with horses, and horse/human relationships are developing in fascinating ways.
People slowly begin to see horses in a different light, they start to recognize them for what they really are - powerful and wise spiritual beings.

This thread is intended to be about alternative ways of horsemanship
.
Horses and healing

Well, that of course makes us think of people healing horses, physically and /or emotionally with means like Osteopathy, Reiki, animal communication or horse whispering...

In the following you will see the roles reversed - you see horses healing people, physically and emotionally. The video below shows Liz Mitten Ryan's horses at work.
Liz owns a 320 acre ranch in BC, Canada where her herd of horses lives in a way a wild herd would do. They are free to roam or to come to the house as they wish.
Whenever Liz runs her workshops or retreats, the horses are there, right at the healing table....

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=knNcxwRq2cE

[Sean Cullen]

Hi Spirithorse,

That is an awesome video! It so wonderfully and gently shows that we are communicating continuously, effortlessly, and silently with our friends, the horses (and no doubt all life on this planet) in a way that we have mostly forgotten.

I hope that someday, we all can become healed so that we can truly share this wonderful planet with every horse and every lifeform.

Thank you for this beautiful post!

Seán

[Spirithorse]

Hi Seán,

Nice to see you here. Yes, that's my ultimate dream actually - living self-sufficiently on the land, in a community with like-minded, spiritually aware people, plus working with horses in alternative ways that bring healing and harmony back to the world.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Horses are indeed very beautiful creatures.
This video leaves me in tears.

It's good though that they are helping people.

[Carmen]

Hi Spirithorse, I have horses and enjoy their company. They are all unique and different. I generally run them all together and they have a definite hierarchy. It's best to acknowledge the boss horse first as that is kinda the protocol. My retired trail horse "Cheeky" is the boss horse. He is nineteen, and is a chestnut cob. He has the distinction of having been in Lord of the Rings. That was before I owned him. I actually recognised him in the third movie!

The biggest of my horses is eighteen hands, that is 6' at the wither, which is just in front of where you sit on a horse. His name is Sampson. I took him off my teenage daughter at the time because I was scared he would kill her! He was a very scared, abused horse and at his size, very dangerous. I could not sell him on either as he was unsound and I would have hated anyone else to mistreat him. So he is retired and is a gentle big giant now.

Follyfoot is the little Arab gelding I trek on. He is a great wee horse that I "started" myself. That was a real "bucket list" accomplishment! My kids got sick of me bragging about it!

I have two breeding mares and a half share in a welsh cob stallion. My Arab mare "Bella" has a filly foal at foot by our stallion. It's a real wee cutie. Her name is "Rosie O'Grady". Our stallion is called "Livingstone Gladys" and he is about twenty now. We run him with the mares when we want them to breed, so it's all very natural. Gladdie was a bit of a rapist when we first bought him as he had been lent out as a "teaser stallion" for a year (a very frustrating job for a virile stallion!) Anyway, my friends two mares were big buxom Percheron cross girls and they beat the crap out of him for his raping tendencies!! Did us all a big favour, including him, as he is a very polite lad with his girls now!

That's just some of them, there is twelve altogether. My intention is to start and train my young ones and sell them to the right people. I use Clinton Anderson's natural horsemanship and it works a treat.

I have found that when horse and rider are really bonded and working well together the horse will reflect its owner in many many ways, so that when an attitude or habit is corrected in the rider it will be corrected in the horse!

[Amanda]

A local woman in my community has engaged in training with regard to Horses for Therapy. She has horses herself and it appears that as an extension to her love for her animals that she now has additional avenues to utilise the majesty and power of animals to help others. The passion with which she speaks of her horses and the additional training she has undergone is evident - I feel the therapy just by listening to her speak to me of her journey. I imagine working with her and her horses would be quite powerful and transforming.

Animals are amazing and they add so much to our lives merely by their presence - when we can live with them without violating their natural ways - that is a day I yearn for and will welcome when it arrives.

Much Peace ...to all the animals with whom we share this planet...

[Carmen]

Has anyone here read "The Tao of Equus"? It's a wonderful book that explores one woman's journey with horses. It also covers horses as therapy. Truly wonderful. I was especially taken with the story of a troubled teenage boy. At the time the author was rehabilitating an abused black Arab stallion. He was so full of testosterone fuelled anger at how he'd been treated and it perfectly mirrored the boy. Worth getting and reading this book.

I have had some experience of harsh treatment of horses causing their spirit to leave, a human induced helplessness. Horses will faint and just give up. It's awful and dangerous as they have no sense of their own self preservation. You can tell by there eyes, the fire is gone!

[Tonya]

The Horse Boy is a film documenting parents searching for a solution to reach their autistic son after trying drugs and other therapies. The only breakthrough they have is when their son is on the back of a horse. He becomes calm, content, and reachable...

[onawah]

This is so synchronistic.
I have a friend, a pet psychic and a Reiki healer, who had a horse named Sueno (it means friend), and she said her horse was the one she went to for healing.
I invited her to the Avalon forum a couple of days ago, before this thread was started, assured that she would find a lot of kindred souls here.
I've sent her the link for this thread, and if this doesn't convince her it would be worth her while to join, I don't know what would.

There is a woman with a horse ranch near where I live who offers riding therapy to disabled and troubled kids.
She doesn't speak of this aspect of the therapy to most people. but she confides to a selected few that it is not at all just the riding that is therapeutic, as the contact with the horses themselves, and the people who she employs to assist the children getting on and off the horses and holding onto them while they are riding, who are also healers--and they make sure to get lots of hands on contact with the children.
Thanks Spirithorse. I have always loved horses too, and being healed by horses is high on my list now of things I would love to do.
It's not even so much riding them that appeals to me, as just having contact with them and communing with their beautiful spirits.

More synchronicity! I posted this a couple of days ago on Theories of the Deep Understanding of Things

"Not the ones speaking the same language, But the ones sharing the same feeling understand each other..." Rumi

[araucaria]

Normandy here is horse country, and therapy is one area where horses are used. I know that psychiatrists have sessions with poneys for autistic children - which is good for the children and probably helps the psychiatrists and their reputation...

[jsb_swampfox]

thanks for the wonderful thread

[Spirithorse]

Thank you soo much guys, for your stories and inspiration.

I want you to meet many more amazing horses and 'horsepeople' here, so please watch this space, there's more to come...

[Spirithorse]

These pictures are from Liz's latest newsletter and show a course participant with one of the horses in a moonlight session.
It's small in these pictures, but can you see the purple light between the two?

[Spirithorse]

Posted by Carmen (here)
Hi Spirithorse, I have horses and enjoy their company. They are all unique and different. I generally run them all together and they have a definite hierarchy. It's best to acknowledge the boss horse first as that is kinda the protocol. My retired trail horse "Cheeky" is the boss horse. He is nineteen, and is a chestnut cob. He has the distinction of having been in Lord of the Rings. That was before I owned him. I actually recognised him in the third movie!

The biggest of my horses is eighteen hands, that is 6' at the wither, which is just in front of where you sit on a horse. His name is Sampson. I took him off my teenage daughter at the time because I was scared he would kill her! He was a very scared, abused horse and at his size, very dangerous. I could not sell him on either as he was unsound and I would have hated anyone else to mistreat him. So he is retired and is a gentle big giant now.

Follyfoot is the little Arab gelding I trek on. He is a great wee horse that I "started" myself. That was a real "bucket list" accomplishment! My kids got sick of me bragging about it!

I have two breeding mares and a half share in a welsh cob stallion. My Arab mare "Bella" has a filly foal at foot by our stallion. It's a real wee cutie. Her name is "Rosie O'Grady". Our stallion is called "Livingstone Gladys" and he is about twenty now. We run him with the mares when we want them to breed, so it's all very natural. Gladdie was a bit of a rapist when we first bought him as he had been lent out as a "teaser stallion" for a year (a very frustrating job for a virile stallion!) Anyway, my friends two mares were big buxom Percheron cross girls and they beat the crap out of him for his raping tendencies!! Did us all a big favour, including him, as he is a very polite lad with his girls now!

That's just some of them, there is twelve altogether. My intention is to start and train my young ones and sell them to the right people. I use Clinton Anderson's natural horsemanship and it works a treat.

I have found that when horse and rider are really bonded and working well together the horse will reflect its owner in many many ways, so that when an attitude or habit is corrected in the rider it will be corrected in the horse!

Hi Carmen
Lucky you, living with so many horses, and thank you for sharing your stories. You're so right about the horse being the reflection of the owner/rider.

Horses are mirrors, and brutally honest ones. That's why they are so ideal in therapeutic work.
Is it any wonder, considering how screwed up many people in our current society are, that there is so much fighting and abuse going on in the horse world? - but it is changing, thank goodness.

You might have heard of Stormy May's documentary 'The Path of the Horse'. She has recently made the full version available on youtube.
Here it is:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TQUMAJCh1fA

[Becky]

Posted by Spirithorse (here)
Hi Seán,

Nice to see you here. Yes, that's my ultimate dream actually - living self-sufficiently on the land, in a community with like-minded, spiritually aware people, plus working with horses in alternative ways that bring healing and harmony back to the world.

This is a really good dream/vision to have. I'm sure you will be doing this, sooner rather than later, hopefully :-) Thanks for sharing these beautiful videos.
I'll try to figure out how to attach a pic of me with a horse!
Becky x

[Becky]

https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/...10364589_n.jpg

Here's a link to a pic of me taken last early summer. I was with my friends horses for that day and we practiced all types of healing on the horses. My favourite way to feel their energy is just to have my hands a few inches away from their skin. These horses were so relaxed it was funny - a couple of times they just seemed to collapse onto the ground - but they were fine :-)
Becky xx

PS the thing over it's eyes is a fly net - my friend said her horses like wearing them - they can see through just fine

[Spirithorse]

Here is a personal story about my relationship with the horses.

I've been attracted to them all of my life, starting from a very early age. I took up riding lessons when I was a child and in my teenage and early adult years I spent a considerable part of my life in stable yards.
But seeing it from my perspective now, I always felt, deep inside, that something was missing but didn't know what it was.

Fast forward to 2011. I started with shamanic work and journeying. Being more the intellectual, mind-orientated person that I am, (working hard on changing that :-), I tried to overcome my (un)conscious belief that I won't see or get anything anyway - and if I did, it was because I made it up somehow.

In one of the sessions my teacher asked me to go on a journey to meet my spirit guide (totem animal). If a being would show up I should ask it 'Are you my spirit guide?' as if it wasn't, it would disappear but if it was, it would stay.

I was actually surprised that certain images came to my mind - some birds, a stag. - I asked him ' Are you...?' and he disappeared. Then I saw the silhouette of a white horse standing next to the path I was walking on. I asked him 'Are you...?' and in that very moment I felt tears welling up in my eyes. He stayed and I mainly saw his dark eyes in front of me. After that I felt as though I was skipping and jumping along the path.

In a later session it was revealed to me that my future work would involve horses. Again, I was in tears and every cell of my being was screaming YES,YES, Yet I wasn't given any information about what kind of work that could be - I still don't have a clue.
I love the way Liz works with her horses (video in opening post) but sadly, she lives on the opposite side of the world.
I've been calling out to the Spirit of Horse, and somehow I feel I will be guided to where I need to be and to do what I'm supposed to do.

[Carmen]

Thanks for this thread Spirithorse. Horses have always been my passion. As a ten year old I would bike five miles to clean out a stable. Just to smell and touch a horse!

I work with my horses from an inner perspective, from the Spirit of Horse, usually! One of my horses is a solid rose grey gelding I call Trooper. I did all the initial ground work handling with this boy and he was an absolute joy to work with. A big soft booby who just wanted to be loved. Before he was gelded we did breed him a couple of times and he was a wonderfully polite and well mannered stallion. Your avatar picture looks very like a picture I have of him. He is half Andalusian and looks like the Classic European warhorse! Anyway, I'm getting on in years and I decided he was too big for me so I gave him to my daughter and she took him to a trainer to be broken in. I was really shocked when I heard back that he was difficult and could buck like a fiend!! I really felt I'd betrayed him. It was awful. He bonded to me you see and had no bond with my daughter or this trainer. To cut a long story short, I took him back. When I went to pick him up, my daughters comment was "Good luck catching him". Well, he caught me, so my intuition was confirmed! My daughter Hannah is very good with horses generally but there was no bond with this one! So I will work with him again and find someone who falls in love with him and vice.versa. He would make an excellent dressage horse with his big movement.

[Spirithorse]

Hi Carmen,

I absolutely adore Andalusians, they are the most beautiful and expressive horses in my view.
I so can understand your feelings of betrayal towards your horse Trooper.

That's the sad but all too common thing, many horse professionals don't connect with the horses they take on. They use force as a means to get them to do what they're supposed to. You mentioned the 'Tao of Equus' in your earlier post, that was exactly what happened to Midnight Merlin (the black Arab stallion). His trainer wanted to break his will - but Merlin wasn't having any of that.
Many horses literally break, their spirit just leaves, others take on the fight become dangerously aggressive.

In the following short videos you see Klaus Hempfling.
He's a German who, for many years lived in Spain, in the Pyrenees and close to wild horses. Since about 15 years he lives and teaches in Denmark though. He's one of the most amazing horsemen I have ever come across.

Here are 4 short clips, 3 of them are about 25 years old and show Klaus working with borderline horses in Spain.

The main essence of Klaus' teachings is: You have to be a spiritually aware, you must have mastered yourself, before you can go to a horse.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_LsoDoC9X_Y

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3N4aM-tssyI

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lQULL3jA3TQ

Here a more recent example:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dHBDfSXTnPk

[Bob]

SpiritHorse, the spirit breaks, gets lost too with captive dolphin - I speak from experience there. Either the soul there becomes empty or they become aggressive. I have found the same with the horses that I have known. Thank you for pointing that out to the Forum.