Are you making your horse sick?
Horses are renown for getting ill, they get colic and all sorts of other ailments that go with horse ownership. Horses also tend to hurt themselves, cut legs, get caught in fences and fight with their paddock buddies where they come off second best. The list can be end less.
As human beings, on a conscious or unconscious level, we have the power to manifest what ever we want. Unfortunately for us, the mind can not tell whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, it is just a thing. The mind gives us what it is that we consistently think about and conspires with the universe to manifest it into reality and when it comes to horses, I see this quite a lot. The owner of the horse manifests exactly what they wish to see their horse do or be and wonder why everything is falling apart and then go into victim mode “why does this always happen to me” not realizing or understanding that they themselves created it on an unconscious level.
Let me explain.
Twelve months ago I was called to come and look at a horse that had been injured in a paddock accident. It was the third one in the year, and in all cases the horse had to be put out for rest and recover from the injuries he sustained and was unable to compete in any of his competitions. Each accident was more severe than the last one and each one required more time off. The big shows came and went and qualifying rounds were missed.
Malachy is big, black and an extremely beautiful horse. He commanded presence, eyes turned on him when he walked past, he was extremely well bred and the girl’s father had paid an exceptional amount of money for him for her to ride at major events. Malachy was to be a top show jumper and Dad had high hopes for him, even Olympic Level; Malachy was going to take Astrid to the top. Dad’s dream was as big as the horse, unfortunately for the daughter Astrid, it wasn’t her dream and she found herself subordinating to the values of her father.
Astrid had another horse, she loved her horse. Although he didn’t have the potential to reach the top, he was top to her and they had fun riding, she was inspired to ride him and went trail riding with him whenever the opportunity rose and she went to the odd gymkhana, and to one and three day events. They won most of their events; it was a truly wonderful partnership. Malachy was hard to ride; demanded strict discipline and Astrid felt she wasn’t the right person to take him to the top. Her dad, had other ideas and he imposed his values onto both Astrid and Malachy and in an unconscious way, she started to resent Malachy and didn’t want to go to shows with him but she kept doing so because her Dad had paid so much money for him and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful and in her mind she conjured up all sorts of excuses to get out of taking him to the show, but her Dad wouldn’t have a bar of it.
Every time that Malachy was entered into a prominent show, a show that had the potential for the world to see him, he had an accident, slipped in the paddock, became lame, the other horses bullied him and he went through the fence and required stitches, slipped over in the paddock and hurt his shoulder. Time and time again, accident and injury plagued Malachy.
Dad was disappointed, nothing seemed to be going right for Malachy and his daughter, Astrid was disappointed because she really wanted to please her father and be the rider he wanted her to be but her fear of riding Malachy at such prestigious events was overwhelming and it was pure relief for her when he hurt himself as she didn’t have to ride him, her father wouldn’t be disappointed in her and she got to stay at home and ride the horse she really loved, or take him to another show where she actually did well. Astrid also had immense guilt because she was pleased that Malachi was injured and she got to ride her own horse, and then she felt bad and the emotional rollercoaster cycle continued.
As I see this happen on many occasions with horses and people, I asked Astrid why was she creating this reality for herself and her answer was the answer I hear most of the time “I’m not, he is just accident prone”, but once I start showing her the pattern, the lights come on and there was many a “OMG” moment as she started to realize, that yes in Malachy’s case it is always around 10 days prior to a big show, around the time her fears set in and she started thinking of ways of getting out of going to the event.
Astrid was open to discussing why this was happening and we talked about why it was that she didn’t want to go to the shows? And what it was that she truly feared. Her number one fear was that she was scared of being in the lime light, scared of winning and being a success, her father saw her brilliance but she couldn’t see it in her self and she really didn’t want to let him down. She was also scared that her relationship to her other horse would deteriorate if she had to spend so much time with Malachy, so she clung onto what it was that she knew. So unconsciously she created drama and trauma to stop her success and to stop her from going to high-end competitions.
This is only one scenario that I see often, another one I also see is with the floating (transporting) of horses, where people don’t want to go somewhere and the horse wont go onto the float, so they “unfortunately” cant go. Their heart isn’t in, so they cant be an effective leader to put the horse on the float because they themselves don’t want to go, but end up blaming the horse and his “bad” behavior and oh what a nightmare it all was.
What are the emotional blocks that you are creating in your horsemanship, what is it that you are sabotaging in order for you not to reach your full potential and are in actual fact creating disease (dis-ease) in your horse. Horses are our teachers as much as we are theirs but our mental thoughts are creating shortcuts to us not succeeding as well as we see ourselves doing.
The mind doesn’t know if your thought is a negative one or a positive one, it just acts on what you are thinking, so you might as well be thinking on what it is you want to achieve rather than something you don’t.
Mary Hitchcock
