Over the last 13 years I have worked with many horses from many different backgrounds and countries. From show jumping / competition horses, ponies and race horses.
Horses who struggle with a multitude of issues and conditions and horses who don’t have any issues whatsoever ever. The one thing that has become very clear is that they are a lot more aware and affected by emotions and environmental stress than we had ever realized.
It used to be that if a horse was not responding to treatment for whatever reason that I would be called, thankfully the mindset and awareness of horse owners is changing and they are looking to address the deeper levels of the animals emotions and mind before issues appear.
When I work with a horse that doesn’t respond well to conventional treatment I have always found an unconscious story desperately trying to be heard.
Horses have an incredible ability to feel into their environment. They have an electromagnetic field that is 4 to 5 times larger and more powerful than ours. Their electromagnetic field is also highly coherent meaning that the signals coming from the brain, heart, and body are smooth, steady, and predictable — not chaotic. This is a highly regulated state.
The Heartmath Institute has been leading research related to heart-brain coherence .
According to Research Director Dr.Rollin McCraty, “Coherence is the state when the heart , mind, and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation. It is a state that builds resilience.” When the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems are out of sync from emotions such as anger, anxiety or frustration, this produces an erratic rhythm or incoherent state. The brain receives this input which affects whether higher cognitive functions can be accessed to self-regulate.
Positive emotions such as compassion and love generate a harmonious pattern in the heart’s rhythm, leading to coherence and greater emotional regulation. When harmonious interactions exist among the body’s systems, this is referred to as physiological coherence. As this increases, so does the brain’s alpha activity which supports stress relief, creativity and learning.
When their field is coherent like this, they can regulate:
- other horses
- humans
- dogs
- even chaotic environments.
This is why people often feel calmer around a grounded, centred horse.
Another very important note to mention here is that the emotional state of the rider has a huge impact on the horse’s sense of safety. So from this you can see that the upside is huge as to why we should increase our own heart’s harmony. With an electrical component about 60 times greater and an electromagnetic energy field 5000 times greater that the brain’s, the heart has a significant influence on the body down to the cellular level. The brain’s rhythms along with the respiratory and blood pressure rhythms entrain with the heart’s rhythm.
So to put it simply: The more coherent your own system is, the more coherent your horse can be with you.
Next time you have a horse that seems to be misbehaving or acting up try settling yourself and bringing your own system back into balance and then go back and see how your horse responds. You might be very surprised.
From my observations over that last 13 years I have come to realise that memories of shock and trauma from a horse’s past can become imprinted on the unconscious mind of the horse and this can in turn create an incoherent field. This then triggers reactions in the horse to keep itself safe and by the time it has done all this you may be left with an upset horse for no “apparent” reason.
This is why I believe it to be so important to help horses with this level of work as they will often go through a lot of hardship in their lives and they will never complain about it – they hold it all inside.
If a horse cannot express old traumatic feelings their nervous system will try to do it for them. This is where we begin to see behavioural changes and that is what people often try to address. The behaviour is rarely the issue, the behaviour is the horse’s way of adapting and/or communicating how it is feeling about an issue. We must meet the horse on a much softer, quieter and compassionate level if we want to get to the actual issue driving the behaviours and symptoms they present with.
Now there are always the physical symptoms and issues that arise which need to be addressed just as mindfully but from my experience the physical and the emotional go hand in hand. More effective and lasting results are achieved when you work with the physical and emotional aspects of living beings at the same time.
Any person who owns or works with horses even for a very short time can’t help but feel their presence when you are with them and can never forget it after you leave. This is what happens when your soul is met by another who regulates the world around them by simply being themselves.
Horses can really help us learn a lot about ourselves and if you can meet them where they are and hold that very special space for them to feel safe – they will reflect that space back onto you and that is where you will feel seen for who you truly are without judgment or question.
For some of us – for the first time.