We can all learn to communicate with animals by reading and interpreting their unique body language. Any time spend simply watching horses interact with one-another or with other beings, is time well-spent for instance.
Horses feel emotions similar to ours. They have the ability to feel frustration, anger, affection and pain. To understand the horse, we must become the horse; that is, we must learn to appreciate the feelings and emotions of the horse from his view point.
Why animal communication with horses is a useful tool
Take horses for example. Horses are herd animals and despite domestication, still behave as though they could be preyed upon by unseen predators....at any time. That does not mean they are all constantly stressed as any wild animal could not survive feeling such fear all the time. However, it does mean that they have evolved to hide pain and dis-ease from herd members and from potential predators.
From a practical point of view this can cause problems for the domestic horse. For example; a horse has a bruised foot. He can move in a manner which allows him to move around the field to forage for food, without looking ‘lame’. The rider catches the horse and leads him in but doesn’t notice anything wrong with the horse (as the horse is programmed to hide pain and weakness to protect from predation). The horse is tacked-up and taken into the arena for a jumping lesson and manages, for the best part, to ‘hide’ the painful foot.
After a while, the muscles which are working in an inefficient (and compensatory) manner begin to tire and he finds cantering difficult. As a result he begins to use the sore foot and the additional load makes the bruising worse. The horse is presented to a jump and jumps it but experiences pain in his back muscles as a result of compensatory action. The horse then bucks and the rider feel’s the need to ride the horse stronger. He is chastised, driven into another jump, feels discomfort from his sore foot and, remembering his punishment from the buck, continues to the next fence. But, the horse remembered the pain upon landing and so refuses this fence.
If the rider is sensitive to the horses needs, he dismounts and tries to find the problem. As a result of the additional trauma, he is found to be lame on examination or hoof testing. The insensitive rider may continue with the training and cause not only more serious physical harm but mental, emotional and spiritual imbalance.
Learn to listen to your higher self
It is easy to appreciate how the domestic horse can be easily abused when they are used for our purpose. We must place the horses needs before our own and leave our ego behind the yard entrance. We must learn to ‘tune-in’ to our horses and listen to our intuition. Then we might find that out ‘gut instinct’ is ‘telling us’ to check out that right fore before we tack up. Horses are sensitive by nature and we would learn a lot about ourselves and our place on this earth if we listened with our hearts the lessons we have to learn from the horse.
How to develop your animal communication skills
There is another sort of Animal Communication which goes much deeper than observation and intuition. We are all capable of learning this and guidance is available to develop deeper animal communication skills. Some individuals are especially gifted with the ability to openly communicate with horses and help develop this tool in others.
Holistic Reflections provide therapies and consultations. If you would like to learn more about our top quality holistic services, please feel free to contact us today!
We also welcome feedback or comments so please feel free to leave a message.
Warmest well wishes,
Beccy Smith BSc(Hons) EBW DAEP