So we've got Magic and Lara and tell me why are we here? What's the situation with Magic?
Magic, I think has got severe separation anxiety.
She just can't cope when Lara leaves her.
They've been together about a year. When she came, she was all right but they bonded.
When she came obviously she didn't know her but now they've bonded.
Neither of them are nappy. They'll both go out and ride away from one another but one that's left behind
gets in a terrible state. She'll rear up and put her feet and head over the top of the wall,
she'll lash out on the wall, she thrashes on the wall, she smashes herself against the door.
Had to build a new door. She's broken out of some stables, she's broken out of fields.
She just can't cope. Right so a lot of thinking, obviously a lack of confidence.
Looking at her it's quite interesting. When she's with us, she feels quite calm. When she's
with no one, she feels like her mind goes right up in the air so we are looking at a situation
where actually it's her baseline confidence and, you know, horse's baseline confidence can
can be altered in so many different ways. You know, how they're broken in, where they've come from, what
the attitude of the people around. Certainly the first feelings I get from her is that that was all
on very much the human terms and this is how it's going to be and it doesn't matter how you feel
is what I get from her. So I mean yes, a horse is a herd animal so of course they want to
be with each other but in our society of working with humans they also have
to learn how to be confident on their own so and by the sounds it's been pretty dangerous.
You've been hurt? Yes, I was riding her before Christmas and to get on and everything,
she walked quietly but I was riding her and I was about a mile and a half away and
her stable mate was in the stable and her voice came across the air and she just erupted and I sat five
bucks and that was that. Came off, broke my ribs and I mean, she went from from completely calm,
so it was nought to ten, she went from one or two up to ten and it goes and she snaps. She just
goes in an instant and she just erupts. And and this is the trouble, especially with horses you
know they're animals with a thinking mind and unfortunately, when their mind goes too busy,
they don't consider you at all. No. It's not that they don't like you it's not that they're not,
they just don't consider you because their mind is so busy. It's like
us being very emotional and somebody talks to us and we don't even hear the person.
You know, they're not with you at all and that's what we've got to try and do
here. The Trust Technique's lovely on this level because it does calm a mind right down so that
the environment is safe and there can't be any pleasure in this. You know, you've been working
for a year now, it takes a lot of the pleasure away. It's a worry. You know, the whole
purpose I would imagine for you to have horses is to have that really lovely, look where you are,
it's beautiful riding around here, I mean, this is absolutely stunning. Lara, she was fine before
she came along, yeah? She didn't like other horses. Right. She's a biter. And now she's got separation
anxiety as well. She's injured other horses when they're put with her, she's not nice. She's alright
with people but not nice with horses. She's got a very best friend who lives a couple of miles away
who she goes on holiday with and in fact, she's still quite aggressive towards Magic.
So what's happened is Magic's come in with this very young, insecure,
needy, energy. You know, when you need somebody all the time then that's a lack of confidence.
Now, I know they are herd animals but that's a lack of confidence. So she's coming with this big
energy, she's sharing it here and she's picking up on it and starting to behave in similar ways,
even though it's completely against her character because she doesn't normally like horses.
So isn't it interesting how, you know, sharing your feelings is incredibly contagious.
Before we started the session, I wanted to just see what the situation was all about
so we brought Lara in and left Magic out so that we could just see how they were responding.
Definitely Magic's mind has come right up. It's so interesting when a busy mind is up, it creates
a lot of feeling and that feeling if trapped in a body is making it move and being very anxious and
yes, Lara's mind is very busy as well so this is a shared anxiety between the two of them. Yeah, yeah, I mean,
even though her behaviour here, you know, it's not a frustration feeling that I get, it's
just really babyish, you know, this is that very baby feeling at the moment and it's a lack of,
you know, a lack of maturity, a lack of sort of that wisdom and understanding at the moment. We're going
to be looking at doing stage one. We've got to be able to reduce her mind before we can do stage two
otherwise it won't make any sense whatsoever. We're looking at calming her down to the point where
she realises that we're actually delivering this feeling to her. Once we've established that then
we can look at stage two, which is bringing these guys further away from each other.
Now, it's going to be quite interesting to do that, we're going to have to really figure it out
later on in the session because the horse that you're with is fine, it's the horse that's left
on their own that isn't. So somehow we've got to deliver the present moment and I guess, if somebody
was standing with the other horse, they would be- Better. Better, okay, well, that's a good start.
If it was brilliant then we'd have a trouble but if there is a bit of a problem then we can,
one can be with one person, one can be with another and we can reduce their minds.
When you see things through a calm mindset, you learn. They've got to learn that when they're
not in sight that it's okay and unfortunately as soon as they start going, as soon as she saw
her friend going, she's like she's already gone into this mode and it's just gonna get worse.
So we need to be able to show her that actually, we don't need to show her anything, we just need
to keep her mind down, she'll show herself that it's all okay. Yes, it's lovely to be able to have
us as a security for them. So for example one of us could be being present in the field,
the other one could take the other horse away and the one who's in the field is literally sitting
in the middle of the field, standing in the middle of the field and what will happen is that the
horse is going to look for her friend but then if there is a bond between the person and the horse,
will start to look at the person and go for that security. Now, that's going to be a very important
step because then as soon as they come to us, minds will quiet and going to be able to see things in a
different light. So this is my plan. We've got two hours to achieve a lot. This is going to take a
bit of time and however we work out the stage two, which is going to require a bit of our creativity.
You know, we've worked with separation anxiety a few times now and it's very effective but you've
always got to be able to look at the environment, what is going to be best. She's so young, bless her.
We've got to look at the best environment for you to make this real.