The crooked horse or the crooked rider?
Is the horse really crooked or compensating for the crooked rider?
How do we create balance in our horse as well as ourselves?
Being a chiropractor for both humans and horses gives a unique advantage in being able to watch your horse's body language /alignment as a mirror to your self.
How many times does your horse behave differently with someone else and yet....... it is the same horse. So perhaps a better question would be, how can I create better balance and alignment in myself so my horse can become better balanced and aligned?
Behaviour and body alignment are connected. It may start with wanting to build a better connection so you can understand their needs.
It might mean showing up as a better leader that your horse can trust in. Their life is literally in your hands! What an amazing privilege!
How many times when we have a stressful situation in our lives, we feel anger or sadness, we develop tension in our body. Our shoulders ache, we develop pain, headaches, our energy changes.
We move differently, our body becomes tense even if we are not consciously aware of it. Other people are and your horse is!
The spring in our step somehow is not there. Just at this time we become impatient with our horses because for 'some reason' they are behaving badly, they are reluctant to work and become pushy and aggressive. We call them 'stupid', 'not the most intelligent' etc. And except their behaviour, without questioning why and find harsher ways to control them. This might be in the form of an angry voice, an emotional use of the whip, a harsher bit and already a disconnection starts......
Balance and alignment problems are caused by 3 things......physical, chemical and emotional stress.
Stress might be in the form of being isolated from the herd, lack of movement, being in pain, diet, toxins and not understanding their personality and needs and this is where you show up as their leader to take care of them. That is why it is so important to take care of your own physical and emotional needs so you can be 100% there for them.
It is not their fault, they are mirroring our physical and mental state. Horses are experts at reading body language, their very survival depends on it. And yes our physical posture and body alignment is assessed as soon as our horse becomes aware of our presence. They are experts at it and they react to us.
So if your horse is lame, one shoulder higher than the other, not wanting to hold their head straight (so we develop arm ache from forcing them to hold their head straight!) maybe we should look at ourselves first. First ask why? Horses react to us and their memory....they dont plan. Perhaps we don't know all the answers yet as to why our horse is doing something different but our horses are teaching us to learn more about them and find out if we care to listen.
If your horse is out of balance, seek balance for yourself as well as your horse. How can we take of them, if we dont care of ourselves?
A whole person and whole horse approach will develop into a beautiful connection between you and your horse. It is waiting there for you!
And remember patience is everything, horses do not think like us, it takes us a little longer to catch up!
