Mirroring,
the Gift of Horses

Many of us aware of the gifts horses bring. Not only are they loyal and faithful friends, but they help us often in our most difficult times.  There have been quite a few books written about the therapeutic aspect of this magnificent creature, whether aiding a disabled person to balance for the first time in their lives, being trusting babysitters or our children or assisting emotionally traumatized people to face their emotions honestly, as in the equine assited psychotherapy sessions.  The way is done thru energy.

Horses pick up on energy immediately.  This is how they survive.  They know right away all about us.  We can't lie to them and the don't lie to us either.  Horses can teach us to be authentic, to be who we really are, rather than trying to put on a mask to please others, or perhaps cover up emotional pain.

Horses came into my life about 15 years ago, opening my soul to learn and explore my own life so much that I wanted to give back to them a portion of what they have given to me.
 I didn't have a clue at the time what had happened, but about 3 years after horses walked into my life, I was able to look back and pin point the time when I started to heal my dysfunctional past.  And the only ones I could trust were my horses.  It was a time of a new awareness, hope & growth like I had never experienced before.  They gave me the courage to open up and feel again, to let go of a extremely long unhappy marriage and to walk away from a controlling fundamentalist religion that had entrapped my mind.

In learning how to de-program my mind,  I learned about energy and how our thoughts are indeed energy as well.  Our energy field around our body is a direct result of how we think.  In helping myself to shift my distorted fear-based belief system,  I learned how to think differently and noticed fantastic results in my happiness and health.  This too effects others around us, including our animals.

As I developed my equine practice further, I noticed the correlation in my equine clients.  Angry cowboys had angry horses.  Flighty uptight barrel racers have similar horses.  Not only is it the physical treatment by these people, but it is also their energy field.  One case brought this dramatically to my attention.
I have facilities to run a small horse motel, A man from Tennessee was coming thru with two mares, heading to New Mexico to finish their training to include cattle work at a family ranch there.  He came in early enough to visit with several other horse people here and we all talked about our various equine connections.  The next morning when all the others left, Tom asked if I had time to work on his horses, as he just couldn't understand what was going on.  He was an experienced trainer for years and this time both his mares we fighting him tooth and nail.

During the session, both mares presented to me the negative emotion of "guilt",  which I was able to help them release and rebalance.  However, this is not a normal equine problem.  Horses achieve their proper place in the pecking order by kicking and biting and it doesn't bother them in the least.  So in most cases, when guilt is presented.  I know that the horse is mirroring it's owner.  So I tactfully kept my back to this 6'2 cowboy and explained the situation to him.  He didn't say anything for awhile, then finally he said it was -his problem-
After another couple of minutes, he confessed that it was his fault that his girlfriend had died the previous year.  I was stunned, trying to decide what to say.  We talked for awhile and he finally saw that her death was indeed the result of her own poor choices of substance abuse which he couldn't have prevented, even if he hadn't been at work at the time.  He looked at me and smiled widely and said he was so happy to have let that go that he didn't want to leave.  We did sightseeing that day and visited with friends on a trail ride, and later we all went dancing.  He was totally ecstatic to have released that burden that he had been carrying for almost a year.  He was so appreciative that six months later a brand new handmade saddle was delivered to my door from Tennessee.

To me, the horses were giving this man a gift, if only he knew how to understand it.  I count myself truly blessed to be able to be the "go-between" in helping people face some difficult, or even unrecognizable, issues when their animals mirror them.  So this also helps us to see the importance of dealing with our own emotional issues as best we can, knowing we can't hide a thing from our equine family members.

Now the results aren't always so positive though.  One aggressive barrel racer had a barn full of angry horses.  They were all identical and once  got to know the owner, I knew why.  She didn't want to change herself at all though and paid me well to work on her horses on a regular basis, to help to balance them out.

So we all have choices in life and most of us appreciate our equine family and try to do the best for them.  They in turn want us to love ourselves.

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 E-mail Cindy

Cindy was invited to be a clinician and demonstrate her work all 3 days at the Women and Horse Expo, at the Lazy E Arena, in Guthrie, Okla in November of 2009.

 

The Natural Horse magazine has featured Cindy's work by publishing four of her articles over the past 6 years.  The Mirroring article featured on this website is one of those articles.

 

Dr Joyce Campbell, DVM, License # 2721  in Tulsa, Okla has totally endorsed and supported Cindy in all her therapy work.

 

Cindy is available for clinics and instruction.

 

CHARGE:  Individual therapy sessions via pictures are $100 per animal. This is inclusive for a 2 week period, as they sometimes heal in layers and I will check on the animal through this time period, as well as rely on the human for feedback.  I will also connect with the animal for any yes/no questions the human wishes to ask.