Horses

The Wisdom of Horses Last year I blogged about my experience with equine-assisted therapy / life coaching where I did a number of sessions interacting with horses to learn more about myself. I hope one day to offer this work to others as a practitioner because I gained so much wisdom from these amazing creatures.   In the meantime I’ve written an article for The Professional Therapist on how this approach works which was published this week. If you’d like to learn more about this you can read the article here, and if you click on the category horses you can read more about my own experiences last...

A few weeks ago I was having a lot of trouble getting my riding school horse to MOVE. I told Veronica I needed to come down and work with Sonney again to remind myself how to use my energy to show up in the world and make things happen. She didn’t agree, she thought Sonney had already shown me this and that it was time to do it for myself. She suggested that maybe Tom was picking up on the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with the process. At Holistequine I’ve been shown how to create a strong mental connection with a horse to ask for what I want, whereas I’ve been taught to kick Tom or hit him lightly with a crop if he won’t respond. I would’ve preferred to do some work on the ground with him first. To Tom I’m just...

On this special day, I had a surprise waiting for me at Holistequine – Prince was standing in the round yard. My heart started hammering. When I was a child, I read all the Silver Brumby books. I loved reading about those wild enchanted horses that mesmerised me but also awed me with their power and beauty.  Prince reminds me of Thowra, and also brings to mind the angelic winged Athansor from Mark Helprin’s A Winter’s Tale. Was I up to working with this whirlwind? Veronica thought so. She suggested I call him over to me, but if he wouldn’t come I was to send him off. She demonstrated this by sending him away first – off he went, thundering around the yard, kicking up his heels and showing us his wildness. Then she took her attention right...

My learnings around energy are multiplying… Riches Money is a form of energy, and I’m currently completing a 21 day ‘Money Cleanse’ with Laura Hollick of Soul Art Studio. This is an online course that involves answering a series of questions each night and the occasional creative activity. So far my insights have been huge and will hopefully lead to equally huge shifts in my relationship to money – although as it turns out, it’s not really about money at all. Our first activity was to set an intention for the 21 days. After answering the questions around this and coming up with my one sentence  intention, I can see how it was influenced by my earlier insights from my Soul Art and the horses: ‘I am engaging deeply with...

When I was at school, most of my report cards arrived home with the comment “Leanne would do well if she tried”. I didn’t have to try that hard to get by in school, so I mainly coasted with a B or C average, except for the year my father promised to buy me a bicycle if I got all As. I did get all As and I got my bike, but then my grades slipped again the following term. Not trying became a justification for perceived failure – “well I wasn’t really trying so of course I didn’t do that well”.  I guess I figured it was better to be accused of not really trying than it was to give something my very best and still not be good enough. Unfortunately this coping strategy became habit, and I have done the same thing in other...

Today I had a session with the herd down at Holistequine in the beautiful Gold Coast hinterland. Just being outside in the sunshine and wildflowers was therapeutic, but the horses had a lot to teach me today too. Little Callisha was rolling around in the mud when we got down to the paddock, and then she rolled around some more till she was totally revolting – it made me laugh that she had so little concern for appearances, it just felt good! My first exercise was to catch one of the horses and put a halter on them. Ruby, the other little pony, walked up to me but for some reason I dismissed her and chose Etta, the rather large Lipizzaner, to work with instead.  Etta always seems to be around me when I’m there and I’ve worked with her once...