No Ordinary Horse

03/03/2024

Thanks Nat Lawrence for sharing - who else feels like this?

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

The barn is like stepping into a portal.

For awhile, time doesn’t exist.

To do lists don’t exist.

Neither do medical bills, interest rates, insurance, taxes, or inflation.

At the barn, we can dream, and anything is possible.

On the back of a horse, my soul is set free.

And I’m still trying to figure out how to hold on to that feeling in the darker areas of my life.

When I walk back into reality and everything comes flooding back in unsympathetically.

I don’t think most people realize how important horses actually are.

How deeply it’s written into my being.

A horse is not a luxury item.

A horse is a bridge to healing and truth.

📸: 5MW Photography

24/02/2024

When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change

💖

Agreed ☺️

Simply Horses

21/02/2024

I have just read this & to me it beautifully describes how our horses feel. I don't believe it's any coincidence that women find horses - or horses find women.

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

Brother...

Women are not built to trust you based on your words or even your past behavior.

Women are built to trust your present state.

She’s constantly feeling you… each and every moment.

And if she does not feel safe with you in the now, this very moment, she clearly can not trust you. And she also shouldn’t.
Because when she can not trust you, she definitely can’t loosen up and soften.

And if she can’t soften, she can not be vulnerable with you.

Of course, she will try and feign to open up energetically, emotionally, spiritually, or physically to you. Because she loves you.
But it won’t work. She only will squander herself by doing so, and this will not be beneficial for anyone. It will even deplete her.

If she can’t open up in a genuine way, she definitely can not give herself to you… at all. This is discouraging and confronting. And it will frustrate the hell out of the both of you.

She loves you so hard, brother.

So whole.

It truly and utterly hurts her if she feels she can’t open to you. Her heart dies to do so, but her womb does not allow it. Unless you feel safe again.

Being safe to her does not imply that you should tone down or emasculate yourself. It doesn’t mean that you have to stop showing
up in your masculinity and your desire fully.

If you do that, you will only make her feel left alone and, subsequently, even more unsafe. It forces her into her masculine and alarms her that she still has to safeguard herself.

She will feel rejected in her needs and feelings, by the world and by you. If you are not present in that very moment, you can’t help her to navigate through that pain of rejection.

She will also subconsciously “know” that she has to safeguard herself from something else: the dark shadow within you that can hurt both of you as long as you ignore to salvage and own it.

As within so without, right? As you reject your own desires and feelings, you will reject her desires and feelings too. And she will know this.

The best possible thing you can do for yourself and for her and the
relationship, is to learn to stay in tune with your deepest desires, to retain your inner power, and to conquer and integrate anything inside that holds you down in shame.

Only then you can show up as authentically as possible and give her your enlivened presence through the whole innately beautiful and deep range of yourself.

And only then you can become that safe haven in which she can always return to feel secure.

~Bas Weijers

21/02/2024

One of the beautiful gifts of our horses is to invite us to embrace their world & move in their time rather than ours.

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

10/02/2024

This is why I liked Joe Midgley Horsemanship

Beautiful 💖

26/01/2024

What has your horse taught you?

The horse that inspired 'No Ordinary Horse', the one in the pictures is a horse called Brooke. She not only changed my horsemanship but she changed my life.

In 4 short years Brooke took me on a journey from UK BHS riding school to private yard, traditional livery yard to track livery just 5 minutes from my house.

For over 20 years I taught music in school. At 50yrs old I gave up teaching to work at the track.

It took over 40 years of wanting my own horse before Brooke came into my life, a dream come true.

An ordinary horse.

They will lead you to places you can't imagine.

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Or

You get the horse you need, when you need them.

This quote from Peter Crone is something to consider if you have a horse you are struggling with. Instead of thinking of it as a bad thing, think about is he here to teach me”.

If nothing else, at least you attitude about the issue will be different, and that in itself may solve the problems.

14/01/2024

The start of 2024 has given me a lot to think about but in the last few days some pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. Some came unexpectedly during a lesson with Tracey Duncan Taking Care of Training and the catalyst to understanding was the video below, created by my daughter as part of her film degree.

I traced my thought process in a new podcast. Episode 09. Empowerment 💖

MORRIS_OLIVE-Editing&Post-production-FIL201_2023

14/01/2024

This.

We have no power over anyone else. Our power is only within us. The best we can do is be secure in ourselves and create an environment where others, horse or human, can feel safe enough to be secure in themselves too.

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

You can’t make anyone do anything
The sooner you come to grips with that, the happier you can be.

You can’t make anyone listen to you if they don’t want to listen
Can’t make them love you if they don’t love you
You can’t change someone’s religion or political persuasion or training style or lifestyle if they don’t want to change

You can’t give someone confidence
You can’t make someone trust you
You can’t make anyone respect you
You can’t make anyone care
You cant make anyone relax

You can’t make anyone anything

You can’t make a horse relax if the conditions aren’t there
You can’t make a horse trust you if the conditions aren’t there
You don’t have any control of a horse who is more worried or upset or out of control than with you- if they want to leave, they’re leaving

nothing on God’s green earth can stop a horse who’s made up their mind to leave scared

You can’t love or bribe or beg or force your way into anyones mind, horse or human

The only thing you can do is control your own self. Your own mind, your own body, your own life, and lead by example.

Dont worry about trying to change others, because you can’t
Work on on yourself, and those who are changed by your example will be, because they want to.

Photo by Jasmine Cope

10/01/2024

👋 Thank you for the mention Warwick Schiller's Attuned Horsemanship

The Universe is obviously at work, as with serendipitous timing I've just recorded a Podcast chat with Sarah who I met on Warwick's booth at the UK Horsemanship Showcase - The Horsemanship Event of The Year

Sarah shared her story from first pony to first horse, following Warwick's work for over 10 years, the benefit of finding your tribe and how listening to your horse can be enlightening.

Episode 8. Listening 💖

02/01/2024

"I can only speak with my body. And body speak means that I need to move. When I need to say something difficult, I will move in difficult ways. If you correct me for these moving ways, you prevent me from saying the most important things to do"

- Are we listening? Are we engaging and encouraging conversation or does the potential for disagreement make us too uncomfortable?

We can learn so much from these beautiful beings.

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

Listen to me. I’m trying to tell you something. You’re hard to speak to. Everything I say you respond with

“No, but”

Instead of

“Yes, and”

Everything I say, almost everything I say, when I didn’t say what you wanted to hear, you make me wrong. So which is it? Do you want me? Or do you want to extract the image of yourself from me?

I can only speak with my body. And body speak means that I need to move. When I need to say something difficult, I will move in difficult ways. If you correct me for these moving ways, you prevent me from saying the most important things to do.

If I am stuck on speaking awkward and difficult things, then help me change how I speak with my body. But do it slowly. Because if you strip me of my language without giving me new ways to speak with my body, I become mute.

Some people want me mute. Mute and obedient. So that I can be a perfect mirror. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? You ask this of me. And the only correct answer is the one you tell me to say.

Are you listening? Can I speak with you? Can I share with you the list of unanswered questions I have about my life in your care?

Are you emotionally brave enough to hear the hard things? Are you tactful enough to see my gifts when I offer them, and not exploit them?

You have my attention. I am listening.

26/12/2023

The big secret, there's no need to look elsewhere.

It's in the ordinary that we find the extraordinary.

Nothing is ordinary. Everything is ordinary. Everything is extraordinary.

is No Ordinary Horse 💖

I thought I didn’t have a red mare story for you today, and I was tired, and I was going to have a ridiculously early night. But I suddenly came out of my doze and realised I did have a story, after all.

It’s very brief and it’s very simple.


I was walking today, up the field, from the west side to the gate. I’d been seeing to Tern and I was going back to make up the feeds. I picked up the red mare along the way. She was dreaming, and I said, ‘Do you want to come with?’ I didn’t have a halter or a rope with me; I asked her only with my energy and my intention. I was completely cool with the idea that she might say, ‘Nah.’


She decided: yes, she did want to come with. So off we set together, side by side, under the bright Scottish sky.


It’s perhaps a hundred yards, over very ordinary, slightly muddy turf. It could not be less remarkable. If you saw the picture, it would not look like much. It’s a middle-aged woman, in a rather squashed hat, and a woolly, scruffy thoroughbred, who is twenty-one years old and no longer looks like the granddaughter of a Derby winner. But there we were, in tune, in time - old, old friends, who have been through all the ups and all the downs, who know each other so well that we don’t need to make a fuss or make a drama. It’s just us, communicating on a level that cannot be described in words.


As I walked that walk, with her easy and soft beside me, I put my hand on the crest of her neck and felt her thick mane under my fingers and matched my movement to hers. We walked with a little swing, knowing where we were going, knowing who we were. In that moment, I felt my heart and my whole body fill with gratitude and love. And astonishment too - that fate sent me this extraordinary creature who makes me feel better about every single thing, every single day.


The memory of that fleeting moment comes to me now, before I go to sleep, and it brings a smile to my face, and a profound sense of fulfilment. I think: I must tell them about this, before I finish my day. I must tell them this because it’s what it’s all about. It’s the love, and that’s what we are all here for. And when I say we, I mean: you, my Dear Readers; me, sitting in a room in Scotland, watching the fairy lights twinkle and listening to the wind start to blow its song outside; and perhaps I mean all of us humans, because flying, flinging, hopeful love is the emotion we all have in common.


I think: write this down, because it means something. I think: write this down, because it is the universal, the dream, the absolute beginning and the absolute end.

24/12/2023

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

Charlie Mackesy ~
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

20/12/2023

Shout out to the odd ones out in a yard full of 'when are you going to ride her?' & 'he's just being naughty, you have to make him'.

It's a daily choice to follow your heart and is not always easy, but you are changing the horse world from within.

It might be slow but it's working.

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

It takes real courage to go against the flow, to have a different view of the world and to stand up for what you believe to be right - even if that means you have to stand alone. 💕

20/12/2023

The true universal language is feeling 💖

04/12/2023

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

“Ben do you ever have horses who just won’t respond to signals? Who aren’t interested in learning?” 🤔

I get variations of this question on an almost daily basis. Every time I read it I can feel inside me the same sense of being lost iv found myself burdened with many times over the years.

Let’s make things clear from the start
Your horses isn’t stupid
Your horse isn’t lazy
Your horse isn’t disobedient
Your horse isn’t stubborn

Your horse is lost.

If I choose to educate you on some obscure topic and after a number of lessons you’re still baffled, confused and lost. The burden of responsibility is on me. The teacher.

There is no difference when it comes to horses.

To me every horse is a riddle. A complex weave of emotion, learned habits and instincts. By choosing to have a horse in our life and in doing so deciding to subject that horse to our interference in their life we have a responsibility to untangle the weave.

Like a parent to a child it is our responsibility to educate our horse on the world they live in, how to act and how to have confidence in doing so.

When we hit a sticking point on our journey we must not give up. For these sticking points are our opportunity for growth.

No exercise is so small it can not be broken down further. There is always a way to simplify and slow down to allow a horse to gain confidence and competence with a certain signal or cue before we recombine the different signals to ask for more difficult manoeuvres with greater ease.

We have five forms of communication when working liberty horses. Five ways to give signals to our horse.

I call them the five senses of liberty

1. Tactile cues
2. Visual cues
3. Verbal cues
4. Foot work
5. Body language

Imagine each of the above as a dial that can be turned from 0 to 10.

Whenever we are asking a horse for a movement and getting no response think “which of the five am I using? And how could I utilise the others I am not?”

The aim is always to have all five dials at 1 or 2. Opposed to having tactile cues ( touch ) at level 10 and everything else at 0.

When we allow our self to rely purely on our tactile cues we become nothing more than a floating whip.

We can combine these multiple ways to communicate with biomechanics to position the horses head, neck and other body parts in a way to make the easiest next move for the horse the movement we are looking for.

No horse is stupid, stubborn or lazy.

They just need more help to gain confidence in the meanings of the signals you offer them ❤️

Think of every signal we have to communicate with our horses as a word in a language we are creating together. The more words in the language the more complete the conversation we can have.

Your horse isn’t ignorant. They just need help understanding some of the “new words” you’re teaching them 🙏

Photography credit to E J Lazenby Photography

27/11/2023

Softness reveals itself when layers of tension are removed.

When someone shows us they hear us, see us & understand how we feel it speaks to the depth of our heart and acknowledges our very essence.

You are not alone, you are safe.

That’s what I saw Warwick bring to the UK with his kindness and open heart.

That’s why people waited patiently in the cold.
To be seen. To be heard.
To say Thank-you.
That’s why a pony changed in front of our eyes.

In its presence it felt like coming home,
the same sunshine Nahshon brought.
Its purest joy shone from Kathy, Tania & Cat.
Its glorious warmth felt in conversations with strangers becoming friends.
Seen, heard & felt.

Inspired, I took it to my horse today
& showed him I saw his doubt, his anxiety, his worry.
Tension melted & softness was revealed.

Yet we don’t have to wait for our heroes to bring it,
it doesn’t have to be a onetime thing.
The light is within each one of us.

There is No Ordinary Horse.
There is No Ordinary Human.

It takes courage. It takes trust. It takes vulnerability.
It is the most precious gift we can offer: I see you; I hear you; I feel you.

I am here with you. You are safe 💖

26/11/2023

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖

I DID NOT KNOW... by Alissa Kelly

I did not know a horse could bring people into your life that end up meaning the most to you.
I did not know a horse could make the hardest days of your life bearable.
I did not know a horse could teach you to put others first.
I did not know a horse could remind you time and time again that your gut is always right.
I did not know a horse could break your heart.
I did not know a horse could pick you up when you have fallen apart.
I did not know a horse could teach you to dream again, after you thought it was not possible.
I did not know a horse could make you believe in yourself.
I did not know a horse could teach responsibility, work ethic, and dedication.
I did not know a horse could make you believe in something when no one else does.
I did not know a horse could make you learn to forgive and forget.
I did not know a horse could humble you faster than you can say humble.
I did not know a horse could make you a winner.
I did not know a horse could also teach you how to lose gracefully.
I did not know a horse could instill patience in you.
I did not know a horse could make you listen better.
I did not know a horse could give you their heart.
I did not know a horse could change your life.
I did not know a horse could do all these things...
but now I know. ❤️❤️

25/11/2023

Excited to be going to the UK Horsemanship Showcase - The Horsemanship Event of The Year tomorrow, who else will be there?

23/11/2023

What if...

There is No Ordinary Horse 💖