Something Shifted… and the Horse Knew

This episode shares inspiring stories of transformation through Debono Moves—where presence, support, and gentle guidance invite nervous systems to relax, horses to soften, and freer movement to emerge naturally. A shift in you creates change in your animals. 

Resources:

Get your free videos on Connected Breathing and Rhythm Circles with your horse. 🐎https://tinyurl.com/equine-videos

Interested in learning more about our Move with Your Horse program? Click here to join our no-obligation waitlist: https://www.marydebono.com/joinhorse 

Grab your FREE videos on Connected Breathing and Rhythm Circles to help your dog. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost.

Want to sit in a more balanced, secure way? Click here for all the details on our Feldenkrais series:
Effortless, Balanced Sitting: A FeldenkraisⓇ Movement Series   

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and does not constitute medical or veterinary advice or professional training advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you, your horse, or your dog are unwell or injured.  Always use extreme caution when interacting with horses and dogs.

Email mary@marydebono.com

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Easier Movement, Happier life for you, your horses, and dogs. I'm Mary debono, and today I want to share some powerful stories from my students, stories that speak to the heart of what the Move with your horse program is all about. Because when it comes down to it, this work isn't just about horses. You know that I work with horses and riders and I work with dogs and their people.

And it really. This work, the basic concepts of this apply to everyone with a nervous system, no matter what the species is. But it's really. It's about healing. It's about trust. It's about the quiet power of doing less so that more becomes possible. So let's start with Lenka. Lenka is one of the students in my Move with your Horse Foundations program, and she emailed me after having a really extraordinary experience with a horse who wouldn't let anyone touch him.

Not a vet, not a body worker, no one but his own person. So instead of trying to fix the problem, Lenka did something different. She focused on herself. Her breath, her sensations, her own internal state. And when she shifted, the horse did, too. He came closer. He gave her permission. She responded with a quiet hand and a calm presence. No agenda, no pressure, just listening. And that untouchable horse, he softened.

He guided her. He yawned and stretched. His nervous system began to reorganize itself, and a deep mutual trust began to take root. Lenka later wrote to me and said, I finally found what I've been looking for. And that kind of transformation is possible in any horse. Human partnership is possible in any animal. Human relationship. Okay, so whether with your horse or your dog, this kind of connection is possible.

And then earlier today, another student, Nina, she shared her story during our live class. And one of her horses had been resistant to touch for over 20 years. Yeah, two decades. But now he actually enjoys being touched. She said it's deep in their connection in a way she never thought possible. I mean, that is. These kind of things just bring tears to my eyes. It's just so compelling.

And it's. That's really the power of this work. It's not about fixing. It's about inviting, you know, it's about having, you know, creating that internal state in you that you can have a connection with another. And then that from that connection, you start to invite new possibilities. And, you know, I owe so much to my training in the Feldenkrais method, so, you know, virtually every day I give a little prayer of thanks to the originator of the Feldenkrais method.

Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, because he, his work really has shaped my work with animals. It's really influenced it. I call it De Bono Moves. There's some differences between the Feldenkrais method as far as the application of it to four legged animals, but it shares a lot of common ground and this idea that we're not here to fix, we're here to connect, support and then invite new possibilities that shares common ground with the Feldenkrais method.

And it's very powerful stuff. I mean, I'm just, I just love these stories. I mean, there's another one, my, another student in the foundations program, Kim, she has a young horse and she said she's been using the De Bono moves to connect with her horse, to really build that trust with this young horse from the very beginning. And her horse is loving it. So, so cool. So think about that when then, you know, then when, when she's ready to really get more in depth in training and riding that horse that's going to have such a solid foundation of trust and communication.

So it's pretty cool. And then another student, Katarina, she posted a short video that really warmed my heart. Her mare Scarlet is eating hay along with her herd mates and they're, they're chomping away at their hay. And Katarina, who's been working, she's been doing the Debauno moves with Scarlett. She just rested a hand on her horse. And in the video, you see Scarlett just closes her eyes and she stops eating.

She just like soaks up that contact from Katarina. But it doesn't end there. Because what's even more interesting is that the other horses follow Scarlett's lead. They pause, they relax. I mean, it's just amazing, right? And when they do that, it's like you just, you can see that they're kind of dropping into the shared state of calm, of connection. It was very, very cool to see. And Katarina wrote, you know, even though I only have really have one hand on Scarlet, everyone benefits.

So I want to read what she wrote again. She says, even though I really only have a hand on Scarlet, everyone benefits. So think about that. It's just like with us, you know, we can walk into a room of say there's a bunch of people and they're all going to be in, you know, they're, they're going to be sensitive to our emotional state and our physical state. I mean, our nervous systems, no matter who you're with, other humans, horses, dogs, et cetera, our nervous systems are always communicating with each other.

So when Katharina gently walked up to her horse and with that lovely awareness, mindfulness, she put her hand on her horse. Now, Scarlett, her horse, already has a history of what that kind of contact means, okay? And so automatically Scarlet closes her eyes, she relaxes, and it's like little ripples go out to the herd. I mean, it's very cool. That's why you'll see a lot of times, like you could be working with a horse and say their horse is in a pasture or even if they're separate paddocks, but a lot of times the other horses will come near and they'll, they'll get into that relaxed state.

It's like they're, they're getting the benefits from osmosis, because we do. We are in conversation constantly with each other, with our nervous systems. We're picking up things that are unconscious. So when we come in and we, we, we approach our horse or our dog in that state of, of kind of like pure awareness, without any agenda, they feel that and they respond to that. And then if there are other horses or dogs or humans around, they feel that too.

So it's pretty cool. And that was a really, a really nice video to show that. You know, here's something that seems so simple, and yet it had a profound effect on not just Katarina's horse, Scarlet, but on the other horses as well. So let me tell you now about Romana. Romana is another student in the foundations program, and she's been doing equine body work for years. She's very experienced, very skilled.

She's trained with a lot of wonderful people. So she already knows how to help horses feel a lot better. These, these other gals do too, by the way. I want to say that all of them have trained with other people and are very skilled at what they do. But Romana found that there was one puzzle she couldn't solve. It was a mare who was very reactive to being touched anywhere in the chest area.

Romana knows never to force it. She respected the limit, but it didn't change, that is, until she started applying what she learned in our program. So she approached the horse differently, gently, openly. And for the first time, the mare let go of that long held tension, not just in the moment, but for good. And Romana posted a couple of photos of this horse, kind of like before and after photos.

And there's a big difference in the horse's top line in the way her back looks. And this is important because when there's a lot of tension, a Lot of defensiveness in the chest, you know, the whole sternum and rib area that often can signal that there's restrictions in the back, because the. The sternum and the ribs are very intimately connected to the movements of the back. And so when you can help a horse feel more movement, right, have greater awareness, greater coordination in the sternum and ribs, you'll often see these beautiful functional improvements in the horse's back.

By the way, this is true for dogs as well. So Romana said, and again, she's very skilled in. In other approaches, but she said, I feel like I found my missing puzzle piece, and I love how things can work together like that. You know, you can. You can take all the learnings, you know, all the things you've learned from others, and you can create this, like, wonderful synergistic effect.

So I appreciated her sharing that because that lovely, lovely demonstration of that. Now, I want to share one more story. This comes from Jamie, who's also a student in the Move with your Horse Foundations program. Jamie has a beautiful warmblood horse named Tonic. He's 25 years old, and he had a really serious pelvic injury over two years ago. And since then, he hasn't been able to roll over all the way and get up smoothly.

So he hasn't at all been able to roll. You know how horses, like, completely roll over from one side to the other, and he. He would roll to one side, and Jamie said he'd kind of struggle and kind of scoot around on his hindquarters to get up. But since, you know, and since the injury, this is what's happened. He has not rolled all the way over. And even just rolling to one side and then getting up has not been easy until now.

So Jamie's been working with Tonic through the Dibona moves with the Dubono moves approach, and she saw him rolling the other day, and she took out her phone and took a video, and not only was he rolling, like, incredibly smoothly from side to side, but he got to his feet so smoothly as well, which is pretty darn cool, especially considering the kind of injury he sustained to his right hind.

So it was very, very. It was quite moving, actually. I. I got tears in my eyes just watching the video because, you know, I know how far he's come and in such a short amount of time. You know, she's only been in the program now. We're only in week eight, so, you know, two months or less. So very, very, very cool. And you have to remember, this wasn't just kind of Like a cute moment.

It was a milestone. It was significant. It was a sign that his nervous system, in fact, his whole self, was reclaiming that freedom of movement. I mean, how cool is that, right? She also noticed. She's. She's noticed this, that he's been standing more balanced, where he used to always have, like, a narrow base of. You know, the way his legs were, they were like a narrow base of support.

He's much wider now, more balanced. So that's. That's pretty cool. And that also signifies that he just feels more comfortable in his whole body. So I love it. And that shows you, too, that his functional use is improving. This is important, because what we're after here is we really want to help our animals and ourselves have greater functional use of ourselves. That means we can do the things that we want to do.

The horses can run and play, and if they're being ridden, they're being ridden in a way that's healthy and comfortable for them, right? They can enjoy life. They can enjoy life with their herd mates. They can enjoy life with you. They can just enjoy being a horse. We apply these same ideas to the dogs, right? We know that, right? We help the dogs at any age, right? Whether they've had an injury or not, whether they're old or young, we help them move more easily as well.

And this is very important. We help the humans move more easily as well. And not only is that just nice for the humans, but embodying the changes yourself and helps you do the work more effectively. It's like you can transmit that easier movement, that sense of ease and pleasure to the animal when you feel it yourself. So that's important. And I'll tell you why I so appreciate the students sharing these kind of stories.

Because they totally warm my heart. They give me, like, even more juice to keep going and teaching and sharing even more with you. And they light me up in such a good way because they're not about performing. They're not about performing. They're not about controlling, right? These people are not trying to control these horses. They're listening. They're partnering with these horses. They're trusting that the smallest, gentlest suggestion can unlock something really profound.

So in the Move with your horse program, we don't rely on a bunch of techniques. We focus on presence, on relationship, on co regulation. We support the nervous system so that the body and mind can reorganize naturally in the horse's own time, in your own time, okay? Because we're all different. We all have different structure, different histories. So if you've ever wished for a deeper connection with your horse, or if you've watched your horse struggle, feel tense in body or mind, you know, maybe there's anxiety or.

Or your horse might be dealing with aging or injury, I want you to know something. It's not too late. And it doesn't have to be hard. Sometimes all it takes is a breath, a gentle hand, a knowing within yourself that you can transmit greater ease and freedom to your horse, and very importantly, a willingness to listen. So I really want to thank Lenka, Nina, Kim, Katerina, Romana, and Jamie for allowing me to share their stories.

And I just want to say I'm so honored to be part of your journey and I'm so honored to be be a part of yours. As you're listening to this, I so appreciate you taking the time to listen to the podcast. Let me know what your thoughts are. Maybe you're dealing with something, whether you have a horse or a dog, or maybe it's for yourself. You know, you can always reach me in the description of this.

Like, if you're listening on a podcast app, there should be a little link where you can send me a text. Okay. And you can just hit that and you can send me a text or you can email me maryarydebono.com so thank you again. I'm honored to share this work with you and I really appreciate you and I'll talk to you very soon. Bye for now.