Release work, micro movements, & bonding

A wonderful discussion of why, how, when and briefly where to touch your horse to improve the relationship.
Acupressure points, and energy work are explored in relation to structure and intuition.  Things every horse owner ought to know are revealed in this episode.

For more information on names or materials referenced, or to contact Ishe- please email. iabel.hhc@gmail.com

Transcript

0:01

Hello, is she able here with the horse human connection matrix podcast? Today. I want to talk about. Release work with horses. So, first of all, what is release work release work is a type of body work at, it could even be your chiropractor. It could be horse massage. It could be acupressure. It could be energy work. It's what we do when we see stuck places in our horse, or we know our horses in pain. And it's not only a way to help the horse feel better before riding. But it's a way to bond with your horse. And some extraordinary things may happen when you start to treat your horse this way. So there's a lineage that I know of. There's probably many of them. First, I want to say that Marie. Soderbergh has a video online that's free on YouTube. Under horse acupressure and Marie Soderbergh. And she demonstrates for 45 minutes, some excellent techniques. And she is a professional horse acupressurist and has been for a long time. There are other systems out there, some that charge quite a bit of money. Pay Cummings was a student of Sally swift. Most horse people who've studied. Writing, know who Sally swift is. And Peggy Cummings came up with a method called connected groundwork, where she runs through a series of different exercises that do releases on your horse. And they're all very, very gentle. And they're worthy. She had a student Masterson who works on the racetrack. And he came up with a much more involved method utilizing the bladder Meridian, which is. I I'm not going to pretend I know a whole lot about acupressure. I just know the little bits that I picked up in this podcast isn't necessarily about acupressure. But it's about what to do before, what to look for during and what the benefits can be. But of course, along the way, I'm going to need to talk about some of this stuff. So I want to reference these people because I'm also going to talk about systems versus intuition. So if you're a systems person and you know, you're a systems person. Definitely read up on it. Look at YouTube videos. Before you head out there. But if you're someone who has a good feel. Who wants to deepen your relationship with your horse? You may not need so much structure. You may be able to rely on the bond between you and your horse and your own intuition Marie Soderbergh. Peggy Cummings but Masterson all have systems out there that are worthy. For my money, the Murray Soderbergh is free. And it gave me more information than studying the other methods that I could use because I'm a very intuitive person. So, how do you know when to use this when you need it or what to do first, when you want to start. The reasons I like these healing techniques is that they helped me bond with my horses. In several ways when I introduced this work. My horses know that I'm listening. They know, I care. It slows me down. And thus allows me to step further into their world. These two reasons promote recipricol. from the horse now, maybe not right away, but some really magical things have sprung out of me doing this type of work with the horses. Most horses have tried communication with their captors. Yes. I said captors. Sometimes I use the analogy of slavery with horses. Or prisoners because. They're not free. And. They're usually better off if they're not free. And we have a history of having these working relationships with horses, and I'm not, I'm not judging that, but I'm also going to call it what it is. So I think like most prisoners. Initially once the fear is gone of where they are, how they're held in, who these people are that may or may not take care of them. They begin to seek information. But also like people. If you kept asking. And asking and asking questions or trying to talk to someone, especially if you were a prisoner. And they ignored you. How long would you try? Yeah, you're not going to keep that up forever and neither are they. So a lot of horses. Who are owned or kept by people who don't believe the horses can really communicate or talk to them. Or just think there are more stupid. Ignore this, they ignore all the times. These horses have tried to communicate with us and they communicate in so many different ways. You don't have to be an animal communicator hear a voice in your head or get a specific image in your mind that the horse is communicating to you. They will act things out and if you've listened. To my other podcasts, you know, the story of PI standing. By the watering trough for three days, because he was miserable being penned up with the two horses he was with and he wanted out of there. There are so many ways that not just horses, cows, dogs, cats. Communicate things to us. If we just slow down and pay attention. But they also give up. If we don't respond. So, if this has happened to you, if your horse has given up. Starting to do release work with them is a way to get a fresh start. It might require a bit of patience. It might require a little bit of time before they actually believe that you want to listen and believe that you want to help in this way, but they will. How are you going to know if your horse needs release work? It's a really common. And very useful practice in the horse world to brush our horses before we ride to comb them, to pick out their hooves. And part of that is of course, to remove the dirt and debris and hair. Before we put on a saddle or a saddle blanket. To prevent injury and make sure there's no burrs under there or anything. And part of it is to run our hands or a brush or both over the horse's body, so that if there are tight spots, sensitive areas, somewhere that maybe they got kicked or scratched or bitten. That we find it. Maybe it needs treatment. Maybe we just need to be aware of it, but that's another reason for grooming our animals. So. The release work is like taking grooming to a different level. And watching more carefully. The expression on a horse's face and the signs that they may give. During release work is different than what you're look for during grooming, of course, with grooming, you know, you're going to either get the ears back in a tail switch and a look and a glare. If something hurts. But with release work, the signs may be much, much subtler. They may be having their eyes closed and just blink, ever so slightly. They may do the occipital head, Bob, which is a very slow movement from the back of the head behind the pole where the head just barely, barely rocks back and forth. They may do huge yawns accompanied with those eye rolls. That's one of the biggest releases I've seen horses do. They may also swish their tail a little or a lot. And also farts. Stopping walking away, urinating and defecating are also always that horses can show release. Sometimes they're also seek for something. Like a hand. Or putting their nose on the ground and touching their nose releases pheromones and helps them do more releasing. I want to mention too, that if you're doing this type of release, work on your horse. And you're not sure that pressure is right. You can ask them or they may even volunteer the information. By touching your hand. At the pressure they would like to be touched. Yes, they can do that. Or they may even come up and put their nose on your body. Where it hurts on their body. I've had horses do this lots of times to me. They may also put their, their nose and begin. Using their lips and their nose to massage and touch parts of your body that are sore. And I highly suggest you allow this. All of those rules about this is my bubble. This is my space. Don't touch me. That's bad manners. You throw all that shit out the window. When you're doing this type of release work with your horse. It's like. Mutual grooming. It's like a massage be open. Be open for that stuff. So those are the types of releases that you may look for. Also, did I say chin quivering? Th they're just, they could be really small movements and your eye will get better if you start slowing down, which is crucial. To be able to pay attention. To these nuances. You'll begin to see a whole lot more. So I also like to take my horse and yes, I still use around Penn. It's usually has some grass growing in it. It's not overused. But I like it because I can see a horse move and my round pen has 15 or 16 panels and it's actually not round. It's an oval, but whatever you have. You can use an arena. You can use your pasture. You can use a smaller part of your past year, but get your horse moving. Watch them walk. See, if you can get them to walk around you, not on a lunch line. Not on a rope. That's why I like the round pen, because there's no pressure. On their face. And as you watch the horse move. Center yourself. Watch your breath. Let your eye fall over the animal as it moves. And. I'm not talking about watching their beautiful mane or if they're tracking in their footfalls properly. What I'm talking about is watching their body move. Watch the biomechanics watch are they stretched out? Are they gathering themselves? Are they collecting a little bit on their own? Are they. Are they even, does it look like they're sore anywhere? Did the muscles move smoothly? These are the things that you need to train your eye for. Also at a stand some side flexes with the head can reveal quite a bit, some very light touch to the pole. May create quite a bit of release. And when you touch the horse, I need to talk about this a little bit and I'm. I'm going to pull from some of the names that I mentioned earlier and, and what I've learned. So I have one mayor she's 30 years old and she's in pain a lot and she mostly doesn't want to be touched at all. But I can work three inches off of her. In fact, yesterday her back cracked working three inches off of her. Sometimes she's so sensitive. She's swishing at me and saying back up more. I have done energy work on this horse from five feet away and had big yawns and releases from her. They are that sensitive, their energy fields are that sensitive. And if you think about everything you know about horses, how they read your heart rate. And your intention from 60 yards away. You know, they're sensitive. So watching the horse in a round pen. Beginning to apply some light touch. So the first touch is like, A fried egg, a soft fried egg, where you, you just barely touch the yolk. And you don't want to break it. The second touch is like a grape. So you can push into a grape and maybe push in. But not splat the grape. And the third one would be like pushing into a lemon that you're trying to like. Get it all ready to be juiced where you, you know, you're pushing in a little bit, like there's a little bit of pressure in your touch. And what I like to use are my first and second finger, my index finger, and my third finger. There are some times where I'll use my whole hand. And again, Merissa Annenberg has excellent information on this in her YouTube video. And. Masterson's method working the bladder Meridian is a smooth, constant touch. Very, very, very slow. All the way down. Soderbergh uses a two foot. Kind of hopping. Method most of the time until she finds a place that may need a little bit more needing or some palming. So just like if you were giving your boyfriend or girlfriend or wife or husband or. Whomever a massage. You know, you would experiment a little bit with different types of touch the horses going to be the same way. And if you're watching. They'll give you feedback. If you go too deep. They'll probably swish or move away if you don't go deep enough. You may get no reactions and need to go through a second time. Although starting with the egg yolk. And starting with the two inch increments. Is. Is what I like right now. At this point. It's also. Helpful if you know, Where to touch on the horse. And I've mentioned the bladder Meridian. So I can just roughly describe this, but starting in front of the ears, about two and a half inches. And moving on the inside of the ears. And then down either side of the spine. Uh, all the way to the croup and then down the back of the legs. About an inch and a half from the spine on either side, you can imagine like two racing stripes going down. The back of your horse, again, beginning about. Two inches in front of the ears and ending down at the indentation of their back of their hooves, where their heels are. That would be the bladder Meridian. And you don't have to be exactly on it. You don't have to worry about that. All you need to know is that that's a good place to start and don't try to do both sides at the same time. Start on one side, preferably the left. Do that side and do it slowly and take your time and then do the right. There are some other little points that you may pick up glancing at some, a Peggy Cummings work in the front shoulder. And Marie Sonenberg again at that hollow on their back knee. Um, on the back of their knee, where they're at at the back of their Hawk, where. Those bones come together. There's a little hollow. If you just sort of pinch either side of it gently. That is a pain release spot. And again, just looking at your horse, the horse doesn't even need to be moving. If your eye falls on a spot, or if the horse touches your body. On a spot that would correspond to their body. Like if they're touching the left side of your shoulder, Go to their left shoulder. If they're touching. The bottom of your glute on the right side, go to that spot on the horse and try those. The horses are talking to you, whether you soliciting or not. I promise that they're trying to talk to you. So it helps to know. Where to begin this, but even if you never heard of a bladder Meridian, And you just slowly walked up to your horse and gently touched as I've described. Your horse would start giving you some feedback and you'd get somewhere. That's what I mean, anybody can do this. I think, I think that that's a good method. But some of the things I wanted to talk about here. Are not just the touch because you can get that information from one of these systems. What I really wanted to talk about is looking for the signs, watching the face closely.'cause I feel like there's not enough time spent on that. In the systems that I've seen. And what I want people to know, is it, anybody can do this, like after listening to this podcast, you can do this before listening to this podcast, you can do this. This is something that is so attainable. And people charge a lot of money for these trainings. People charge a lot of money to come do this on your horse for you. And in that case, you don't get the benefit of the bonding. You don't get your horse realizing that you were listening to them. And I can't tell you how huge that is. Well, my horse has worked on me too. And I know that might sound crazy. I posted a couple of YouTube videos. I hope to do some more filming very soon. But. They work on people in the equanimity style. That's equanimity retreats in British Columbia, Liz mitten, Ryan. I went to her retreat in 2016. And it changed my life. The case studies I did when I left there proved to me 20 times over. I've watched my horses work on probably. Mm, close to a hundred different people. And sometimes. They're just meditating with them. They're just working in an energetic way. Mostly on emotional issues. But the horses will get in there with the nitty gritty too, especially, especially Sipsy. She'll use her hopes on people. And you'll see that in the, in the latest video, if you care to watch it on my YouTube channel, which is. Capital H H C M little X. That's for the horse human connection matrix. Yeah. If you don't have experience with this. If this is all new to you. Don't fret. Don't worry. All it takes is a little practice. A lot of patients. And slowing down, but I'll tell you something that slowing down. It's good for everybody, whether you're around the horses or not. I want to also say, to watch your own breath, to spend a few minutes standing with soft knees and soft hips. Concentrating on how your breath fills your belly. With every breath. For a minute or two, before you begin, before you begin paying attention, before you begin moving your horse, before you begin touching your horse. They're also methods. To bond with your horse. Not necessarily doing the release work. But they begin with the release work, even around penning your horse in the state of mind in this meditative state of mind. And focusing on their rhythm. Not so much on their gate. Or what they're doing, but feeling their rhythm horses are rhythmic creatures. If you watch them in the wild, their footfalls will be syncopated. Even in your pasture, if you have more than one horse, They're footfalls will often be syncopated. And if you focus on that, when you're watching your horse move, asking your horse to move while you're grounded and your breath is calm and regular. You'll find that you can change their gate. By changing the rhythm in your head when you're that connected. It's not a huge mystery. I know there are people that know way more about horses and horse training that I do that have been using this for centuries. But I feel like it's worth mentioning. Because not everybody's familiar with those traditions. If you get the opportunity and there's more than one horse around and there usually is whether you're at a barn or they're your own horses or they're at your neighbor's house. Watching more than one horse. We'll help you to get accustomed to. Their movements. And while they're moving. If you find your eye keeps coming to one spot on the horse, even if it looks fine to you, even if the muscles seem like they're moving smoothly. Even if the biomechanics seem in order, if your eye keeps falling on one particular muscular group or one 10 by 10 inch spot or one, one by one inch spot on the horse, trust your intuition. Trust your subconscious. Your subconscious has sucked something out that probably needs attention. And even if you just go over. When this happens. And hold your hand. Three to five inches away from that spot that caught your attention. And watch your horses face. Bet you tend to, one, something happens. A bit, you, you see a release. And if you go closer, And touch. With two fingers perpendicularly. I bet you'll get a big release because you know what? We all have intuition. We just haven't practiced. These micro movements register in your subconscious, these micro movements. You're seeing them, even if you don't know, you're seeing them. So trust yourselves. Experiment with these methods. Spend time breathing slowly with your animals. Create those bonds that make life magical. I hope you tune in to some of those YouTube videos. And I love it when people. I share stuff with me. Thanks for listening.