During our Workshops and Clinics we meet many people that do positive training with the horses, and they feel that they miss something important. Positive training is very good, and we are very happy that more and more people are switching to positive training, but it does not necessarily end the path of growth with horses.
Positive training is possible when you believe that horses can think and learn. When you believe that horse can understand you and that he will want to do what you are asking for, then you can start positive training. Acknowledging that a horse can cooperate with you is a very big step in giving horses recognition that they deserve. When you read these words, you probably think that all the people think this way. Maybe you think that people were thinking this way always. Why is positive training so new to humanity? And why still so many people do not believe in it?
To train horses in a positive way we do not need complicated technology or advanced science. It was possible even ten thousands years ago for people to do this. In fact, humanity knows positive training for more than ten thousand years. You could have made this step in your life and start positive training because your awareness was growing and you have seen things that are obvious for you now.
Now, you can make another step.
You can start to do things WITH your horse, not TO your horse.
To see how simple and powerful this change can be you need to allow your awareness to grow now, in the same way as it was expanding when you started positive training.
Doing things TO your horse
When you train your horse, even in a positive way, you believe that you are separated from your horse and that you need to train him. You believe that you should train and teach your horse because you know better what and how things should be done.
Positive training methods can be misused as another way to control a horse.
On the other hand, positive training is a very big gift and can help you build a beautiful connection with your horse. Positive training can be a starting point for communication, relationship and later for connection and togetherness. It is possible for you to connect really with your horse and act Together. You just need to expand your awareness and see that this is real.
To connect with your horse, you need to connect with your body first. That is why in OneHorseLife we start from teaching our students BodyMarc.
Connecting with your body
Your body is your key to connect with everything that is real and exists. Your body is real and exists and is a part of you. When you know how to connect with your body, you know how to connect with your horse.
We start with BodyMarc exercises. These exercises are very simple and pleasant. They are designed to remove tensions from your body and allow you to connect with your body. You can access BodyMarc Basic Set for free in our BodyMarc group on Facebook.
When you do BodyMarc exercises, you connect with your body and expand your body awareness. You learn that your previous assumptions about your body and how well you know your own body are not true, and you become more open for change and expanding your awareness.
You can learn how to connect with your breathing and connect with the Reality through your breathing. You can learn how your breathing can guide you outside your current awareness and expand it.
By doing BodyMarc, you will learn about Calmness and how to get Calmness in your life.
When you know how to do this, you can come to your horse and check if it is real. Your horse will respond only to the real changes in you. If you imagine something or just think about something, your horse will show you this.
Connecting with your horse
You can connect with your horse very easy, and yet it can be difficult for many people. We have designed our B.A.S.E. online course to guide our students from positive training to acting WITH the horse in connection and Calmness. The first step to connecting with your horse is Calmness.
Calmness is a state when your emotions and thoughts are not controlling you.
Calmness is a state free from worrying.
BodyMarc and Calming Technique can teach you how to be Calm, and now you can learn how to be Calm with your horse. We have designed many exercises to shift you gradually from positive reinforcement to Calmness and Togetherness. When you smile to your horse in Calmness, you can connect with him.
Acting Together
When you are connected with your horse in Calmness, you can act Together. There are no cues, no asking, no demanding, you just act as one body.
You can stand, walk, trot and canter with your horse Together. To make it more accessible for people that are not familiar with acting Together, we called it the Energy and we teach it on our Energy Course.
When you know how to act Together, you can do WITH your horse many beautiful things. You can have beautiful movement free from tensions. You can have a collection, passage, and piaffer.
Many things just become possible, and you can do them simply WITH your horse.
Your horse can move without any tensions in Calmness and can expand his own body awareness. Calm movement can help your horse to develop beautiful body and heal problems from the past.
Recognising your horse as your Guide
When you start to act Together with your horse, you start to see the reality that your horse can guide you. When you open your heart to the slightest possibility that you can change, then your horse can engage in helping you to achieve this change.
When you connect with your horse, you can see that your horse is showing you how you can change and when you are changing.
Horses teach about important things. They teach about happiness, the reality of life, how to change. Your horse can teach you about anything you want.
To allow it to happen, you need to open your heart first.
You need to open your heart to the most innocent possibility that you can change. And you then you can ask your horse to guide you.
And when you experience it once, your life is changed forever.
Connection — Reality of life
When you are Calm and Connected with your horse, you experience the Reality of Life, that we are all connected. You can experience that you are connected with your horse. You experience what it really means. To experience it you need to learn how to touch your horse in Calmness. We have designed special online course to teach it our students Touch To Calm.
Touch is very important in expanding your awareness and seeing the Reality of life. Everything you see or hear you can interpret. Even when you see beautiful connection and Togetherness with your horse, your mind can interpret and deny it. When you touch, this experience goes directly to your awareness. When you touch in Calmness, you can directly expand your awareness. You can FEEL Togetherness. And what you Feel can not be denied by your mind.
Touch To Calm is our special technique to experience the connection with your horse. The connection that is always there. You can experience that you do not need to touch your horse to feel the connection of your bodies.
You are always connected with your horse.
Photographs by Pawel Marciniak taken during OneHorseLife Clinic in Lincolnshire, UK, 7th-8th of May 2016
Wow! Your words are pure gold ;)
I read an article about you in a Swedish magazine called Hästfocus, and it was like I finally came home, like I finally knew what I deep down had always known. You are my guru!
Thank you for your kind words!
You are the definition of an open person with the most positive in the moment awareness. I too try to open up my students to the feel of pure beeing, touching eachother not on the fysical level but the energy level. I can be with every energy of horse or people except for my own horse. My fear and love for him always gets in my way eventhough i know how to open up and breath to a calm sense. I don’t expect anything from him but still i feel there is a huge gap that makes me very sad… Read more »
Dearest Katja, I want you to know that your experiences are absolutely normal. Please do not be sad. A teacher needs a student as much as a student needs a teacher. The student cannot advance on his journey without the teacher, and the teacher cannot advance on his journey without the student.
To advance as a teacher of others, you have to continue to be a student of your horse.
This is that simple, real and true.
And this means that everything is exactly as it should be.
And that everything will be perfectly O.K. :-)