Why horses? The short answer

We are predator and they are prey yet they willingly interact, requiring only that we engage with respect and trust and, by settling for nothing less, they bring out our best.

Why horses? The medium answer

People who work with horses become fluent in body language and keenly aware of how their actions cause the horse’s reactions. Participants learn that by adjusting their actions and energy to be more in harmony with their equine partners they find more success and meaningful connection. They see clearly how a positive change in their approach causes a positive change in the horse’s reaction.

This clear link between action and reaction is so compelling because it empowers participants to experiment with the effect that their behaviour has on others. The insight gained within safe experimentation allows participants to develop skills that lead to improved self-awareness, communication, compassion, cooperation, and greater confidence in all of their interactions.

Why horses? The long answer

1. Our Current State - A cue to grow
   Through the ages, humans have learned through the transmission of information… logic, hard science, processes and facts. With our powerful minds, determination and goal-oriented nature, we have fed the masses, built magnificent civilizations, extended our lifespans, and explored the microscopic and macroscopic with inspired technologies. 
   
   We've used our mental capacity for adjusting behaviors and growing skills that enhance our lives by controlling our environment and biology. And still we find ourselves feeling unsettled, lacking, unfulfilled… missing joy and contentment in spite of all our advances.
   
   The mental, emotional and spiritual pains we feel, as individuals, families, communities and globally, is timely… it’s our call to grow, to evolve. Generously, nature has provided us with many mentors and at Symatree Farm, we choose the ones with four legs and flowing manes and tails - intuitive beings with forgiving hearts and generous spirits. What do they offer that we need?
   

2. Multiple Brains – Their strength is our struggle
   In the 1990s, scientists found that we have not one, but at least three brains… networks of neurons capable of learning, remembering, generating neurotransmitters, and independently communicating with and signaling distant body parts. 
   
   The head brain directs cognition, logic, analysis and making meaning… skills that humans are masterful at. The heart brain is responsible for emoting, relating and personal values… skills that, once mastered, would infinitely improve the quality of our lives. The gut brain manages self-preservation, intuition, action and core identity… skills that we use, often in a reactive or accidental way.
   
   Our current discontent is, in part, a result of our culture’s emphasis on head knowing and the imbalance that’s been created by devaluing the contribution of the other two.
   
   In contrast, horses live in harmony with their heart and gut brains, engaging head intelligence as needed. When interacting with us, they naturally bypass our intellect, the site of so many self-judgments, limiting thoughts and misinterpretations, in favor of direct, wordless communication with our heart (feelings) and our gut (instinct). Our weakness is their strength, and that is exactly what makes them brilliant mentors.
   

3. Dilts Neurological Levels – Horses mentor change at all levels
   Robert Dilts identified six consecutive levels from which we can initiate change.
   
   The lower three levels - environment, behavior, and skills and capacities - are relatively easy to change.
   
   We can think about how we want our environment to be different and set our mind to making it so. We can think about how we want to act and then set our mind to changing the behaviour. We can think about acquiring a new skill and then apply our mind to learning that new skill. 
   
   These three levels are all within the jurisdiction of our dominant head brain so this is familiar territory for us however, they rarely create lasting impact because they rely on our mind remaining focused on changing the environment, behaviour or skill. As soon as we are triggered or distracted, emotions or instincts take over and our mind no longer has control of the situation.
   
   The upper three levels - beliefs and values, identity, and spirit - are the domain of the heart and gut. Changes initiated from these levels will yield the deeper, more profound and lasting effects that will support us in moving towards our higher selves but these are our less developed intelligences. We don’t know how to effectively use them and so we remain ensconced in the lower levels, trying to solve everything from our head brain which can only work at the lower, less impactful levels. 
   
   And here’s where the innate heart and gut brain bias of horses plays such an important role as it naturally encourages us to engage our own heart and gut, awakening the higher levels with their expansive potentials and possibilities. 

Let’s take a look at how horses mentor change at each of the 6 levels…

• Environment – With an electromagnetic field that radiates 40 – 50 feet around their body, we easily get enveloped in their deep, strong and coherent field and that changes our own heart rhythm, modulating it to mimic the relaxing state of meditation. Daily we see anxiety soothed, hyperactivity tempered, and fear abated as clients spend time in the company of horses, simply brushing or being in the herd.

• Behaviours, Skills and Capacities – In working with horses, people become aware of how their actions cause the horse’s immediate and honest reactions, and how a positive change in their behavior increases harmony with their equine partners resulting in greater success and deeper connection. This clear link between action and reaction opens participants’ awareness to the effect that their behavior has on others and the insight thus gained leads to improved self-awareness, communication, compassion, cooperation, and greater confidence. 

• Beliefs and Values – Because they are highly intuitive prey animals and we are a predator species, horses are naturally suspicious of us. Yet once we gain their trust and respect through honest, kind, clear communication, fair consequences and responsible action, they are quite happy to include us as herd members. There’s no faking it with a horse… you must show up with integrity and authenticity.
  

  • If you are feeling angry inside but pretend all is well, they’ll see through that and trust will be lacking.
    

  • If you don’t believe in yourself, they will sense that and respect will be lacking.
    

  The small success that flows when an insecure participant stands a little taller or asks a little more confidently, emboldens them to try something bigger which yields greater success… and the cycle of personal growth begins!

• Identity – As herd animals, horses understand hierarchy but in a different way than we do. Regardless of where one fits in the herd no one is more important than another… all have their role to play. Horses don’t see you as a strong student or a struggling one. They don’t distinguish between designer fashions and hand-me-downs. They don’t care about extraversion or introversion, and it doesn’t matter to them if you are a CEO, stand up comedian, 8 year old, homemaker, doctor, plumber… They strip away all of your roles and interact with “you”. They help you see who the real “you” is beneath all the roles - The you who is waiting to shine through, live the experiences and make the contributions that are yours to make.

• Spiritual Connection – We are made of the stuff of stars and mountains, clouds, streams, trees and rabbits and, beneath the trappings of civilization and technology, we function within the same cycles of growth and renewal as does all of nature… we simply can’t be balanced or reach our potential when we are out of harmony and separate from it. 

  As we move up Dilts’ levels, we find ourselves doing less and being more. Time spent with a horse or in an entire herd carries no expectations. We can simply be there… no horse is going to question us about whether we finished painting the bathroom, writing the report, baking the cake or doing our morning exercise routine. In the company of horses, we get to just be ourselves. In the herd, we get to be and, in that being, we find ourselves being refreshed by the rain, warmed by the sun, entertained by the birds, and serenaded by the breeze… in their world, we are reconnected.

Putting it all together…

While we’ve attained great achievements, humans are ready to grow beyond our struggles and horses are expert at what we need to learn. They access internal intelligences through the more balanced use of their brains. They access external intelligences through their strong social skills. Their behaviors and values work in harmony with their environment, an environment embedded in nature.