DID YOU KNOW THAT...?

·        Horses are social animals and love to interact with humans

·        Horses need nurturing and leadership early on to become well adjusted individuals

·        Horses have their own language and respond  eagerly once you know how to speak it.

·        Horses learn quickly and love to try new things.

·        Horses have personalities like humans, some extrovert, some introvert.

·      Because horses are nonverbal, they are experts at reading your body language

·      You can have fun without fear, gain confidence, nurture your soul and find a greater connection to your natural self when you learn….

"HOW TO TALK HORSE"

For More Information

Call Cathy at (360) 430-0430

Email cathy@wishuponahorse.com

*no experience with horses necessary

Harmony and Healing with Horses Demonstration

Coming this April I am offering a demonstration with Dr Suzan Seelye, wholistic veterinarian and Centered Riding Instructor in Longview at Franzen's Farm. You will discover the deep connection you can achieve through the "Seven Waterhole Rituals" of Carolyn Resnick and the fun of playing with your horse at liberty.


Here's just a sample of what we'll be sharing with you:

1. Learn to Communicate with your horse using her own language
2. Improve your leadership skills and your relationship with your horse.
3. Create a foundation of trust with a true heart to heart connection...no tack
4. Learn the Chinese art of Tui-na to bring your horse into balance and harmony.
5. Learn self carriage, balance and confidence on and off your horse

Above: Cathy Mahon and liberty training. Below: Dr Suzan Seelye 

I have continued my study of Liberty Training and will offer you an insight into the mind of the horse through better understanding of their personalities and their nonverbal communication as you become a member of their herd. With the creation of a stronger bond, your horse will choose to join you and follow your lead with curiosity and fascination. Your relationship will strengthen and the connection will lead you to a greater depth of understanding of yourself and the world around you!

In addition you'll have an opportunity to learn from a truly unique and dedicated practitioner, Dr Suzan Seelye. Dr Seelye's revolutionary approach to healing and wholeness incorporates numerous healing modalities to facilitate the animal's transformation to radiant health. This is achieved through total structural alignment, utilizing spinal and deep muscular treatment, traditional Chinese medicine and energy healing to evolve a completely healed body from the inside out.

Spending over 20 years in a traditional veterinary practice, Dr Seelye became frustrated with the temporary band aiding of medical conditions with toxic drugs and the inability to cure chronic and degenerative conditions. Her search for true healing for her own pets, patients and herself led her on a journey spanning over 5 years of intensive apprenticeships and post graduate studies.

When: April 19, 2015  from 10 am to 4 pm

Where: Franzen Farm 

              6928 Willow Grove Rd

              Longview, WA 98632

Cost: $25 donation to Rainier Therapeutic Riding

This demonstration will be followed up by a TWO DAY CLINIC on May 16-17, 2015 at the same location. We will be offering more information and you will be able to bring your own horse.

When: May 16-17, 2015  from 9 am to 5 pm

Where: Franzen Farm 

              6928 Willow Grove Rd 

              Longview, WA 98632

Cost: $350 with your horse

Auditors: $75/day or $125 for two days

CONTACT CATHY MAHON AT (360)430-0430 or EMAIL at cathy@wishuponahorse.com 

Our Posture Tells the Story

Did you know that more than 80% of our communication and language is NON VERBAL? If you spend a few moments watching people in a public place who are unaware of your gazing, you can see that the human expresses their emotions, attitudes and current mood through body language. Body posture can be deep rooted in the past or a reflection of the present. Either way, our bodies speak volumes. Mabel Todd, who's book the "Thinking Body" now considered to be a classic study of physiology and the psychology of movement, once said "For every thought supported by feeling, there is a muscle change,primary muscle patterns being the biological heritage of man; man's whole body records his emotional thinking."

Facial features and expressions alone tell us so much about another person. We have etched lines and creases in the skin that reflect years of happiness and sorrow, triumph and tragedy, love and rejection. We can see into the history of a human through their body and in their face.

"The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit has made permanent. Nature....has arrested us in an accustomed movement"-

Marcel Proust

*  *  *  *  *

Humans whose emotional thinking reflects a defeated attitude will have a slight slouch and drop in their upper body, a collapse in their rib cage and a chin that juts forward and down. Their eyes may hold a downward gaze with a facial expression that  appears sad. Their weight shifts uncomfortably from side to side and their movements are hesitant and lack energy.

Humans whose emotional thinking reflects a tense, worried and/or defensive emotions will have narrowing of shoulders with slight lift, hands clenched or arms closed to the body. The low back and pelvis appear stiff and immobile with short hurried steps and quick movements from the joints that appear straining and stressful. The lips close tightly around their mouth and the eyebrows narrow together in a furrow. Breathing is short and shallow.

Humans whose emotinal thinking reflects confidence, clarity and a connection with their body stand erect, looking forward with chest forward, shoulders back with an obvious fluidity of their motion and lightness in their body. Movement appears effortless.Breathing originates from the diaphragm and is deep and full because the rib cage is open and expanded. Their expression is open and positive with attention to their surroundings and an energy that comes from their emotional core. We are attracted and interested to know a human whose body language projects these characteristics and so is YOUR HORSE!!!!

The study of posture and body language gives us an insight into how we communicate with others including our horses. We influence our horse with our body in every movement, from the moment the horse sees us. I've come up with three specific postures that are common in humans and show up often in riding. I've given them names, Tillie, Lucy and Fran.

Tillie is TIGHT and TENSE and holds her muscles in tension in everything she does. Instead of staying grounded and working from the strong core muscles of her center, she overuses her external muscles to walk, lift, sweep, bend or ride. On a horse she tightens and tenses her muscles around the horse's belly and clutches the reins with a tight grip, jaw clenched and neck rigid. Her 3 springs can't move because they can't fight the tight grip that the muscles have made around the joints of the hip, knee and ankle. She takes short shallow breaths that originate high in her chest, the muscles of her abdomen held in tension. The horse senses a gripping and feels trapped underneath the hold of his rider. 

Lucy is LOOSE AND LIMP and allows her body to collapse and move without conscious control. Her breathing is affected by the collapase in her rib cage. Her balance is constantly challenged as her body moves in all directions, making it difficult to complete small tasks. Her muscles are constantly being overworked as they try to overcome gravity as it pulls her body in the different directions. Lucy does not know how to access her core muscles and so is unable to create a stable foundation from which to move all of her body parts, fluidly and effortlessly. Her horse senses dead weight and cannot move easily in his own body.

Fran is FIRM AND FLEXIBLE and has identified and strengthened her core muscles (they are deep in the body, not found at the surface in the abdomen). The stability she derives allows her to easily direct the movement of all other body parts with minimal energy and effort.  She is able to use her external muscles at the joints to move her 3 springs as well as maintain an erect posture that allows for expansion of her rib cage. She has mobility and fluidity in all body parts and breathes from the diaphragm. Her horse feels the movement and joins her in shared energy.

So which one of these riders would your horse like you to be for him? What would it feel like to have posture that says you are calm, confident, clear and interesting? Next time you sit, stand, perform small chores or big activities, check in with your posture and see if you are a Tillie, Lucy or Fran. Observe others in their normal activities and see if you can identify through nonverbal communication just what they are saying about themselves. Remember, our posture tells the story.

Winter is Still Here....OR is it?

We have had an extremely mild winter. Yes, there's been rain but the blue skies and sunshine have been tempting us all and as I check in with my perennial garden I see the beginnings of green shoots sticking up from the ground full of life, ready with their crocuses and daffodils. This photo was taken just before sunset near the Willow Grove boat launch off the Columbia River. I never get tired of looking at it. I spend nearly every day outdoors now, giving lessons at the stables, riding my horses, playing with other people's horses and squeezing in a quick walk to the park with Wave in between. This photo was taken last January when we had another gorgeous day.

He and I are spending more time together and I have begun to create a structured time in our moments together that is preceded by liberty, fun and treats. I have been using the time on the ground to make noise, bounce balls, rattle plastic, throw tarps and today, I opened an umbrella and walked around. Every time he stopped running and looked at me, I dropped the umbrella and walked with him while we pushed the ball through "goal posts", two large orange cones with striped poles sticking out of them. By the third try, all I had to do was stand near the ball facing the poles and he'd come up to meet me so we could SCORE together. His reward was a small treat placed in a pan on the barrel standing outside the goal line. He was wonderful and he tolerated the umbrella more and more. I have really had to challenge myself to keep things more interesting, so that he is more interested in me. He is a very smart animal and does not tolerate the same old thing. 

Then, when I ride we can work on the more physical demanding aspects of his training: strength, flexibilty and balance. Every time is better but I know I can't push it too far or I lose the attention, the enthusiasm and his interest. Learning has been a two way street for both of us, but I still have so much fun!!!!

I've been pinching myself lately at how lucky I am to have a full time job of being and playing with horses. I am able to teach others, share my knowledge and experience and see the smile on their face when they find a connection with their horse. My dream is to allow ANYONE to spend time with horses and create a connection that will help them to discover their natural self.  "Horses teach us to cherish every single moment for its novelty and wonder and remain true to the best traditions of the past." 

One Year Anniversary with Wave

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

It's been a year since Wave and I became acquainted and as the days and weeks go by I am finally beginning to feel like we belong together. I think he would agree. Now when he puts his nose on me and leans on my shoulder, I can give him a gentle kiss or a soft stroke with my hand, instead of pushing him away to avoid his nipping. He's beginning to understand where the boundaries are. This summer I was able to go out to his pasture and call him in with very little effort and he stayed with me even with other people and horses around....all at liberty!

This is the real goal of all relationships with horses: for them to WANT to be with us and for us to want to be with them. But our role has to encompass four things: nurturing, companionship, leadership and dominance. Unfortunately, in too many horse-human relationships there is way too much of one and not enough of another. After 6 months working with Wave I realized that he was acting like a child who was allowed to get his way and treated me like a companion, not a leader. When I put on my leadership cap, he was better, but I found myself putting a lot of pressure on him to do it MY WAY.

As a 6 year old who has spent most of his life in stalls and not being socialized by the more mature members of a herd, he tends to "whine and vent" at me inappropriately when I ask him to do something, even to follow me (off a line, loose in an arena). He takes my requests as something annoying and taxing, he is not used to tolerating discomfort in the form of fear or physical strain. And he is a master at quietly side stepping any efforts to bend to my wishes.  He has missed the dominance portion in his life with mostly women giving him the nurturing and companionship. Then when he was given to a male trainer, they used NOTHING BUT dominance and he  reacted with extreme resistance. Their dominance was ego driven, "I'm right and you're a stupid animal" which made matters worse.

It is my job to dominate him in a way that he can experience fear and discomfort but only enough so that he learns to accept it as a part of life. I too am learning to accept feeling uncomfortable and vulnerable in life. Being able to tolerate a little discomfort teaches us to accept it and not take messages of fear and blow them out of proportion.  I am giving Wave the opportunity to expand his comfort zone, to slowly take him into places he's never been knowing that he can survive. 

In the new year, I am planning on stepping out of my comfort zone more and more as I set off on new adventures. I am going to take Wave with me as much as I can and together our desire to take risks will lead to a more enriched life. I look forward to meeting more people and sharing my knowledge and experience with anyone willing to listen. I hope you'll join us...