A heart-warming conversation about the healing power of horses

This week’s message is dear to my heart and I want to share it with you. As many of you know I have taken extensive time to create my EFLC Level One Energy Mastery and Emotional Intelligence course online. It has been wildly successful and I am pleased that I am still able to make a positive impact on the lives of people and horses during COVID.

The following recording and transcript share an unedited recording of a conversation I had with one of my students, Niamh Harney. Niamh lives in Ireland. She was nearing the end of her 12-week program and this conversation arose without any preconceived ideas, intention, or agenda. It was in the moment.

Let me lay a foundation for Niamh’s story. For 10-weeks, every week, Niamh would take the fieldwork I gave and go to her horses to practice the energy based tools I offered.. She then began to bring in practice clients to guide them to heal and gain emotional awareness with her horses. Each week Niamh came to my community calls to discuss her own growth, changes in her horses, and what she experienced in working with others. She was (is) dedicated to her path with horses. Listen or read what she has to say about her experience and how it expanded and up-leveled her path with horses:

Listen to the recording here:

Read the transcript below:

The below transcript of a conversation that took place in September of 2021 during the EFLC Level One- Energy Mastery and Emotional Intelligence training program offered by Kathy Pike of the Academy for Coaching with Horses.

Kathy: Niamh, when I read your form, I had a little bit of a ding. I would love to have a short dialogue with you about what you are seeing about how the horses are showing up. Because you’re pretty consistent about sharing the body language of your horses. So, it feels to me like they’ve really stepped up more since you started the program and they’re offering more body language that you’re noticing. Is that true?

Niamh: Yes, very true.

Kathy: Can you talk more, and it might be hard because you don’t have a reference point. But before you started using these tools and before you came into the program, what was the interaction with your horses like? Did you notice these things then? Were they offering these things?

Niamh: My reference point is I have a deep love for horses that’s always been there. So, I thought I had a good connection with my horses. But since I started this course, it’s been blowing me out of the water. And this has been really honest and true to what I’ve experienced.

Niamh: I’ve thought about this in terms of what I’ve gained. And it’s like there’s another dimension for me with my horses. There’s a level of depth, you know, I don’t know if I can put it into words. It’s in here, and… You know, it’s extremely special, and I actually get emotional talking about it. It’s just beautiful. [crying]

Kathy: When you come into your heart space in this moment, what is the energy you are feeling there? What’s the energy sensation? I would cut off the text here within the actual broadcast. and put: To read more click here . . .
And of course put all of the transcript on the blog page

Niamh: I think it’s expansion and openness… gratefulness. There are feelings rather than sensations. There’s an opening.

Kathy: If those tears were tears of something, what would it be? Is it recognition, oneness, coming home, sadness…?

Niamh: It’s funny you mention sadness because I think there’s a part of that there. There’s also a oneness there. That popped into my head. But how could it be sadness? But now that you say it, there is a sadness there.

Kathy: What is the sadness for you?

Niamh: Taking this long to recognize it. I’m sorry…. [crying]

Kathy: So, I’m hearing that it’s sadness that it’s taken so long for you to realize this. Why is that?

Niamh: Deep connection. I haven’t had it before. That’s what it is.

Kathy: What else is there?

Niamh: There’s a deep love and I suppose there is excitement too; it’s a new chapter for me, for my life but I didn’t know how it would take shape for me. So, it’s inspiring, exciting, there’s an aliveness there for me.

Kathy: Tell me what you’re seeing with your horses? What’s happening? You are using the tools and bringing people in… what is it you’re seeing and experiencing with the horses?

Niamh: They want to really be with me on a level I never realized I want. When I’m doing the Four Steps (note: The Four Steps to the Present is a tool in the training program), when I do all of this other stuff, they come so close to me and just stand there with me. I could stay there all day with them, and I can’t because I have to do things. But time stands still and they have a presence there. We join in this place, wherever this place is, and, and then when they are with clients, they… it blows me away, just the sight of them. I didn’t know when they really appear right now to do it. There’s one horse I don’t own, a gelding who just stays at the place. I was completely ignoring him because I was just working with my horses. He has insisted in doing the work. Every time, he stares at me or moves right beside me. He’s part of the herd now and is full on. He’s never done everything in his life but just wants to do this work.

Niamh: I listen to him, which is fantastic. I tell him that he can do this work as long as it is possible. He loves it. Just loves it.

Kathy: Here’s a horse who was put off to the side and he kept saying what about me? Now he’s doing this beautiful work with your clients, right? When he’s working with the clients, what are you seeing?

Niamh: At this stage of my learning, when the clients come into the body and check in with the sensations, the horses are just so different, licking, chewing, they will stand next to the client or move away if the client is in the head. Yeah, if I was to stand back in general, is when the client comes into their body and does the authentic and false voice, the horses respond to that. They differ with each horse with the style, which I’m learning. So, one horse will get mouthy, another will move away, another will walk up to the client.

Kathy: Specifically, is there any one or two incidences where the horse is giving strong indications through licking and chewing….

Niamh: One of the sessions I did there recently, when the person was checking in outside the round pen and went into the heart space, and the horse came up and they were totally locked into this moment. Going to the areas of the body where the person is feeling the sensation in the round pen or checking in with where they are in the body, two different horses in two different sessions have gone exactly to that place in that moment with their noses.

Niamh: Movement in circles while the person is outside the round pen; licking and chewing…

Kathy: What I’m hearing overall is that, and correct me if I’m wrong, you had a good relationship with your horses when you started this program but intuitively you believed there was something deeper. And studying it diligently, and you’ve been diligent, you’ve gone to a completely different place or zone in connection, communication, and exchange with your clients and your horses. Is that correct?

Niamh: Yes, with my clients, definitely. But I still have questions of my work with them. But if I trust the horses and how they work with the clients, powerful things happen.

Kathy: My piece for you if you’d like it is to take the compliment that I just gave you and not lessen it. You’ve really advanced in 12-13 weeks, you’ve really advanced. And your horses are right there with you. You are consistently writing about that. That’s why I wanted to have this dialogue with you, so that people just coming into the program can see what’s possible about how deep the work can go. And it requires dedication toward using the tools and practicing, and shifting from doingness to beingness, which is a stretch for a lot of people. Anything else you’d like to add as you’ve stepped onto this path with the horses?

Niamh: I have to use the word “magical” but… There’s a different dimension there. It’s spiritual, no doubt about it, which is why I was drawn to take this course. It’s been a life-changing experience to be with my horses in this way, to be with myself in this way with my horses…

Kathy: And to bring in clients…

Niamh: Yes! To bring in clients!

Kathy: What we’re talking about is about the transformational process that is possible when we stop doing the patterns that we do as humans about doingness and being up in our head, and we learn how to step back and be in our body, to learn how to be more congruent and notice sensations, and to start to speak the language of the horses. Instead of asking them to come into our space and fill the demands we ask of them and demand of them, this program is teaching how to go into their space and enter into their way. When that happens, a whole other level of communication is happening, not like an animal communication, like what is the message. But there is an energetic exchange or connection in that time-space reality that I see that gets very blurred, as far as, time becomes expanded… there is no sense of time sometimes with the space with the horses. There is an extension of our sensory awareness beyond the physical, normal, and every day. That can feel really magical, and it truly reaches the higher levels of consciousness when we develop this practice, when we go out to the horses in their herd and their state of consciousness as they naturally are. It brings so many benefits as humans… healing, realizations, insights into our awareness, and a greater appreciation of the present moment, and the glorious beauty of the earth and with these creatures that we are privileged to be interacting with and exchanging energy, or whatever it is I’m trying to say.

Thank you for this dialogue and I really think you’ve demonstrated throughout the program this connection and observation and understanding of the changes you’ve seen in the horses because you’ve been so diligent. Thank you so much.

Niamh: Thank you for asking!

End of transcript.

The above transcript of a conversation that took place in September of 2021 during the EFLC Level One- Energy Mastery and Emotional Intelligence training program offered by Kathy Pike of the Academy for Coaching with Horses.

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