Becoming the kind of human a horse seeks to be with
Posted in Anaïs, Equine Touch, Farinelli, Gulliver, Horses, Humans, Pip on Jul 26th, 2018
25 July is The Equine Touch day, and yesterday it marked 21 years since this marvellous equine bodywork modality started to develop into what it has become. It was also a day which heralded the start of an Equine Touch awareness week and an opportunity to reflect on visions and achievements. As part of this […]
Posted in Anaïs, friendship, Horses, Humans, Lucy Rees, Pip, trustworthy on Mar 7th, 2018
When all is said and done, I truly believe that this is the litmus test of a human’s ability to be fully human with their horse. And it is simultaneously the lesson that encompasses all of the others. If all of us could do this with our horses, how much more fulfilling would their lives […]
Posted in Anaïs, Farinelli, Gulliver, Horses, Humans, Pip on Feb 15th, 2018
There was a time when I was a “natural horsemanship” proselyte. You know the type, generally a human who insists that no horse should be kept in a stable, that they should always be kept outside in a herd without metal studs on their feet or rugs on their backs, that they should be ridden […]
Posted in Anaïs, followership, friendship, Horses, Humans, Lucy Rees, Michael Bevilacqua, Pip on Feb 8th, 2018
Ultimately, the type of relationship which has worked best with Pip is that of friendship. Being a friend to her is a lesson that, once learned, she has reciprocated. But what does being a friend mean? At the end of the day, it boils down to a simple four-letter word, one which I had difficulty […]
Posted in Anaïs, Horses, Humans, liberty, Pip on Feb 2nd, 2018
This is a lesson which goes hand-in-hand with expecting nothing. When Pip came to me, her experience of humans had been dictated by their demands and expectations of her. Instead of being allowed to live like a horse, she was confined to a stable with the exception of a few hours a day and her […]
We know so much about horses but have such little understanding of the horse. Understanding the horse’s nature allows us to pursue choice rather than control, connection instead of coercion, communication as opposed to conditioning. This is a reality that I now experience with my own horses. A path to the horse is open to all of us. Simply discover the power of being with horses. Is it not time to be fully human … for them, for ourselves?
I have learned to listen to horses speak through their movements, their expressions and ultimately their energy along with much that has been recorded about them. Listening to horses speak has changed my life and taught me a great deal. This book contains a little of what I have learned from horses while listening to them speak. And much of it is startlingly different from what we take for granted.
Urgently in need of a meaningful change of life, a man decides to cross the world together with his wife, a horse and a dog to spend a year training full-time with Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling , arguably the most popular horse trainer in the world based on social media statistics. He expects it to be life-changing. It is. These are his reflections.