Innovative Help for the Herd-Bound Horse #112

Mary Debono addresses a common challenge faced by many horse owners: the herd-bound horse. Rather than using punitive methods that cause more fear, Mary shares innovative, humane, and effective ways to help horses feel secure when separated from their herd.

She emphasizes the importance of recognizing this natural behavior and working with it rather than against it.

The episode introduces several powerful practices:

1. Connected Breathing: A foundational practice where you place your hands on your horse's ribcage and sense their breathing, creating a tactile conversation that promotes relaxation and deep connection.
2. Heart-Centered Appreciation: Mary explains how focusing on feelings of love and gratitude for your horse can change your physiological state in ways your horse can detect, creating a calming effect.
3. Rhythm Circles: A specific hands-on process that provides support and relief to the horse's soft tissues, deepening the sense of connection and safety.

The episode also addresses the rider's confidence, emphasizing that your emotional state significantly impacts your horse. Mary recommends her FeldenkraisⓇ-based "Effortless Balanced Sitting Series" to help riders feel more secure in the saddle.

Whether you have a herd-bound horse or a dog with anxiety (which will be covered in the next episode), these practices offer a compassionate, effective approach to building confidence and a deeper bond with your animal companion.

Resources:
Want to sit in a more balanced, secure way? Click here for all the details on our new series: https://tinyurl.com/balanced-sitting
Effortless, Balanced Sitting: A FeldenkraisⓇ Movement Series  

Get your free videos on Connected Breathing and Rhythm Circles with your horse. 🐎https://tinyurl.com/equine-videos

Want to learn even more? Check out our Move with Your Horse Foundations group coaching program. 💥 Use coupon code EARLYSTART to get bonus classes AND save $200 with early enrollment! 🥳 This is a limited time offer. 💥

Grab your FREE videos on Connected Breathing and Rhythm Circles to help your dog. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost.


All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and does not constitute medical or veterinary advice or professional training advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you, your horse, or your dog are unwell or injured.  Always use extreme caution when interacting with horses and dogs.

Email [email protected]

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, do you have a horse or a dog who gets anxious maybe in certain situations? Well, I have the podcast episode for you right here in case you're meeting for the first time. My name is Mary Debono and this is the Easier Movement, Happier Life podcast and it's for you, your horses and your dogs. Today we're actually going to focus on a specific issue with a horse. With that said, this actually applies to dogs as well.

And although today we're going to be talking about a herd bound horse. So a horse with a particular issue who doesn't like to leave the herd to go out on trail ride or any kind of riding by himself. This applies to so many different situations. And then also I wanted to let you know that next week we'll focus on a specific issue for dogs that are anxious. Okay, so let's get to our horse.

So I, I received an email from a listener and she said that her horse is very connected to his herd. So when she asks him to come with her, you know, he will frequently call out to his herd and you know, as she's moving him away from them, so as they're walking away, he's calling out, you know, in that kind of frantic way that horses do. And she said it's really challenging to ride him away from the herd because he starts to get really anxious.

So her question to me was, is there a way to help her and her horse stay connected and help her feel calm so she can feel comfortable riding him? And this is an excellent question. And it's also a fairly common challenge. Worked with a number of people who had similar challenges over the years with their horses. Because when you think about it, you know, horses are very social creatures.

So many of them don't feel very comfortable when you take them away from their herd. I mean, that's where they feel that, that safety, that sense of safety. And that's kind of an inborn thing for many horses. So the first thing, and I think she, I know my listener who wrote in is already there, but I'm going to say this for everyone's sake, is that it's so important to recognize that that is a natural thing, that it's natural for many horses to feel anxious when they leave their herd.

You're taking them away from a sense of safety, from their protection. Now, there are ways, though, that we can help horses feel more comfortable and confident when they're away from the herd. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So again, the first thing is to think about, you know, recognizing that it's a natural behavior. And so it's not that we're trying to force the horse to accept that no matter what, I am going to force you to stay away from the herd because some people do this.

So, so there are many trainers out there that want you as the rider to kind of punish the horse when they're acting anxious, you know, make, make that anxious behavior feel really bad to the horse. So basically you're just trying to, to tamp down their emotional state. You're trying to say that, no, if you, if you act it, you know, anxious, if you, Winnie, if you call out to the herd, I'm going to really, really make you work and really get after you.

And then the horse kind of gets into, oftentimes they're into like a learned helplessness state or some other uncomfortable state. It's sort of like you're forcing them to be a certain way, but you're not really acknowledging what is going on emotionally with them. And frankly, that's not the relationship I want to have with a horse. Right. So I guess you don't either if you're here, if you're listening to this.

So anyway, we're not going to do that. Okay. But I'm going, we'll talk to you about other ways that you can do it that's respectful and humane and kind and that help you have that beautiful connection with your horse. Because I think that's why you want to be with your horse. Right? It's that wonderful connection you have. It's not just about, you know, the thrill of riding, you know, or the physical skill involved in riding.

I, I, I'm guessing again, if you're here, that it's that whole package, right? It's that feeling of oneness that you can have with your horse, and that's so beautiful. So let, let's talk about that. So what's really important, because again, like I said, it's a natural state, you know, in other words, it's not uncommon for horses to feel anxious when they're being taken from their herd. Right. So you want the horse not feel taken from the herd, but to come willingly with you.

Okay. And I think that's really an important distinction. So first thing that's we should talk about is your emotional state. Okay. Because that is, and our listener who wrote in, she recognized that, because she recognized that she needs tools to be able to stay calm in this situation. Okay. And that's the first thing we have to realize is that we ourselves, you know, Our emotional state, Our physical and emotional states influence our horse tremendously.

Actually. I always say, like, you know, the way we move, the way we breathe and the way we direct our attention. In other words, our thinking impacts our horse and directly affects how our horses interact with us. Okay. So your underlying sense of either ease or effort plays a big role in how you two experience each other. So if you're stressed, obviously there's going to be that sense of effort.

If you're feeling really calm and, you know, grounded, centered with however you want to describe it, that's going to lend a sense of ease. And so your horse will be comforted by that. So there are a whole bunch of tools that I can share with you to help you become Palmer. We're going to talk about some of them today and then I have additional ones that I'll talk about in the future.

But the first thing that I would encourage you to do so, so say you have this horse, right? Again, we're talking about a herd bound horse. But this can apply to so many things is the first thing is you want to set up your environment first. So what do I, what do I mean by that? What I mean is that you figure out a place where your horse is comfortable.

Now that might be in the middle of the pasture or, you know, with the other horses. However, I need it to be safe for you as well. So if the other horses are going to be kind of a bother and come into your space, you probably won't want to do that. Now what would be nice is if you had like a paddock that you and your horse could be in and the other horses can be nearby so your horse feels calm.

Now maybe you have a barn situation where the horses are brought in. Sometimes that could also be ideal so that you're, you and your horse are in a safe place and you both feel comfortable. Okay. And then so there's very little stress. So that's the first thing you need to find a place. We're not getting to the riding point yet. Okay. You just need to find a place where you and your horse could be on the ground together and you're both feeling relaxed.

Okay. So that's number one. And now what I would suggest you do is actually something I talked about in was actually last week's newsletter that I sent out my email newsletter. So. But I'll, I'll make sure you get a link to it this week as well. I'll put it in the. Wherever you're, wherever you're listening or watching this, I'LL make sure there's a link to this video. The first thing I would recommend is to do what I call connected breathing with your horse.

It sounds so simple and there's a whole video that I'll walk you through. It's like a nine minute video or something. It sounds really simple. What it does is it helps you and your horse really start to connect with each other in a very relaxed way. And it actually helps prime your nervous system to get into a certain state of a relaxed way of breathing. And this is going to serve you well when you actually do take your horse into a more challenging situation.

Okay, so this is one of the foundations of helping you and your horse really connect with each other. And I'll just tell you briefly what the connected breathing is. So you put your hands, if your horse is comfortable to having your hands on their rib cage, you put your hands on their rib cage. If not, there's other workarounds. Just say that they are comfortable with that and all you're simply doing is your first.

Well, actually first you kind of connect with yourself. You notice your breath, you release any unnecessary tension in yourself. Then you put your hands on your horse and you simply listen to your horse's breath. And this is very unusual because usually we're doing something with our horses, we're asking them to do something or we're grooming or we're tacking up or we're, you know, again asking some for some movement or whatever.

No, you're just simply listening without a sense of correcting your horse, without judging the breath. You're listening and then, you know, later on. So, so the video, I have the nine minute one, that's a very basic, it's very important, it's a foundational connected breathing. But what I also like to add to it is I like to add this kind of meditation, if you will. You still stay present because around horses you need to be aware of your environment for your safety and your horse's safety.

So I don't recommend you close your eyes or anything like that. However, it's really nice to think about the love and appreciation you have for your horse. And I'll tell you why this is so important. It's important because it actually changes your physiological state. They've done a lot of studies with this, with an organization called HeartMath, with the whole heart rate variability metrics that a lot of people are into, that you find that when you're in a state of gratitude, you just really feel appreciation.

Your heart rate variability improves and that's a wonderful metric for improved physical and emotional states in you. So, and, and there's more. Horses and dogs, by the way, are very sensitive to the energy of appreciation. It's, they sense this change in you. It's like when you truly feel that, when you feel that gratitude. And I guess because, you know, animals are so sensitive to us anyway, they can detect, you know, tiny little changes in our blood chemistry and all kinds of things.

So they know the difference. So that in itself is calming to them, that's reassuring to them. Okay, so that's another reason, so, so you can think about as you do this connected breathing. Right. I like to think of you're actually exchanging the energy of appreciation. Because what I do is when I'm doing it with a horse, I'm sending my love and appreciation to the horse as I exhale and then I think about inhaling the horse's appreciation of me.

And don't, don't go crazy overthinking this. Well, my horse doesn't appreciate me and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just know on some level if your intent is to be helpful, your horse has a sense of appreciation for you. Maybe their behavior isn't even showing it at the moment. Don't judge that. Just recognize, recognize that that horse is capable of sending that to you. And so when you inhale, it's like I, I love that sense of like you're having this love exchange, if you will, like this loving energy.

What I have found is when you combine the physical benefits and we're going to get to that more different hands on work that you can do with your horse or your dog, when you combine that with this sense of exchanging loving energy, it creates a synergistic effect that I find really elevates the experience. It sort of turbocharges it, if you will. And again, this has been my experience and the experience of many of my students that I've taught this to is that you deepen your sense of connection with the animals.

So in other words, it's like you start to feel them, to sense them on a deeper level. Maybe you sense it as more intuition or something like that, but you just, you start to actually feel it. In my case, I feel it in my heart area and some of my students have told me that's where they feel it as well. And this really, again creates a very deep bond with your animal.

And it, it's, you become more sensitive to them, which means that you can, you know, modify what you're doing based on their response. So again, it's like, it's like you're creating this conversation with your horse. It's. It's really a form of communication. Okay. So that, that's where I go with the connected breathing. And I like to actually visualize. So as I'm kind of sending out this loving energy, right?

And then receiving it as I inhale, I, I'm picturing kind of like an infinity sign, like a figure eight. So you can give that your loving energy. Like a color, like, like as if it's a beautiful colored light. Could be blue, it could be silver, it could be green. What could be whatever you want. But I find that that's helpful. And you can imagine too that you're breathing with all the cells of your body.

It's like all of you is present for this. This also teaches you present moment awareness. Okay. It helps you have be more aware of yourself. Again, with a connected breathing, I like to think of my breath is being filtered through my heart. So as I exhale, it's like coming through from my heart out through me. Okay. So, and if you, if that doesn't resonate with you, just let that go and just simply have your hands on your horse and listen to your horse's breath.

Okay. And you start to notice that your own breathing slows down and that, you know, as you become more aware of, oh, maybe I can loosen my shoulders, maybe I can relax my hands so I can feel more, maybe I can let go in my belly area. Many of us hold our abdominals tight when it's not necessary and that can impact us so in a negative way. So, you know, maybe I can feel my feet more against the ground, you know, start to just center yourself, feel yourself become more aware of your physical sensations and then become more aware of your horse.

And again it becomes this lovely tactile conversation you have with your horse. And again, it's based on connecting, not correcting. And many horses just get very calm when you do this because again, that's unusual for them to be in that situation. I'll tell you a quick story. This happened years ago. I was asked to work with a horse who turns out had a lot of difficulties. He was young, he had been pushed very, very hard as a 3 year old.

And anyway, the people were not very kind to him. And then he was sold. And the person who bought him, he also unfortunately had been drugged. So she didn't know his true nature when she bought him, but she was a very kind person. So once she committed to him, even though his, his behavior was Very different than what she expected. She stayed committed to him for his life.

So she was, she was very, very good that way. And she was working with different people trying to help him. And she called me out and she warned me, like, you can't touch him. He, you know, he kicks, he bites, he's just so defensive. She said you could hardly see that he's breathing. You know, just really, really defensive, especially in his hindquarters but like all over his body.

But what I found was just connecting with him through connected breathing was so different for him. You talk about non habitual, you know, sensations that was very non habitual to him, which got the attention of his nervous system in a pleasurable way. And she couldn't believe it because, you know, he ended up just being very, very, you know, in tune with me and you know, kind of, you can tell he was listening, you know, to what I was doing.

And from there then I was able to do other work with him and other parts of himself. But it started with this whole idea of connected breathing. And I'll, I'll give you a little tip here. And I've, I've done this many times with dogs as well, especially dogs who don't like to be touched or are anxious. What I find is there is a way to help change their breathing.

Okay, there's actually a few different ways. There's things I call muscle lifts that help relieve the effort and horses and dogs often will slow their breathing and deepen their breathing so many different ways. However, if we're talking about connected breathing, there's this way of doing it where your hands are just very lightly on your animal and then very, very, very gradually you start to lighten your hands away.

You have to do it extremely slowly and gradually for this to work. But if the animal is like feeling comforted by your hands on them, they will often actually expand their breath to maintain contact with your hands. So how, if you, if you do it too quickly, it's not going to work right if it's too abrupt. So it has to be done very, very slowly. But that's another way of really helping the, the horse or the dog start to breathe a little slower, a little deeper.

So that's just a little adjunct to that. However, start with the basics again, I'm going to link to it like a nine minute video. I encourage you to do that. So, okay, so we're in a comfortable place with our animal. You're doing the connected breathing, that's foundational. Okay, so again, you start to be more attuned to each other. And this, I want to say this again, this sets the foundation for relaxation even under more stressful circumstances.

So it's like you establish this affiliate behavior in a calm setting first. That's important. Now, another thing you could do. And I'll also link to a video for this. And, and by the way, I might as well say this right here. I am, I will be starting a new cohort of my group coaching program, move with your horse. And we go way into depth on all this, plus add other, you know, skills for you to learn to help yourself and your horse.

Move better, feel better, do all those things. And I'll be starting a dog program as well later on. However, in very, very soon, when you're listening to this, this is going live on February 26, 2025. Very soon, I'll be opening enrollment in the horse program. A few weeks later, I'll be opening up a program for the dogs as well. Okay, so the next thing I would encourage you to do is something I call rhythm circles.

Okay. Again, I'm going to link to a video to show you how to do this. I have previous podcast episodes. We did a three part series about them because again, this is a profound way of helping your animal. It's, it's. I call them rhythm circles because they're somewhat circular. Sometimes they're not a hundred percent, you know, like a full circle. Sometimes they're three quarters of a circle. But the idea is you're using your fingers and sometimes your whole hand depends where on the body you're doing it.

Often your fingertips, like the pads of your fingers, in such a way that you're providing a sense of support to the tissue. So the muscle, the tendon, whatever, and then you're slowly releasing it. So it's like you, you, you kind of push it up in an arc. You take a breath and that's like your emphasis that your sense of support and then you release it in an arc.

So the pressure is not even all around. You might have heard of other people doing other kind of circular work. This is very different. This is a, is a clear sense of support of the tissue in a, in a particular direction, but it's done in an arc. And then, you know, and it's released in an arc. Okay. So the pressure is not even. Again, I go through this in the, in the video and I'll link to both the dog and the horse trainings on this.

Okay. Because I have videos for both. And this is again, and I'll tell you why this is so important. This is important because you're giving the horse or the dog a sense of relief. So that's why that support in a particular direction is so powerful. And you breathe and you release it. Okay. And listening to your animal as you do this, in other words, you're sensing, is this the right direction?

I'm lifting the tissue in because I, I can't tell you. It has to be clockwise. It has to be counterclockwise. No, it's going to depend on where you are on the, on the animal and your particular animal. So, for example, like, I often do this in between the ribs, both with horses and with dogs. And generally we have the emphasis going towards the spine. Okay. Now, sometimes that isn't the direction that the animal wants the most.

Sometimes you get a deeper response. In other words, maybe the animal starts to breathe in a more relaxed way, or you see a softening in the face or something else like that that tells you, actually this direction, maybe towards the head, is, Is a little bit more comforting. Right? Offers more relief for the animal. And again, without. Without seeing the demo videos, what I'm saying probably isn't going to make a whole lot of sense.

So make sure you click on the links, okay, so that you, you get the demo videos. Okay? So again, what, you, you're creating a tactile conversation with your horse or your dog that creates a sense of connection and safety. It's like your animal feels like you're listening to them. You're adjusting what you're doing based on their responses. That's huge. That's huge. They, they. They recognize that. Okay. They can feel that.

Okay? So this is where you're. Again, you're. This is how you're deepening the connection and you're creating that sense of safety for them. Okay? So this is all done, again, in a relaxed environment. But at some point, right, we have to make another step. So now maybe you take the, your horse a little bit away from that relaxed environment. Just a little bit, so you still stay under threshold.

In other words, your horse isn't getting all anxious. There's a, maybe a slight challenge there. Okay. So it's a short distance from the herd or wherever the horse is comfortable. And then you, again, though, this is important, you do maybe the connected breathing or the rhythm circles. If you're one of my advanced students, if you've gone through my program, move with your horse, you know other. You know lots of other things you can do, right?

So you start to bridge that. You start to bring that sense of connection and safety with you. Okay. Because now you have something to anchor it to the other place. Okay? So again, this is important because you're actually connecting with your animal's nervous system and your own, by the way, because it also gives you something to do that is also can be calming and kind of focusing for you so that your anxiety is reduced.

Okay? So again, I want to make that really clear as you just gradually increase the challenge where you say take your horse a little bit away from the herd or wherever, you bring that sense of connection and safety with you by doing the, this hands on work that you practiced, if you will, that you start to really develop that connection in the relaxed area. Okay. And then maybe you just do it a little bit there and go back to where the horse is more comfortable.

You have to be really careful here. You don't want to, you know, you know, ramp it up where, where you, you do a big challenge for the horse and the horse gets really anxious, then it's going to take time to kind of de escalate that. So. And we all make mistakes, Trust me, we all make mistakes. It's like, oops, that was a little bit too much or maybe one of the horses got, you know, that were out in the pasture got wigged out and upset your horse.

Don't worry, it's never the end of the world, right? You just go back to where they're more comfortable and you start again. Okay. That's a key thing here is patience. Sometimes horses and dogs respond very, very quickly. A lot of times they don't. That it, it does take time. Okay? So I'm going to really emphasize you want to take small, gradual steps. Okay. And to that end, you know, now maybe you start.

First of all, I'm going to say recognize that learning is not generally linear, okay. That it's common to have what we consider setbacks. We consider the horse making a mistake or the dog making a mistake or, you know, or backsliding. That's part of the learning process. And that often can signal that the animal really is learning. Okay? But so what seems like a setback to us or a mistake or whatever is often part of the learning process.

So just, it's just information. That's what it is, it's information. Don't take it personally. It's information. Maybe you need to spend a little more time doing the step before, before you move on to another step. But what is nice is if, you know, really focusing on the herd bound horse. If you have a buddy horse that you know you know, your horse feels calm around, you know, see it, whether that's your horse or maybe a friend's horse, see if you can start to have that horse be with you and that person, if the horse belongs to someone else.

Right. Be with you as you start to get further away from the herd. Okay. And that may seem like common sense, but what I'm going to add to that is also then doing the hands on work in the company of now this buddy horse. Okay. So it's like we keep bringing more kind of layers into it. Okay. And you know, and the other thing is again, speak, you know, thinking about gradual steps is, you know, if you feel comfortable then riding together, right.

You ride away from the herd, then you go back. You know, you can just really play with this. You can really play with this. What I would say is what I'm gonna, I'm gonna repeat what I said earlier in the podcast in the beginning of this episode is that what I don't advocate for is to make it painful for the horse. In other words, to say, we're gonna do this to you, give up.

I, I, that doesn't resonate with me. Probably doesn't resonate with you either. So be mindful of those kind of things where, and I've heard, I've heard people say this and it just, oh, it's like they'll say I want my horse to be more afraid of me than anything else in the environment. And they get mad if their horse gets anxious about things or spooks, you know, things like that.

It's like that, that doesn't resonate with me. It's not what I teach. So now I'm going to say something else now as you start to make progress. Okay. Is to think about how you can bring that sense of connection and safety with you. I'll tell you the story about one of my students. She's been with me now for, I think probably close to a year. And she went through the move with your horse foundations program and then she did.

She's now in the membership program. And what she found is her horse, who has a lot of energy and sometimes would get kind of anxious with her under saddle. He got really, really into this particular kind of rocking that I teach, you know, from the ground. And, and again, this is all covered in the move with your horse foundations program opening soon. And he really would call, he would just get so calm when she did that.

So she started doing it as, as I often encourage, like when he's tacked up as well. So she started to bridge that. So that's another idea, right, that you start to tack your horse up in the relaxed area and do things without actually riding your horse away. So she started to, to do the rocking with the saddle on, you know, the whole tack on. And then she would start riding a horse, but she would actually have the sense of rocking him from the saddle.

And then what it all it took really was her hand on the withers because that's one of the places you're touching when we do the rocking. And that is, it was enough of a bridge to actually just for the horse's nervous system to recognize that, oh, that's sort of like the calming association, you know, and the horse would just settle down. So she found that that was really helpful.

And I think again, I want to say it's helpful for both of you because it also gives you something to do and something that you found calming with your horse on the ground. Okay? So it's a win, win. So that's what I would say is, is like even like the connected breathing that we talked about, that sense of just breathing out your love and appreciation for your horse, like filtering it through your heart and then breathing in your horse's love and appreciation for you.

And just like thinking about that, you know, figure 8 or infinity symbol, right. I found that to be a very, very helpful way of calming you and your horse. And I think because again, it helps focus your own breathing. And again, that energy of appreciation, what does it do? We know it changes your physiological state as well as your emotional state, put you in a higher performing state both physically and cognitively.

So it's a really great way to kind of settle yourself when you think about that. Okay, so just. And, and the other thing, the other thing I'm going to say is riding, actually being in the saddle to me should feel good to both you and your horse. So a lot of the hands on work that I teach, a lot of people have a whole different sense of themselves in the saddle afterwards because they realize, oh, I could body to like help my horse and help my horse feel better, you know, with their subtle adjustments of their seat or their legs.

Right. They're less dependent on their reins, for example. So that is another thing. So those are things that again, I can't explain in this episode, but something for you to think about. And the other thing I'm going to say is let's address your confidence. You know, the listener who, who wrote in talked about this too. She wanted to find ways of staying calm. I've already given you some.

Right. But I'm going to add another one. It's so important to feel like for your nervous system to feel that you are secure in the saddle. And I will say no one is 100% secure in the saddle. Right. Things can happen. So don't say oh, you know, I'll never fall off or something like that. Right. So always, always use your common sense and only do what feels safe to you.

But with that said, I've gotten so much incredible feedback about. Yeah, I'm sorry this is a shameless plug, but I gotta tell you about it. I have an ep. I have a series, a Feldenkrais series that riders are just finding great benefit from and it's called Effortless Balanced Sitting Series. You can find it on my website if you go to marydebono.com/store you'll find it there and I'll put a link wherever you're listening or watching this, I'll make sure there's a link to it.

But so many people. I just got another email yesterday from a trainer who already had beautiful seat. But she said I'm feeling my seat bones in a way I've never felt them before. And she said I feel so much more connected to my horse. So that's another thing I want to encourage you is to the Feldenkrais work that I teach. So, so just in case you're, you're new to me, I teach the Feldenkrais method for humans which is a form of movement education that helps you move more freely and feel better in body and mind.

And at any age, no matter what you're dealing with, there's improvement as possible, trust me. And then I teach Debono MFoves which is a hands on process for animals. We have horse programs and dog programs, I have a dog book, etc, lots of things. But both of those are important, both addressing your own physical and emotional well being and your animals. Okay. They're both important because again, you feed off each other, right?

You the I could never do one without the other. That's how I feel because. And number the other reason is you wouldn't have the same skill at doing the hands on work with your horse or your dog if you didn't do the Feldenkrais  for yourself. You wouldn't have it, you wouldn't embody it the same way. You wouldn't have the same sensitivity. Okay?

So that's another reason that I always include Feldenkrais lessons for the humans in my animal Programs. Okay. It's, it's. I won't compromise on that. And you'll love it, by the way, if you haven't done it. So my effortless balance sitting series is important for anyone who sits. So you don't have to be a rider to benefit from. If you sit at a desk, behind the wheel, you know, at a kitchen table, wherever you sit on a sofa, it can be helpful for you.

It actually helps with your overall movement, not just your sitting, but I will say to help you feel like your seat is more secure and can also adjust to, you know, maybe a horse's sudden movements. I. The effortless balance sitting series is. Been very helpful for people for that. Okay, so I want to say again as we wrap up here, is that both Debono Moves for your horse and dog and the Feldenkrais Method for you, they both involve using non habitual movements and novel sensory stimuli.

Now why is that important? That's important because it gets the attention of your nervous system in a pleasurable way. Focus on pleasurable. Okay. You don't want to get the attention of the nervous system in a, in a uncomfortable way. Right? That's going to lead to guarding. We want to lead to more connection, more of a sense of safety. So what we want to do is for you and your horse and dog to feel safe, for your nervous system to feel safe.

Now this is why this is so important. Using this, these non habitual movements and these novel sensory stimuli that what happens is that lets your nervous system and your animal's nervous system know that change can be a good thing. So this builds resilience. So this, even that alone can help your horse or your dog cope with different environmental changes. Because it's sort of like you, you're reinforcing for the nervous system that change can be beneficial.

Change can be a good thing. So it helps get horse or a dog out of their habitual reactions to things and help them kind of like embrace change and recognize that it's not, doesn't have to be scary. You can actually feel good. So that's a huge reason for doing this kind of work. Okay, so, and then, okay, now I promise this will be the last thing, but I would say also that it's really important to celebrate your small wins with your horse or your dog.

So again, for that horse that doesn't like moving away from the herd, you know, like celebrate the tiniest thing, the tiniest sense of improvement and, and really like recognize that that's a, that's an improvement. You know, just like, feel it in your bones. And what happens is then your nervous system starts to get more attuned to that sense of, yeah, we did it, you know, And. And that's something then that you can build on.

Okay. And then it will help both you and your animal feel more confident. Okay. So I hope this was helpful. Again, this applies. Yes. To those herdbound horses, of which there are many, as well as horses that are uncomfortable in other situations as well. And you can apply the same exact concepts to your dog. And next week, we'll focus on helping your dog. We'll use a dog example.

Okay. So that you. You can apply it more directly, but same ideas. So go ahead, check out the links that I'm going to, you know, have in the description, and please let me know if you have any questions. And thank you so much for listening, subscribing, and reviewing the podcast. It helps get it out in front of more people, and we could help more animals, and they're humans.

So thank you again. I look forward to talking to you soon. Bye for now.