I was working with a horse yesterday who pins his ears with a mind to bring his teeth up to your face in any move that might involve touching his ears, such as haltering. It's tempting to gloss over such things and get to the actual plan we had in mind. But how he feels about equipment on his head will be in all his responses.
His teeth, body and feet are in good shape. He is a super sensitive little horse. This behaviour could be due to something as simple as someone getting task-oriented - and a bit quick or rough from his point of view - at some point. Whatever it was, it started here. He felt defensive. That's what he remembers.
He has a wonderful, thoughtful, kind owner, who is naturally sensitive to how he feels, yet every attempt was still triggering how he had felt.
To progress we needed to help him stay open to a new experience as well as change how he feels. When I left out likely triggers in my body language, position, sequencing to find a place together where we could begin, then introduced energy work in direct connection with this topic, he seemed relieved.
It took over 30 mins (or longer if needed) to re-introduce haltering with the commitment to find a way for him to feel good AND let go (through a number of rounds of yawning etc. directly connected to this task) of some of how he had felt. That last part is the key to real progress.
The deeper win: he stayed with the owner in a way he hadn't before during the rest of our session. He was much better about unhaltering as well.
There are no magic bullets. But simple changes in our practices can change how things feel - on both sides!
Far reaching words Maya Angelou - original quote "“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
