There is a balance I try to observe every time I am with a horse. I hope this balance that I practice spills out into my lessons. But it’s hard.

When we work with a horse, our human brains want to come up with a lesson to teach ourselves something or to teach our horse something. And we do it. Maybe successfully or maybe not so successfully. In the realm of Equine Facilitated Learning (and honestly, every time you are with a horse), what we SHOULD be doing is allowing our horse to have a say. If we do not see them as partners, then there is nothing they can teach us and all the work we do at Breaking Free could be done with a stuffed animal and come to the same result.

     I recently read some of Angela Duckworth’s articles about “Grit”. She believes that in all the research done on why successful people become successful, there is no correlation between them in regards to economic status, IQ, social skills, physical health, talent, etc. The only thing that all successful people have, whether in school, business, society or any goal one might set is: GRIT. When successful people hit a road bump or experience failure they don’t give up, they don’t downsize the dream, they don’t make excuses.

     November is always that month where people start saying out loud the things that they are thankful for. We have probably been thankful every month, but it’s good to designate a time to ponder these things and say them out loud. I’m sure November is deemed the “thankful” month because of Thanksgiving but at Breaking Free, November is also a good month to be thankful because our sessions have come to an end and we begin the process of reflection. We start thinking over the last year and deciding what things we will continue and what things we will change next year.

     When Bo first came to Breaking Free, he was really skittish. He didn’t trust tight spaces; you would have to open stall doors and gates really wide and then he would run through. He didn’t trust people; you would need to approach very slowly, then let him come to you the rest of the way. Because of this uncertainty Bo had, the others in the herd didn’t trust him. He would have been a danger to them in the wild.

     In feral herds, horses have extremely organized social groups.

     The brain is an incredibly fascinating organ. It is made up of two hemispheres connected by a group of fibers called the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is how the hemispheres communicate and work together. The left side of the brain controls linear thinking, logic, reasoning, number skills and analyzing information. The right side controls spacial relationships, imagination, emotion and intuition. Because of these distinctions, it is often said that people that are good at math, timely and logical are “left brained” people.

    

     When we began planning a new grounds program for families this past Summer, all of our trusted therapeutic horses were at the barn in Zanesville. As I looked over the remaining herd at Breaking Free, I decided to start with Smokey. He is our 21 year old Black Tennessee Walker. The grey on his face, a tell-tale sign that he has “been there-done that”. Other than the time spent with Veterans once a week, Smokey spent most of his time in the pasture. As I dragged him up the hill to the outdoor arena that first day, you could tell he had grown content with being left out there.