Whether we know it or not, we all walk around inside an energetic bubble.  I knew this long before the Natural Horsemanship folks coined the phrase, for those of us that are sensitive to the "vibes" both horses and other people give off, will feel it.  Much has been talked about, keep the horse outside of your bubble, but the fact is that we have to share the bubble to be able to get close to a horse, or we would not be able to get  closer than 10 feet!  It's more about sharing space and energy, not creating walls, this breaks the connection, and after all, we are searching for connection are we not?

When last did you window clean the inside of your bubble?  After all, its all about how we see things, and if the glass is cloudy the view will not be clear.  Many of us live inside the walls of other people's belief system - the horse is a dumb animal and you have to make them do blah blah blah.  Really?  On the one hand we want them to trust us, but when they don't - out comes the harsh bits, the tie downs, the chambons etc, so now we are forcing the animal into submission but we still want trust??? huh? What part of  this picture are we not getting?  Our bubble is not clean and we are seeing the world and our horses through mud tinted glasses - forget the rose coloured glass.  If you have fear, the fear lives inside your own heart.  It is not the horse that you fear, it's not being able to trust your own reaction if the horse spooks, runs off, bucks or whatever.  When horses do that stuff to me, my reaction is nil.  I may step out of the way, I may tell the horse to stop, I will avoid getting hurt, but whatever my outward reaction, the inner emotion stays calm.  The horse is reading the emotional level at all times, they can feel your heart beating.  So you can have the best body language in the world, and the horse will still not trust you as to them you are not authentic.  The inner and the outer do not match, there is a contradiction between the emotion the horse feels from you and your body language, and the horse will always trust the emotion.

So emotional control on the part of the human is the one greatest lesson horses have for us.  For many years in Jamaica I had to deal with cocaine and heroin addicted Thoroughbreds off the racetrack.  Working with such horses was akin to standing beside a powder keg with a lit match.  I learned 20 odd years ago to slow my breathing, tune in to my own energy, clean out the bubble, and be able to feel the horse better.  If there is interference in your own energy, you will misread the horse and in the cases of dealing with abused animals, this could cost you your life.  Many  times I would be in the stall with one of these horses and they would suddenly kick the wall with no warning, but I had felt the energy shift and moved out of the way seconds before that hoof hit the wall.   People watching would wonder how I did it, well - if you want to live, necessity is the mother of invention.  My only skill is that I realized a long time ago, it wasn't about training the horse, it was about  training me to have the best reactions,  get my own emotional garbage out of the way, so I could clearly see the horse, and not take their actions personally.  The horse is just expressing their emotion at the  time, they do not live in the past, or worry about the future, they are totally in the moment.  Even though abused horses have triggers in their brain, it is possible to reprogram them and get a more rational reaction, but it takes time and huge doses of patience.  This photograph is one of the horses I rehabilitated in Jamaica, he was severely starved, but he ended up being one of my best school horses. 

So I leave you with the thought - how clean is my bubble?  Am I living according to other peoples perceptions about life and horses?  Is it serving me or is there a better way?  Our core beliefs govern our lives through our subconscious mind as they set up a vibration. This vibration sets up a ripple effect in the ether, and the wheels are in motion to start the Law Of Attraction moving to manifest what you are thinking about.  So I do an exercise with myself and with horse owners in my Ann's Horsemanship workshops. Imagine you are inside a glass ball, what colour is your bubble?  Is it dirty and grey, cloudy?  Look at what is causing the distortion - what do you really believe about yourself and life, and your horse?  Put the words on the glass, and then see yourself wiping them away and the glass becoming cleaner.  Now what do you see?  Keep doing this until you erase all the negativity in your life and your belief system and then stand back and watch the changes happening in your life!  Until next time, Blessings always, All Ways.