A way back to what you felt in Paso Robles
Thank you for spending part of your summit with me, and for being willing to put a part down in front of people you had only just met. What happens in a session like that does not integrate on its own, so this page is meant to support the practices we worked with.
What we Were doing
Before you could talk, you were already having conversations. You reached, and someone came or they did not. You pushed, and someone could handle your push or they could not. That is how you learned what closeness and contact feel like, and your body never forgot any of it.
The face you show when you are “fine” came later. It is made of words and expression and explaining yourself, and most of us got very good at it.
Horses do not have that layer. They never learned to explain themselves, and they cannot read your explanations either. What they read, what they are brilliant at reading, is the older thing underneath, which is why they have never once been fooled by you having a good day on the outside.
There is your body, and there is also the relational body. He has been reading the second one all along.
IF YOU WANT TO GO FURTHER
Foundations is the self-paced path through this work. It is built for people who want to take it into their own practice with their own horses, and it goes considerably deeper than two and a half hours allows (it’s a year-long course). The certification path sits on top of it, for practitioners who want to work this way with clients.
Explore Courses
Why This Approach
Nervous-system-led
Trauma Informed. We begin with regulation and stay with what’s true now.
Relational
Consent, boundaries, and choice are central for horses and humans.
Practical & humane
Clear steps you can take to support change without force or performance.
Relational Gestures
The six relational gestures: Yield, I am here, being with. Push, I am here, separate, and still with you. Reach, I am open to contact. Grasp, arrive, not cling. Pull, one breath of closer. Release, contact ends without rupture.
Six movements in flow, which create every conversation we are having, whether we are aware of it or not.
You likely know which is sticky for you and which flow easily, where you want to be big and where you want to retreat.
These are the movements we are already making with our horses, on the ground and under saddle. The reach, and whether the horse reaches back. The draw down the rope, which is not a drag, and the release that answers it. Pushing and yielding, every step of leading.
And the same movements, with everyone else, in every relationship you have.
As we explored, these are relational. But they are also the core of the self, and often the greatest path to possibility.
