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| Expressing Love |
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| An amazing interaction occurred during a “Life Changing Horse Experience” workshop at Birchwood Farm. The four participants (three women, one man) had completed a group activity and were already well into their individual 1:1 sessions with a horse. When it was time for David to step into the ring he said: ”We will make this short”. I explained that while we were running a couple of minutes late, there was no need to rush and compromise his session. Furthermore, I thought to myself, my experience is that humans are usually not in charge of time during sessions…the horses are. |
| David peeled himself off the fence, hopped into the round pen and joined me near the center. Next to me on the other side was Okie, the horse that had hung out with us all afternoon. He appeared to be up for yet another interaction as he walked over to David. He looked him up and down and then planted his muzzle smack down on David’s lips. His teeth were resting on David’s chin, while the upper lip took over David’s face from the nose down. |
| There they stood…horse and man attached by the mouth. |
| The other participants and I stood in awe. This was something beyond imagination. Though we all knew, this was not considered appropriate according to ‘Horse Safety 101’; we also realized that there was no danger of David getting hurt. The connection between Okie and him was pure. |
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| Okie did not budge. Even when a car door closing across the street caught his attention, he let his ears and eyes capture the scene, but he did not move. |
| After what seemed like an eternity, Okie removed himself from David’s mouth. Following a quick breather, however, he went back for more. He started a serious nuzzle and grooming routine on David’s cheek, nose, neck and ear. That lasted about another 15 – 20 seconds at which point Okie was done. He turned and walked away. After a couple of strides he stopped, turned his head and looked at David. His face expressed a clear question. Now it was my turn to make sure that David understood the expression. I translated the look into words |
| “Did you get that?”, and David answered “Yes, I did”. I asked “What did you get?” David answered…“that I am loveable”. |
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| Okie walked off slowly to the other side of the paddock. The session was complete. Three minutes had passed since David had peeled himself off the fence. We were all reminded of a truth that Okie and David knew all along…profound messages can be conveyed in very little time. |
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