I have no friends

... at least I didn't have anyone with me when I went to see Olga yesterday, and therefore I had to make a video myself :) I also had to cover all the funny sounds I make with this boooring music. It is interesting to see how much it is changing her that I am concentrating on my phone this much. She is just getting started here, I finished filming and started to play with her after this and she was full of sparkle. Some day someone could film that too :)

Changes

Olga is now living solo because she eats different hay than the others. She will be getting visitors from the other side (of the fence!) or maybe even someone special, we'll see about that later. Luckily she does not mind living like this, she still feels like part of the herd.


This is Olga's new "studio apartment", the hole in the wall is for scratching with her friends. It is very important that they get to scratch each others so that they stay connected.



This is her new hay feeder which she hated at first. Now that she has understood that this way her hay will not run out, she is more at ease. She also has one hay net hanging from a tree, I made it of some kind of golf net.





Olga had her meal a bit later than the others yesterday, her neighbours seemed to be somewhat jealous ;)

the sweetest thing

I felt very touched the other day when I was going to take Olga out for a walk. She was already standing by the gate, but when she saw me and the halter, she started to nodd her head the exact same way she does when I approach with her hay or meal.

I gladly took it as a confirmation that I am on the right path here.



I uploaded this photo in my facebook page and wrote (jokingly) that I am so boring that my horse falls asleep. My dear friend Sanni (do go & see her art!) commented that Olga feels so safe that she can take a nap because she knows I'll take care of her. Isn't that sweet :)

a quick thought

Would it make any sense to say that horses act as wisely as one gives them credit for?

Maybe with a double meaning: one only sees what one believes to be possible, but also in the sense that they really can be quite dull if one only exploits them. Use a horse like ATV and it will show itself equally clever.

Like I said, just a thought. I think I'll keep this to myself and giggle when someone says they have a dumb horse.

On June's request

I'll try to write something about what I've learned in Nooras clinics, I've been very lucky to participate in many of them during these 2 years she has been giving them.

Presence
It is always about this very moment - we try to learn to be in the moment, because for the horse it must look like only our shell is there and the inner is gone, if we let our minds travel in time. Horses don't do that, and they cannot understand it. For them it's always about right here and right now.

Authenticity
Noora talks about "masks" that people are wearing, how the horses never see what we try to be, but who we really are. So we need to find our way back to our pure inner self. No masks, no ego.
We need to find the courage to look at the things horses mirror back to us, when they try to help us see.

Devotion
I didn't want to title this last one Love so I put devotion, sounds fancier. But it is the same. What we give, we get. Everything we do with horses, should be done with warm heart. We should not only thank for good job, we should stay grateful for their willingness to teach us.

All animals gathered around us during our sessions

I asked A-M, the hostess of our last clinic, to write something too, which she kindly did:

"I have been twice on Noora´s clinic. It looks like we mainly work with our horses in order to find new balance, or actually a new path to go together with them. But for me it appeared like a painful battle in my soul and mind before any light was there. During the last year I have been asking myself why on earth my mare ever came into my life, because she is so "difficult". Now she has given me very deep and honest answers which came clear to me during the clinic. She is like a photo of my true inner reality today. What she explained was the message to stay calm and peaceful, this is "feet strongly and softly on earth", what ever happens. She asked me to keep my limits, the physical as well as mental ones, too.

The magic of Noora is her true authenticity and the ability to live in that very moment. She has extraordinary sensible antennas for what is going on in peoples as well as in horses minds and hearts from moment to moment. She gives people place and time to figure themselves out what is it all about. This means she is truthful in her words, but never hard and gets something broken."

lessons

Few weeks back I was attending Noora Ehnqvist's course in this amazing old farm with wonderful, open and warm people. We were having good lessons from horses, getting a hang of how to really see the horse, be aware of ourselves and horses and how to stay in the moment, not letting our minds drift away.

In the middle of day two I received a phone call telling me that a couple that were really good friends of me and my husband had died in a car accident. It didn't really sink until I went back to where all the people were, and tried to say it, to explain why I wasn't ready to go get a horse and go to picadero. I was lucky to be where I was when getting these news, all that empathy really helped me to deal with all my emotions. And, after a while, I did go to picadero to be with Milla, the finn horse.

It has never been easier to stay present in the moment, it was too painful to let my mind wander. Milla was the best comforter, she just breathed with me and kept me there, noticing all the birds singing and trees swaying, sun warming us, and the ground under my feet. At some point, Noora asked me how I felt, and all the emotions came back, crushing me. At that point I looked at Milla, and a single teardrop fell from her eye.

Heart & mind

Few lines from Connecting with Horses by Margrit Coates:



"Professor Candace Pert has confirmed that every cell in the body has its own "mind" and she has discovered that the heart and the body send messages to each other through chains of amino acids, previously thought to exist only in the brain. Scientists at the Institute of HeartMath in the U.S. have discovered neurons -brain cells of the type shown to have memory- in the heart."



"Further research has shown that communication between heart and brain is an ongoing dynamic and two-way dialogue. These scientists have also discovered that when people hold hands, one person's heartbeat can be measured in the other's brain waves."

Today I've thought a lot about why humans have developed this brain thinking and finds it somehow more useful? Is that the reason we've lost contact with nature? How could I start training my heart, so that I would have better connection with horses? Would it be possible to really write from my heart, without brain interfering? How would it change us if we'd suddenly realize our intellect brain is much less cool than the ability to use your heart the way it's maybe supposed to be used..?

So in another words today I've used my brains a lot. Maybe tomorrow will be better and I get to strenghten my heart neurons :)