Since Vie came to live with Sheila a few years ago, Sheila’s main aim has been to develop a strong relationship with Vie, based on trust. From this Vie has shown Sheila little things that have caused her anxiety and worry, but the story started with saddling problems, the mounting block and mounting and dismounting. Riding Vie was brilliant.
We took everything back to the beginning. At first Vie did not like to be touched anywhere. Slowly, by bringing peace of mind, and breaking it down into small steps, Vie is now okay with being touched. You have to ask her permission first though. And so it should be! We don’t like being touched by any odd person just because they feel like it, do we?
Then we found a little problem with the saddle. Vie wasn’t particularly peaceful with the saddle. By breaking down the saddling process little by little we managed to find out that the actual issue was with the saddle coming off. Again we broke that process down into small parts and Sheila worked with Vie until she was really happy with being saddled and unsaddled. It is possible to slide the saddle on and off, and the saddle pad, down her side, and she will stand still and be peaceful with that.
The next step was the mounting block. There was something about being mounted that Vie was very worried about. And also something around dismounting as well. Our first step was to make the mounting block the place where we could all relax and be peaceful. The place where we could release all worries and anxieties. We spent a good few sessions working with this until Vie was really happy standing at the mounting block.
She would have a dropped neck, and although focussed, after some more steps, including sitting on the mounting block, being on the first step, and so on, she had no problem with Sheila going up and down the steps of the mounting. Then we rested weight on the saddle, touched her behind the saddle and put hand weight into the stirrups. Vie became peaceful with all of those steps.
Time to mount. Sheila put her leg over and Vie turned away from the mounting block as she did this. This ended up in the saddle slipping and Sheila hanging onto Vie’s neck. Vie was very calm. She allowed me to get Sheila off and we could come back to a very peaceful place, bring all the emotions down and then assess what happened. Vie kept showing us the girth of the saddle and kept biting at it. There was a huge sense of something being replayed. We feel that somebody has slipped off of her before and it worried Vie enough to make her not want it to happen again, to avoid it. The trauma of it hadn’t been released for Vie.
So, we had to break this down. First we needed to recreate the energy of the saddle moving and Vie being squeezed at the same time. Not easy to do from the ground, but we got there and just kept working with that until it was okay again for the saddle to slip around, and for the saddle to be squeezed against her side in the wrong place.
The next step was to recreate the energy of Sheila holding on to Vie’s neck. There is a feeling associated with this which would have been shared with Vie, but because Sheila is very experienced she did not panic, just held on calmly. This in itself would have changed the feeling for Vie. It is possible that when this happened previously there may have been a lot of panic, even anger and/ or fear, from the human which would have affected Vie. It is an unknown.
What we did was stand next to the mounting block until we were all calm and peaceful, and then we recreated the neck holding from the ground. Vie basically tried to hold Sheila in place with her neck and leg. The feeling of falling from Sheila kicked in a feeling of trying to stop her from Vie. It was a beautiful thing. Vie didn’t walk away. When Sheila let go she sat on the mounting block and created the place of safety and peace again. This is what she is now working on with Vie – managing the increase in energy and the release.
The ultimate goal will be for Sheila to get on Vie and there will be an immediate connection and release from them both before moving away. There are still a number of things to work through and set up, but that is what problem solving is all about. Then we can talk about the dismount.
In summary by breaking down each little step we were able to ascertain that it was likely there had been a trauma in her previous life around mounting / dismounting that wasn’t released. This is something that has to be worked through with acceptance, understanding, mutual regard, awareness and trust. Finding an alternative fix, doesn’t release trauma, it just hides it until it falls out somewhere you don’t want it to. There will always be steps forward and steps back, as there are we we find something within ourselves that we need to let go. It is not always easy, especially if there are external factors triggering the feeling. Sometimes we block it, sometimes, we avoid it, sometimes we work with releasing it. Everyday is different. Peace, patience and persistance are the key.