Because we tend to, as humans, have a need to control a horse, we never consider how the head collar feels to a horse, or to ourselves. How many of us fear not using a head collar because we would then not have the ability to control the horse? How many horses have had bad experiences with head collars being tied tightly, or pulled strongly around the most sensitive areas of their heads? Have you ever considered that the horse could always take control back from you, head collar or not, but they choose not to. Why is this do you think? What are they trying to tell us?
Last Monday (10th February) Camille and I were lead to explore the energy of the head collar with Camilles herd of 8 horses. (For more information on Camille Dareau and her energetic work with horses you can follow her at her website http://www.HappyHorseHappyHuman.com.) This is what happened…..
We started by connecting with the energy of doing something with the horses. Initially it felt like a pressure inwards towards ourselves rather than a ‘looking for a connection’. When we engaged with the heart energy of this inward looking connection it felt like a place came into the senses that was surrounded by brambles. We were at the centre and there was no path out.
We stayed with that and thought about the herd. Slowly they began arriving into the energetic space and circling us. It felt like they were highly energised and anticipatory. In parallel the herd were arriving from the field into the hay shelter where we were standing. It was like they knew something was going to shift today. As they were circling us energetically,senses came in about it not being about connecting with them (the herd) and asking them to do something or achieve something. It was not about individual connections for healing. It was a herd connection and everything that we would like to “do” would be with the herd energetically, even if physically it was with an individual. As this processed it felt like the herd were saying “Well, what do we want to do?”.
So we bought a head collar into play energetically. It felt like we should feel the head collar as an energetic being in its own right. As this manifested itself it was like the head collar felt alive and full of a healing energy. As this energy increased more and more of the herd came to join us in the shelter physically. As we shifted into a place of understanding the energy of the head collar, the last memeber of the herd arrived from the field, Aimee.
Camille then felt it was right to get a head collar physically and laid it in the middle of the shelter and we engaged with it energetically.
Then Honey connected directly. The connection with her showed us a ceremonial healing path around the head collar. Honey engaged with the head collar energy, healing her past anxieties with it. We (Camille and I) also engaged with healing our own anxieties around control. And as we all processed that, there was an invitation by the head collar to celebrate the shift and physically engage. Honey felt this, as did I. I picked the head collar up and invited Honey in. She came in of her own free will, lowered her head and I put the head collar on her. We engaged energetically with the joy of the shift in the entire understanding of the ceremony of the head collar.
Honey held the head collar energy to her, processing its healing, and then proceeded to share the healing energy with the rest of the herd, walking from one to another as if in a ritual.
Marie engaged and her energy felt brittle and defensive at first. Her barriers softened slowly.
Rafael engaged also and processed the change in the energy around the head collar.
After a while of this processing by the herd it was ready to be removed. The same ceremonial intent was requested and I asked Honey to meet me in the centre of the shelter where we proceeded to remove the head collar with reverence. We thanked Honey for her participation and then left the head collar in the centre of the shelter on the floor. After a while Marie engaged with it and breathed over it and some of her defences shifted further. A number of the herd members engaged with the head collar, breathing over it while it was on the floor. It was an acknowledgement of the shift.
