Small but significant…
Today Timmy approached me and said “Can I have some of that peace please?” It is so lovely when they start coming to you for this instead of going to them to ask them to be peaceful. We have come to a different place.
And after about 15 minutes he asked me to scratch his loose hair off. Now this just looks like your average scratches, but for me and Timmy, this felt very different. It felt like a shared experience. He moved me from side to side with regard for where I was. The main difference was that he was relaxed. Many times before he has tried to nip me if I scratch or brush him so his thinking levels had been too high. By relaxing into peace first it was a nice shared experience and he just said when he had had enough.
You will notice a little mouthing thing he does. (Not the licking and chewing at the beginning, but about 1.36 minutes into the video). I have seen this a few times now when we are coming up a little in thinking. It feels like a version of a release for him – maybe linked to the cribbing. This time it felt like he released something just before asking for the scratching and this allowed him to relax into it for maybe the first time. Who knows? I would probably have said he was relaxed with a scratching a year ago, but this feels so much better. I have ridden him and thought it was great, and it was, for that point in our journey.
We are in a different place now, and, in all likelihood, will be in another place tomorrow. That, for me, is the beauty of this journey…