Latest / The Horsehuman Connection Matrix / Amanda Held Author of "Healing in Harmony"
Transcript
- 0:01Hi, this is Ishi Abel with the Horse Human Connection Matrix.
- 0:04Today I have with me Amanda Held, and she's the author of a book coming out very soon, healing in Harmony, which I think is gonna be a super important book for all horse owners and for this industry.
- 0:22I don't like calling it an industry for our passion in general.
- 0:26Welcome, Amanda.
- 0:28Thank you so much for having me, Ishi.
- 0:30Yeah, this is great.
- 0:31I've been wanting to have more conversations with you.
- 0:35So I know you a little bit from the six o'clock Pacific time morning meetings that you've been having.
- 0:42So why don't you tell me a little bit about about what you're doing, about how you started this morning, meeting, about why you're writing the book.
- 0:49Just tell me about you.
- 0:50Sure.
- 0:52So I'll keep it at the 5,000 foot level to save time, but in essence, I started out as a horse trainer.
- 1:01Back in 2003, I got into Mustangs and I at the time had learned natural horsemanship, which I thought was totally awesome because it wasn't the barbaric ways of treating horses.
- 1:15And so for about a decade, I used the natural horsemanship philosophies to rehabilitate last Chance forces.
- 1:24And through that experience, I.
- 1:29Ended up in the equine assisted healing space, so equine assisted psychotherapy and learning.
- 1:35And when I started to see the sentient, I'll say of the horses in sessions with humans, it became quite clear to me that there was a reflection component and a sentience in these horses.
- 1:50And they were so much more than just animals that needed to be dominated or trained.
- 1:57And when I had this realization, I didn't wanna train anymore, and I kind of.
- 2:05Put horses on this pedestal where I swung from, you know, just being your typical horse trainer.
- 2:11Like, I'm gonna make this horse do what I say when I say, and that's a good broke horse.
- 2:16And to saying, oh my God, we can't say breaking horses anymore.
- 2:19We can't put any pressure on them.
- 2:22Like they're sentient.
- 2:23They like no more than people.
- 2:25Mm-hmm.
- 2:25And so I just kind of swung the other direction and I was afraid to do anything too.
- 2:32Two, or with my horses.
- 2:33'cause I didn't wanna like upset them.
- 2:35And it was interesting because I thought that doing that would make them like me better and wanna connect with me more.
- 2:45And it actually didn't, it made them start doing things like biting me and pinning their ears at me.
- 2:50So I feel like it was so imbalanced.
- 2:53I just kind of became overpowered.
- 2:56Then they wanted to start overpowering me and I found myself in this space of like.
- 3:02I don't know.
- 3:03I don't know how to be around my horses anymore.
- 3:05Like they, they wouldn't even acknowledge me.
- 3:07They didn't want anything to do with me.
- 3:09And I was over supporting them and I was just in turmoil.
- 3:13So I decided to just you know, incorporate a lot of the things that I learned and teach on the outside as a human behaviorist and the laws of nature and the laws of balance, and just ask the horse like.
- 3:29Help me find the happy medium.
- 3:31Help me find this balance.
- 3:33And so through a lot of research, a lot of observation, a lot of time with them and a lot of implementing the laws of nature, I found a way to be with horses that is of the deepest connection, a deeper connection than I ever thought possible.
- 3:53And I feel like in life when you figure something out, so many times after you figure it out, all these other people start showing up with that similar challenge or issue.
- 4:06And so that's really what led to the community.
- 4:09I felt so alone in those first days because it's like you would either get people that are like.
- 4:16You need to back'em up.
- 4:17You need to run'em in the round pen, or you get other people, like if you use a whip, that's a weapon and you're a terrible person.
- 4:24So I wanted to create something to help people and guide them and not necessarily towards what I think is right, but helping people do what I did and tap into their inner wisdom.
- 4:39Tap into the inner wisdom of the horse and develop a deeply powerful and connected relationship based on who they are and who their horses are as being.
- 4:51Wow.
- 4:52That's, that's incredible.
- 4:54So I think a lot of people have had a similar journey trying to find this balance coming out of the dominance.
- 5:02And I, I will say dominance is predominant in natural horsemanship.
- 5:07And I didn't realize you were a behaviorist.
- 5:09This is really interesting because we've touched a lot on this on the last two episodes that are not published yet.
- 5:16So when you say you're a behaviorist, what's the background there and how adamantly do you subscribe to that, to today with your work with horses?
- 5:27It's quite interesting.
- 5:28I started out in getting my degree in equine science and then I kind of took, when I had this realization about the sentient of horses, I was really heavy into like the equine assisted learning space.
- 5:45And so I really left horse training kind of all together other than rehabilitating.
- 5:51Horses that were donated to the sanctuary and getting them into our human program.
- 5:57I became very, very interested in human behavior.
- 6:00And again, I believe, you know, our voids create our values, right?
- 6:04And so our struggles shape the path that we're on.
- 6:08And so in 2013, my dad, who was my business partner, my best friend, my partner in crime, we ran our boarding and training facility together.
- 6:18He.
- 6:20Pass away unexpectedly, and I lost everything.
- 6:23So I lost my dad.
- 6:24I lost the farm.
- 6:25I had to rehome most of my horses, and I found myself in this space of just really, really, really poor mental health.
- 6:37Just shortly before that, I had actually ended up in the institutionalized for my mental health.
- 6:42I was diagnosed with a, a lot of things like bipolar complex, PTSD.
- 6:48And what I went through after losing my dad by everyone's assumptions was going to just make me curl up into a ball on the ground and, and die and give up.
- 7:00But what happened instead is I.
- 7:03A divine timing.
- 7:04I was introduced to the De Martini Institute, and that is for personal development and behavior.
- 7:12Dr.
- 7:13Di Martini does a seminar called The Breakthrough Experience, and I had signed up for it.
- 7:20Just in pure desperation I was very, very heavy at that time into my victim energy and my, my victim story, and I just really didn't wanna be alive anymore.
- 7:31And so I found this institute and I went to this breakthrough seminar, and it fundamentally changed the way that I see the world, my life, and everything in it.
- 7:44And in that experience, what really stood out to me is the incorporations of the universal principles and the laws of nature.
- 7:54So after I got through the seminar, I really took a deep dive into these laws and I found that there is actually a framework that can explain and give you understanding about everything in your life.
- 8:11The why we behave the way we do, why we perceive the way we do you know, what is this whole free will versus predestination, you know, it was really like a look beyond, excuse me, beyond frameworks and it changed my whole life and it gave me a life.
- 8:30Better than I ever thought would be available to me.
- 8:33And so in doing that and doing the work on myself first and changing I took a lot of classes on human behavior.
- 8:43I did get my master's in psychology just because it, it made sense with the path that I was going on.
- 8:48And it was good to have an understanding, again, of both sides, right?
- 8:52Like the psychological side.
- 8:54But also the behavior side.
- 8:56And when I was in school, I took a behavior class specifically and it was the most amazing, my favorite class I've ever taken in college.
- 9:06And it made me realize that our psychology, and this is my belief, but this was the awareness I had.
- 9:15I believe that when we treat our psychology or our psychology is really a symptom of our biology.
- 9:26And I'm gonna explain that because when I say that people typically give the same look you just gave me like what the, what the hell does that mean?
- 9:34Right?
- 9:35But there are things intrinsic to humans in our, our DNA, in our systems, in our biology.
- 9:45Really govern our behavior and we like to think that we're these sentient beings in control of everything and, and really when it boils down to it, if something happens in your perspective, that's a threat to you, your biology will override everything that you know, and it will start driving your bus.
- 10:04And so I had spent decades in therapy trying to heal from the complex trauma, trying to treat all of these symptoms.
- 10:12I tried medication, I tried EMDR.
- 10:15I tried all these different types of therapy and nothing made me wanna live or even really made me feel better.
- 10:25I think with everything I tried that failed, I just felt a little bit more hopeless.
- 10:29But then I started to.
- 10:31Study behavior, and not just behavior, but the way that our behavior works with the laws of nature and the universal principles.
- 10:41And it just was like this, like the skies opened and the angels saying, and I was like, I'm onto something here.
- 10:48Like I was able to use these tools and kind of put a lot of different things that I have learned into one system.
- 10:58I used it to totally transform everything in my life.
- 11:01And of course it's ever evolving and I always tell my students, like if I'm teaching you the same thing in six months that I'm teaching you today, I've failed you as a teacher.
- 11:11Mm-hmm.
- 11:11Because the journey is a spiral and the journey end never ends.
- 11:16I, I ended up putting all of this, the horse piece, the human behavior piece, the psychology piece, and then I'm also I have 23 years in the military active duty air force and also international guard in which I'm still serving.
- 11:30And so the military piece was heavy on my heart as well, because when I got out of the military in 2003, that's when my mental health tanked.
- 11:40It was a wild Mustang named Shelby that really saved me and kind of started the whole process.
- 11:46And she's 23 years old today.
- 11:49I, I still have her out in the pasture, but I knew that our veterans needed help because I would know these people, and I'm not a combat veteran, but I would know a lot of these people and I would support a lot of these people.
- 12:04they would come back and they just weren't the same.
- 12:07I would watch them turn to alcohol, I'd watch their families fall apart.
- 12:11I would watch their mental health fall apart.
- 12:13So all these little pieces of me came together into this organization that I founded in 2011 called Hooves.
- 12:22And it stands for healing of our Veterans Equine services.
- 12:26And through hooves, I created this healing framework.
- 12:31It is now delivered in a five day intensive format.
- 12:36We've helped over 800 veterans regain their lives through working with the laws of nature and through working with horses.
- 12:46Wow.
- 12:47That is, that is amazing.
- 12:49What a journey it has.
- 12:51What an incredible, A couple lifetimes, what an incredible journey.
- 12:55Yeah.
- 12:56So, and, and you know, I've talked a little bit about my path and there are definitely some parallels with a lot of things you're saying.
- 13:03So the way I like to say it is, and it sounds like this with you, with the the institute that you got the breakthrough for the de martini thing that.
- 13:14Something, let the light in.
- 13:15Like we have all this grief and we have sorrow and we have wreckage.
- 13:19And we were talking this morning, we have chaos from those things and something cracks and the light starts to open up and then all of these things spring forth from that.
- 13:31And I just think that's, I just think that's amazing.
- 13:35The, wow.
- 13:35So, so that's how you got to hear.
- 13:38So tell me what the book's about Tell, I mean, I know a little bit, but tell everybody about what the book's about.
- 13:47Yeah, so the book is called Healing and Harmony, emotional and Spiritual Wellness for Horses and Humans.
- 13:53And of course there's a, a story behind it.
- 13:56Again, I'll try to keep it brief and high level, but as I'm down this rabbit hole I.
- 14:03It had been, let me think, what year was this?
- 14:06I would say 2019.
- 14:09So I've been running the program for almost a decade.
- 14:13I am having a lot of spiritual experience with courses.
- 14:18I think that learning is multifaceted and should come from different areas.
- 14:23So I'm always in a textbook or a educational book.
- 14:27I'm always in a research project.
- 14:29I'm always in just going out and spending time connecting energetically and telepathically with the horses.
- 14:38And then you know, there's your own journey, which I believe is never ending too.
- 14:42I believe the day we stop unpacking stuff is the day that we're not here anymore.
- 14:46So I have all these different things going on and I think that through my own journey again,'cause I think that's probably how it starts for everyone.
- 15:00I was found myself in a place of a lot of stress and pressure.
- 15:06I didn't, I didn't realize it at the time.
- 15:08I was just trying to like, you know, chop wood, carry water, move forward, make progress in my life.
- 15:16But I, I realized in hindsight that I really was kind of lighting myself on fire to keep other people warm.
- 15:25If that makes sense.
- 15:26Mm-hmm.
- 15:26Yeah.
- 15:27I am a peacekeeper, right?
- 15:29And so it's easier because I'm strong because I'm independent.
- 15:34Because I don't like conflict.
- 15:36A lot of times it's easier to just let everything roll off your back.
- 15:39Right?
- 15:39And I'm, that was like my philosophy, like, be like water, just let it roll, right?
- 15:43Some people are like, oh, the way of life is ultimate surrender.
- 15:46Just surrender to everything.
- 15:48Well.
- 15:49I promise you, from my experience, that didn't work out too well because I was denying the truth that there were things happening that I wasn't okay with.
- 15:59And you know, running a nonprofit is a lot of pressure.
- 16:03You know, it's the world of nonprofit is changing.
- 16:07We have about 45 volunteers that work for us that we could not afford to pay if we had to.
- 16:13So I'm trying to manage these volunteers.
- 16:16The relationship between my husband and my daughter, he's the stepdad, was really bad at the time and they were always fighting and I was playing mediator there.
- 16:25Then I'm constantly cultivating donors and you know, when you're going to cultivate somebody that's gonna give you money, you really have to.
- 16:33Support their values and and ideas.
- 16:36And so I found myself just in this ugh, space of like pure depletion.
- 16:44Can I, and can I ask you?
- 16:45Yeah.
- 16:46Can I ask you a little bit, there's some, some points of real interest Yeah.
- 16:49In some of the things you've said.
- 16:51So from having a personality type that wants to placate and keep the peace and let things roll off of you to, like this morning in the session, I, I said something that was the result of a belief and you called me on it right away in the most.
- 17:08Gentle way, and I love it when people do that.
- 17:10Like I wanna challenge my beliefs.
- 17:12I want other people to challenge their beliefs.
- 17:15But between getting to that point and to a point where you're managing 40 volunteers, you can't manage 40 people and have things roll off of you when you are directing them.
- 17:26I mean, you can have some things roll off of you, but it's a very different personality type.
- 17:31How did you get from A to B?
- 17:34Well, I'm about to tell you.
- 17:36Okay.
- 17:36It's alright.
- 17:36So no, this is perfect.
- 17:38That was a great question.
- 17:40So all of this is going on, right?
- 17:42And I have this miniature horse that was born at our farm in, 2019.
- 17:49He was born on Memorial Day.
- 17:50His name is Patriot, and he was born with dwarfism.
- 17:53Okay.
- 17:53And he's, he's just a man, he's a fighter.
- 17:57We didn't think he was gonna live originally.
- 17:59He, he had some complications and he's like the comeback kid, right?
- 18:03And so he very quickly, I like bottle fed him and he was like my baby.
- 18:09And so we had this really deep spiritual connection, right?
- 18:16And then one day I woke up and went out and Pat couldn't stand.
- 18:21He was down.
- 18:22And you know, when we did get him up, he could barely move.
- 18:26He was neural, he was like five out of five on the neurological scale.
- 18:31Like he just was a disaster.
- 18:33And so it was during CO it was like 2020 and we took him up to Michigan State and we couldn't go in because of Covid.
- 18:42So they took him.
- 18:43And they x-rayed his spine and they came back and they said, look, he's got a Chiari mal malformation, so that means C one in the vertebrae is, is not formed correctly.
- 18:54And he's got compression in his neck at C six and C seven.
- 18:59He needs the, like the surgery that they do for wobblers, the basket surgery and the vertebrae$10,000 of vertebrae.
- 19:07And I was like, well, I would, I would never put this baby mini horse through through that, you know, it's.
- 19:12That'd be cruel.
- 19:13It would be cruel.
- 19:15So I said, well, did you look at his feet?
- 19:17Because when he would stand, he was very under himself.
- 19:21Like a founder force.
- 19:22Mm-hmm.
- 19:23Mm-hmm.
- 19:23And I had already had his feet x-rayed and, and the feet didn't show anything, but they were like, Nope.
- 19:28Like, we aren't gonna waste your time or money with feet x-rays.
- 19:31Like his spine is jacked.
- 19:33That's why he is neurological.
- 19:34He can't function.
- 19:35Okay.
- 19:37Take him home, call the vet, make an appointment to have him put down on Monday.
- 19:43And when all of this started, I told him, I said, listen, I wanted, I don't wanna be selfish in this.
- 19:49I wanna do what?
- 19:50What's best for you?
- 19:51So if you wanna go to heaven, if you wanna stop fighting, whatever, stop eating and then I'll know.
- 19:57And I swear to you, Ishi.
- 19:59Every time, whether he was laying down or standing up.
- 20:03Every time I would go in the barn and he would see me, he would grab a mouthful of hay and just start violently munching on it.
- 20:11So I was just like so torn because you know, here Michigan State says it's a spine, like you can't fix that.
- 20:18And so I was like, well, you know what?
- 20:20I'm gonna make you comfortable through the weekend here, have some ine.
- 20:25I gave him some banta mean that night, Saturday morning he's up like totally up on his own, blinking at me eating as soon as he sees me.
- 20:34And I'm like, okay, well if this was full-blown neurological, that wouldn't, the bmy wouldn't have done it.
- 20:39Right?
- 20:40So I did have the vet come, but instead of putting him to sleep, I had her X-rays whole legs and I needed to see the whole picture.
- 20:49And when it was the digital.
- 20:52Radiograph and when I saw the picture, his coffin bone was 90 degrees in his puff.
- 21:02Wow.
- 21:03So it was just like, oh my gosh.
- 21:07Well, I'm not saying all that stuff isn't wrong with his spine, but this is a major issue.
- 21:13Whatever's at the base is gonna affect everything going up.
- 21:18Absolutely.
- 21:19Absolutely.
- 21:19So I was like, okay, we are not putting him down.
- 21:22We're gonna figure this out.
- 21:24One of my best friends, she actually wrote a little excerpt in the book Dr.
- 21:28Jackie Insco, she's a veterinarian, but she also does a lot of holistic stuff as well.
- 21:34Mm-hmm.
- 21:34So she's on, she does both.
- 21:36And she referred me actually to an equine podiatrist.
- 21:41I took him down to the podiatrist and he said, you know, I mean, I'm not hopeful, but I have some shoes that I could try.
- 21:50They're for fos.
- 21:50'cause his tendons, what it was is his tendons were contracted.
- 21:54Right?
- 21:55Oh, but let me back up.
- 21:56So anyway, I see the radiographs, I see the 90 degree coffin bone.
- 22:02I call one of my mentors and she says to me, okay, Amanda, where are you tiptoeing?
- 22:09In your life.
- 22:12Yeah.
- 22:12And I freaking lost it.
- 22:14I became a puddle on the ground because I was tiptoeing around everyone.
- 22:19Like it's what I was leading my, it was my strategy to get through life was tiptoeing and it totally showed up in him.
- 22:26Totally.
- 22:28So it was that moment, it was like that instant moment that I had that awareness.
- 22:34It wasn't about me anymore.
- 22:36It was like, if I don't start standing up for myself, this horse is my baby.
- 22:41My soul horse is gonna die.
- 22:43And it was like, you know the universe, I believe whenever we change direction, have a new awareness, set a goal.
- 22:49I believe we're always tested three times when my first test came, about 20 minutes after that phone conversation, when one of our volunteers came up and.
- 23:01I don't remember if they were wanting something like my time or if they had an idea that they wanted, that I didn't wanna do, but I was like, no.
- 23:11And they were kind of like, whoa, whoa.
- 23:13Did you say like, you know?
- 23:15And I was like, no, I'm sorry.
- 23:16I, you know, I'm not interested in doing that right now.
- 23:19And I was like, oh my gosh.
- 23:23And then I think you go through this thing when you're like a chronic people pleaser, where you're like, was I just mean.
- 23:29Just setting a simple boundary or saying no feels like mean, so, but then it felt kind of good at the same time.
- 23:38And I knew, like I knew at that point that it was not negotiable and that I had to totally restructure my boundaries.
- 23:44And I did.
- 23:45And I just did.
- 23:46I just started speaking my truth and there were some people that flipped out and they're no longer in my life and I just.
- 23:55Yeah, bless them on their way.
- 23:57No hard feelings, but, but what speaking my truth helped me realize is that there were a lot of people that were in my life that weren't reciprocal.
- 24:09They were just there because I was a doormat and they could get whatever they wanted.
- 24:12And when I stopped giving them their way, they didn't.
- 24:16You know, I became the villain in their story and they left.
- 24:19But then what happened is new people came in and when we look at the natural law of balance, we'll never have a loss without a gain.
- 24:27So as soon as I started getting rid of those people, more people came in and they were more of a vibrational match for Amanda, who's honest, and Amanda who has boundaries.
- 24:37And so I was doing all this really, really.
- 24:41Challenging work, but rewarding work.
- 24:43I was making changes, implementing everything, and, and you know, patriot didn't just magically heal and like a wand was waved, but he started to get better.
- 24:55We hadn't seen any progress in six months and from that point that I changed, progress was made daily and, and now today, he'll be six years in May.
- 25:05He lives a great, he has a great quality of life and he free roams our farm.
- 25:10And he runs and he plays and, and he does all the things.
- 25:14And he always knows when you're standing by the treat bin, he magically appears for snacks.
- 25:21But as I recovered, he recovered.
- 25:25So I was onto this.
- 25:28Then I started getting calls from like friends.
- 25:30So I had, I have a Magna wave pulse electromagnetic therapy machine.
- 25:34And my friend called her horse had put its leg through the barn, the metal.
- 25:40And so she was just calling to ask if I thought Magna Wave could help.
- 25:44And I said, well, how open-minded are you?
- 25:46Because I have a discovery that I'd love to share, you know?
- 25:50And she was like, oh, totally.
- 25:51So.
- 25:53I, I looked at what had happened.
- 25:55I looked at the actions and the inactions and, and I have the horse's body now kind of broken down into reflective parts, right?
- 26:03So the back feet represent things happening in the past.
- 26:08Front feet, our future, so on and so forth.
- 26:11And, and when we look at like the left side is the feminine energy, the energy of being the, the maternal energy.
- 26:19The right side is the masculine, the energy of doing the mental.
- 26:24So I have the body broken down and I said, well, where's the injury at?
- 26:29It was the back left.
- 26:31And then what's the action or inaction the horse is doing?
- 26:33It's dragging.
- 26:35It's.
- 26:37And hoof represents disconnect.
- 26:41So any problems in the feet are a disconnection of something, and she was dragging it.
- 26:46And so I, I said this to her and then she turned into a crying puddle because she was like, I know exactly what it is, you know, and then she ended up going into therapy and dealing with her issue with the therapist, and she.
- 27:05Reached back out to me a couple months later and she was like, not only did my horse make a full recovery, my horse is so bonded to me now that it's like our relationship is a, a totally different level.
- 27:17Right.
- 27:17So that kept happening.
- 27:19Let me recap a little bit.
- 27:20Okay.
- 27:21So what I'm hearing and getting from this is there's a very spiritual intersection between.
- 27:31Being able to look at ourselves and self-honesty and how horses are such spiritual, sentient beings, and how we heal from those things and they kind of come with us.
- 27:47And in an essence, that's a lot about what the book is about.
- 27:52Am am I wrong?
- 27:53It's exactly what it's about.
- 27:55And.
- 27:57I didn't get the idea for the book right away.
- 28:00So I spent five years trying to disprove this because I first of all was like, maybe I'm just crazy.
- 28:09Maybe this is all bs, you know?
- 28:11But I was like, if I'm gonna approach this, I need to approach it if I'm gonna be valid.
- 28:16'cause I also have an academic background, right?
- 28:19Mm-hmm.
- 28:20If I'm going to really be valid.
- 28:23I want it to be balanced.
- 28:25So of course, like it's very easy to be spiritual.
- 28:28But it's one side of things.
- 28:31So how can I bring in both sides?
- 28:34And so I have the concept, I have the phenomenon, I have the evidence through all these case studies, through my own case study.
- 28:43Now I need to figure out scientifically, what is going on here?
- 28:47Why is this a thing?
- 28:49So I started, you know.
- 28:51Researching traditional Chinese medicine, meridians, chakras, quantum physics.
- 28:58I just went down all these rabbit holes.
- 29:00You know, like I had mentioned before, there's like the spiritual component, the mental component, you know, the personal component.
- 29:09So I took all of this and I've researched it for five years.
- 29:14I've tried to disprove it in five years in hundreds of case studies.
- 29:19It is yet to be incongruent or incorrect.
- 29:23It's interesting because it, I'm so engulfed in it.
- 29:26It's my day-to-day life.
- 29:27It's my truth that sometimes I don't realize it until I start talking about it, like on podcasts and things like, I, I hope that this changes the world for people and horses.
- 29:38I think that it already has, you know what occurs to me because the concepts that you're writing the book about were not new to me.
- 29:45When, when I met you, it's like I've had experiences.
- 29:49I, I can't even remember where I started doing, you know, the metaphoric thing.
- 29:55'cause I have a little bit of training and reiki and, and a few other things that, that lean into some of what's in your book.
- 30:02I'm just so grateful that you've been able to pull all that together and that you're searching for the scientific side of this and that you tried to disprove it.
- 30:10The intentions.
- 30:12Like sometimes I know that intention can.
- 30:18Manifest and dictate what happens just like when we want to go somewhere on the horse and we set that intention like this is what's next, this is what will happen.
- 30:27It's like things fall into place with that intention, and the more you work with intention, the less work it is.
- 30:34It's just the thought.
- 30:36And so I see intention.
- 30:40Your, in your pathway, you know, that manifested this as well, and it's like that's a microcosm of the, of the bigger thing that you've done.
- 30:49Absolutely.
- 30:50And I don't know, I just, I love how those things turn in and of themselves.
- 30:57Absolutely.
- 30:58I, you know, I believe that in and of itself really is a system, and so when you talk about.
- 31:07People knowing this stuff.
- 31:08I think that's what's so amazing is that I'm not, I'm not creating something new.
- 31:16I, whenever I teach, when I teach in my healing intensives, when I teach in my equine clinics, it's more of a remembering Yeah.
- 31:27Than it is a teaching.
- 31:28Right.
- 31:29Because this is what's.
- 31:31Us all, which is why I love the behavior because it's a system.
- 31:35And I'm also a very, very heavy A DHD, and my brain works a little bit different, like to say neuros spicy, but it has served me well and it has been a gift because I love super deep rabbit holes of quantum and anything outrageous and deep.
- 31:57Mm-hmm.
- 31:58But.
- 32:00There are people that don't, number one, and there's people that can't see it yet.
- 32:07Mm-hmm.
- 32:07And I'm not one of those people, like I have friends that just are, they're like a direct channel.
- 32:15And I am not like, when we go into ceremony or meditation or breath work, you know, people will be like, oh my God, I astral traveled, or I did this, or I have these visions, or I, you know, I don't.
- 32:28My systems don't work that way.
- 32:31It's not how I'm set up.
- 32:32I don't have those experiences, but I believe, like my gift is to take very complex things and I need to have a system.
- 32:42My brain craves systems.
- 32:45I can do anything if I have a system to do it.
- 32:48And so I've taken these really complex things and through systems and pictographs and charts, I've.
- 32:56Hopefully made them simple enough for anyone to understand, you know?
- 33:00And are there people that can go to a horse and have that direct line and immediate connection and just channel exactly what the horse is saying and what the horse needs?
- 33:11Absolutely.
- 33:11There are animal communicators that do this, but this book and the work that I do are for the people like me that maybe aren't there yet or don't wanna be there or can't.
- 33:25Find a way to get there.
- 33:26So it's just taking things and organizing it and giving you a step-by-step process.
- 33:30And I feel like that's what I've done with all of the information.
- 33:34Whether it's connection work with horses, whether it's healing trauma, whether it's growing your business.
- 33:39You know, I also have a DHD entrepreneurialship, but everything is in a system that I can then pass along to help the next person save time, effort, and energy in getting the thing accomplished.
- 33:51I think I just had an epiphany.
- 33:54Cool.
- 33:54Share.
- 33:55Okay, so I have a, I have a podcast episode about release work, and it's all intuitive and it's something I do to bond with my horses.
- 34:03It's, you know, a little bit of Masterson, a little bit of Cummings, a little bit of, you know, me, a little bit of just bladder meridian and acupressure.
- 34:11But the thing is the feedback loop in a very regulated co-regulating, taking it down, meditative way when I'm step into this space with them and I just got this flash of like, if I overlaid your system with what I'm doing, because during these sessions they will point out on my body what corresponds to their body where they want me to work, and, and then we energetically work on that place on their body.
- 34:39So if I were to take your system and overlay it, I bet that there'd be a reflection of whatever it is I need to work on in the body part that they're asking me to work on.
- 34:53And somehow, without actually acknowledging what the thing is, energetically, we may be addressing that.
- 35:01What do think, oh, I think you're spot on.
- 35:04I think you're spot on.
- 35:06And, and actually that is the perfect description of my intention for this book.
- 35:11It's, it's meant to be a piece of the puzzle, and it's meant to, I'm getting really bad goosebumps.
- 35:18It's like, okay, cool.
- 35:19That's right.
- 35:20Yes, absolutely.
- 35:21And so that is, that is.
- 35:26What the purpose of this book is.
- 35:29And so what it, it is, talk a little bit more about what it is.
- 35:34There's some, some explanation, some frameworks.
- 35:37You know, I talk about the Morphic field.
- 35:39I cite some of the research and the validating perspectives that other well-known professionals have used to come to these conclusions.
- 35:48So it's the first part of the book is just kind of laying the framework and building up the evidence.
- 35:53The second part of the book is a breakdown of the main body parts of the horse, so, and then what their spiritual root is.
- 36:03And so like I can, I have my, my book open here.
- 36:06I can just give you an example if you'd like excerpt from the book.
- 36:11But it talks about also like the symptoms and the positioning of the book.
- 36:15So like.
- 36:17Here we have ears.
- 36:18So ears symbolize the ability to listen, communicate, and receive information, both in terms of external messages and internal truths for both horses and humans.
- 36:26This area represents openness to hearing and understanding, making it central to effective communication and connection.
- 36:33When issues arise in the ears, whether physical or behavioral, they often reflect a deeper struggle with hearing or accepting the truth.
- 36:43So the emotional root of the ears is healing, hearing the truth, and or feeling heard, right?
- 36:50Right.
- 36:50And so the ears are linked to emotional challenges such as difficulty hearing truth, feeling ignored or struggling with communication.
- 36:58When a horse appears to be deaf to commands, unresponsive, or has I related issues and may mirror the handler's feelings of being unheard or unable to accept reality.
- 37:09Similarly, humans may find it hard to accept feedback, feel dismissed or struggle to express themselves clearly.
- 37:16So there's the explanation of the body part.
- 37:20Then I have some key questions, some facilitative questions that you can sit with in order to actually create a shift.
- 37:28So it's bringing into your awareness, you know, what's going on.
- 37:32And so you can say, okay, yeah, I actually, have something going on in my life right now.
- 37:36Somebody's been telling me something, I don't wanna accept it.
- 37:38Okay, I see where I'm doing that.
- 37:40Okay.
- 37:41Then you can go to the fac, the key questions.
- 37:43So the question for you would be, how can I become more open to listening and accepting the truth, and how can I ensure that my voice is heard?
- 37:53Then there's a question for the horse.
- 37:55How can I help my horse feel more heard and understood in our interactions?
- 38:00And then, the spiritual root of that is the Throat chak.
- 38:04Yeah, that's what I, and receptivity.
- 38:06Right.
- 38:07So spiritually the ears are connected to the throat chakra, which governs the ability to listen, understand and express truth.
- 38:12Blockages in this area can create resistance.
- 38:15To both inner guidance and external feedback.
- 38:19Okay.
- 38:19So I just wanna be the devil's advocate for a sec.
- 38:21Like that totally resonates, makes sense with me and I, I get it.
- 38:25And the first thing that was occurring to me when you started talking was of course throat chakra.
- 38:29So why, why would it be the ears and not the throat?
- 38:34Well, it could also be that, right?
- 38:36But you, again, you have to look at the action or the inaction.
- 38:40Okay.
- 38:41That makes sense.
- 38:42Right?
- 38:42Yeah.
- 38:43And I explained that also, so.
- 38:45You know, the action of the inaction is, is definitely a key factor in that, right?
- 38:51And so if you aren't speaking your truth, that typically shows up in your throat, in your thyroid primarily.
- 38:59But if you're not hearing listening, but if you're not hearing it right, you know, or accepting it, that's when it will show up in the ears.
- 39:07So I have each of the body parts broken down like this, and then I have facilitative questions.
- 39:14And then I also have the 65 like most common equine illnesses or injuries as well.
- 39:21So, you know, colic, laminitis ulcers, things like that.
- 39:26And I have all of the, the kind of the same framework.
- 39:29So it's the spiritual root and then some facilitative questions.
- 39:36Can you foresee a day when veterinarians use this book?
- 39:42So they already are.
- 39:45That's amazing.
- 39:46My friend.
- 39:47Yes.
- 39:47So my, my friend Dr.
- 39:48Jackie yes, she is always, the book is not out yet, but she's always texting me and she's actually helped me through the years kind of develop that.
- 39:57So yeah, she'll be like, she'll text me like, okay, what's the stifle?
- 40:02You know, and we, we text back and forth and.
- 40:07Laugh at ourselves.
- 40:08'cause we're like, it's always so like, and there was, I had, some stuff going on with one of my horses and we were texting about it and I'm like, I hate it when my work is so freaking accurate, so annoying.
- 40:19But it, it can, it can be.
- 40:20But you know what's more annoying because now I'm flashing back on a woman that I worked with for a little bit with a horse, with all of these, all of these problems with, with their hooves and up and back to the veterinary hospital, which is like two hours away.
- 40:33Put that horse through years of torture.
- 40:39And then it had to have it put down.
- 40:41And early on when I worked with her, I got the message, you know, that this is about you not being able to deal with death.
- 40:49And I don't know what that would be.
- 40:51I don't remember the exact injury with, with the hoof.
- 40:54I think it was like a growth on the leg just above the coronary band.
- 40:58And so what I was saying is it's great when.
- 41:03It's great to know this stuff when it works and there's receptivity, but to see it and know it and know that that person's journey is just to go through the suffering and there's nothing you, you can't get in the ears, there's just nothing that's gonna help them see the truth.
- 41:20That's just really tragic, especially for the horse too.
- 41:26Absolutely.
- 41:27And I like we have a saying around here the lips of wisdom are sealed except to the ears of understanding.
- 41:33Yeah.
- 41:35And so I always ensure that people have the ears of understanding before I even share anything about what I do.
- 41:43And if they don't, you know, I mean, I know that there has to be balance in the world, and I guess it's how I've processed.
- 41:52Because when I really first started waking up to the sensient of horses, and when I started to hear them I became traumatized.
- 42:05I remember I was at a, an EQU fest, a very big EQU fest.
- 42:10I will not say which one, and I was walking through the stalls.
- 42:15The horses were just like, help, help me, help me.
- 42:19You know?
- 42:19And I could like hear them and it was just like a sensory overload.
- 42:23I could, I had to like leave the barn and I was just like sobbing.
- 42:27And I called one of my mentors and I was like, like, why?
- 42:29Why is this occurring?
- 42:31Like why is this happening?
- 42:34And she never gave advice.
- 42:37'cause that's what good facilitators do.
- 42:38They only ask questions, but she said, how would your feelings change right now?
- 42:44If you knew that those horses had signed up for that mission, right?
- 42:51And I was like, well, I still don't like it.
- 42:54But you know, if we go back to the laws of nature, I mean, you know, nature is both kind and cruel.
- 43:02Both exist and both serve.
- 43:07If you are willing to go there and look at that.
- 43:11That's really true.
- 43:12Wow.
- 43:13Those are great, great conversations.
- 43:14I'm so glad that you have written this book.
- 43:16If we have time, I'd like to ask you a couple of more questions.
- 43:20It's more kind of back about riding.
- 43:23Do we have a little more time?
- 43:24Oh yeah, absolutely.
- 43:25Great, great.
- 43:26So do you believe all horses should be ridden and want to be ridden?
- 43:31Absolutely not.
- 43:33Okay.
- 43:34I don't think that any horse really wants to be ridden.
- 43:38I think that if your horse has a connection with you and they see you as part of their herd that they will tolerate it.
- 43:52And, and this is something I grapple with because there's days where I'm like, I should never ride another horse again because I think it's, you know.
- 44:01Like, no, it's not something a horse would ever do if they had the option to do it.
- 44:06Right.
- 44:07I, so, I, I dunno about that.
- 44:08Sat with, well that's how I felt, right?
- 44:12Mm-hmm.
- 44:12And then I got this experience with these 4-year-old mustangs that I have, you know, and I got them mis yearlings.
- 44:19And I just spent two years doing connection work and things like that.
- 44:24And, and now it's time to back then.
- 44:29When the weather warms up here.
- 44:30But last year I did get them out after, you know, it was like the first time that we were like, okay, I'm gonna have an agenda.
- 44:38We're gonna habituate you to the saddles.
- 44:41And so I got my two trustee horses out and we POed them and I put the saddles on them, just, you know.
- 44:53Not even gonna cinch'em.
- 44:54Right.
- 44:54Put the saddles on.
- 44:55Okay.
- 44:55They're cool.
- 44:56They don't care.
- 44:56They're totally like at a one stress level.
- 45:00Zero.
- 45:01Okay.
- 45:02I'll tighten the cinch.
- 45:03Okay.
- 45:04I have'em on lead ropes.
- 45:05Okay.
- 45:06I'll, I'll just circle them and maybe they'll trot or buck or get elevated.
- 45:12Like it was almost like they were in meditation the entire time.
- 45:15Mm-hmm.
- 45:16And by day three I was, I was tacking them at liberty.
- 45:21I total liberty.
- 45:22And they never, they never even trotted.
- 45:25And I wasn't in an arena, I wasn't in a round pen.
- 45:27They had the ability to go anywhere in that arena and fuck, and do all, you know, when you're a natural horsemanship trainer, you gotta put'em in the round pen and run'em around and, you know, blah, blah, do all the dog and pony.
- 45:40And it's like, and it's really not necessary.
- 45:42I, I, no, I haven't done anything with these babies.
- 45:45I have done nothing but work on the relationship.
- 45:49I do take them on walks.
- 45:51Mm-hmm.
- 45:52I do the connection work, I do the mirroring, I do the breath work, I do the spiral.
- 45:57I ha actually have a blog on my website about habitation versus desensitization, and I have one.
- 46:05There's pictures of me, like hula hooping, and I open an umbrella.
- 46:08I never desensitized these horses.
- 46:10I never sacked them out.
- 46:12I never, I didn't even habituate'em.
- 46:14I just built a trusting relationship with them and I can do anything They, and they're totally cool.
- 46:20So.
- 46:21I did go back on my guilt and thinking that horses didn't wanna be ridden because I can tell you when I go out there now to get other horses,'cause I've not done anything with them in several months.
- 46:33They are trying to intercept these other horses and shove their faces in the halter to go out and to do this stuff.
- 46:41But, but I don't think they would be that way if I hadn't focused on the connection.
- 46:51Right.
- 46:52Now.
- 46:52That being said, I have another horse that I got when I was still an, the old time horse trainer, and this horse, I don't know what happened to him.
- 47:05I got him as a yearling.
- 47:06He is a Mustang.
- 47:06He, I, I went down to do like a demonstration at this adoption fair and I ended up bringing him home and he's, he has a very low sense of self preservation.
- 47:18So if you put something on him and he doesn't like it, he will flail.
- 47:21Until whatever it is, is not on him anymore.
- 47:25And I did back in my old ways, in my old days I did saddle him and I did sit on him a couple of times.
- 47:36The first time I sat on him, he let me get on, get off, get on, get off, get on, get off.
- 47:41And then when I asked him to walk, he freaked out at the movement of the saddle and he launched me headfirst into the round pin wall.
- 47:48Thank God I had a helmet on.
- 47:50And as I started doing this work, I realized, and especially in the equine assisted learning space, right, like he is a little bit of an anxious guy, and I was so determined to try to change that about him because that's what we do, right?
- 48:08We have to make these horses be what we think that they should be.
- 48:12I realized that he just is who he is and he doesn't, he is not interested in ever being ridden and he's really not interested in a lot of things.
- 48:23And I said, I just went to him one day and I said, I honor you.
- 48:27And I see that actually you being the way you are is serving our program more.
- 48:34You know, I got 10 other horses out there that you could.
- 48:39They would lay down and you could just lay on'em, like they don't care.
- 48:42They love people.
- 48:42They're connected, they're safe, they have solid attachment styles.
- 48:47He's a, he's a anxious and avoidant attachment style, I would say, but when I let him just be him mm-hmm.
- 48:56He shifted a lot and he still has a little bit of that edginess to him.
- 49:02He is, but, but there's an acceptance, right?
- 49:05That that's, that's how people get better too.
- 49:08Totally.
- 49:09There's just that acceptance.
- 49:10So I gotta ask you this question.
- 49:13Do you think that natural horsemanship is short-lived and that it's about over?
- 49:18Like, are we about done with this?
- 49:21Yeah.
- 49:21Well, I appreciate the purpose that it served because it got people out of barbaric treatment.
- 49:28It was certainly better than tying them up and doing all the horrible things that were being done to them, you know, previously.
- 49:35But it's of a, it's still of a dominant it's still of a dominant and, and not giving choice.
- 49:43And I also think, and this might lose me some fans, but even our liberty work.
- 49:50Yes, natural horsemanship, liberty work, it's not giving the, the horse some like not true liberty, but mainstream liberty work.
- 49:59If, if I'm making you run and I'm forcing, if I'm making the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy, I'm still totally governing you.
- 50:07I'm still totally manipulating you it was a stepping stone.
- 50:12I think sometimes when we have these changes, like radical change, you know, like my change was radical and it was not effective because I went from the natural horsemanship ways to not wanting to do anything that's not effective either.
- 50:29There's a pendulum that swings.
- 50:30Yeah.
- 50:31And then you find a balance.
- 50:34Yeah.
- 50:35And then, you know, and even that is a, in a revolving spiral, right?
- 50:39the only thing that's constant is change.
- 50:41But yes, I definitely do hope that it's coming to an end.
- 50:47Your book and what we're talking about, which is what I call the quiet revolution is going to change everything.
- 50:53The way I've characterized it is all of the information that we've been able to gather, the relationships that we've been able to develop with horses through equine assisted learning and equine assisted therapy that is.
- 51:06I used to call it the tipping point, and I've been waiting for the time when this tips into, the world of horse shows, the world of natural horsemanship, the world of a lot of old ways that are simply not necessary.
- 51:19I mean, I said to when I first heard a Warwick Schiller interview, NA Sean Cook, I called, I called them both, and I called Warwick Schiller and I said, why would you go through all that when you could just talk to the horse?
- 51:34And it's not quite that simple.
- 51:36You know, my autistic brain oversimplified everything, but it's about that relationship.
- 51:41It's about what you're talking about.
- 51:43And I am excited to see the natural horsemanship go by the wayside, and people have a deeper understanding of the sentient spiritual nature of horse and what they're really here to offer.
- 52:01Absolutely.
- 52:02Absolutely.
- 52:03And I do credit, I absolutely credit the equine assisted psychotherapy and learning space hugely for this revolution because if you look at it, what we're doing in that space.
- 52:16Is, I don't wanna use the word capitalizing because I don't like that.
- 52:21I don't feel like it's accurate, but what we are doing is we're employing the natural abilities or everything that a horse does in an equine therapy session that is their natural way of being.
- 52:36They don't turn it on and off.
- 52:38No, they don't.
- 52:39They, they don't have the capability to turn it off.
- 52:42That's just who they are and how they are, and how they show up in the world.
- 52:46And so what that told me is that it's never off it.
- 52:50It's not.
- 52:51So that means it's holds true just as much in the training space.
- 52:55Mm-hmm.
- 52:56As it does in the therapeutic space.
- 52:58Now it's up to the person if they wanna see it or not, right?
- 53:04But it's always present.
- 53:05It's always present.
- 53:06And you can choose to align with it, recognize it, learn from it, grow from it.
- 53:12Or you can choose to ignore it.
- 53:15But it's there whether you wanna believe it or not, and sometimes I feel like they have waited so long and been so patient with us to see it.
- 53:25Well, I think it's, it's an evolution.
- 53:29Just like anything.
- 53:30I mean, I believe that, I believe, this is just my personal belief, but that horses are a gift to mankind who have come alongside of us to really, I mean, horses have had a firsthand.
- 53:44Role in the evolution of mankind.
- 53:48It's true, right?
- 53:49It's true.
- 53:49Whether it's, you know, hunting, plowing, building, hauling, fighting, you know, fighting.
- 53:57Those are all the old ways.
- 54:00But again, as we look at evolution, we don't need them to do those things anymore.
- 54:05So their role is changing and, you know, I don't know, I'm, I mean, personally, I'm not.
- 54:14Interested in the, the competition space Personally, it, it has no interest.
- 54:20Been there, done that.
- 54:22But what's what has happened, and I believe the future role of the horse in helping us in our evolution is we are disconnected.
- 54:32We are disconnected from nature, we are disconnected from ourselves.
- 54:37We are so.
- 54:40Unintentionally, well, intentionally, but unintentionally to us brainwashed by overstimulation of information technology.
- 54:49You know, we, we have lost touch with who we are and how we were meant to, to show up and move through life.
- 54:56And that's what horses are showing us now.
- 54:59They're bringing us home to ourself.
- 55:01That is so beautifully said.
- 55:03And you know, some of the, even some of the phrases that you chose are, are in previous podcast episodes echoed by other guests and that that was like such a beautiful, oh, I loved what you just said.
- 55:16I I think because that's so important, this might be a good place to stop.
- 55:21Yeah.
- 55:21I love it.
- 55:22Thank you so much for the opportunity to, to share and chat.
- 55:27No, this is wonderful.
- 55:28Thank you so much, Amanda.
- 55:30I am, I'm, I'm very pleased to have had you on the show.
- 55:34Thank you.
- 55:35And if people want to join our school community I.
- 55:39If you wanna get involved.
- 55:41With the community.
- 55:42It's my website is equine wisdom institute.org, which I'm sure you'll put in the comments, but if you go to the website, you can join the school group from there.
- 55:51And it's really just a community.
- 55:53I say it's a community for people who have heard their horses talk and they don't know what the heck to do about it.
- 55:59Or they've been talking to their horses for a long time and they wanna share and help other people who are new.
- 56:04So it's really an evolved community a judgment free.
- 56:09Place where you can go and you can ask questions or you can share your wisdom and help elevate the consciousness of horse owners.
- 56:17It's beautiful.
- 56:18I've en I'm enjoying the community so much.
- 56:20I'm so glad I found you.
- 56:22Thank you for being a part of it.
- 56:24Yeah.
- 56:24And thank you for the opportunity to come on your podcast.
- 56:27Yeah, no, thank you.
- 56:28Thank you so much.