Latest / The Horsehuman Connection Matrix / Charlie Bucks
Transcript
- 0:01Hi, I am Ishi Abel with the Horse Human Connection Matrix.
- 0:05Today I'm gonna tell you a story and I give you some background talk about several different things, including what it's like to have an autistic brain.
- 0:14The line that I've been walking for nearly 10 years about riding horses and how I interact with them and what I call horse ship.
- 0:23After telling you the story of what happened last week, I am going to ask a couple of way more experienced horse people.
- 0:33What their take on it is, what they would do to proceed and for them to just comment on their perspective of what happens.
- 0:42Because when we walk two worlds, when we connect with horses and want horse ship.
- 0:51We have to leave a lot of things behind and just like we wanna create a habitual ness in training horses, we have been habit habituated in how other horse people trained us and whatever tradition that was, and it's hard to shake some of that loose.
- 1:12And our emotional state is constantly reflected.
- 1:19And I believe that whatever we're processing unconsciously and constantly, our brains are computers.
- 1:27We are constantly processing whatever it is that we're processing is creating our world.
- 1:34Because I truly believe that our thoughts are words, our deeds and our actions create the reality that we live in.
- 1:43So you may have heard me talk about my horse Charlie before.
- 1:46Charlie is a 9-year-old Mustang that I bought from a young girl.
- 1:51She was 18 and she had gotten the horse from the person who, the trainer that took it from the, I'm wanna call it the reservation, who took the horse from the Mustang pens.
- 2:05And Halter trained it.
- 2:06And this girl, it was this young girl's first project on her own to train this horse, and she had some mentoring.
- 2:14When I first put the horse in the round pen, it was frantic, it was anxious.
- 2:19It kept doing quick turns about the size of the pen.
- 2:22It had been kept in.
- 2:24It did not demonstrate balance, it did not demonstrate any kind of calmness or regulation.
- 2:32And I took with me a woman I used to respect quite a bit, who'd been a horse woman her whole life and had successfully trained many, many horses in old school methods with a big heart and wanted her opinion on it.
- 2:49We brought this horse home and the story that the young girl had told me is that she'd done a lot of groundwork.
- 2:56She'd gotten on the horse once and it had bolted, not bucked, but bolted.
- 3:02And I thought, you know, consulting with this experienced horse, woman that, you know, I think we can start at the beginning, retrain the horse and it shouldn't be a problem.
- 3:14So I wanna back up a little bit and tell you what my my experience has been at that point.
- 3:20Training horses.
- 3:21So I have another horse named Csy, who you've heard me talk about and I had a mentor help me train Csy.
- 3:28That's Issa.
- 3:28You've probably heard her speak.
- 3:30If you've listened to all of my podcasts iE was a checked out horse, so there was never a fear of her taking off or running.
- 3:39She was really checked out, so we had to really coax her.
- 3:43In fact, it was three months getting on her back frequently before I could actually get her to take steps because she was so afraid of ropes, and she'd been so mistreated that like kicking her or waving a rope behind her was just not an option.
- 3:59It wasn't an option.
- 4:01I remember one lesson Carissa gave me on her old mare, where for an hour she had me sit on this horse in the pasture and predict which leg would move next to bring my awareness to how the horse moved, because that would translate into how I would communicate with Sipsy to get her feet moving.
- 4:25Oh, Chris has a lot of.
- 4:28A lot of methods, a lot of things that really work that I think other people don't know about.
- 4:35So my experience was that I had helped train Sipsy by being given homework to do, and that Carissa actually trained her and worked her when she came once a month.
- 4:50And then I would do the homework and learn what to do and create.
- 4:54The relationship with this horse.
- 4:56So I'm planning to do something similar with this horse, Charlie, as I bring him home.
- 5:00That's the plan.
- 5:02I also wanna include in my history in, in my conscious mind, what happened when I ended up sending Csy to another trainer to put some finish work on her.
- 5:13I wanted her to understand her leads better.
- 5:15I wanted her to be able to drop into elope, which she'd been resistant to do.
- 5:19This was after she'd had years of training.
- 5:23That was very slow.
- 5:25So I've gone really, really slow in whatever I do with untrained horses because I don't wanna make a mistake.
- 5:31I don't wanna create a trauma in them that then I have to backtrack to try to figure out, because I'm not sure what I'm doing to begin with.
- 5:39I have to have help.
- 5:41And you know, we all know what we know.
- 5:43We all start where we start.
- 5:46So that's my history with, with bringing Charlie home.
- 5:49That's my history with sending Csy.
- 5:51Oh, I sent her to this other trainer and I believed that this woman would be okay.
- 5:57I sent Chris a video of the woman riding.
- 5:59She seemed like she could ride.
- 6:01Okay.
- 6:02She got CSI's attention right away.
- 6:03She was very very big and definitely in charge, and the woman said I could come visit once a week.
- 6:11We would check in and she didn't check in with me.
- 6:14I tried to visit.
- 6:15She told me it wasn't a good time, three different times.
- 6:19And finally I got in the trailer and went down there before she was done to find my horse had dropped like 50 pounds, which wasn't a bad thing'cause she was overweight.
- 6:30But in that amount of time it seemed a bit severe.
- 6:34And when I came and found Cyps E, she was in a paddock with another horse.
- 6:39I.
- 6:42Who wasn't letting her eat and she was just standing there completely checked out.
- 6:45She didn't acknowledge me, she didn't look at me.
- 6:48She was just inward, like when I had got like worse than when I had got her.
- 6:53So when I brought her home, it was another year on the ground to reestablish trust and relationship before we could pick up our training again.
- 7:02And a lot of people disagree with me like, oh, that wasn't necessary, before or during the time that Carissa was mentoring me, training Cyps EI went with another young woman who used to come out to the ranch all the time and, and ride and, and play with horses in the round pen and do whatever we do, try on equipment and go for rides.
- 7:24And we decided to go to a competition where there were.
- 7:32I believe there were six trainers in six round pens who were each brought in a horse that was only halter broke.
- 7:40And in a weekend they had a weekend to use whatever methods they had in front of people.
- 7:45There was an audience to train these horses and then ride them through a mountain trail and obstacle course that was set up in an indoor arena.
- 7:55And we went both days, all day and watched these different trainers with these different horses, and some of them were more successful than others.
- 8:05We watched horses be very dysregulated.
- 8:07We watched trainers go up, come down, be aggressive, advance retreat.
- 8:15Use timing, release, all kinds of the things that natural horsemanship does.
- 8:20And at the end of the two days I said, sure, you can do that, but at what cost?
- 8:26What is that horse gonna be like later?
- 8:28That's that one trainer and that horse over a weekend.
- 8:32When that horse goes back to its owner, do you think the owner has those same skills, the same body language, and will be able to take and proceed and just ride that horse?
- 8:41No.
- 8:42Absolutely not.
- 8:43No.
- 8:45So for decades it's been standard to, oh, won't you just go take your horse to a trainer and put 30 days on it and get it back and it'll be fine.
- 8:55Well, sure if everybody speaks the same language.
- 8:58If everybody gets big and aggressive and dominant and knows how to do that all the time, that might work.
- 9:05That worked for a long time.
- 9:07Were the horse treated like slaves?
- 9:09Absolutely.
- 9:10So some people will take 90 days to put on a horse and that's better.
- 9:16I see a lot of horse trainers quit and they all have the same complaint.
- 9:22I can't help the people.
- 9:23I can train a horse, but I can't get people to understand what I've done.
- 9:31That's a big problem for the horse, for the owner, the keeper, and for the frustrated horse trainer.
- 9:43It's really hard to find somebody to train a horse, which is why I took Sipsy, you know, an hour away to this woman who I thought would do good by her who did not.
- 9:54That's why I've waited and done four years of groundwork with Charlie not wanting to make a mistake because my favorite person mentor has a full-time job doing something else and a farm and family, and not a lot of time.
- 10:11That's why I talk about this stuff because there's change and the change has come.
- 10:17The change is coming.
- 10:18It's, it's happening.
- 10:19It's already happened in a lot of respects, but the change brings with it more questions.
- 10:27If we're gonna allow them choice, we have to stand by it, and that's hard.
- 10:33It's really hard because people wanna ride horses because we're habituated to riding horses because we have, in our mind still that language of just get bigger, make the horse, do it.
- 10:45Take'em through it again.
- 10:46Take'em, get off, and make'em do it.
- 10:48And then get back on.
- 10:49Make'em, make'em.
- 10:49Make'em.
- 10:51Dominance.
- 10:52Dominance, dominance.
- 10:55I found myself in two very, very different places last week.
- 11:00We went into the round pen.
- 11:01I went into the round pen with a woman who teaches Continuum, which is a quiet introspective movement meditation.
- 11:10This woman also has a horse and she choreographs with horses and she's very present and another woman who spends a lot of time meditating and does EFT tapping.
- 11:23So both of these women have a meditation practice, are very centered, grounded.
- 11:30Gentle and wanting to connect, and we could come into that round pen with no agenda.
- 11:37We spent seven hours in beautiful horse time with everybody's nervous systems, relaxed, playing with crystal bowls and hand pans, and tapping and connecting, and we really were welcomed into their culture, their world of slow and present.
- 11:59Two days later, I had a trainer come who I had sent Charlie to several months ago to put some rides on him because I have been afraid to get on this horse.
- 12:11I had back surgery.
- 12:12I'm 62 years old and there was something in his history, something in my intuition that has said, don't get on.
- 12:24I watched Carissa ride him.
- 12:26I watched somebody else ride him.
- 12:28I hired two other trainers who couldn't see where he was and didn't wanna get on him either.
- 12:35I mean, having a horse stand still at the mounting block, taking a step or two that's an easy fix.
- 12:40It can do that in 10 minutes, but neither one of these other young women would get on him either.
- 12:48So the horse has a don't get on me vibe.
- 12:50Even though he's takes a saddle, he's very calm, he loves to come up and, and nuzzle and be close to you, and he's friendly and he wants to be a good partner.
- 13:02So I took him down and had this, this other trainer put some rides on him and, and she has similar philosophies, so I thought, well, this will work great.
- 13:11So she did that and I went down and I wrote him, I wrote him on a little trail ride and it was great.
- 13:17I could feel him come up under me.
- 13:19I could feel that he wanted to be a partner.
- 13:21So the thing that I'd like to add about being afraid to get on Charlie, like other people had hesitated and one of them had actually figured out that she knew the horse by a different name'cause I had changed his name.
- 13:36That the young girl that sold him to me had told this woman that he had bucked, but she told me that he only bolted.
- 13:43So I think in my mind there's always been this possibility that what ended up happening could happen.
- 13:50And even though I had this great relationship and still have a great relationship with the horse I didn't wanna get on him.
- 13:57And so I did this tapping the EFT, tapping with my friend who.
- 14:03Did it with me and the horse, and normally doing it with the horse, you use a surrogate with an animal, but he was right there, so she tapped right on his body with him and with me about both of our fears, about my fear of getting on and about his fear of humans from being a Mustang and being branded and caught and separated at the pens and GED and possibly injured there.
- 14:27Okay.
- 14:29And there's one thing that I've come to in walking this line in between how I wanna be with horses and what tradition says, and what dominant says and what's safe and what's not safe.
- 14:43When do I wanna do what?
- 14:44And, and a while back, like probably six years ago, I came to the conclusion that for safety, health, and travel, I would be the leader.
- 14:54I will be the benevolent leader.
- 14:56I will use dominance if I have to during those times because they are under my care and I'm responsible and I have no problem stepping into leadership.
- 15:06Maybe part of the problem is I don't know enough about horse training to be able to train horses, but I'm not actually trying to train horses.
- 15:15I'm trying to hang out with horses.
- 15:17I'm trying to be coached to train horses, and I would still like to ride, and I don't know why it's so hard.
- 15:25And I'm looking forward to people, you know, weighing in on this and and telling me what they think.
- 15:31So, and I don't think I'm the only person with this type of dilemma because more and more people are waking up to what's possible with horses.
- 15:39They're waking up to what happens when we can connect with them in these ways.
- 15:46And a lot of people just quit writing.
- 15:50I mean, that might be where I am.
- 15:51I, I don't know.
- 15:53But then she came here a couple months later and we did fine on flat ground and we took him up on a trail on a hill.
- 16:05And so in this situation, and give you some more background, the situation is I am.
- 16:16I have complex PSDI am doing EMDR.
- 16:19I am almost done.
- 16:20It works really well and, i'm happier than I've ever been.
- 16:23I'm less reactive than I've ever been, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it and having no more trauma in my life.
- 16:30Okay.
- 16:30I say that with a smile because we all know life happens, right?
- 16:33But at least the cumulative stuff will be gone, and I'm way, way more functional.
- 16:37But what happens with EMDR is while you're working in a memory chain, while you're processing and reprogramming that particular memory.
- 16:47The issue of that memory shows up in my life every single time.
- 16:52So part of what I've been working on this week has been choice, saying what I need to say, where's the edge of control?
- 17:02That sometimes there's just nothing you can do.
- 17:05Sometimes you can say your peace, but you can't control other people's lives.
- 17:09You can't control their actions.
- 17:11You could be forceful and again, like this is like how alike is this with horse training and dominance and making people do something, right?
- 17:22So this trainer and I both have a lot of experience, but we've experience in different realms.
- 17:28We have different experiences and we've had different teachers.
- 17:34I trust her to be her own person, and I have hired her to do a job.
- 17:40So we're, we're in the round pen and we're talking about equipment.
- 17:45We'd had a BLL on Charlie and I was gonna go ride with her, so I needed the BLL for sipsy, or somebody needed to wear a bit or a halter.
- 17:53So we chose a riding halter with knots before Charlie.
- 18:00To give up the buzz so Sipsy could wear it.
- 18:03I'm riding in a bareback pad, she's riding in a balanced ride saddle.
- 18:10And I ask, as I always do, do you want a helmet?
- 18:15Because helmets have saved my life twice and because when I was taught, I was taught, always wear a helmet.
- 18:21You never know what's gonna happen.
- 18:23I've got some really dented up helmets and I have a good brain still.
- 18:27Thank God.
- 18:29So I asked a helmet, she didn't want a helmet.
- 18:32We walked up my driveway, walked up the road, which scares the shit outta me.
- 18:37'cause sometimes there's log trucks, but there weren't, it was late in the day and up to a trail and we went up this trail.
- 18:48And the horse.
- 18:49My horse didn't wanna go, go through the gate.
- 18:52She didn't wanna go through the gate to, to the trail, and I had to get off and walk her.
- 18:56I had to walk her for a while and then I got back on.
- 19:00And I should say that the one trail ride I've been on in I four or five years is on Charlie, down at her place.
- 19:12So when I've ridden, I've ridden up and down the driveway.
- 19:14I've ridden in the pasture.
- 19:15I've ridden for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
- 19:18'cause that's all I wanna do and that's all my horse wants to do, has wanted to do.
- 19:24So as we're, as we're doing this, Charlie's going along just fine.
- 19:27He walks out like he could keep up with any gated horse, like he's got a nice forward walk.
- 19:33And we started up, my horse was, was misbehaving.
- 19:38My horse was saying, I don't wanna do that.
- 19:40So here's a point at which I need to make a choice.
- 19:45Am I gonna force her?
- 19:47Is old school coming back into my head, make her do it.
- 19:50Get off and make her do it.
- 19:51Don't leave off here.
- 19:52That's bad training.
- 19:54And I can tell you that Carissa's told me many, many times it's okay to just get off.
- 19:57That's okay.
- 19:59It's better to get off than to get hurt.
- 20:02It's not gonna destroy your relationship.
- 20:05Like staying on my.
- 20:08So I got, I got off her and I did make her, I made her, I made her go up this little berm of dirt, which, you know, we walked it three times.
- 20:16I got back on her and I made her do it with me on her back, and that was a success.
- 20:20I probably should have stopped there, but I'm looking up the hill.
- 20:25I.
- 20:26And the last time we'd walked, we'd done some horse hiking on this, in this place, on this trail.
- 20:31And the last time Charlie had been really interested in what was up that hill.
- 20:34So I suggested that she take him up the hill and see what happened.
- 20:38And I would just walk ssy up the hill and it might take me a little while.
- 20:42And she did that.
- 20:43So I'm halfway up the hill walking my horse.
- 20:46She's at the top of the hill and I can see them escalating.
- 20:49She's turning him in circles again.
- 20:51He has a halter on.
- 20:53He's had trouble balancing.
- 20:56And I say, how about you get off him and you ride Sipsy and I'll just walk with Charlie for a while.
- 21:04That's what felt right to me, to my knowing.
- 21:08We gotta listen to our intuition.
- 21:10And she said, no, no.
- 21:14I can teach him how to navigate down this hill and how to carry my weight.
- 21:18I'm like, okay.
- 21:19So I'm watching them and Charlie and I had an agreement if.
- 21:24You need me to get off your back instead of bucking, I want you to take your nose and touch my boot.
- 21:30And he had done that to me the couple two times that I'd been on him since I'd brought him home from her house.
- 21:35I'd been on him for five minutes and he put his nose on my boot and I got off again.
- 21:41There's nothing wrong with getting off.
- 21:43I mean, you're not thinking a lot of forward progress, but in my mind, there's a reason he's asking me to get off.
- 21:50And yeah, that's a hard edge.
- 21:51Is that the reason?
- 21:52Like we always doubt ourselves.
- 21:55I set up this communication.
- 21:56Can I trust it?
- 21:59Does it mean something else?
- 22:00Can I push through it?
- 22:01Where is the edge?
- 22:03Where's the edge?
- 22:06So I see him do this with her.
- 22:07He puts his nose on her boot and he looks at me, aren't you gonna do something?
- 22:13That's how I read it.
- 22:15Again, I've paid her to do a job.
- 22:17I've spoken my piece.
- 22:20The next thing that happens is he starts running down the hill that's covered with big gravel.
- 22:27And I'm like, oh no, this is not good.
- 22:29This is not good.
- 22:30She can't grab a one arm stop in this halter.
- 22:36She would've, if she'd put a bit in his mouth, she would've been able to.
- 22:40And next thing you know, he starts bucking and she comes up over the top of him.
- 22:47And just one flip in the air and one shoulder roll flip on the ground, and I'm like, oh my gosh, she's hurt.
- 22:59She says, my clavicle is broken.
- 23:02I don't doubt that one bit.
- 23:04She's also scraped up.
- 23:05She's hit her head.
- 23:06I'm holding my horse.
- 23:08I'm trying to calm Charlie down, who is still bucking and is coming down to her, so I move him over.
- 23:16So.
- 23:17He, she's not in his trajectory as he's bucking down the hill and I bring my horse closer trying to get the rain, which is a loop rope from a halter that is now on his front foot.
- 23:35And I try to calm him.
- 23:36I'm grounding my feet.
- 23:37I'm like, it's okay, Charlie.
- 23:39It's okay.
- 23:40And I think I'm gonna get him calm and just when I think I'm gonna get him calm, I step over to try to get the rope.
- 23:46I let go of my horse and she's like, no, it's a much better idea for us to run home.
- 23:50So they ran off down the hill with him.
- 23:54Rain looped over front leg, her trailing her loop also.
- 24:00I'm like, I just hope they go home.
- 24:01I hope that's what happens.
- 24:02'cause we're half a mile away, maybe a little more, and there's a road with traffic on it, which scared the crap outta me, but my brain is offline.
- 24:15Like I.
- 24:16I am in reptilian brain.
- 24:18I am fight or flight.
- 24:19My mouth is dry.
- 24:20I have adrenaline.
- 24:21I don't know what to do next.
- 24:23I'm barely thinking and I'm like, okay, is she okay?
- 24:26And she's like, go get the horses.
- 24:27I'm fine.
- 24:28I'm like, no, I'm not leaving you here.
- 24:30So I get her up, she's able to walk.
- 24:34We try to assess her neck, her back, and thank goodness she's young.
- 24:39And we proceed to walk down the hill.
- 24:42So these, these two things that happened last week are in such sharp, sharp contrast.
- 24:49We have this lovely seven hour day where there's no sense of time and nothing but connection and regulation and the series of pretty horrible events that end in a trip to the emergency room and a horse that I don't know what to do next with i need to include that part of where my subconscious brain has been last week and what I've been processing has manifested in real time, and the traumatic memory that I'm processing is huge.
- 25:32It was my son's suicide, where I also felt very helpless, tried to help, said what I could, and in the end I could do nothing.
- 25:46And it repeats itself because we create with our thoughts, our words, our deeds, and our actions.
- 25:53And let me add our subconscious.
- 25:56So, I mean, there's a lot of things that should, I have waited for a different week.
- 25:59I mean, there's always something that we're processing.
- 26:01Right.
- 26:02And the trainer.
- 26:06As I'm apologizing for what happened to her, I mean, it's my horse.
- 26:10It's not my fault, but it's my horse.
- 26:13She keeps saying things happen for a reason.
- 26:15It's okay.
- 26:15Maybe he saved me from getting on a worse horse where I might have been killed, which is a great attitude to have, right?
- 26:23So I don't know if it's because my, I have an autistic brain that I see all of the many layers of this.
- 26:31You know, I've had friends say to me, you know, people just don't think that much about stuff, is she not like you do?
- 26:40And I've heard Elon Musk in one interview said, you have no idea what it's like to be in my brain.
- 26:48And I have a small idea, like his brain is way bigger with way more ideas than mine.
- 26:56And, and mine will shut off probably thanks to the horses.
- 27:01But the way we have to think, the way we, we have to completely.
- 27:07See all the different sides and causations and threads that are related to any particular issue.
- 27:16Like I want part of this to be about that.
- 27:20I want people to understand that because if you don't think about things deeply and, and maybe more people do, then I think, I don't know, like we're still learning so much about autism and autistic brains and.
- 27:32On the spectrum.
- 27:34This has just come into my awareness.
- 27:36That makes so much sense.
- 27:38Every autistic person is gonna have times where they're dysregulated and overwhelmed, and then they're very functional.
- 27:46And within that we also have a lot of people that have developmental disabilities where they're very challenged, not necessarily because of autism, but in addition to autism.
- 27:59And they're gonna function well and function not well with overwhelm, but their base level.
- 28:07Is different, just like there are different levels of iq, emotional intelligence, and all kinds of other perspectives in people that are not on the spectrum.
- 28:19And I think all of this is important to understand because the terms that we're using, like disability or high functioning or not accurate to what we're trying to describe, they're not helpful at all.
- 28:35In the least.
- 28:36I know that's off subject, but it's not because we're talking about my experience.
- 28:40My podcast is about horses and about autism and how these things are interrelated.
- 28:45And it's also about psychology.
- 28:49So I am gonna call in people.
- 28:54To comment on this and my big question is what do I do?
- 28:58Like am I at a point, and I was saying this in the round pen, right before we went on the trail ride.
- 29:04I might be done riding, I might be done riding because my horse Sy doesn't really wanna be ridden anymore.
- 29:11She wants to hang out in the round pen with singing bowls and dancers and tappers and people that are just being present and wanna be.
- 29:20Because what horses seem to really be here to teach us is how to be, and I think the Kai what's her name?
- 29:34I can't think of her last name, Kai.
- 29:36With the telepathy tapes, she's getting to a point where I think she's saying that the nonverbal autistic children that meet on the hill telepathically are saying the same thing.
- 29:48Our world is about to shift the science that's now documenting how intention manifests in the field, how powerful intention in our subconscious minds are.
- 30:03The science is catching up.
- 30:07I can't help but think it's related to ai, but here I go, on and on.
- 30:11Lots of stuff to think about.
- 30:13The main question is here, what do I do with Charlie?
- 30:16The dilemma, do I just have him be a therapy horse, let him be, or do I try to get him trained after Now probably having two bad experiences under saddle.
- 30:37One of the reasons that I told Sissy that she needed to be trained was if something happens to me, you need to have value as a horse to other people so you don't end up at the slaughterhouse.
- 30:48That's why you need to know how to be ridden.
- 30:50What are we doing?
- 30:51What are we doing with horses?
- 30:55I can't wait to hear what they have to say.
- 30:58Thanks for listening.