Thursday, September 21, 2006

Retreat From Reason

EoR discovered the Yemaya Horse Retreat while researching brain laterality in horses.

Have you ever felt that you and your horse should be able to form a better partnership? Do you want the horse to look at you as someone he can trust his life with, as well as a buddy, partner, and a creative individual who does "fun stuff?"


Stevi Weissbach, the author of this site, has some profoundly interesting ideas about achieving this goal. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be fictional ideas at best.

This means that if the horse is uncertain or feels threatened, he or she will do everything possible to leave the situation, by either leaving physically or dissociating emotionally. What dissociation means is that something traumatic has occurred so part of the animal’s soul has left its body for a period of time. Have you have ever seen a horse with a "glazed over" look, or they are completely panic stricken? A part of their soul will have left its body because it is no longer safe, given the situation. [...] Offer them your heart and with it, tell them of your spirit, your dreams, and what you want from the relationship, and they will tell you what they want if you are listening quietly. Horses are meant to be equals, as another spirit journeying in a world we have to share.


EoR has seen panic stricken horses. They are definitely not soul-reduced entities requiring chatting about dreams and so on. They are dangerous, thrashing masses weighing up to half a tonne expressing quite vividly their survival instincts.

In the article on "Intuitive Horsemanship" Stevi asks in the very first paragraph whether horses are telepathic. By the third paragraph (with no digression to explore any evidence) the 'reason' for their telepathy is being given:

The reason horses can communicate through telepathy is because they are honest with each other when they are scared, upset or content.


EoR could discuss lack of logical rigidity, the ability for horses to respond to subtle body language cues as a survival strategy, or wishful thinking on the human's part, but he'll just respond with the much simpler: bullshit. But wait a minute, the true believer says, you can prove this for yourself!

If you believe your horse can listen to your thoughts, try this.
Think of a task you want him or her to do.
For example: Walk on, or go forward.


Apparently this won't work if you don't "believe" in it, but any horse watched in a paddock for any length of time (usually quite short) will walk forward. It's not natural grazing behaviour, it's proof of telepathic powers! Try it - but make sure you believe in it really and truly and deeply, and trust wholly in the power of the magic fairy dust, and you'll see precisely the results you came to see). Of course, if this were really possible, predators have had more than enough time to develop their own horse-controlling telepathic powers: "Dinner time! Come over here!"

In the magic kingdom of Yemaya, telepathy (which is a given) works through the agency of auras (another given, of course):

Everything and everyone has an energy field. Some would call it an auric field. To "see" where this field starts on your horse, walk up to your horse from a distance. There will be a point in which you will notice your horse responds. Whether he twitches his ears, drops his head, or makes a "be-line" for the hills, he is showing you where this zone starts. Each being’s space is at different lengths, and everyone responds differently when their "energy field" is entered. When you know you have reached your horse’s auric field, you want to have permission to cross it. Stop approaching when you are on the edge of his or her energy field. You want to wait for a positive feeling that invites you to approach.

May the force be with you ;)


Telepathy. Auras. Energy fields. All much more likely answers than something so mundane as personal space and a survival instinct.

No! If you give out the right "vibes" then

He will understand that you are truly here to help him.


At least this claim gets supporting references. To Quantum and Subspace Biology (EoR's always wanted to meet a "subspace biologist" but, alas, never has). And a "crop circle research" site. Oh dear.

Meanwhile, Andrew McLean (The Truth About Horses, Viking Books 2003, pp20-21), who is not quoted on Stevi's inspirational site, says

The truth is that the horse has simply grasped the correct response during trial-and-error learning. The failure of horses to comply with the aids is often seen as a moral failing on the part of the horse, not a failure of the training system. [...[ Horse training is not a magical process; it is a systematic science.


Unless you happen to be Dr Weissbach-Doolittle, and can talk to the animals.

1 comment:

  1. Well EoR, being an equine (albeit a stuffed one), tends to spend most of his times with the horsey set and, consequently, encounters a lot of woo that way.

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