Mako came to his human as a very nervous and fearful horse. He was unable to be trained because he would panic often and worry about his surroundings. He spooked twice for no apparent reason, once throwing his rider; but instead of running, he walked over to his rider as if he wasn’t sure what had happened. As it turns out, Mako’s previous owner beat him with a shovel when he wouldn’t do what he was “supposed” to do; he was treated ver poorly early in life. He is a quirky horse, and is very intuitive, and those quirks were not respected, but punished.
We first tapped on the rider’s anger about how the abuse was obviously still having an impact on Mako, and her feelings about wanting to help Mako but not knowing how. We also talked about her feelings when riding and how Mako may be feeling some of her uncertainty and spooking because her outside appearance was not matching her internal feelings. Mako started yawning and becoming visibly tired (eyes half closing, head getting lower) while we were tapping on the rider. It was apparent he was processing her emotions. We then tapped on Mako, what happened to him by his previous owner, his nervousness and not trusting his surroundings or his rider. He displayed very encouraging behavioral signals that he was releasing/processing, such as walking in circles, putting his nose on his hoof, blowing, and rubbing his head on his rider.
His rider had a cognitive shift/realization at the end of our session that internally, she was feeling (when around Mako) a lot like the way she described Mako was feeling – so much responsibility and uncertainty. She also recognized that both recent times he spooked, her mistrust and internal emotions could’ve led to his panicky feeling because her outside didn’t match her inside and he most likely felt it.
After only two sessions, Mako was much less nervous and distracted in the ring, easier for his rider to handle, and seemed much calmer overall. He has not spooked again.