Faraona (and I) Go To School

Faraona and I are on perhaps the biggest journey of our relationship.  After she came off 6 weeks of stall rest last fall when she re-injured her foot, she had so much pent-up energy that she was almost impossible for me to handle.  It took more courage than I thought I had to stand in front of her as she reared up on her hind legs the first few times I lunged her.  She spooked at everything.  I didn’t know if or how I would ever be able to deal with her immense energy.

But that immense energy is also what makes her look spectacular in the dressage arena.  If that energy can be shaped in a positive way, it results in a trot that just floats, and an air about her that says, “look at me!”.  Because the circumstances of Faraona coming into my life were very synchronous, I have always felt she was meant to be with me.  If that was so, I was going to have to dig deep and learn how to connect with her dominant, pushy – but also scaredy-cat – energy.

I spent the winter on Youtube, looking at different horsemanship clinicians.  There was something about Josh Nichol that attracted me.  His language about energy and connection were similar to what I have learned in my work with horses and humans in trauma recovery.  What I didn’t know is that he lives in Alberta!

I applied to every one of his clinics for 2025, but they were all full.  Synchronicity again showed up when someone dropped out of his Cochrane clinic and that spot opened up for me. (I later met the woman who dropped out because the horse she was going to take was injured.  She could have taken her other horse but, for some reason, chose to give up her spot.  My good fortune!)

I am now trying to apply his teachings in my interactions with Faraona.  Funny thing, it is not only changing her, it is changing me.  I am being led to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of what ‘connection’ is, not just to the reins when I am riding, but in every interaction with Faraona.  It is what horseman and clinician Mark Rashid calls 'powerful softness.' Again, the horses are teaching me how to be a better human.

I think my lessons also apply to parents with children who are ‘difficult’.  I am finding out that, if I work with the parents first and help them with their own ways of being in the world, their children change too.  It is somehow in the meeting of pressure with powerful softness that Josh and Mark talk about.  I am so excited about this next step in my evolution as a horse person and as a trauma recovery facilitator!

#traumarecovery #joshnichol #ReclaimConnection