Lauren’s article about Bruce’s work

Lauren Allen’s article about Bruce’s work came out this month in the Aiken Horse magazine. She is an excellent writer so we were really excited to have her experience the work and put it into words! To read the article, check on this link:
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/The-Aiken-Horse/The_Aiken_Horse_Summer_09/2009061901/73.html

letters from Cheyenne

Our friend Cheyenne has been working with MaLeyla, one of our horses. She wrote MaLeyla a letter and we asked her if we could share it on our blog:

“Hi my name is Cheyenne. I taked horse riding lessons. It is very fun but kinda hard. The title is named MaLeyla because the horse that I work with is named MaLeyla. She is fun to work with. The four things that I learned are movement, direction, rhythm and track. Track is very hard because you have to keep the horse on the rail. that is very hard for me.

Dear MaLeyla,
Your brother is harder to work with because it takes more pressure. He is a lot taller than you. When I jumped off I almost fell down. I saw your brother jump over something and I hope you can do it too.

Cheyenne”

New video on our youtube channel

Just a note to let everybody know that we’ve added another training video to our yourtube channel. We saved this one in a different format so it seems to be easier to view. We’d love your feedback! It was an interesting session with a young horse…

visit the site http://www.youtube.com/naturesview

We had an interesting question come up in a session over the weekend. A client asked, “How do you use the alpha mindset with someone at work when that person is almost impossible to deal with.” We talked through the situation and came up with the following thoughts…First of all, its pretty much like dealing with the horse. The alpha mindset is, after all, “How can I help you?” and whether the horse (or the co-worker) likes it or even realizes it, if you have the alpha mindset, your actions will be with that end in mind. That doesn’t mean that you always do whatever the co-worker wants you to do; that won’t really help him/her at all. Just like a person who won’t put enough pressure on the horse in the round pen, if you always help your co-worker you aren’t really helping in the long run. It reminds me of parents who don’t want their children to go through the hardships that they went through – they do everything for them, or pave their way through life. In many cases they actually “disempower” them. We learn from our mistakes; it always shocks me when parents come into the school to blast the teacher when their child has done something to get in trouble! But back to the question: as long as your attitude is “How can I help you” and not “Do what I tell you to do” you are on your way! Also, what is your “picture?” Do both of you have the same picture or not? For example: there is a standard way to do a task (making the bed for example). Let’s say the co-worker is doing a shabby job at making the bed the correct way. Do you say anything or not? If you don’t, why not? Wouldn’t you like to know? If for some reason the co-worker is cutting corners in this task, who’s to say it won’t happen in more serious circumstances. Don’t let the past interfere with moment…let the “picture” tell you what to do.

feedback

Just got a note back from a new client who is allowing us to share her thoughts here…

“All I knew is that my roomate and friend Katherine from college has been battling cancer for years and that I hadn’t seen her in a long while. We planned a reunion. Zelda and myself descended on Katherine at her sweet home in the mountains. She wanted us so much to share in an experience that has been moving and meaningful to her in her fight against cancer. She wasted no time and early the next morning I was standing in front of this cowboy rangler (Bruce Anderson–where in the world did this guy come from?) holding a weird rope alone in a circular pen with a HORSE. Before long I was confronting hidden aspects about myself and how I move through this life’s journey and began creating a connection with this great animal. Katherine had told me, “One session with him was better than 20 years of psychotherapy.” And soon I was realizing why.

When I was placed in a situation where there was just me, (my arms, feet, body, mind, spirit) and an unknown natural powerful being (the horse), and I realized every thought I made determined the outcome of the experience with the horse and myself, a strange thin g started to happen. I started to become highly aware of how my mind worked and the incredible degree of control I have to observe and alter the thoughts I create. This realization slowed me down to the extreme. I became highly intentional about every step, gesture, sound and purpose. Everything I did revealed to me my unconscious habits and preconceived thoughts and behaviors.

Bruce led me the same way he works with the horses, gently and with confidence that I too have an inate wisdom about life and know better than anyone else who I really am. When this realization came forth the horse’s relation to me exposed the wounds or weaknesses (also my strengths) I carry. By responding to how the horse reacted to me and observing the thoughts that created my actions I was able to work deeply on my perceptions and behaviors in the world. By listening and observing the horse, I began a journey to wholeness. I also fell in love with the presence of horses and have been looking for ways to include them in my life regularly.

Later in the day I saw a remarkable transformation occur with Katherine. Because if was intensely personal and extremely difficult to explain, I will not attempt. I will only say that through Bruce’s trusting and caring hand, Katherine was able to face her fear of cancer. I can honestly s ay I saw visually what paralyzing fear can do to a person. Yet, once she looked in cancer’s face it wasn’t paralyzing anymore. She is free.

That moment will stay with me until my last breath. Thank you Bruce, Katherine and Zelda for the honor of being in that moment with you all. And for your courage, Katherine.”

Thank you for sharing your thoughts… we hope that they will help someone else~

The Triple Crown

What an exciting time in racing! After watching the Derby in awe of Mine That Bird, it was hard to decide who we were “rooting for” in the Preakness~ we loved watching Calvin Borel too and you just can’t help hoping he’ll do well too! Just can’t help but think that if the race had been a little bit longer, you never know what might have happened yesterday! Makes us excited that we have a little thoroughbred on the way…maybe one day…

Zeus update

Just an update on Zeus… not only is he out trail riding on a regular basis; yesterday on a ride out, he actually ponied ANOTHER horse! Talk about growing up!

EAGALA conference

It was so nice to attend the EAGALA conference in Asheville, NC last month and see the number of people in attendance. The horse world is constantly changing and growing and it is wonderful to see the support that this type of work is beginning to receive around the world! The power of the horse…

My thoughts today

     My goal in life is to help horses. The start of my journey wasn’t exactly planned, but I believe that everything happens for a reason. After many years of traveling down this path, the system of Nature’s View evolved. In the beginning, when I talked about the work, many people weren’t ready to hear what I had to say. The thoughts after all, aren’t always pretty, especially when you’re telling someone something they don’t want to hear… that they need to change. I had many times of self doubt; I often questioned my own ability to put the word out there but the reality of the system kept telling me that it was true. Then came the stories surrounding global warming. This was another idea that people didn’t want to believe. But there came a slow surge demanding change. The wave grew larger and suddenly everyone was talking about “green” companies and “green” policies. Then the economic situation worsened. I continued to believe that this work could help people to see ways to change. My hope always was to bring about a different way of looking at things; a different way of thinking. Just when I thought the wave couldn’t grow any more, the presidential campaigns began to speak of “change” and a presidential hopeful was leading the way. The pressures that the nation was facing and the extent to which people would go to make that change grew and grew. We are now at the pinnacle of that change. But before any one can change, we need to know exactly what must be changed… and the first thing to change is, after all, mindsets. We need to regain our balance with the environment; the mental environment, the economic environment and the physical environment. One of the ways to do this is with the help of the horse. The horse is in a sense a representative of nature; a prey animal, unlike humans who are generally more seen as predators. With the help of the horse, using the Nature’s View system, we use survival as a fulcrum and pressure as a tool. We allow you to see which habits are beneficial or not to your well-being. By continuing to do this work, you can now acquire new habits. With the help of the horse, helping you to help yourself to find mental balance, you can learn the tools for survival. With this thought, you now have empathy for the environment. At the same time, learning not to use the mindset that you have used so much in the past of “Do what I tell you to do” which is what I call the tyrant mindset., you can begin using the mindset of “How can I help you?” which is what I call the alpha mindset. In this new mindset, mistakes aren’t seen as a negative, but instead, learning opportunities. In this work, horses are playing a greater role that ever before by putting us back in touch with nature. By humans helping horse, horses are helping humans. And after watching the Inaugural activities today, I believe that people are more ready than ever before!

The Ride Continues…

Today we’re building on the ride from our last post. We went out with Zeus again for another “pony/ride” session and things went really well! We started off the same way that we had before by long lining while Rachael was riding her older guy. Not far into the ride, I had her go ahead and switch out and hop on Zeus (still attached), but not long after, I turned them loose. Again, not a problem! We decided to work on a little more than the day before- we wanted to ask a little bit more of him. We worked on depth perception by walking up and down banks, which he did have a bit of a hard time with. I asked Rachael to get off to lead him down until he was comfortable with it and had more understanding. Then she got back on and ponied him down the hill, and then she did it on her own. Although it took a little while (he still wasn’t too sure about it) he finally came through. We did some steps to the left then to the right until he was ready to move forward, steadily increasing leg pressure all the way until what he was imagining wasn’t as bad as what he was feeling and he moved on.  He led the ride most of the way. He did have a couple of issues with things like stumps and other obstacles causing him to spook. That gave Rachael the opportunity to practice using the opposite rein, opposite leg to move him back on track. All in all a pretty good ride! The biggest bonus was that she was able to stand outside the trailer while he walked on by himself!