I love Ariel, but

[PaulaO]

Sometimes she exhausts me. Last night was her bodywork session. Ariel was in constant movement, over here, over there, what's in the garbage can, who is in that stall. I work with her on halting and standing every time I'm out, but last night she was particularly annoying and would not stand for more than 60 seconds. She gets constant breaks during the work, and always after she releases something. But she just wouldn't co-operate last night and at one point I was stamping my feet and her and saying "I'm going to have a temper tantrum." Eventually she settled down but by that point my mind and body had just had it.

Just a minor vent. Of course she got her carrot treats after.....

[piedmontfields]

Ariel sounds like a horse who processes things by moving. It is really different from a more internal processing sort of horse. I can see that remaining calm and centered yourself could be challenging with this much moving reaction.

It's also not that weird for bodywork to activate this reaction and for it to change over time.

Horses, each individual even as they share quite a lot as a species....

[PaulaO]

Absolutely. It's as if a physical release by Daniela (body worker) sets off a need in Ariel to move around to get rid of it. I also believe she moves around to distract herself from herself. And Ariel is million times better about this than she was a year ago. She was like a pinball machine then.

[piedmontfields]

Very interesting and encouraging! I think you and Ariel are good for each other.

[Chisamba]

have you considered asking her to move or free moving her for ten minutes or so after bodywork if she needs movement? then settling to doing more stationary work

[fergusnc]

What does your bodywork person say about this?
I have work done on both the boys. Fergus isn't a mover typically, but some spots/issues/releases happen occasionally that do make him antsy and our person knows when this is the case versus when I hear her say "I know it's hard, but you need this, let me do this" and sort of repositions him. Doesn't correct him. And when he needs to move, she moves with him. Some releases/issues/spots make him physically itchy...like really itchy...and we work with that as well. Fergus has no baggage or lives before me...just a perfect life as a youngster being a horse at his breeder's.

Dallas has a lot of stuff. Definite starvation. Probable abuse. Starting to suspect a wreck of some sort as well. He moves. He moves a lot at times. He has tried to kick, bite, go through/over. I get it completely about exhaustion...mental and physical. It gets better, really....for them and you. Our last session we had done loose in the field because of a visiting snake in the stalls. Dallas was perfect. Totally relaxed calm and open even to the things that used to be so very hard for him physically and mentally. It reinforces my suspicion of some claustrophobia. And defensiveness and distrust. In a prior session our person even did some of the work across a half door of stall. He let her work on head and face as he never had in a halter. Again, mental stuff. Our person let's him move a lot, only corrects for the dangerous stuff and tries to prevent the dangerous stuff by not asking too much. Or going too deep. She has said she went barely "in" at all as far as intention and pressure and he acted like she was stabbing him. She backed off more.

Maybe play around with the location....over a stall door vs haltered and held. In paddock loose. Stall door open versus closed. Wide barn aisle versus stall. When the boys were loose in field, she worked on one for about 30 minutes and he'd walk off, next boy came up and stayed for an hour before he said he was done. First horse came back for a little more, then walked off when she was done. Other horse came back for a little more and to say goodbye. While the one horse was worked on, the second horse napped nearby...then they traded. Didn't even graze, just soaked it in.

Again, I get it....when Dallas first started with sessions, I cried I was so overwhelmed with emotion, exhaustion and irritability. One day I went in the house with a raging headache and fell asleep. It really does affect the humans when they are bonded and open to the animal. I am so thankful Fergus is so "easy".