How Horses Have Helped Me

How horses have helped me

Hi, I’m Brandy and through my horsemanship work I am sharing my experiences in the hopes of inspiring and helping others.

I just wanted to share with you why I am passionate about what I do.

Horses have always been my greatest teachers and mentors, by listening to them and building strong relationships they have taught me so much about myself and the world and in turn they chose to work with me and together we do some pretty cool things!

As time has gone on horses have given me so much love and so many gifts even when i didn’t deserve it and it’s why I continue to dive so deep into my journey to have a better connection with them.

My life with horses started at a very young age, my mother bred and trained her own racehorses and had a lot of success. My foundation goes back to what my mother taught me and I have since grown and evolved it into my own methodology and program that I am continually striving to learn more and improve upon.

We couldn’t afford trained or going horses when I was young so I grew up riding fresh broke ponies or problem ponies we got for free and taking them through the pony club and hacking scene. So from a young age I always had young green horses and I’ve never known any different. It was a wonderful way to learn.

As I got older I struggled with anxiety and found that I had a really hard time enjoying horses, I soon discovered that the horse was a reflection of my own fears, anxiety and frustrations.

I have always been a very shy person, I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform to the best of my ability in everything I do, as you can imagine this is a complete recipe for disaster when coupled with the chronic anxiety I was so used to living with everyday.

My mother had since moved on from race horses to breeding ponies and then onto breeding Quarter Horses. She imported 5 horses from America as foundation stock and has created a remarkable breeding program now known as Rising Star Horses. I loved them so much and t I knew I had to train them myself because no one else was going to understand, respect and appreciate my mothers hard work and how special these beautiful horses were, not in the way that I would.

So I began what has now been well over a decade of intense deep diving into horsemanship and healing.

I have always tried to learn as much as I can and make the most of what I have. I couldn’t buy a going horse so I had to learn to make them for myself and by sticking it out and letting the horses guide me I have learned so much and I am excited to continue learning.

If you never quit you will eventually figure it out.

Once I started working on myself I found that when I either sing (I am a singer) or work with a horse it is truly the ONLY time in my life that I am in the present moment and so I had found relief, if only momentarily, from my own mind.

This led me to want to learn more about training and also see how I could improve my relationship with the horse by trying to be better for them.

After a clash of opinions and many unhealed wounds I went my separate way from my family and spent the next 3 years just trying to survive.

I have had some pretty tough experiences through life which I am grateful for as they have shaped me into the person I am today, as I look back I can see things in a different light and I have a better understanding of why I ended up in some terrible situations and what I have learned from those experiences.

This has changed my way of understanding horses and how I go about working with them.

I have felt trapped, claustrophobic, out of control of my own life and my own body. I have sat in stillness, fear so strong it became an essence of calm that washed over me as I accepted the moment I thought I was quite possibly going to die.

I have ran, I have fought and I have frozen.

I now understand that a horse too can be completely scared to death and yet stand there accepting the existence that they have no control over.

Now that I am aware of what reactions your mind and body naturally can do when faced with terrifying experiences or when being put in a position where you have no control or say, I choose to make it a priority to make sure my horses never have to feel that way with me.

I try my hardest everyday to be better for the horse, sure I still fall short and make mistakes but at least I am aware of them now!

I like to view every horse as an individual, I treat them all the way they show me they need and respect that sometimes they may not understand or even want to do what I am asking and maybe they can’t.

It is my job to find the missing pieces and help build the foundation, relationship and trust needed to get to the next stage rather than just force them to do what I want.

It is a priority for me to make sure they are happy, healthy and that they like and are comfortable with the gear I use on them.

In doing this the horses have progressed not only quicker but they trust me more, I have less trouble with new things and they all have their own unique personality!

It is so important to me that I let the horse be a horse and not turn them into a robot purely for my own selfish gain.

I want my horses to want to work with me. I want them to express their opinions and build their own confident characters and interact with me.

I love that my horses feel free enough to be able to express their ideas and opinions!

Horses have given me my freedom back and liberated me from my mind, although it is a constant work in progress. Now it is my mission to promote good horsemanship, continued learning and open mindedness, to encourage people to look deeper than the surface problem and to begin working on themselves.

If i could encourage just one person to start thinking differently about things… that is one more horse that is BEGINNING to be heard and one more person comfortable in their own skin.

I am a very guarded person, I don’t like talking about myself or my life (I will talk all day about my horses though) but I am begging to see why it is so important to share my story.

life is messy and beautiful and it involves a lot of hard work, sacrifice and continued learning to keep moving forward to heal and create the life you wish to live.

Life is tough but it is how we live it that counts, with gratitude. We rebuild and we learn and most of all we must be compassionate and hold space for ourselves and others. If we take this approach to our work with horses it really is incredible how things just happen naturally.

From my work with horses I have learned to embrace my anxiety for it is only trying to protect me and it has done that in a sense. If it wasn’t for my anxiety I don’t think I would have the discipline and attention to detail that helps me work so hard at everything I set my mind to and how I try my best to keep learning new skills. I have learned how to not live in a state of survival!

I would love to be able to help people look at their life experiences and anxiety through a different lens, inspire them or perhaps give them hope.

I want to share my experiences to show others that they are not alone and that they too can achieve whatever they set their mind to. Good lasting results don’t happen over night, just hang in there, do the work and things will start to get clearer.

Horses are such incredible teachers and companions

Horses are so forgiving, more forgiving than humans deserve.

They have shown me love and friendship and have been my greatest teachers. They have picked me up when I thought I couldn’t carry on, they don’t judge me when I am a mess and have no interest in anything outside of how I show up to them.

The horse only has their way of communicating with us, it is so pure. People can say one thing and do another or say one thing with words and something entirely different with their body. I am very receptive to energy and I find most people are not showing up as themselves and not doing the work needed to move past their own hurt and in doing so they unintentionally they hurt other people.

When people have hurt me I know the horse will be there for me and I ALWAYS KNOW WHERE i STAND WITH A HORSE, they do not lie, they do not pretend to be my friend, they just are.

I want to continue to grow and learn so I can be a better version of my self in order to show up for the horses as the horses have done for me.

I hope my work gets you thinking, I am not promoting a program or techniques, I am not telling you how to live your life, all I have are my experiences and I hope I can promote good horsemanship and an open mind, a way of being.

I encourage you to explore what your horse is trying to tell you, that is the next step forward, let them guide you.

Take care beautiful people xx