Trailering Part 2: Better Questions

After my last post about slant vs. straight load trailers and the preferences I’ve noticed from horses, I’ve been sitting with a few deeper questions, number one being:

What might a horse gain from not loading… or not hauling well?

First, let’s acknowledge the obvious possibilities.

There are very real, practical reasons horses resist trailering:

- Pain

- Fear

- Previous bad experiences

- Lack of clarity in communication

All of those matter.

But let’s also explore this from a more spiritually centered perspective.

Everyone agrees horses are magical and deeply intuitive until studies are mentioned or something pushes against their belief systems. Then suddenly they become numbers on a page… flight animals and a nervous system simply reacting to an environment.

So let’s ask the question again:

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What could a horse…

A horse - spiritually attuned, intelligent, non-predatory power animal, with more intuitive and spiritual attunement than most beings on this earth, with a huge soul contract to be in service to the growth of humanity…

Gain from not loading or hauling well?

Maybe it invites:

-Trainers to empower others

-People to work through emotions

-Humans to be seen and understood in new ways

-Curiosity about trailering itself or curiosity in general

-Clearer boundaries

-Emotional awareness that needs to be transmuted

-Greater compassion

-A deeper relationship with the horse and with oneself

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Consider a trainer helping someone load their horse, and that person walking away with a completely new belief about themselves and their horses. More empowered, or more clear.

Consider the human learning compromise and compassion through bringing a calm friend along, or considering how to set their horse up for better success based on their individual needs.

Consider the support that gets called in for someone who “always does it herself” when a horse clearly says no, and the ripple effect that follows from that moment.

In my experience, the mind, body, and spirit are never separate.Yes, there are real physical and behavioral reasons horses may struggle with trailering.

But there is often something deeper unfolding as well.

Otherwise a horse would say no, and we would simply release our attachment and walk away without emotion. But trailering brings up a lot of emotion and strong opinions in people.

To me, it’s one of the clearer ways horses help us grow, spiritually, and emotionally. Similar to what shows up around the mounting block or working through fear of crossing water.

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So I’m curious:

How does trailering feel to you?

What is your belief in your horse? What is your belief in yourself?

Do you feel safe and grounded when you haul? Can your horse feel that energy within you?

Some people mentioned studies in my last post. What about mirror neuron studies, and studies by the HeartMath institute on the heart’s electromagnetic field? What about simply noticing how you FEEL and how powerful that is?

If it’s true that we are empathetic beings that can mirror emotion and energetic connections in one-another… and you're sharing space and energy the entire time you're hauling together…

Wouldn’t that matter?

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And another question I love asking horse people (and myself):

How often do you create opportunities for your horse to explore with curiosity, outside of what you're asking them to do?

How long do they get to investigate something new?

How much time is enough?

Because knowing who your horse is outside of trailering might be one of the most important pieces.

How do they feel about physical touch? About change? About something interrupting their routine? About going new places? About pressure?

And when fear comes up, how do they regulate their nervous system? How do we co-regulate with them?

Those answers often tell us far more than the type of trailer ever will.

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Someone in my last post stated that someone shouldn’t need an animal communicator to understand any of these things, that it’s basic common sense through observation…

Why do we need anyone for anything?