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| Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan Me with Monty Roberts at the Pomona Equine Affaire in 2008 |
When Monty Roberts works with horses, he refers to and thinks of them as his equine "students." The concept made sense; but, I admit, I never thought about working with horses in this way until I attended one of his clinics for the first time.
In one of his demonstrations, Mr. Roberts worked with a spooky horse to negotiate obstacles on trail rides. After joining up with the horse, he and an assistant gradually unfurled a blue tarp on the ground. Mr. Roberts encouraged the horse to sniff, jump over, step on and finally walk across the material. He spent about 40 minutes working with the horse this way, gradually desensitizing the animal to the crunching sound that the tarp made and what must have been a very different sensation of walking on it, compared to the feeling of the dirt in the arena. The whole time he worked with the horse, Mr. Roberts told the audience how and why he was introducing the obstacle this way. He never raised his voice or a hand to the horse. He never sounded or acted frustrated by the speed or slowness at which the horse was understanding what the human wanted him to do.
Mr. Roberts explained how the horse was an equine student in this lesson, learning something new and different. Every time the horse initiated a movement toward the obstacle, the horseman lavished him with praise to build his confidence and encourage the animal to take another step forward. By the end of the session, the horse was following his teacher all over the arena, including a slow walk over the tarp.
I considered the similarities between how I help people overcome fears and phobias, and what I had just watched Mr. Roberts do with this horse. Like him, I must spend time building trust and respect (rapport) with my hypnotherapy clients before I can desensitize them to the scary object. Just as he had done with that horse, my ultimate goal is to help increase the person's confidence so that he or she can overcome the fear or phobia, etc., and continue to achieve their goals. And, just as Mr. Roberts demonstrated, behavior change occurs on its own time and at its own speed.
Later that morning, I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Roberts and thank him for the work he has done (and continues to do) with horses. I remember telling him that he was a genius working with horses. He was very modest when I said this to him; I'm sure that I sounded like the starstruck fan that I was. But there were really no words to express how his work had affected me, and continues to do so.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist who specializes in helping equestrians to achieve their competition and riding goals. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
