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Equine Therapy Why Horses Dont Mirror People

Equine Therapy: Why horses don’t mirror people? In the world of equine facilitated psychotherapy, the fascination of working with an extremely large, and often, frightening animal, especially in a way that offers insight, and possibly healing, has held an exclusive allure for those who have come to know of this powerful therapy. Not unlike the almost magnetic draw that a great racehorse can bring to even those not familiar with horses, the art of healing through horses, offers an often imperceptible gift, housed in a mysterious package. And while people lucky enough to have experienced the strange feeling of wellness, calm, and centeredness that a horse can bring have struggled for words to describe this feeling, practitioners of equine therapy have put many labels on just what it is horses can do for people. Certainly these terms have allowed some insight for people for whom horses are foreign, however, they have also struggled to accurately describe just what happens between a human and a horse. Possibly the most rudimentary of these descriptions of horse healing is that horses actually mirror people. Almost a given in the world of equine facilitated psychotherapy, the concept that horses mirror people has become so popular that it is now quite difficult to find any description of horse healing that doesn’t include this term. Yet, is there any documented research behind this idea? And if not, where did the idea really generate? The truth is, the real masters of equine language, often dubbed “horse whisperers,” never use this term. Instead, having spent years in the field watching horses interacting with their own kind, they have found that they do not mirror each other. Quite the contrary, the messages they do send are incredibly calculated, and imbued with concrete intention and meaning. A dominant mare, for example, cannot reprimand an obnoxious colt by mirroring him. He approaches too much, too strongly, and without regard for the hierarchy of the herd. So what does she do? She pushes him away, away from her, away from the herd, away from safety. You didn’t respect the order of the herd, so now you have to live without it. This is not mirroring, this is clear messaging. And it is not until the young colt repents, head lowered, lips licking and chewing in a sign of submission, that she will let him back in. Again, this is not mirroring. She pushed him away, now he must crawl back, with preverbal tail between Category:Home › Other • Pomegranates: A newly discovered superfood • Where did the joke why did the chicken cross the road come from and why is it funny? • Can mothers diagnosed with bipolar disorder make good parents? • Spiritual evolution of human consciousness • Tips for getting a college basketball scholarship • Living with Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) • Caring for the caregiver • Technologys impact on society

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