Before I can know what my horse needs, I need to know which proportion of energy and matter my horse has.
But what does that mean anyway – energy and matter?
To put it in very simple “human words,” one could say: Everything we can track with our eyes and also grab and touch belongs to matter, a kind of “form”. Physicists describe matter as everything that occupies space and has a mass.
This visible mass always has a different weight and therefore, to relate it to horses, belongs in the area of physical exertion because after all mass must be moved.
Everything material for the horse is only on the level at which the human can handle something: through body language and language of contact.
In matter, I also include some inner attitudes that are more pronounced in this area or are expressed on the material level such as courage, fighting spirit, determination, aggression and anger.
Energy, on the other hand – at least as I find and understand it in horses – is rather the invisible and, as the physicist says, one can only ever recognize it in its effect. Also in communication with the horse, it takes place on an invisible, felt level. Yet, the body always follows this energy in the second step, So it works automatically, even if you are not aware of it.
In horse language, energy is exchanged between the space of two living beings with absolute ease – this type of communication is never difficult and never exhausting; it occurs as quick as lightning. And it is barely tangible. One does not see anything is exchanged at all – one only sees the consequence of something being exchanged.
Nevertheless, energy is perceptible, and every living being has the capacity to feel it. The animal world provides us with numerous examples of how communication on the energy level is a completely natural process. And we humans are also born with this ability, which, however, we relatively quickly “put off” because of social norms and guidelines and due to the overpowering dominance of the material world. However, research among native and indigenous people, who still live rather isolated from the outside world, shows us that humans are indeed energetic beings.
Now every human being and every horse has matter as well as energy portions from birth “in his/her luggage”, but these are different for every individual – either one lives and expresses himself/herself more on matter or more on the energy side. The influence from the outside and how other living beings deal with it determine how the human or the horse will develop in a certain direction.
An example for easier understanding:
A child signals with eyes and thoughts to its mother that it is hungry – in other words, it communicates energetically. The mother, herself perhaps a very material person and at any rate influenced by the physical outside world, does not realize that. She cannot feel this kind of communication. Depending on how much the child now has to “visibly” express on a material level to satisfy its hunger and its need, it will learn that the material nature of communication is more likely to lead to the goal rather than the energetic one: it starts to look for forms of expressions and begins fidgeting, kicking, whining, until at some point it starts to scream for food. Compared to energetic “light” communication, this involves a lot of energy input from the child.
But its mother, who only understands the child when it gives her many loud signals, is at first perplexed, will try to figure out what is amiss and responds way too late. The child, in turn, has learned that it is not understood on the energetic level alone, but always has to spend a lot of energy to be “materially” understood. Now that it knows that the thoughts of food and the desire to satisfy its hunger alone are not enough, it will probably start to scream in the future.
If the child is now predominantly surrounded only by materially understanding people (and that is usually the case in our modern times and our western world), then it will always have to summon up a great deal of energy and also will now assert itself materially because nobody communicates with the child on the energy level is. It will soon blunt its energy communication and join the other “matter-people” and it will waste a lot of energy on this level which does not really suit its highly sensitive and subtle energy nature. Simply because it does not work any other way.
Moving through life, in total disregard of one’s natural capabilities will eventually lead to dissatisfaction, frustration, constant overwork and as a result of a weakened immune system, to illnesses. In the end, perhaps the entire existence is perceived as much too big a burden, but the true origin of this is not recognized. Of course, there is also the possibility of this happening the other way around, even though it is much less common in this form, at least among us humans.
Let us stay with the example of mother and child, but with the opposite assumptions: a materially biased child and a more energy than matter mother.
The child feels hungry and begins to scream at the same moment because that is the appropriate form to express itself. The highly sensitive mother would not have needed this “material” announcement because she would have sensed his needs through her attachment to her child on an energy level. Still, the matter child knows nothing of energy communication and chooses the only way known to him.
Now, while a matter person is not so troubled by the screaming of a child, but for an energy biased human, this nearly bursts an eardrum and loses his/her nerves. In this case, the “energy biased” mother will respond more and more to the material demands of her child.
Making a matter-biased child more energy balanced will not be easy and will not happen by itself like the blunting of an energy biased child. It is more likely that the energy biased mother will respond more and more to materially announced demands from her child. To encourage the child energetically, the mother would first have to be aware of this distinction and then, in a second step, make the child aware of the different levels in a concrete way and with the help of constant repetition and clear communication. Then, step by step, the child’s energetic ability can be raised and encouraged.
In summary, these examples show that energy “surrenders “more easily to matter than vice versa.
However, it is very important to me to emphasize that there is no such thing as “good” or “bad”. It easily happens that energy is perceived as positive only by the adjectives associated with it, such as “light”, “spiritual” and “highly sensitive”, and that matter is described negatively by adjectives like “exhausting” and “difficult.”
But that is not true – both are equal principles in our dual universe that are completely different and yet belong together – like the principle of man and woman, of Yin and Yang.
Powerful aspects such as courage, fighting spirit, determination, assertiveness are attributed to matter – and a material person will often find it easier in life to achieve his/her goals than an energetic person who almost floats through life almost like an elf and is quickly overwhelmed by the many challenges and demands. But regardless if matter or energy – it is always important to recognize which principle important to you to find the right path for you.
So, we have seen that from birth on, the daily influence of the outside, can change the innate relationship between matter and energy. It’s the same with the horse.
But compared to humans, the horse is a flight animal and anything that the horse does not understand will be turned quickly into anxiety. To be able to work with a horse without fear and to have fun with it, I have to look at the “mixed ratio” of energy and matter in the horse I want to work with. How much of each component is part of its nature since birth and how has it possibly been changed by external influences and incomprehensible modes of behavior and training methods to the horse?
And what is now my task? People who choose to go their way with chi horsing®, decide first to satisfy the horse’s needs and to give the horse everything it needs before the human even think of his/her own needs and take something from the horse. But what does the horse need?
Yes, you guessed it: we need to balance the horse’s energy and matter levels so that it is motivated, and we can handle it with as little energy as possible and in a way appropriate to its natural state. Then the horse will seek and enjoy our being together and cooperation because it feels that it is understood and supported in its personal way.
The gift of this very exciting way, in my opinion, is that we also learn what our own “mixing ratio” looks like and whether we are already doing justice to our abilities and working in harmony with them, or whether we are living totally contrary to our nature and just surviving.
When we have found repose and exude tranquility, using our abilities to their full potential, everything becomes effortless. If we act too much in daily life on the level that does not suit us, then life is very exhausting.
But let’s get back to the horse. I am fortunate enough to have met two horses, that each belong 90% in one direction: a true matter horse and a true energy horse. I probably received this gift in having these two horses in my life to learn more and to find solutions for my students and my classes.
That’s how the energy laws work because energy always follows the attention and the intention: If I focus my attention on one thing, I will achieve something in this area.
For the last 20 years, I’ve been studying nothing else but horse behavior and horse language to find out more and more about how I can communicate with many different horses in an as peaceful and easy way as possible. That was and always is my main intention. I would describe myself as a person originally born as a sensitive and high energy girl, who was surrounded by material people. I grew up with so much violence and was forced into the matter part so that my body and mind in the first 35 years of life suffered a significant amount of trauma. Since I realized this problem – not the least through my work with horses – I have worked with great success on the “reversal of my materialization”: on healing my body and rediscovering and advancing of my original abilities. My wish for all people and horses is that in future more and more people will be able to follow this life-affirming way. It is important for me to pass on these key success factors.
Because I have studied all facets of matter and energy so thoroughly, today I can recognize the nature of a horse when I work with it in the arena. By “activating” the horse for a brief moment and asking it to move and show itself for me (as in free lunging), I can see the preferred way to be moved, whether I can move the horse with energy and where it is on the matter-energy scale. Additionally, I can sense its emanating kinetic energy in which I can then read what and how much of what the horse does is on the opposite and self-destructive level. From there on, I can try to teach the horse – i.e. let it experience – how to let these self-destructive externally acquired habits go and simultaneously work with myself on the same issues.
The horse recognizes if my assessment is correct, that I see it in its entirety and therefore it seeks to be with me.
You can imagine it that way:
We are facing two identical, empty rooms. When we enter the left, it just feels heavy, but we do not know why. We also go into the right room and everything feels homely and light. But we do not know why this is, since it is only a feeling – as long as we can still feel anything at all. Many people have stopped trying to feel something because the pain of experiences in the past was too overwhelming.
So, we go alternately into the two rooms and then decide at some point for the right, the “light” space because our innermost self makes this decision for us. Our inner being – and also the inner being of the horse, who in comparison to us humans is much stronger in feeling – always goes where it recognizes itself and find itself again. Of course, a horse can only do this if it also offered this “space” by humans!
Then, just as we do, the horse feels that (to keep up with the metaphor) the right space is the place where we can become “whole.” If the right, life-affirming room is not found or even offered, we usually make the decision that helps us to survive at that moment!
Welcome to the everyday life of most people!
So, I “only” have to recognize the horse in front of me and communicate with it in its authentic way and lead it to where it was/is originally located and then bring its underdeveloped side (either matter or energy) closer to it so that it learns to handle it too, self-affirming and without pain and force.
This is the foundation and main principle of chi horsing® if you want to advance together with your horse as a personal coach and “feedback-” master.
There are two extensive online seminars on this topic, where I give examples with the two different horses mentioned above, explain the two principles of matter and energy in detail and show how we can handle all this with horse language and in daily life without violence. You can find the webinars here: https://www.chi-horsing.com/en/leistungen/onlineseminare/
