Cindy's work has been published in the Natural Horse magazine four times and www.globalhorsemen.com has featured her work as well. The following is one of the articles that was printed in the Natural Horse magazine.
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MIRRORING, THE GIFT OF HORSES
by Cindy Kraft |
Many of us are aware of the gift horses bring. Not only are they loyal and faithful friends, but they help us often in our most difficult times. There have been quite a few books written about the therapeutic aspect of this magnificent creature, whether aiding a disabled person to balance for the first time in their lives, being trusting babysitters for our children, or assisting emotionally traumatized people to face their emotions honestly, as in the equine assisted psychotherapy sessions. The way this is done is through energy.
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Horses pick up on energy immediately. That is how they survive. They know right away all about us. We cant lie to them and they dont lie to us either. Horses can teach us to be authentic, to be who we really are, rather than trying to put on a mask to please others, or perhaps cover up emotional pain.
Horses came into my life about 15 years ago, opening my soul to learn and explore my own life so much that I wanted to give back to them a portion of what they had given to me. I didn't have a clue at the time what had happened but about three years after horses walked into my life, I was able to look back and pinpoint the time when I truly started to heal my dysfunctional past. And the only ones I could trust were my horses. It was a time of new awareness, hope and growth like I had never experienced before. They gave me the courage to open up and feel again, to let go of an extremely long unhappy marriage and to walk away from a controlling fundamentalist religion that had entrapped my mind.
In learning how to de-program my mind, I learned about energy and how our thoughts are indeed energy as well. Our energy field around our body is the direct result of how we think. In helping myself to shift my distorted fear-based belief system, I learned how to think differently and noticed fantastic results in my happiness and health. This too affects others around us, including our horses.
As I developed my equine practice further, I noticed the correlation in my equine clients. Angry cowboys had angry horses. Flighty uptight barrel racers have similar horses. Not only is it the physical treatment by these people, but it's also their energy field. One case brought this dramatically to my attention I have facilities to run a small horse motel and a man from Tennessee was coming through with two mares heading to New Mexico to finish their training to include cattle work at a family ranch there. He came in early enough to visit with several other horse people here and we all talked about our various equine connections. The next morning when all the others left, Tom asked if I had time to work on his horses, as he just couldn't understand what was going on. He was an experienced trainer for years and this time both his mares were fighting him tooth and nail.
During the session, both mares presented to the negative emotion of "guilt", which I was able to help them release and rebalance. However, this is not a normal equine problem. Horses achieve their proper place in the pecking order by kicking and biting, and it doesn't bother them in the least. So in most cases, when guilt is presented, I know that the horse is mirroring his owner. So I tactfully kept my back to this 6' 2" cowboy and explained the situation to him. He didn't say anything for a while, then finally he said that it was HIS problem. After another couple of minutes, he confessed that it was his fault that his girlfriend had died the previous year. I was stunned, trying to decide what to say. We talked for a while and he finally saw that her death was indeed the result of her own poor choices of substance abuse which he couldn't have prevented, even if he hadn't been at work at the time.. He looked at me and smiled widely and said he was so happy to have let that go that he didn't want to leave. We did sightseeing that day and visited with friends on a trail ride, and later we all went dancing. He was totally ecstatic to have released that burden that he had been carrying for almost a year. He was so appreciative that six months later a brand new handmade saddle was delivered to my door from Tennessee.
To me, the horses were giving this man a gift, if only he knew how to understand it. I count myself truly blessed to be able to be the "go-between" in helping people face some difficult, or even unrecognizable, issues when their animals mirror them. So this also helps us to see the importance of dealing with our own emotional issues as best we can, knowing we cant hide a thing from our equine family members.
Now the results arent always so positive though. On aggressive barrel racer had a barn full of angry horses. They were all identical and once I got to know the owner, I knew why. She didn't want to change herself at all though and paid me well to work on her horses on a regular basis, to help to balance them out.
So we all have choices in life and most of us appreciate our equine family and try to do the best for them. They in turn want us to love ourselves too.
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Cindy can be contacted directly by phone... 918 758 0433 or email.
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* CHARGES $100 per session, per animal *
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available for Clinics and Classes |
REFERENCES |
"Healing for Horses", a book that explains in depth about energy work "Horses Talking" |
"The Tao of Equus" "Riding Between the Worlds" "Way of Horse" |
"Considering the Horse" "Horses Never Lie" "A Good Horse is Never a Bad Color" "Life Lessons From a Ranch Horse" "Horsemanship Through Life" "Big Horses, Good Dogs and Straight Fences"
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