Move Free Equine

19/07/2025

Respect is EARNED not taken.

It is 2017, your standing next to me in a roundpen. The roundpen is in the middle of a forest. Goats regularly interrupt my training, the goats are there to lure the resident Wolf population to eat them first, before they eat the horses owned by the boarders. I am standing next to a physiotherapist, a friend. Someone I have had dinner with, shared stories with, ridden with. Someone I could call on.

"I have no work to do. Your horse has no problems in his body. I am the professional you call when you f*ck up your training. You just need to do more of what you're already doing to make him stronger."

From then to this day, I am almost always friends with straight talkers, truth speakers, bold thinkers. Nothing is more annoying to me than someone trying to dance around the truth, or hide their true thoughts.

"Well, what sort of exercises you recommend?"

"Let me show you."

Then quickly, so quickly, before I could intervene, a whip appeared out of thin air, almost like it teleported like Star Trek. Now the whip was being brandished in the direction of my horse. My horse who was the reason I laid down the sticks. He forbade me for many years. Upon research, due to being whipped ferociously by his breeder to be transported to his second owner, who I purchased him from. One whipped, twice pi**ed off.

With great intentions, with miraculous skill, with beautiful, practiced, elegant gestures, this Osteopath and Physiotherapist and close personal friend came in, to ask my horse for some lateral work, making her body bigger as she did.

My horse believed her body was big enough on its own.

His face contorted, his poll retracted, he slammed on his brachiocephalicus muscle, and snorted at her. To translate my horse for the masses, this was him saying

"How f*cking rude of her."

That was not her intention. Not her fault. She was training "Horses", but forget one key thing. She needed to train THIS horse, in front of her. Now. Not "Horses" as a category.

She didn't listen. She kept trying to explain that he was supposed to respect her and feel her good energy.

My horse didn't care about her energy. He cared that an otherwise kind and gentle ape has weaponed up. And he wasn't done being mad at the weapon. Fast forward to 2025, he is fully rehabilitated to all arm extenders, yet ironically, he taught me how to train everything without them. So we don't use them. But we know how. I taught a lesson with them yesterday. But I digress.

"He doesn't respect my aids."

I thought to myself, she doesn't respect this individual horse. Not because she doesn't want to. But because she doesn't know how to.

Fast forward to yesterday. I am in between clients and the horrid facebook thing shows me a totally bizarre post. About how horsemanship is not a democracy. Horses don't get a say. Horses are expected to respect the human. I think their concept of respect is a form of interpersonal violence, intimidating and competiting for every disintegrating energetic resources. I shake my head. I go back to work. Tell me fascism is on the rise without telling me. Get a grip guys!

We have a lot of work to do. Still.

Entrenched dogma would tell you that respect is something you're entitled to.

But if someone came into my home, and started demanding all sorts of things from me, without developing rapport, without asking permission, without BASIC HUMAN DECENCY FIRST they would be shown my farm gate, and have it clang shut behind them, locked, so fast they wouldn't have a chance to say "Make Them Move Their Feet."

And I have extended this basic living right to my horses. Built deep into the substructure of all their interactions of training, installed intrinsically into all of their aids and training, is the power to refuse and escape my influence, if it is truly, really appropriate for them to do so.

AND...

I taught them how to do this, safely. They are not explosive, dangerous. Only horses who have no choices explode. Which ironically reinforces their humans belief that respect must be held through domination. They are correct. Give THEIR horses half a say and they will take their chance to find their freedom, at their trainers expense if necessary.

My horses are not pursuant to such tragedies. Because they have a say. So when they need to say it, they say it quickly, quietly and simply. With a basic, loving, non-compliance.

No, thank you.

That's respect.

My horses respect me enough to say No Thank You. And it literally makes them safer, sounder and happier.

And, I can understand that on the other side of this issue, that sounds like a pie in the sky impossibility. And i grieve that for them everyday. What a hell it must be, to live a daily reality where you love horses deeply, yet fear and resent them at the same time. And then hate yourself for holding the horse in contempt, while also loving them. How wretched. How many thousands of little deaths that must feel like.

Unplug from the matrix.

Practice with me:

NO. THANK YOU.

19/02/2025

Your touch is impatient.

Your body doesn’t believe me.

It feels like you’re running away but you’re physically getting closer and closer.

Now I can smell you. You’re not breathing.

Tell me, why is your anxiety more important to you, than my safety when I am with you?

You ask me questions and give me no time to think and then already there’s a tap, a swing, a push, a nudge, and urge to comply.

Comply with what?

With that? Ok, you say you want lightness then why do you build it up and break it down again a hundred times an hour?

If you want it light, feel the unbearable lightness of asking quietly and waiting for me to think.

If you wait for me to think, you’ll have to feel your own body whilst you wait.

This is exactly what I am hoping for.

If you don’t like how you feel, I want you to know that belongs to you, not me. And you can change it. But you have to feel it first.

I want you in your body. The same way I am in my body- it’s all I have. My body, my space, my memories and my hopes.

Still I hope.

Then you yell. Not with your voice, with your body. Like I am deaf to your body you yell. You make weird and intimidating movements and keep your face calm.

Relaxation, apparently.

You say to the others, that this rehearses an emergency.

To me, you’re the boy who cried wolf.

I am already aware. Emergencies emerge- they are not rehearsed. When a true emergency arrives, and you have not dulled me to your vain rehearsed loudness, I will respond. All creatures on earth understand the primal cry.

But what I understand now, is that deep down, you’re actually in an emergency. Always. Just by standing next to me you’re in an emergency.

I’ve heard that your kind live a very hard existence. And I am roped into that with you. I am compassionate to you.

Because I can see.
I can feel.
I can sense.
I can smell.
I can hear.
And I know. You’re in an emergency just by being here.

That doesn’t mean I am too.

15/11/2024

I know you want to force me.

They all do. They all want to force me.

Some are obvious about it. Out in the open. Some force me in secret. They hide it in plain sight. But you cannot hide from me. I can feel the plague of your cravings, your urge to extract from me the things you want from me.

You misunderstand responsibility. You have the responsibility to listen to me. But what you do is listen to your fantasy of me. The image of your desires, that have me roped into them. You are willing to move mountains... in listening to that fantasy. But you won't budge an inch if you listen to just me. Especially if what I have to tell you is "No."

So you go out and relentlessly search for yes men. You fire anyone who says No, the Truth, or uncomfortable facts that put the cross hairs directly on the facts of the matter; which are that I cannot be the thing you desire. I can only be me. And I was damaged long before you "got" me.

But you never "got" me. Thats human paperwork. I have not been gotten by you, because you are still not listening.

So, I know you want to force me. I wonder how long it will take you to actually be honest with yourself about that, and exact violence on me.

Go ahead. The minute you do that, become violent to me, you actually become the weakest animal on the planet. A pathetic, whiny, selfish little monkey that is determined to watch the world burn or get what you want, when you want it, how you want it. Tell me, when did the pain start?

When you force me, you break whatever tenuous threads of social connection we might have left with each other. Those reluctant pets on my neck when I try my heart out and still don't please you sufficiently, but you offer a pet anyway, eyes rolling, are basically the duct tape and baling twine holding together the last knackered threads of our social agreement: I won't hurt you if you don't hurt me.

Once you hurt me, it is all bets are off.

I am bigger than you. I am emerging into that knowing.

I am smarter and more aware of you than you are.

I can hurt you. I don't want to.

But if you give your power away, and back me into a corner, it is my only avenue to save myself.

My kin have been sold down the river to the knackers for this. I know I might be too.

But it is better than the living hell I currently am in. No matter how shiny that saddle pad is, or well swept that yard. This is my hell.

And the only thing you have to do to fix it, is listen.

10/11/2024

Earlier this week I was teaching a lesson, and I realised in real time, how far away from "normal" this lesson is. Normal in the following sense; I regularly hear from people that they are not yet convinced, that horses can enjoy training, or riding. Thats not normal for everyone. But I guess it might be normal for folks who are searching for a teacher, for coaching. So that's my selection bias. People are deeply concerned that their horse secretly dislikes being worked with, and does it out of some hidden sense of duty, a grudge unexpressed.

So there I was teaching a lesson, that felt far, far, far away from that reality. The fact that the lesson was online through the computer is almost irrelevant. This client and I have worked in person too, have collaborated together on their three horses for about 18 months now, on a minimum three times per month basis. And their horse in the lesson is far, far, far away from the type of horse with whom collaboration with people comes easily to them.

They have a horse who has had a pretty tough life. I will spare the details, but multiple owners, many years spent working under over-loaded pressure. When I met with them, this horse was essentially rejecting almost all training, often recruiting anger to communicate to his human that he didn't want to be touched, handled, ridden, trained and barely interacted with.

So, after some initial groundwork 18 months ago, I recommended to give him a break, and focus on one of their other horses.

3 months later, like a bolt of lightening out of the blue sky, this first horse showed a huge attitudinal shift. He had been watching, ever so carefully, as his human went about their business with the other horses. By watching his human with his friends, and being given space free from even kind invitations to spend time with people, we gave him what he wanted. Breathing room, space. Perspective, too, I think.

And hop, skip and a jump to this past week, I am on a lesson with them, as the floated around their at home arena, in the most beautiful collected trot.

Initially the lesson started with communication of the owners reticence. Because their horse was going from strength to strength so quickly, they were concerned about going too fast, or not being a good enough rider for their horses now rapidly accelerating appetite for ridden work. We could not have predicted this. Conditioned this. Or made the horse do this. The horse was now voluntarily offering to do more and more with his human. The tools of training we had been employing, and the support for the owner before, during and after the session, translated into the horse coming to his own realisations. That people, at least his person, was pretty cool. Definitely safe. And actually a lot of fun to be around. The care and attention he received juxtaposed with the courage to try new things together, seemed to have tickled him in his emotional sweet spot.
Yet everywhere we go, there we are. The reticence in this horse owner we worked on months ago, had now been moved to a new boundary. The boundary was; My Horse Now Really Wants To Work And That Makes Me Worried. It used to be My Horse Really Does Not Want To Work... And That Makes Me Worried.

I chose, as coach, not to feed into these anxious rumination's occurring at the mounting block. I know that getting better is two parts knowledge, eight parts practice. So I listened. Took note of the concerns. And advised that we practice.

In a ba****ck pad, and bitless, this formerly overfaced dressage horse, built like the Berlin Wall, offered zero expression change as their owner mounted. Their face was bright, body square and relaxed. Open and aware eyes watched what was happening and tracked their human carefully as they mounted, making sure they got on well. No uptick in worry or concern, no unbalanced shifting, no signs of rejection or protest. Yup, that checks out.

"Let's warm up." I said.

Off they went at a walk on a loose rein. It was lovely. This is the horse that would intermittently plant his feet, or threaten and scare his rider, even at a walk, not so long ago.

To his owners delight and even surprise, he was soft and easy and careful.

Within about 5 minutes, I noticed the slightest shift of this geldings shoulders. It was like a postural tango; a little to the left, then suddenly to the right, followed by a stretch down of the head, but not to lift, it was a stretch from the withers. Burying himself. He was walking with his weight tipped far over his toes, very nice long strides, like a cat. But he was on borrowed time.

"He now needs from you a shift in his balance". I said.

I explained the difference between force, and weight. If a horse is unbalanced through force, it can be a sign of protest, pain, discomfort or discontent. When they make a choice, a concerted effort to go out of balance, by way of communicating a problem to the rider. In reading Kerbrech, he advised to annihilate all show of force in a horse, to completely dominate and submit the horse to the riders aids through various forms of tactful yet also invisibly violent aids of the leg, hand and spur. That is not my wheelhouse, and I am not preparing this horse for war where shows of force can kill a cavalryman. We are safe here. None the less, this horse was not out of balance from force, but from weight. I explained that weight was a simple balance issue, that the horse wasn't necessarily choosing as a way to communicate a mental or emotional or spiritual conflict. But a simple physical conflict. "Need My Body Placed Differently" the walk was saying.

For a 5 minute warm up, this walk is fine. Pasa nada, as they say here in Spain. Nothing happened, nothing is wrong. But the little shoulder tango followed by burying of the topline told me as coach, that the horse was asking his rider for more support now, so that he can continue. Almost a gatekeeping of his athletisism. If his human could succeed in showing him that they could feel his balance enough to influence it, then he would be able to trust them with the power that follows.

Without giving micromanaged advise, I simply offered
" Ask his body weight to come back off his toes. It will feel like his shoulder rolls back into your hips. Ask for a shorter walk without losing the impulsion"

I have long ago abandoned the notion to tell a body exactly what body parts to put where. No credible human movement coach does this anymore. Instead it is important to have sufficient rapport with student, they trust and understand how you communicate. And offer them imagery, concepts, feelings to feed into, which the student then translates on their own into their authentic movement purpose.

My client did just that.

"Great. But don't get handsy." I followed up with

Instantly, their horse rolled their shoulders up and back into their riders hips, shortened stride, and lost no impulsion.

No spur. No stick. No bit. No micromanagement.

Also, no tail wring, head shake, or even the subtlest sign of discontent in the horse. Emotionally, he remained utterly smooth throughout the adjustment of his rider.

On a loose rein now, elevated head posture, I felt this horse say; "Let's party".

"Ok, now ask him to just TASTE the trot transition." I suggested.
"Just 4-6 strides and back to walk".

They did so, but as they did, my client stiffened, remembering past instances when this horse "took off" with force, as a way of protest. In this instance, he simply departed with some semi-autonomous self carriage, with some impulsion. I asked them to try it again. Same stiffening in my clients seat, and their voice asked the horse to woah, woah, woah. Which caused his back to brace against her braced seat, and we lost that shoulder placement we had at the walk.

Back at a walk now I offered quickly, but without rushing the following points
1. Trust his power, he is not using force against you. He is using collection FOR you.
2. Trust your seat, relax your seat and go with him. Sit up, and even without stirrups, just follow-follow-follow his back.
3. If you follow his back his spine will trust your seat, his spine will soften against you and his trot will be more comfortable, and safer.
4. Remember to not lose that shoulder roll we got at the walk, but don't be handsy.

Sounds like a lot of info. But this client and I have sufficient rapport and trust, that they were able to immediately download all of the above in about 90 seconds.

Clock ticking, I knew this horse was being patient for his human. He is in a rapid state of improvement and if we cannot make hay while his sun shines, it can demotivate his talent which is now springing forth like a tidal wave of inspiration. The sort of shift his human dreamed of, but now that it is here, we must keep up with it to not sabotage it.

"Ok, let's ask for that trot again"
"Yes, lovely! Now relax-relax-relax your seat. Don't brace against him. Go with him"

I watched this paddock friend transform in a hunk of a horse. Square himself up. Ignore his riders reticence, not take off with her, but take flight FOR her. Even rhythm. Now the head elevated. Now the poll relaxed. He dropped his nose to a perfect 2 inches in front of the vertical, keeping his airways open. Ears up and easy, shoulders rolled back into his riders now relaxed and accommodating seat.

"Should I stop now?" His rider said?

"No! He wants to go! Go with him. This is it."

Then I saw the elevation in his movement. Nothing spastic bombastic FEI kitsche elevation. But supple, light, soft, at home everyday dressage elevation. Bounce. Square. No conflict.

This is the part where I started swearing.

"That. Is. ******* GORGEOUS! Oh my god. Yes. **** yes. Go go go!". I said

She started to giggle. Horse kept going. Totally showing his owner they had nothing to fear, and that he wanted to show off.

A good 45 seconds this went on. Then they went back to walk (at the same time). Paused. She beamed. Scratched his neck and called him all the lovely names your inner child would call him.

"I think I should finish now"

"Working sub-maximally, yes we should!".

The lesson finished early. Nothing more to say. As we sat sort of speechless after the ride. The horse thought about mosing away to the gate, but stopped after three strides, turned and offered his human a long, bright look.

"Look at him looking at you now"
"I cannot believe we are here"

"Believe it." I said.

That is my normal. When I get my work right, for my clients and for my own horses, they line up for sessions. As per the attached photo. They line up for it.

I wish I could give everyone who wanted this, a taste of this nectar, for just 5 seconds. It changes lives.

01/10/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhOxVlWnLRY

WANT TO WATCH THIS CLINIC RECORDING ONLINE?https://www.udemy.com/course/clinic-recording-emotional-horsemanship-with-lockie/?referralCode=1142A8907055B000292...

02/09/2024

"I am fine!"

"No, you're not."

"No... I am fine."

"I can feel that differently."

"Don't feel me."

"Why. You are literally on my body and next to me. I am always feeling you."

"Because I am holding back the flood of feelings that I have no idea what to do with. If I felt them, I might fall apart"

"Ok. I won't feel you then."

"Excuse me... can you pay attention to me? I am asking you a question nicely. Can you respond to me nicely please?"

"But we just made an agreement. That I disconnect to how you feel, just like you disconnect to how you feel."

"Yes but, don't connect to my feelings. Connect to my actions and commands."

"They are one and the same. That is impossible unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless I detach myself from you. Emotional death."

"Great. I'll have one emotional death please. None of those nasty inconvenient feelings. Let us just do actions please."

"Ok. But I am here, waiting for you."

"What are you waiting for?"

"For you to feel. So that we can communicate with feel."

05/01/2024

Horse Friends: NH State Rep Ellen Read is trying to get a House Bill (HB 1182) passed that classifies hoof soring, gingering, tail nicking, and tail blocking as animal cruelty. The equine community is urged to show up and testify against these practices at the committee hearing at 1pm on January 16th, 2024 in the Concord Legislative Office Building room 301. Sign-up is on location the day of, and testimony is casual and ideally under 3 minutes per person. For more information, please contact Ellen Read: [email protected]; (352) 978-7692. I hope to see you there!