Was anyone else listening to the horses? Was there anyone out there who was doing anything different to either traditional horsemanship or Parelli? Or even if they were doing that – did they want to know what the horse thought about everything?
As it happened, some of the members of the Nambucca Natural Horsemanship group had organised a clinic with Mel Fleming – and it was to be held at Orara Valley House.
Mel had previously been one of the Parelli group’s top instructors. She made the difficult decision to leave the organisation after she realised there was more going on with horses than the Parelli system could offer – and she needed to follow her own direction. I went to the clinic as an observer.
The house and the setting is out of this world! At the time there was an area devoted to horses – an outdoor dressage arena and another area with several wooden round yards. The location was the perfect backdrop to be able to tune in to the horses…. and we did!
The horses were sure talking there – some were shouting! – trying to be heard. Others were quiet. There was a lot of time devoted to the wellbeing of the horse. It was so nice to see this in the horse world – they were allowed to have a voice. I talked to many horses that weekend.
Mel has continued to develop her way of being with horses. You can check out her website here: Connecting With Horses
I was so excited to find others were listening – and since then I have had a few trips to the Nambucca club to chat with some of the horses. This has continued over the years and I will write more about what they have said in a future post.
The event at Orara Valley house started that group of us on an adventure – wanting to know more about these wonderful creatures who are so gracious as to allow us on their backs. What secrets did they hold? What more could they tell us? Could they tell us more about what would help them to live with humans?
There was certainly so much more to them than being war or work horses – or sport horses!
I returned home feeling such wonder at the weekend – I also returned home to the news that Magnum had rolled under the fence and wandered away – taking a walk up the road! This was a first! Someone drove in and told Doug they had just seen his horse heading up the road towards the forest. People in our area knew about the beautiful horse in our paddock – so it wasn’t a surprise he was recognised!
Emma put a halter on Ducati and was going to lead him up the road to entice Magnum back. As they got to the gate Magnum appeared!!! He then followed them back up the hill!!! Phew!!! Crisis averted!!! He could have wandered away into never ending acres of forest – thank goodness he came home!!!
COMING UP – MAGNUM TALKS!
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS STORY, PLEASE START HERE AT THE BEGINNING – Part 1 – An Introduction
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