Part 37 – Trouble in the Ranks

Despite the fact that not so many people were singled out – there was still time spent on various people.  Several people had brought their horses and once again Kert worked his magic – but always in the process the owner comes off as the ‘weaker’ person, who doesn’t have the skills of The Master.

Then, always, this person will receive ‘public therapy’.  Sometimes this was helpful to the person but usually it meant going through a painful process of self awareness.  Also he had started this style of therapy with his one year students.  He was very enthusiastic about this particular group and at times seemed to ignore the rest of us…

This annoyed me at times and I will admit I was envious of them – but eventually I would change my mind about that!

As time went on in these first four weeks – I noticed the change in one particular girl who had brought her horse.  At first she seemed vulnerable and emotional – but as the time went on she and her new acquaintances seemed to change.

In past classes, the shift had always been to align more with Kert, but this time she took a step back.  He asked her one day to go to the front of the class as he wanted to discuss her relationship with the horse. She said she could quite easily talk to him from where she was.  She also answered him in a different way – it was ‘convincing’ and clear.  She was a lawyer so used to being in court I guess – she used it to her advantage – and after that there seemed to be a small ‘breakaway group’.

While most of us were still ‘wowing’ about Kert and his way with horses – this small group were now not impressed.  They took part in everything, but did not display ‘master worship’!

In fact I have written in my notes –  “She has the opportunity to ask the horse master about her horse (He asked at the end if she had any questions regarding her horse) – and she doesn’t!!  How dumb!!!

I was still seeing the magic with horses and I didn’t understand their attitude.  Kert even had a gathering of some of the people he had known for a while, including me, to discuss their behaviour.  They had debated whether he had pushed a horse to trot – but instead said ‘he wants to trot’.  I had not seen any movement from him to suggest he had cued the horse – and the others had not.  He seemed relieved by this and was happy he still had majority support.

Interestingly, he did not yell at these people for ‘disagreeing’ – he just let it go.  Perhaps it was because they were quietly strong – rather than vulnerable – or perhaps it was because there were so many people there he just wasn’t too worried.

However there were some people he did pick on – and they were usually the quiet people.  One man there – let’s call him ‘Peter’, had been so very helpful leading highly strung horses in and out of the stables.  His quiet energy helped to soothe these horses..  But Kert obviously saw him as a target….

We had our classes in various places – one was in a classroom.  On this day Kert had left some books on the table and said we were welcome to browse them.  After lunch Kert noticed a book missing and asked who had it.  Peter responded that he had been reading it at his seat – he wasn’t going to take it outside – he just sat down with it.  Fair enough…we thought…..

Not in Kert’s eyes!  Kert called him up and started to pull apart his words.  It went something like this…..

“Peter – come up to the front here…  Now everyone – Peter’s a nice guy isn’t he?  But what did he just do?”  No one really knew!

“I generously shared these books with the group…. and one went missing…. now Peter just said he wasn’t going to take it outside – as if that explained it away…  what should he have said?”  No one knew…

“He should have said he was sorry and it won’t happen again.  Do you understand the difference here Peter?”  Poor Peter was so embarrassed and nodded in agreement.  “So what do you say?” Kert asked again.

Peter responded correctly “I’m sorry – it won’t happen again”.  Said Kert “Peter I don’t mean any harm – but this is a teaching for you”……  Peter hurriedly went back to his seat and I’m sure wanted to disappear into the floor…..

Seemed like Psycho Kert was back…..

And the saddest thing was, after that incident, Peter withdrew more – he had been ever so helpful with things – with people’s horses and other little jobs – he had never made any sort of waves – but perhaps Kert saw how well he was handling the horses and didn’t like it.  I really don’t know….

But that wasn’t the end of the Peter story……

COMING UP – CHILDISH EXERCISES

IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS STORY, PLEASE START AT THE BEGINNING HERE – Part 1 – An Introduction

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