Resisting an urge to fall to my knees, hug her about the
ankles and sob ‘We are not worthy’, which is what I *felt* like doing, I just
babbled out…’ I’m impressed!’ Typical humble, sweet Mary, she smiled and said
‘Really?’ and looked surprised.
And I was. This was amazing stuff. Man, who coulda thought
that horse could be reached by *any* means. And here he was, with what looked
like just nothing almost, with no weird names and no agenda and no talking
trees. No hammers, no injections, no magnets or lasers. Just Mary and her
hands. Better. So much better. Humbled, I now was determined to learn it and apply it. That day, after
the clinic, I went to my barn and took a horse I had at the time, Cody, out of
his stall. Cody was a big Holsteinor that I had acquired in North Carolina . He was wonderfully bred, a
Condino son, who had been well broke and well ridden, until he wasn’t. Then he
had developed all kinds of issues and behaviors that had made him pretty
unmarketable. Natch, that made me want him. Maryanne, my wonderful Jack Meagher
trained massage therapist had done great things with him in NC, and we were
doing ok together. But I knew his neck, like many big dressage horses, had
issues. He had the big knots behind his poll that so many of them have and the
massage work had never made them go fully away.
So I put Cody in the cross ties and tried to do the work I
had been not trying very hard to learn from Mary. I was serious, though, this
time, and tried to do what she had taught us to do, and to feel what she was
trying to teach us to feel. It felt awkward and pointless but I kept at it. True
to the Feldenkrais principles, I did not work on the knots in his neck. I
worked on Cody’s ribs and tummy. I had already recognized the work as Linda
Tellington Jones type stuff with out the dumb names, so I had my LTJ clinic
notes with me as well, and tried to consolidate the two approaches. After maybe
twenty minutes I gave up, frustrated with myself and wishing I had paid better
attention the previous four days. Disappointed, I groomed Cody and put him in
the equicisor for a session.