When a client called saying, “I’m afraid to ride my horse, can hypnosis help?” I said to her, “Yes!” and I said to Frank, “I’ll see this one.”
I rarely go into the office now that my primary professional commitment is to my mentoring program (Acumen Certification Training), but I knew in my heart I had to see this caller — cowgirl to cowgirl.
In our interview I learned that in more than fifteen years she had never suffered an injury from a fall or from being thrown, other than bumps and bruises; but for the past three years, she had no self-confidence and felt actual fear when it came to riding. It was breaking her heart to spend less and less time in the saddle, but the thought had her literally shaking in her boots.
Now this is where it gets interesting. When I asked her what was going on in her life about three years ago, she told me her husband had left her. Sold the house right out from under her, she said. Then she added, “Something like that really throws you. You never get over it.”
I later made note of her comment that, “You can’t trust men.”
And what was her horse? A stallion!
That was all the information I needed to choose the direction we would go together during hypnosis. Her subconscious mind had formed some interesting associations during her traumatic divorce. Not rational, but interesting.
After her session she had tears streaming down both cheeks as she hugged me, thanked me, and said she couldn’t WAIT to get on her horse and go for a long, long ride.
A horse is a large critter with a lot of muscle and a mind of its own. We as handlers or riders can easily be intimidated — for reasons that are sometimes obvious, other times not. Hypnotherapy can help to instill confidence and increase commitment to an improved relationship between man or woman, and horse. Between you and your horse, someone is going to take control. For the sake of both of you, that has to be you.