Impressions of one of Carla’s sessions with her horse Frankie. Frankie had a trauma surrounding riding, and once he was allowed to communicate he showed Carla how much it triggered him to have anything near or on his back resembling a saddle or that reminded him of his past as a dressage horse. Carla was able to ride him at liberty in the arena at this point, but as soon as she tried to put anything on his back he would panic and run away. Note his facial impressions, and general expression over the course of the video. It is important during this phase that the horse gets to fully express their anger and sadness over what happened to them. Groundwork can offer a space for this, and you are still allowed to ensure your safety by protecting your personal space, while giving the horse as much freedom to express themselves as possible.

Simply never putting anything on Frankie’s back, or never riding him again, would not help to heal the trauma - instead, we restart the horse with lots of patience and attunement, using a soft pad that doesn’t cause pain to the horse’s back, and later riding outside and with natural cues, thus slowly but surely replacing old negative experiences with new positive ones, and helping both horse and human find joy in riding again.