During my very first equine coaching session, the facilitator asked me to walk towards Ami (short for Amadeus.) He was a beautiful horse that stood patiently waiting and watching me. With hesitant steps, walking slowly, cautiously, and meekly towards him, he abruptly turned his head as far as he could in the other direction completely avoiding me. Surprised and unsure what to do, the facilitating coach told me to stop. She then said, “Ami is responding to your timidity, and is asking you to let go of it.”

Regrouping, I walked towards him with longer strides, better posture and pace, boldness, and assertiveness. Feeling my energy, he turned back around, gazing intently at me as I approached. When I reached him, Ami started nuzzling both sides of my face. The coach followed with “Ami is letting you know you are loved.”

Later, sitting with the rest of the group in the barn, my back was close to the stall he had been placed in. He easily reached his head over the metal railing and started nuzzling my back. The coach stopped mid-sentence and said, “Karen, Ami’s got your back.”

Horses are highly sensitive prey animals. As such, they easily mirror human emotions, body language, and energy. The real-time feedback I received identified hidden behaviors and opened the door to safety, acceptance, a profound sense of emotional security, and attachment healing — in the form of altered behavior.

Happy to say that timidity is gone!