Do you listen to your horse?

Does he feel listened to?

I was curious to get an idea what percentage of horses actually do feel listened to, so, I did a quick survey on my Facebook page.

Those who volunteered posted a photo and name of their horse. I made an energetic connection with the photo, then asked ‘does this horse feel listened to by (owner’s name)’ using my strong pendulum. Yes, it’s unscientific and, frankly, ‘woo’ – but it does give us an overview of sample of horses.

28 people replied – you can see the post here.

The first interesting point is that the number of volunteers was much lower than it usually is for these surveys (I usually run out of steam as we approach 100). It’s possible that Facebook showed it to less people than usual – reach is way down these days – but I also wonder if less people really want to know the answer to the question…?

The results were,

60% of horses said Yes, they feel listened to, and

40% said No, they don’t feel listened to.

Obviously this number is going to be skewed by the type of people that follow my FB page and are interested in Animal Communication. In other words, those percentages may not be true of the general horse population.

What the owners said

Owners of horses that said ‘no’ were mostly philosophical –

One said,

that’s because he wants MORE FOOD and I won’t give it to him 

with another saying,

Never enough carrots !!

Yep, your horse’s answer could be affected by something as simple as whether you listen to them when they’re asking for something!

There were a couple of horses that were new to their owners. One was a ‘no’ and there was a definite feeling to me that it was just because it was early days in the relationship. I checked him again when writing this blog and this time got a ‘yes’, he does now feel listened to . So, even just the process of me checking in with him had subtly shifted how he felt and his awareness of being listened to.

A second new horse was a ‘yes’, with the owner saying

yay! Only had him a week and working hard to make sure he’s happy

So, whatever she is doing is working!

How MUCH do horses feel listened to?

To go a bit deeper with the survey, I gave my newsletter subscribers the chance to find out what percentage their horse felt listened to or not.

This time 16 people took part – still fairly low numbers which tends to confirm my suspicion that lots of people are perhaps scared to know the answer!

56% of horses said yes, they feel listened to, and

44% said no, they don’t feel listened to.

It was interesting to then look at how much they felt listened to.

Of the ‘No’s, there were 2 horses (both mares) who actually measured 80-85% for how much they feel listened to. High standards much??!

The rest were down at 20-30%.

Of the ‘Yes’s, most measured around 60-75%.

However, one measured just 45% – so, feels listened to less than half the time, but still overall gave a ‘yes’ answer.

And, one horse – only one – actually measured 100%, ie feels listened to 100% of the time! Needless to say its owner was thrilled!

Why does listening to your horse matter?

We all like to be listened to, to know that our feelings and opinions matter, and horses are no different. If you truly want a connection and a reciprocal relationship with your horse, listening to them is hugely important.

I regularly find in my Animal Communication sessions that horses are initially surprised that I’m asking them questions. Once they realise that I’m asking on behalf of their owner, who genuinely wants to know what’s going on and how to help them, it can cause quite a shift in the relationship.

Even just after this brief survey one owner said,

when I opened the window this morning she was looking out for me and was happy to see me waving at her. So you must have passed her some good thoughts. Thank you.

Another owner, whose horse had said ‘no’, it didn’t feel listened to, immediately booked an Animal Communication session with me to find out what was wrong.

There were one or two small physical issues, but the biggest things were that his energy field and chakras were out of balance (see why that’s important here), and, he had associations lingering that related to past experiences he’d had.

Once I cleared those and rebalanced his energy, I retested whether he felt listened to.

This time he said ‘yes!’, and the level was up to 70%. His level of trust in his owner rose significantly, too.

How can we better listen to our horses?

First of all, be more aware to all the little ways that they’re trying to tell you something. Body language, behaviour changes, likes and dislikes.

If you’re always ignoring his feelings and opinions he certainly won’t feel listened to, so whenever you can, act on their requests. If he’s usually easy to catch but today stays away, and it’s not urgent that you catch him, perhaps leave him be or come back later. Show him that you heard him.

If you can’t act on his request, tell him why not. Just verbally explain to him that you heard him, can’t do what he wants right now, but will next time.

Make sure you’re taking his feelings into account and doing the best you can for him, and tell him that you’re listening and doing your best – let me know how you get on!

Keep connecting with your horses,

Trisha x

If you’d like to learn how to use a Pendulum to ask your horse questions, check out my video workshop here.

Find out what your horse wants you to know with this deck of Horse Oracle Cards.

About Trisha

Trisha Wren has been an equine professional for most of her adult life.  She rode, competed, and taught Western Riding for 15 years in Scotland, then taught horse and rider bio-mechanics in New Zealand and Australia for 10 years.  She’s been a full time horse and animal communicator since April 2016. Find out more about Trisha here and sign up for her self paced Animal Communication course here.