Klaus part 1: Speaking and communicating with the unconscious

Sharon Wilsie's Horse Speak is about learning the language invented by horses, the language they themselves use to communicate with each other. The following vignette is from one of the first sessions I held with someone whilst I was following a course in equine facilitated psychotherapy (EFP), and shows how I made use of the Horse Speak that I had thus far learned. 

I arrived at the venue in advance of the session and prepared the space. I deliberately walked the central fence line, touching the fence, inspecting the environment, making sure it was safe and secure. The horses were as far away as they could get, in the furthest field from the house, and somewhat screened from view by hedges and trees. Nevertheless, I glanced up towards them – small dots though they seemed to me from where I was – and when they looked in my direction, I raised my arm and head towards them to acknowledge them. 

As I walked up the path, I picked up a foreign object from the ground, touched the fence, gently kicked a fence post now and again, and took note of the water trough and its workings. I also looked up and pointed at the red kites that were wheeling around in the sky. I knew I was being observed. I was securing the environment, and trying to make myself believable as a potential protector for the herd. 

When I reached the top field I paused at the open gate, remaining on this side of the fence. I continued to acknowledge the horses by adopting O posture, leaning my shoulders towards them, one arm outstretched with a downward facing knuckle, and blowing loud greetings (three times).   

The smaller horse, Puck, came over and I greeted him by offering my knuckle to his muzzle and mirroring the movement of his head and neck. After the greeting I continued my inspection of the boundary, and he returned to the business of grazing. I then returned to the house to wait. 

I was waiting for Klaus. He had been referred to me by his psychoanalyst. He had expressed an interest in horses around the same time that she became aware that I'd started the training in EFP. A few weeks previously, Klaus had gone into a field of horses with some friends, one of whom was an experienced horseman. A small disturbance amongst the horses led to Klaus getting trodden on by a horse, but he wasn't injured. Although he was shaken by this he still wanted to have an encounter with horses. He was asking himself if it was something particular about him that had led to his being trodden on. He was interested to hear about Horse Speak, which he thought would help his relationship with horses. 

That morning, Klaus preferred to stick close to the fence, and to keep his distance from the horses. Puck immediately came over to greet us and then stood with his muzzle resting on my outstretched knuckle while Klaus and I talked. The second horse, Oberon, had his back to us and was standing about 60 yards away, next to a high hedge line. I told Klaus that I thought Oberon was standing sentry and that his job was to be Puck's protector. This borrows from Sharon's idea that the space can be read as a chessboard, and that the horses adopt different roles in relation to each other.

There was a dog barking beyond the hedge line, out of sight, in the distance. Oberon was pointing in the direction of the sound. I walked away from Puck but remained on this side of the fence and began to mirror Oberon. I chose an angle at which he could see me without having to move his head. It was an acute angle behind him. I stood upright (X posture), pointed my hand high above my head and in the same direction that Oberon was looking. I blew loud sentry breaths in sets of three as I pointed, bringing my hand down slowly after the third, palm towards the ground. We thought we could tell that he noticed this because he was making small movements, especially with his ears. I repeated the sentry actions, and after the third repeat both Klaus and I noticed a distinct change in Oberon's body. His posture relaxed (from X to O posture), he dropped his head, then turned and walked slowly but surely over to us, finally coming through the gateway to greet us.

After the formalities of greeting were complete, there was a hesitation on the part of we humans. Oberon took the sleeve of my coat firmly between his teeth and tugged it. Not too hard, but enough to register that this was a communication which required deciphering. Klaus and I discussed it and decided that it was time to use the head collar that we had brought with us. Oberon indicated his agreement by standing patiently even as I made a bit of a mess of putting it on his head. Once this was done I invited him with a gesture to walk forward just two or three paces, which he accepted. We had established what passes for an ongoing communication. The head collar and rope seemed to be functioning as a tangible metaphor of speech, linking us together. I was not using it to exert any force. I'm not sure that we were making actual sentences, but we were engaged in a sequence that involved taking turns. I began an action with my cupped hand on his neck which is a kind of massaging mixed with patting. Oberon responded to this with a long series of deep yawns and stretches. After some more of this and some general mirth between me and Klaus, I stepped back and watched as Oberon lifted a rear leg, and in an exaggerated but careful movement turned his neck and head all the way back to give himself a scratch at what Horse Speak calls the jump up or vulnerability button. I interpreted this as an invitation and walk up to him and begin to scratch his belly. I put all my attention into this job, bending low and scratching deep. I gradually work my way up his barrel until I was at his shoulder, still bent, still scratching. Then I noticed that his lips were at the flap of my woolly hat and he was gently scratching behind my ears: it was a reciprocal gesture of grooming. The words "he could rip my ear off" passed quietly across my conscious mind, but a bubble of laughter burst out from me. This showed a split in me through which something of my unconscious could be witnessed. I ignored the words and followed the laughter. It wasn't wrong.

...

In the taxi back to the station, Klaus began to speak. He gradually unfolded a memory which brought him joy. It was a description of a horse ride he had experienced a few years ago but which he had, until now, forgotten. The events in the field had produced a movement in his mind: perhaps it was like the split that I had experienced, when something opened up and allowed something from the unconscious to appear. For me it was laughter and "rip my ear off", but for Klaus a memory re-emerged from wherever it had been hiding. 

Later, as I wrote up these notes, another movement occurred. The act of writing was having an effect and as I got to the part where Oberon's lips were at my ear, a feeling rippled through me that I can only describe as love.