Did you know that Airbnb offers experiences? I didn't know that until Bethy asked if I would be interested in signing up for one about the human-horse bond she found on Airbnb Experiences, which obviously I was super interested in!
This experience is super awesome, and it totally unique. It isn't horseback riding, it is learning how to communicate gently and effectively with horses, and learning to observe them and their behavior to create a better bond with them. And in doing so, you also learn a lot about yourself and how you communicate, it felt very similar to therapy in a way, it was just such a fascinating experience.
Here is an overview of what this experience is in the words of the creators:
"Discover the authenticity of the ancient horse/human partnership. This experience gives the opportunity to delve into the emotionally sensitive, empathetic nature of the horse-beyond the horseback ride. In this experience, we'll observe herd behavior; horse personalities; learn basic horse communication; participate in interactive empathy exercises about the use of the halter and lead rope as it relates to horse communication; intentional focus; then, implement the combination of these processes as you work with the haltered horse on lead rope; and finally, experience authentic partnership-relationship with the horse without lead ropes. The unbridled, reflective relationship-you can do this!
Through these graduated steps, you will discover physical listening skills, the power of observation, balance between predatory and prey nature, coherence, and relationship insights. Ultimately, the biggest take away in this event can be the unveiling of powerful insights about yourself."
When we first arrived at Reflect Reinvent Ranch, which is just outside of Santa Fe, the first activity we were asked to do is spend sometime just simply observing their herd of about 6 Columbian Paso Fino horses. We learned that each herd has a hierarchy with a clear leader and a clear bottom of the line. We were asked to observe the herd and then say who we thought was the leader and what behaviors lead us to that assumption and same for who we thought was at the bottom of the chain and the behaviors that supported our guess.
We also learned that horses are either right brained or left brained and are either introverted or extroverted which was the coolest thing I have ever learned. These traits play into their behaviors, so we could also look for those behaviors as well while we were observing.
This was a fascinating exercise and it was super interesting to observe the horses behaviors with the things we had learned. I will brag just a little to say I guessed the leader correctly, a beautiful female, right brained, introverted horse named Soci, is the leader of their herd, and we could tell by her behavior as well as how the other horses behaved around her, that she was clearly the leader. Yay for right brained introverts!
Then our guide, Machel, spent a long time explaining how horses think, behave, and communicate, and how we as humans can interact with horses in order to create trust and strong bonds with them.
Machel was so wonderful to work with and explained things so clearly and lovingly. This experience did require a certain amount of vulnerability on our part, because as with any relationship, in order to have a strong relationship with a horse, you have to know yourself pretty well, you need to be able to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses.
Next, we did activities that taught us how intuitive horses are to our movements and intentions and how that plays into how we interact with them. With this activity, one person closes their eyes and gently holds onto a lead rope, we were instructed not to grip it tightly, but to just gently hold it. Then, our partner would lead us around, always leaving quite a bit of slack in the rope. The person with their eyes closed would then pay close attention to the movement of the rope and would follow the different twists and turns their partner was taking them on. We learned you could also subtly indicate if you wanted there person with their eyes closed to speed up or slow down with the ways you handled the rope. Again, this activity required some vulnerability and some trust.
The main take away from this activity was that horses are extremely intuitive and can tell where we would like them to go by just the slightest movements of lead ropes, and if you have created a relationship with them based on trust, then you wouldn't ever need to tug or pull hard on a rope to get a horse to go anywhere. If a horse trusts you, then you should always have lots of slack in the rope and can just use little movements and intentions to guide them to where you want to go, such a cool thing to learn and such an effective way to teach it.
Next, we were paired with a horse! Machel told us we would have the best results if we picked a horse that mirrored our personality, right or left brained, introvert or extrovert. She asked us which horse we would like to be paired up with and then she would give us her opinion on if that would be a good match, but we could be paired with any horse we wanted.
By now we had spent about 2 hours together, and it was amazing how well Machel knew us already. I was an easy pair, I am very obviously introverted and I also think it is pretty obvious that I am right brained. So I got to work with Soci, the leader of the herd!
It was interesting to listening in on the discussion about which horse to pair Bethy with, she isn't as clear cut as I am when it comes to those two traits, she has a pretty good mix of all four. In the end she was paired with Pepito, a left brained introvert. Pepito was known as the silly one in the herd, he likes to roll around on the ground and nuzzle up to people, he was a sweetheart.
V was paired with Jewel, a 27 year old miniature horse. V was paired with Jewel based on the fact he was the right size for her, but they had a pretty strong bond. Machel said she hadn't ever seen Jewel respond to anyone the way he responded to V. They were the cutest lil buds.
After we were paired with our horses, we spent quite a bit of time building trust with them through brushing, petting and gently talking to them.
Next, we tried a few leading activities, we first lead them through an easy, low key obstacle course, using the things we had learned during the lead rope activity earlier. This gave us an idea of how the horses react to our movements and intentions. Then we lead them to the training ring where we took off their lead ropes experimented with directed our horses with just our movements and intentions.
I'll be honest, I had a hard time getting a hang of this part. You have to be very direct with where you want the horse to go, I have more of a personality of asking where others want to go and then making the decision together, so I was more vague and lenient with my intentions which confused Soci. But I eventually got more of the hang of it, but still not to a point I was super happy with. This was an activity that I would have liked more days to practice, trying to accomplish it in one day was a little frustrating for me. I was getting pretty emotionally exhausted, which wasn't something I anticipated happening when I signed up for this activity. It was interesting how deep I had to dig emotionally to do these activities, but that's probably the introvert in me.
Apparently Soci also gets emotionally exhausted rather easily as well, so we only did a few, easy exercises in the training ring. Then we stood outside to watch Bethy and Pepito. Soci reminded me so much of a dog, she liked to stand near and nuzzle me, she liked being pet on her nose and between her eyes. She was such a sweetheart.
Pepito was up for more intense activities, like galloping around the ring while Bethy stood and gave him directions from the middle of the ring.
Then it was time to gently lead our horses back to their corral and say goodbye. Guys, this experience is so cool is so many ways, I learned a ton about horses and how they think and communicate. It was so awesome to interact with horses in such a different way than the typical horseback riding experience. I have always had so much love and respect for horses, they are so majestic and they have such a presence about them. But this took that love and respect to a whole new level.
After our time at the Reflect Reinvent Ranch, we drove home to Albuquerque, freshened up a little at our Airbnb, then headed to Old Town for dinner.
We had heard that the High Noon Saloon was one of the best places to eat in Old Town, so that is where we headed. It is on the corner of the tiniest streets right in the middle of Old Town. It's name is a little misleading, this is actually a a fairly fancy, nice restaurant that serves delicious, sophisticated food.
There are a few different rooms that are all decorated differently, we didn't get a chance to tour through the other rooms, so I just pulled a few off the internet to remember how cool this restaurant was.
We were seated in this room
Everything we ordered here was absolutely delicious. One of my favorite things was our appetizer, Brie Empanadas. Pastry stuffed with brie and roasted garlic topped with raspberry coulis and green chile apricot chutney
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