Day 5: Protection & Bottles

I was awaken this morning in the same fashion as the day before. Heard the two wake up calls (Hindu call to worship) but it was the knock on the door which got me out of bed. Our morning Chai was here. Doris went to open the bathroom's back door so that Rahjan could deliver our bath water.

We bathed and I attempted to blow dry my hair. In actuality I electrocuted myself, burned my hand and witnessed smoke and flame coming out of the electrical outlet. It was EXCITING. Then with wet hair I traversed across the courtyard to Ginny and Cathy's room to borrow their hair dryer.

Breakfast was the same as the day before. Quite good and filling. Well filling because Angela didn't want her egg so I was able to have two! Thanks Angela.

Mala picked us up after breakfast to give us a lift to Roja.

We spent an hour or so as a group talking about relationships. I loved the honesty that the roses (rescued girls) brought to the conversations. Their questions were raw and to the point. I think we Americans tend to "dance around the bush" and tend to hide what it is we are really trying to get at. Why? I'm not sure. But we like these rescued roses desire to know things about ourselves and life. We all want to know why things happen to us and what will happen to us in the future. But Laxmi and Karishma are not afraid to ask out right the questions that are unanswered in their hearts.

For lunch we headed to a cafe restaurant at a local hotel. It was a place that had "safe" food. As I later discovered safe meant it was cooked well and the water was filtered.

Most ordered different types of Dosas. They are a large sour dough type of crepe.

- Angela, Angie (behind camera), Supna and Cathy waiting for their orders-

- Rohi and Debbie enjoying their Dosa -
Rohi is Freedom Firm's full time counselor, and

Debbie, from Ireland, is Freedom Firm's funds director (or as she calls herself, the fun director)

Laxmi and I sat across from Debbie and Rohi. Laxmi told me some of her past. You can read a bit about her story by clicking here.

Afternoon rain showers prevented our horse assisted therapy from starting with the horse, Hira. As an introduction we discussed relationships with horses.

I'll give you a synopsis:
Horses are prey animals. They means for survival are to flee or to fight. Their eyes are set far apart to be able to survey a large expanse for danger. They have been given long legs and athletic bodies to run. They will only fight if they cannot run. The instinct is to run first and then figure out what the something that startled them was harmful.

People are predators. Our eyes are close together for focusing on what we desire. We boldly walk up to people or things we want. We have athletic bodies that are quite good at causing someone or something to come under its control. Our instinct is to boldly go after what we want and our will is not accomplished right off we implement force to aid our will.

A horse can be captured and forced to comply with our wishes. Many call this breaking a horse. By doing this you break not just their will but also their spirit. The horse no longer trusts people.

The aim at working with the horses is to develop skills that allow us to gain the horses trust and then be his leader. Horses feel safe when they trust a herd leader to keep an eye out for danger. They they are willing to follow the leader and do most anything that is asked.

Sorry I'm getting a little long here. I will make one last comment about animal assisted therapy and how I perceive it to be valuable to these roses.

A horse that is caught, saddled and ridden against his will is similar to a child being caught and raped. The horse and child learn great fear. The horse's and child's ability to trust becomes damaged.

So we started out on this journey to learn how to overcome a horses fears and gain its trust. It all begins by learning to communicate as horses do among their own kind. They primarily use body language that is reinforced with scratching, nuzzling, bites and kicks. The bites and kicks are not meant to beat up another, they are merely a horse's way of saying stay out of my space I MEAN IT. But mostly they seek to be friends and will scratch each others backs.

Today we learned about how to massage (scratch their backs) and how horses use pressure points to move each other around. First we practiced on each other with bottles, then we used a tool (long stick with a leather pad on the end) to mimic the touch of a human on a horse. The stick gives us the length that our upright bodies lack and that a horses naturally has.

Hira as we discovered is sensitive around his back legs, so the tool also kept us at a safe distance as he learned to enjoy our massaging.

- Mala and Angie practicing a nice rubbing technique with their bottles. -

The rain subsided and we were able to massage Hira.

- (l to r) Feni, Mala, Rohi, Laxmi, Doris, Angie, Cathy (can't see her), me (or my head & pink shirt), and the back of Supna with Hira-

- Rohi massaging Hira's chest -

- Cathy practicing her massaging and moving Hira with the pressure point on the chest -

By this point we have gained Hira's trust and are working on being good leaders.
- after the group played with Hira, Supna and I took care of his abscesses -
Hira was in the final stages of Strangles.
- On our way back to Mountabaun we saw these horses on the side of the road. They all belong to someone. They are just turned out on the street when they aren't being ridden. -

One last note on the day. During our discussion about horses and their flee instinct, Laxmi brought up their horse Jade. Jade came to them last year, but one day she spooked and ran. She ended up slipping on one of the steep slopes and fell 20 feet. The fall was such that she had to be euthanized. Laxmi was recalling this because she loved Jade and was afraid that if she let herself trust and love Hira that he too may leave her. We cried together, she for Jade and me for my first horse, Sable. I had related my story of loosing Sable. Others encouraged Laxmi to treasure the memories and relationship and not to deprive herself of future moments.