by Bobbie Lieberman
Inspiring Women in the Horse World
written for Equine Wellness Magazine Nov. 14, 2006
“Trust Yourself, and Remember Your Perfection”
Linda Tellington-Jones dares us to open our hearts to horses, to recognize their gifts of unconditional love,
and to relate to our animal friends with equal measures of grace and gentleness
Linda Tellington-Jones has taught, led and laughed for 30 years, creating an absolutely original way—the Tellington Method—of connecting and bonding with horses and other beings. Through her method of training and healing, she takes us beyond resistance, fear and instinct by thinking, not reacting. She gives us—and our horses—choices, not rules while exploding decades-old myths about equine training and behavior. She opened the possibility to dance with horses in a way that goes beyond dominance, strength and coercion while staying safe. Her credits fills several pages—vet schools in Europe teach her methods, and University of Minnesota medical and vet students learn the relaxing and fear-releasing qualities of TTouch. Yet the patience and love in her heart are always first in any encounter with horse or human.
Tellington TTouch is a blending of intuition and breakthroughs in neuroscience. Leading a horse through the Labyrinth, doing circular TTouches or stroking the horse with the wand shifts brainwave patterns in both horse and human, creating an awakened mind state linked to learning and relaxation. Brain wave studies Linda conducted with Anna Wise of the Biofeedback Institute of Boulder, Colorado in 1985 demonstrated activation in both logical and intuitive parts of the brain when applying the circular Tellington TTouch. This did not happen with stroking, rubbing, or when the skin was moved in three circles or more. Linda encourages women to trust their hearts and their intuition. The definition she uses for intuition she quotes from book, Intuition: Awakening Your Inner Guide, by Judee Gee.“Intuition is the manifestation of the diving consciousness within you. The messages it sends are essential to our emotional, physical and spiritual health. Receiving and understanding these truths will change your life and help you find your true path.”
“Research at the HeartMath Institute has shown that when you are in a state of thanksgiving, forgiveness and understanding, empathy is measurable from your heart at a distance of several feet,” says Linda. So when you open your heart to your horse, your horse is able to take that love in….and lead you to that elusive place called bonding.
Tellington-Jones was the first to recognize that most equine behavior problems stem from fear, tension, discomfort and pain in the body, especially the neck and back. Recalls Frank Bell, a clinician from Ashton, Idaho, “Close to 20 years ago, I had the privilege of watching Linda transform several hyped up Arabians into relaxed, trusting creatures, all in a matter of minutes. Linda has singlehandedly changed the world for animals and people. The 90 minutes or so that I observed Linda at work changed the way I related to horses from that day forward.”
A youthful 69, Linda is as energetic and light-hearted as when she was a child galloping her horse Blaze across the Canadian plains. TTouch has taken Linda, her fellow instructors and their students to every corner of the globe. She keeps up a worldwide travel schedule that would tire out people a third her age, and never stops learning, inquiring, teaching and laughing. She doesn’t leave a clinic until the last question is answered, and the last horse is relaxed and happy in his skin.
Linda leads us on a path toward a deep spiritual embrace of the horse. She believes that by treating your horse as you would like to be treated—the Equine Golden Rule—we also enhance our relationship with our own species. “Seeing horses as our teachers awakens a level of trust, relationship and respect which goes both ways, and in so doing shifts our relationship to the world,” says Linda, who lives and teaches her mantra, “Trust yourself, and remember your perfection.”
The Tellington Method, inspired by Linda’s15 books in 12 languages, 18 videos, countless magazine articles, a quarterly newsletter and numerous television documentaries and radio programs, continues to spread around the world. There are over 1,200 certified TTouch practitioners for horses, companion animals and humans in 26 countries teaching workshops and working with individuals. For further information, visit www.tellingtontraining.com or call +27 11 884-3156
+27 11 884-3156+27 11 884-3156+27 11 884-3156
Author Bobbie Lieberman is a journalist and endurance rider based in southern California. With Linda Tellington-Jones, she is the coauthor of The Ultimate Horse Behavior and Training Book: Enlightened and Revolutionary Solutions for the 21st Century, published in October 2006 by Trafalgar Square Publishing.