I really need to share this with you. I’m working with a horse that is very scared of people. He’s truly a lovely horse but extremely distrustful, which makes him quite challenging. I’ve already worked with him a bit and there’s been great improvement compared to how he behaved when he arrived. But right after the seminar with you, we started trying OPP. Recently, I even saw him yawn shyly during relaxation, but what I saw today was something incredible! I took him outside, thinking of doing a simple lunging session (let me add that we mostly train in the indoor arena because he panics a lot outside and doesn’t really work at all), and he started showing relaxation signs by himself. Instead of a horse that usually enters the arena and immediately takes off trotting or galloping, barely manageable, I saw a horse calmly walking and trying to relax 😍.

So I started deepening OPP, and what I found exceeded my wildest expectations. He even decided to roll, also shyly, but he did it very calmly and got up quickly. BUT this horse, even six months ago—or even, I dare say, two weeks ago before we started practicing OPP—would never have felt confident enough to lie down near a person. He’s also a bit skittish, and he sometimes jumps away when he hears something or takes off galloping. Today, in the arena, instead of doing something like that, he just flinched slightly when a pile of rubble fell over quite nearby... I’m absolutely amazed, and this is just the beginning.

Zofia about her experience after ground Seminar