Speaker 2 (00:35)
So welcome everybody. Thanks for joining in. Today I'm really excited because I'm going to be interviewing Anna Twinney here and she's actually coming to us from Arizona. She's ⁓ in the midst of a clinic and is taking out some time in her day to get together and to do this. So welcome Anna. Thanks for joining in.
Speaker 1 (00:55)
I couldn't be in a better place. I am loving the fact that I am in Arizona right now. And I'll you something else, it signifies the end of my program ultimately too. So I start work, start work with clinics in February and then go all the year round, but this is a beautiful ranch retreat. And so it's a moment where we can not work 80 hours a week and not do the horsemanship where I'm generally wild horses, but in fact bringing it down a little bit and.
Looking at going inside, that's what I love about coming here. It's a beautiful place to be to teach animal communication and energy healing.
Speaker 2 (01:32)
Yes, so you're getting to do a little healing on yourself as well.
Speaker 1 (01:36)
Yes, you
know, and it's interesting you say that every year I try to, well no, don't try, I look more and more about that self-healing aspect and that self-care aspect because that's a big piece of it and I've never, I never looked at it. I'm nearing the big five-o, do that with a great big smile, part of you hates it, part of you loves it to go I survived this much, but at the same time it's this piece to go you know what, you've got to focus on yourself to be able to give and you as a mother,
I think the best analogy is the one of always putting the oxygen mask on yourself before you take care of the children. Otherwise you can't do anything. And that's a big piece of healing, which would be look inside, look at yourself, take care of yourself in order to help, especially the horses. To recognize it even. as you do that, you're opening yourself up for animal communication. And one of the things that people ask,
for example, when they're near a horse, let's say it's a rescue because an awful lot of what I do, probably about 80 % of what I do will be with the rescue horses. They can't necessarily express their emotion through tears. You'll see a horse and you've got such a beautiful picture back there with the eye where you can see sometimes a little tear, but they can't express it like we can as a human. So sobbing, crying, et cetera. And a lot of this is about being centered in order to deliver, to be a conduit.
to give back but also allows these horses to express themselves with or through us. And to be able to do that, you do have to be centered and grounded and connected. And so these kinds of retreats are really helpful because of course sunshine is healing, rest is healing, and being around horses can be very, very soulful at the best of times anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:29)
Yes, no, and I like that you bring that up because I think it is important for us to realize that that sometimes we have to check our own emotions when we're going to the horses and not expect them to be absorbing all of the energy that we might have pent up inside that might not be helpful for our horses expecting them to take it from us.
Speaker 1 (03:52)
Yeah, and it's the world probably that you and I live in, but so many, if I look back in life and also the people I draw, I'm around hundreds of people per year, and you're gonna draw a certain amount of similarities within people because you're that magnet. But at the same time, when you look at the diversity around the world, it's not what we're educated in. We're not necessarily educated in leaving our baggage on the outside of the round pen or leave your baggage.
by the car as you're walking in, people are coming in, it's so fast, we're a quick fix society, we're dealing with so many emotions anyway, energetic shifts as well as responsibilities and workloads, and then we come and if we're not careful, we bring, of course, ourselves to the mix when we're riding and around the horses. And so for me, the energy healing piece isn't simply or all about giving back to that horse about a release.
The healing can be that joint healing to say, you know what, we need to focus on ourselves. We need to pause and breathe before we connect. And the realization, because you took it to the horses there a little bit, would be when we're riding, we're sitting on the heart chakra. So from an energetic standpoint, and we look at the conformation of the horse and where the chakras are, just behind those withers, that's the heart chakra. That's where we're sitting. And that's the very place
where all of our chakras would align and the horses are pick up that energy. So no matter, even if you try to hide it or you're trying to fake it, they're gonna feel the truth because energetically you're connected when you're riding. And that means check in first because you're gonna have the effect, you could be the best horseman in the world, but if you're carrying a strong emotion, you're gonna affect that individual.
I also want to give you the other part to that because I've heard so many horsemen say over the years, being a natural horsewoman myself, where they say not only check your emotions, but they say don't show emotion. I used to be the clinician that said that too. It's not true and I love it that you're shaking your head because for me that is you pushing that emotion down is not helpful. You pretending you're not frustrated.
helpful. Trying to hide sadness, fear, concern from a horse. You're not going to. So this isn't about pushing emotions down. It's actually about checking emotions, checking in to go, okay, let me harness that emotion before I go over to that horse. And that means you realize what is my frustration because I need to move that out of the picture to stay clear, which all comes into
not just energy healing, but energy in itself to realize that energetic component that they, they, the horses are masters at.
Speaker 2 (06:45)
Yes. Right, right. We lose it somehow. Somehow we lose it and then and then we spend the rest of our life trying to get it back. ⁓
Speaker 1 (06:46)
We don't.
Great way to say that, isn't that true? You'd probably be scrambled like that too, actually.
Speaker 2 (07:01)
It is a bit like that.
No, I think that's great and I think horses definitely, when you're incongruent, they know it. And they're very resistant to that because that's, they don't understand, for humans we live that way a bit, well way too much, right? But to the horse, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense why you'd be one way on the inside but then be showing something else.
Speaker 1 (07:27)
Exactly. We're trained, right? We're trained. We were talking about children before the interview started. We're trained from a good age. Probably the moment they land on the planet where we're saying, shh, wait a minute, or, you know, don't cry right now. We're all guilty of it. And so we're learning at that age to mask, put the mask on and hide behind that mask because it's the proper, polite, correct.
thing to do. And so we carry that throughout our life instead of that congruency, that authenticity. In both words, applying congruency is that alignment and the authenticity is being true to ourselves, which when we come to the energy healing is a huge piece of it. Because if somebody comes in thinking about where they should be going, what they need to do tomorrow, not every horse wants the laying on of hands at that point.
They're gonna say, you're not present, not here. Or if somebody is really depressed, that's another mindfulness to have. And if you're utilizing your own energy with energy healing, you're pushing your energy out through your hands, you're putting a negative energy onto another. So a big piece of energy healing, and I chose the art of Reiki, largest art around the world that's actually recognized. We're looking to be a conduit. So we allow...
that energy to channel through and it's not our own. And I think when people are learning the energy healing, they first learn with their own to say, I've done Reiki all my life, but they haven't because energy healing they might've done. And that's true. A good way to look at it for people watching. I love the hand piece because every fingerprint is unique to the individual. And yet if we look at the hand, everything leads up to spirit creator.
your God. And so for me, we're born with energy healing. It could be this one that you go, okay, this is the energy healing, but it has its own fingerprint. Reiki has its own fingerprint, healing touch, or text healing, reconnective healing, all its own fingerprint. And so people are born with the ability to do the energy healing, but it might be their own. And what makes it different with Reiki, it's an attunement passed down from one master
to another. Another way to frame it would be to say, like the satellite dish, to say you have the TV and the satellite, but you need an engineer to put it together. Same with animal communication, you need a linguist to put it together. And so with the Reiki, you're saying, well, here's the person and here's the art to your creator. Let's have the key from the Reiki master tongue. And it would be a very particular energetic field.
or strand that you'd be using. The glory, it's not our own. You're not feeling depleted. You're not taking your crap if you want, putting it on another. It's going through you. And it's a wonderful, wonderful, subtle art that everybody can learn and take to their horses. So they don't have to be re-keptuned to do energy healing. So they could decide, I wanna go outside. How do I start?
And in a great way, and I don't know if you do energy, you look like you do. You look like you're an energy healer. But rubbing of the hands, you know, together can activate energy. Clapping can activate three times, can activate it. That's why you see energy healers doing it. It's not like they're creating friction to create heat. It's more activating of the energy. And then if you cut the hand a little bit like that, concave, it's better than this because this would bounce energy off. But if it's a bit concave, you can then feel.
vibrations and heat and you could massage that energy to see do I feel like playing with it? Do I feel like bringing it up? Can I feel it go across? Does it feel like tingling magnetic connection? We begin to activate the energy in order to take that, take that little white ball, take it to the horses. And it's a great exercise to feel and learn to feel the energy to realize what it's like for another being.
We can always lay on our hands on another person who could give you the verbal feedback and the horses are talking and the horses will do it differently. They'll talk through shutting their eyes or licking and chewing or yawning copious amounts of times, dropping the head, breathing differently. It's a really cool reiki breath. If you look at the flank, if this is the flank now, you're kind of sick. Can I do that like that? It start going like that a bit more instead of there's a normal.
flank, it will start changing. So you'll see it on the nostrils to the breast. And really fun could be a cocked foot at the height where they're relaxing, dropped hip, or indeed you feel, hear the gurgling sound going through that individual. These are all signs, I've called them reiki registers, but they're all signs to show that there's an activation, a movement of energy, and you're infusing ultimately the cells with love, light.
oxygen, you're creating that circulation for the body to find a rhythm to be able to heal itself. That's a good way to say it.
Speaker 2 (12:52)
Yeah, that's so interesting. And as you were doing that, was doing that with my hands. I was cutting my hand and feeling it. And I was like, huh, that's really, you can really feel something there. It's...
Speaker 1 (13:03)
If you do
that and then you did put your hands on your heart, I'm giving my secrets away here, but often I would do that, I didn't do it for this interview, but maybe if I'm doing a demo or there's a thousand people at some times watching and you think, okay, I want this to be the right thing, I want it to be divine or I want to be guided. This is a great way for me to connect ground and allow...
ever's meant to be to come through to say, all right, this is guided information. And when people put their hand like that, I've got it obviously a little high here, but it feels right. It can be a very calming influence. And also you can feel the energy move and it helps people drop from their head to their heart. It's a great way if you needed to make a bigger decision. Instead of logically, does this feel right? If I got everything in place, there's a place for that.
But at the same time, all right, I've exhausted my list. What if I put my hands here to feel, is this the right decision? Does this feel divine to me? So it's an energy healing piece. It allows you to not just take it to horses or dogs or cats and feathered friends and exotics. It's not limited to the horses. It allows to put you in a state of sanctuary. You in a state.
of peace and calming to be able to facilitate it. Instead of that rush, you know when my voice is very fast, when I'm in teaching mode, I'm animated like I'm talking to you, but this can shift that. Because not every horse would want me to approach like this and go, okay, I'm here, are you ready? Oh, why are you running away? Well, maybe you need to ground and breathe to be a little bit more accessible. And this exercise can do just that for you.
Speaker 2 (14:58)
That's so neat and I really like too that you, a couple things actually that you touched on that I really find interesting. First of all, that feeling of it coming through you. And I think that's something that I definitely, I wouldn't consider myself an energy worker, but my husband and I talk about it all the time. It's like you enter this altered state when you're with a horse and it just, comes, it's not you and it comes through you.
If it's your energy, I could see where somebody would start to feel depleted because it's you that you're putting out there. But you were talking about how when it comes through you, it doesn't deplete you and it must almost, at least when I work with horses, I feel like it energizes me. And so is that what you find people feel through?
Speaker 1 (15:43)
Good.
Because you're allowing it to go through you. And what happens, think, when we get attached, it's somewhat different and it's really difficult. There's so many, so many pieces, moving parts, like you said. And so if somebody's attached to the outcome and if that horse is really suffering, you're attached, you're probably going to get depleted because you're, you're wanting it to go the way you need it. You want that horse to feel better.
you're going to be giving of yourself. You'll feel likely a little bit depleted. But if you're in a position where you could push that to the side and realize the highest good is happening, whatever that highest good is, then you're what we call centered. And if you're centered and connected for the highest good, it's gonna run through you. See, it won't be a visualization alone to say I'm grounded and connected. That could get you there.
And part of the key is being able to hold it. You could plug in and you could plug out, unplug. And the key would be to plug in and stay there. And that means handing over to the divine to the point where you can give freely. If that makes sense. And I think it's easier to understand if we're looking at our own horses to go, if it's a matter of giving them something for joy and love, you're going to be energized. If it's a matter of fixing.
a physical ailment, a mental aspect, you're going to be attached and it's hard not to be. And I find with our animals, just had a pup walk by, we're so connected to our dogs, we live with them 24-7. They know the insides and outs of our lifestyle, often soulmates. We're at that point where we only want the good and how difficult it is to step back.
And so the energy healing has a big, big part for me because it deals with the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual aspects of anything with a heartbeat, anybody with a heartbeat and beyond, because you're looking at plants, et cetera. But ultimately it's not restricted. It's not a matter of, okay, I don't need energy healing because my horse is fine physically. What if he just feels good? What if it would change your relationship? You're looking for connection.
We're looking for collaboration and communication. What if this is your missing link? You don't need it to fix something that's not broken, but it could be something that could enhance. What energy healing isn't? It's not just for the sick. It's actually for the alive and well, because we want to help each other when things are going well and infuse with positivity and good. And so therefore, absolutely, we could look at Reiki
pre post surgery, we could look at it for grief, weaning, travel, for performance horses. We could look at any reason under the sun. If you listed all the emotional reasons that we could think of from a loss of a human, loss of life through a herd member has changed, paddocks have changed, stool has changed, change of ownership as a category, so to speak. And we can go into every category.
along there. Energy healing plays a big part. You know, there's one more myth I can bring in here because we teach in horsemanship, horses are in the now. They are in the moment. They live in the moment. Absolutely they do. But what happens with people when they hear that statement, they then believe that, ⁓ the horse doesn't have the memories or they don't live in the past. They're not thinking about that child, that foal that
got moved along. They're not thinking of their past guardian. Yes, they are. Their memory is pre birth. So their memory sticks with them for life. Their cellular memories just like ours. They can have the trauma just like we do. Their emotions are equivalent to ours. Scientifically, the brain's the same size. So there's nothing that a horse can't experience in a way that we have experienced. They can do the same. So therefore, the energy healing is
incredible to come in for all of these aspects, but also realizing that horses do live in the now, but in the still maybe they are thinking of a past time. Maybe they are looking forward to their future to go, when is it my turn to shine? You know, what is my purpose here? They have those thoughts too. So therefore the energy piece is only as good as that horse in a way. Some will stand in that way, some won't.
Some, they're not like humans, don't necessarily have the ego and the energy will go through them, but others, they'll stand in their way of healing too, because they simply cannot let go. They cannot let go of that loss or that lack of opportunity. They will share in what we share. And that crosses the line for a lot of humans, because it's easier for them to compartmentalize to say, actually, she doesn't realize that they only focus on survival and reproduction. No, they don't.
They too look at, I'd like a chance at life, or I miss that individual over there. They carry the same emotions we do. Not necessarily in the now, because they've got to focus on what you're doing with training, but they have an opportunity to reflect for the other 23 hours a day. the healing can come in to really be helpful.
Speaker 2 (21:32)
Do they, kind of like people in some respects, self-identify with a state of being or a feeling so that they don't want to let go of it because they actually identify themselves as that?
Speaker 1 (21:50)
I hear what you're saying. found ⁓ in my time, I'm fortunate on the one hand when people could put this into perspective to know that I've dealt with approximately, let me think here, it's about 500 to a thousand horses per year. So we're looking at about 10, 20,000 horses. So I've dealt with an awful lot of individuals per year with clinics and otherwise.
And with that, the energy healing has played a big part in full gentling, Mustang gentling, remedial problem solving, and animal communication, and giving back to performance horses across the gamut, from Costa Rica to Trinidad and Tobago, China, Mongolia, New Zealand, Australia, whole of Europe, Canada, everywhere to see horses with energy healing is huge. And when you do that, you...
get an opportunity to meet horses that have been in feedlots, tribal horses, Mustangs, BLM Mustangs, wild horses, Brumbies, all the way through to the Chinese endurance team and shake Mohammed's horses. So there's the gamut for you to understand who I've dealt with. And so with that, yeah, you might have a horse not identifying himself as much to go, he was wild.
Maybe he identified himself as a family member, but that's it. And then you'll get a horse to say, my bloodline is that of a race horse. I am supposed to perform. I identify myself as my father's son, and this is my destiny. Absolutely, you'll get that too. So it's so vast, and I feel like we have that with humans too. You're gonna have the ones with learned helplessness.
who feel that they can't get out of their ghetto or the state that they're living in. And we'll have that with horses too, to feel like, okay, this is it. I'm riding school horse, learned helplessness. I don't know how on earth to get out of this. And then you're gonna get that little foal who I've had many of them that go, belong. I have the birthright to not only exist, but to find.
that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and you will get them identifying themselves, be it through their parents, be it that they were born that way, be it that they're hearing people talk about them, their lifestyle. It comes back to this as a natural horse woman you get critiqued. You actually get critiqued by everybody because they might say you put your clothing blankets on and not chemical wormers, no shoes.
I fully agree with all of that. I wouldn't put blanket on horses. And yet what if that horse has a body score of two? Of course I'm gonna put a blanket on the horse. What if that horse is used to Arizona and he's come from a barn. So I'm not gonna throw him out in Colorado, whether at minus 20 and say, sucks to be you, you're living naturally now. So I think people often look at it as a box to go, as a natural horseman, we should not be doing this.
you're right, we have to bring them back to nature as much as possible, but at the same time, stop putting them in a box, because this horse lives in a five-star hotel and he would die. So this horse needs the help. And these are the things that I think we forget when we go either really far left, we forget. I don't put shoes on my horses, but if I lived in a rocky place and I was on trails,
either would do the easy boots, but if they don't work and it doesn't work for your horse, you've got to accommodate accordingly. And these are all things to think about with the identification too. And the identification could be that a horse sees himself as important because he has shoes on. He sees himself as important because he has a groom. And so these are things that have to shift to go, yeah, you retired from being a cross country eventer or a
Grand Prix horse. Now what? Is your identity in that? Absolutely. Some can transition into retirement really well. I actually did an animal communication the other day for a horse who got recommended by a famous natural horseman, because we would do this, to turn him out into a field because he's retiring. What better gift could you give him than a field? Not much. But this horse comes back with lost his identity.
He feels discarded, put on a back burner, thrown away in this incredible pasture because he's not used to it. And so he greets his person going, what about me today? What are we doing today? And he's got kissing spine. So it's a fine dance. And his resolution was, let's at least work my body to see what I'm capable of doing. If you throw me out, I will die. My body will go into atrophy and I don't
chance but if we work a little one we connect but you have got a chance who would have thought of that as a as a clinician we don't we go he's got kissing spine he needs to retire I would say that as a clinician unless you went out of your head more into your heart and went into the energetic round to go what feels right for this how can we transition him correctly that he understands
Absolutely, to answer your question, their identity is in what they do depending on the individual.
Speaker 2 (27:43)
so interesting with that horse. It's how wise, what a wise horse to know that and to be able to express that. I've had arthritis since I was like six and I know full well that if I don't use my body and I don't consistently work out and do things, I'm gonna waste away and be a cripple. But if I use my body, guess what? I'm strong and I'm good. So I think that's a good message for people to hear too because I think some people
you know, they go down the road of all the horses, you know, they just have to go to pasture because they're, and maybe exercise is okay.
Speaker 1 (28:20)
Having traveled 22 years now on the road, pretty much doing horsemanship and integrating that energetic piece everywhere I go in the last few years, it's been this thing of, if with the performance horse world, my clients would say, well, my horse is brought to me. I ride him, but I don't know what to do with him otherwise, because I've never led him or never groomed him. I've had clients where they've said he's retired now. So he's out to pasture while others will come back with.
my horse has a physical issue, ring bone or arthritis. They're not the end of the world. And for me, was just saying, well, what are you doing then together? Well, I don't know what to do. And so I came up with the 101 things to do with your horse. it's a collection of everything that I do. And it's so funny, came up with it before even designing 101 things to go, shit, I find 101 things to do. It becomes really easy. You'd be amazed how easy it comes.
because by the time I put a little bit of trick training in and the trick training would mean what benefits, it's always about benefit, what benefit is there to the horse? I don't want, I personally don't want to train them to sit necessarily, but ground time, great trick training. Or I did it with my Spanish mustang, trained him when you hold the tail a little bit, he backs up. Fantastic thing, I never knew why I did it till he was in the trailer.
and I can cue him to come out that way. It's a great trick, you know? And so we've put together this 101 things and it has tricks and energy healing and telepathy and intuitive riding and hiking with horses, whatever you want. It applies to everybody. So if somebody says, you know, my therapeutic riding horse looks like he's got a glazed eye or the horse that goes round and round in the ring, the one that had a hard life.
What can we do with so many things to do with We're just not educated on it. And I feel like that's where it all comes together to say, what am I giving my horse today? Am I serving my horse? We're a society that looks at what can the horse do for me? And you know, I was at a place the other day and it's heartbreaking because I feel that there's so much to words. You've chosen your words so wisely.
And I was there and this horse had charged somebody and the charge was getting worse. He meant it. He bounced a bit, his ears went back, that mouth went open, he lunged forward. And I had noticed it and then I was called outside to support. And I said to the woman, can you tell me exactly what happened? And she was a different trainer. She didn't expect me to show up. I'd been asked to come. She rolled her eyes. And I said, no, no, no, I really need to know. Well, I didn't do anything. I said, well, you did something.
You triggered him somewhere because otherwise he wouldn't do this. What did you do? Well, I didn't do anything. just, I just went forward. said, tell me exactly what you did. Did you get in front of him or behind him? Did you get large? Did you have something in your hand? What triggered him? So I got to the bottom of his trigger and I knew his trigger was front on as you tried to get to the rear and bottom line, he'd been whip trained. Commonality within natural horsemanship.
back the back, face up. Most horses will face up, not a problem. A few become aggressive because they get frightened. So they get really big and they start to get frightened and defend. Called whip trained. We have it all across our country in natural horsemanship. The majority of people whip train. It works when they're compliant. When they speak back or are highly sensitive, it will not work.
But here's what came, why I'm sharing this story. She said to me, yeah, triggered on it. She looks right at me and say, so he's not usable anymore then. She just think that's my trigger. When usable. I said, it's not about effing usable. it? I think I did say that. And she's looking at me and I said, for me, it's about the fact that this poor guy's just gone into PTSD. We have just triggered a memory.
We caused us humans and now he's not usable. Let's figure out how we can help him through this to make sure he doesn't feel the need to do it. Totally different perspective from my end. And so that's the key here is how do we see these horses? Are we looking at usable or could we look at what can I give back to you today? You have served in this program for years. Obviously you're burnt out because you feel the need now to say stop.
You weren't heard on your stops and now you're charging. Now you're deemed dangerous and somebody wants to throw you away because you're not usable. And I'm looking at it to go, no, this kid is safe. You triggered him. Let's look at redesigning the program for him and what can we do about that? So I designed a lot of this around them. How can I help you? How can I serve you? What can we do together that doesn't necessarily include riding?
Yes, there's a few 10, 15 things to do if you're in the saddle. But a lot of this was about being creative to say, it's about connection. It's about that intention. It's about the energy that we share, the time that we spend. It's about how we do anything is how we do everything. And who do I want to be today? What impression do I want to leave on you? And so,
That's why I came up with the 101 things like you came up with your program to go, how can I best serve not just the people, because I'm going to bring a ton of clinicians together serving people so they can pick and choose from the clinicians. But you're also saying, here's about giving back. We're going to find clinicians that are looking at gentle ways. We're looking at people that are exploring positive negative reinforcement, and we're looking about giving back. And that is really my mission statement.
and my life's work is getting gentler, gentler, gentler, and how can we listen to the horse? What does listening mean is my point. And listening means going inside, looking at intention, feeling energy, sharing energy, and not waiting till that horse has to yell by pinning his ears, stomping his hoof, kicking you, and that would be yelling. And when the students, my students sometimes too, doesn't matter, across the world, they go,
he did that for no reason or it might be he's not allowed to tell me that way he can't tell me through bucking how's he meant to tell you then because I can guarantee you before he barked he told you 20 other ways most likely because there are horses that are exceedingly smart but what if it was the saddle fit or the bit or the hooves or the riding or the energy or the turnout or the mate what was the cause one there's never no reason
There's always a reason we have to identify it. But two, we're also looking at, if we didn't catch that whisper, they have to raise that bar. They cannot tell us about pain any other clearer way than by going higher
