THREE weeks after Peter Neilson bought Nod, a 16.2 hands bay gelding, he had but two paces. One was a walk, the other was a flat out gallop, which took no account of any obstacles. ''He would charge,'' Peter says, ''in a straight line, trying to go faster and faster. Nothing would stop him - not gates, fences, walls, or ditches. He was basically brain-dead and dangerous.''
And yet, when Peter, who stood in the Borders for the UK Independence Party last year, purchased Nod, he noticed none of this kind of behaviour. He was an expensive horse, bought from a reliable dealer whom Peter knew well. He now suspects the dealer of parching and starving the horse to make him manageable and, therefore, saleable. Three weeks of food and water had restored Nod to his full strength.
Cruelty to horses is not unusual. According to Doreen Graham of the Scottish SPCA, cruelty is ''not always deliberate, such as beating a horse. Often cruelty happens as a result of neglect; people don't always realise that horses need specialist care. They have a little bit of land and they think 'oh I'd like a horse'. It is not like the dog who lives in the house with you, the paddock might be a couple of miles down the road, and then it is very often a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'.''
Minor neglect can lead to major problems that damage both the minds, and the bodies of horses, often beyond repair. In the winter badly fitting rugs cause sores which can lead to festering wounds. Horses and ponies left standing in small paddocks with no water and limited grazing are frequently reported to the Scottish SPCA, in a state of advanced malnutrition. Inadequate fencing can result in horses escaping from fields and being hit by cars. Worming is so expensive, and is an area where people will often cut back, allowing their horses and ponies to become infested with parasites. Wet and dirty straw in boxes, and waterlogged fields lead to crippling hoof problems. And a horse that is mistreated or neglected will become afraid, and its behaviour will suffer.
Several years ago Monty Roberts highlighted, what seemed to some, a revolutionary manner of treating horses. Whereas strict discipline reinforced by the use of the stick had, for many, been the norm, this new method, which required listening and communicating with horses on their own terms, appeared from the outset to have a profound effect on even the most unmanageable horses. Shocked by the treatment of horses he witnessed during rodeos in the Mid-West, Roberts spent many years studying the behaviour of horses in the wild. His observations of unbroken mustangs in Nevada, led him to believe there had to be a better way of ''breaking'' horses, other than the heavy-handed ways in which violence was used to subdue terrified animals.
His work, illustrated in both a television documentary and his book, The Man Who Listens To Horses, reinforced concepts some people who have worked with horses all their lives have intuitively known for centuries. Man is a fight animal and the horse is a flight animal whose instinct is not to trust us - misguided treatment will soon result in hostile behaviour such as that exhibited by Nod.
But does listening and communicating with horses that have been mishandled in the past work, and, if so, how? Peter Neilson instinctively understood that Nod's dangerous behaviour was the result of earlier cruelty, and not of a character defect. Against all the odds and expert advice, he began to research a programme of rehabilitation, without having an idea as to how this would take place or how long it would take. ''First I had to get the horse right physically,'' he says. ''He was sensitive to the elements because his body had been run down by the appalling treatment he had been given. He was like a person coming out of a concentration camp he was so thin.''
Nod's physical problems were not only surface problems. When the horse developed peritonitis, his intestines, it emerged, were perforated with worm infestations. But it was Nod's mind that Peter was mainly interested in, and he embarked on a journey which has led him deep into the discovery of horse whispering: the art of spiritual healing for horses.
''Behavioural problems in animals are similar to those in humans,'' he says. ''But the wonderful thing about horses and dogs is that they want to be healed. Quite often a human being does not wish to be healed, underneath they are quite happy with their situation.''
Peter's journey on the path to Nod's recovery, led to a meeting with Morag Macdonald-Worsley, founder of the Holistic Rescue for Horses in Edinburgh. Morag, who describes herself as a ''holistic healer'' rather than a horse whisperer, says that, as with humans, ''the holistic approach encompasses the whole circle of requirements to optimise healing. The jigsaw of success may require traditional veterinary treatment, herbal remedies, homeopathy, dietary advice, stable management, readjustment, and so forth.''
Morag, who concentrates on clearing the energy system, which surrounds the body of any physical or emotional recollections from the past, in order to create an atmosphere where healing can take place, claims her methods have been successful with horses described as unmanageable by their owners. She uses simple techniques that lie well within most people's power, that she teaches in twice-monthly spiritual development workshops. ''I am not a chef with a secret recipe, nothing is a doctrine. It is just a tool that people use in the way that is appropriate to themselves. People can learn to feel the energy field.''
She agrees with Roberts that horses are victims of fear, and she has been successful using calming techniques similar to those used in prisons. By painting the inside of a lorry pink, and using soft lights and playing classical music, she was able to load a horse which had previously refused to go anywhere near any transport. She had, she says, diagnosed fear of an acute kind, as a result of past mistreatment, and explains that, ''out of desperation, rather than trust'', the owner complied with her strange requests.
Sylvia Loch, a top international riding instructor, and author of the recently published Being At One With Your Horse, is also concerned with the physiology and psychology of the horse, but she focuses on ''correct'' or classical riding as a method of problem-solving. She believes that horses are a special part of the creation, a gift from God that should not be abused.
''Horses are powerful yet meek,'' she says. ''They are gentle yet strong, and easily terrified. I like to restore unhappy, miserable horses, but not ones that have been totally traumatised.''
As a founder of the Classical Riding Club, her focus is on restoring the horse to the natural state of balance he would have known in the wild, following the classical principals established by the Athenian Greek cavalry officer, Zenophon, in the fourth century BC. She teaches her pupils to ride, in balance with their own body, like ballet dancers. ''When most people get on a horse they are unbalanced,'' she explains. ''Your balance is important, sitting in the right place is important. You can imagine why this is by putting yourself in the horse's place. If the horse is uncomfortable he will take out his anger by fighting with the rider or fighting with the bit. A horse will pull because he has been taught to pull.''
By absorbing information from various sources, it took Peter Neilson three-and-a half years to learn to listen to Nod, to achieve an understanding that his behaviour was related to his past problems, and achieve a cure. The final victory was achieved when Peter correctly identified and was able to exorcise the spirits who locked his horse into such a destructive pattern. Using the same method, and various Bach flower remedies, Peter has cured his other horse, Morris, who was paranoid about flies and refused to go into a trailer, and he is currently working on Millie, who will unaccountably stop at jumps for no apparent reason.
''Anyone can use these methods of healing,'' says Peter, who claims to have healed more than 20 horses, and now has plans to set up a healing partnership. ''Most of us have got a psychic sense, it is just that we have all become 'modern' and so we have lost the power to develop those senses. Some people will think I am a raving nutter, but it works.''
n For further information contact Peter Neilson, Kersquarter Farm, Kelso TD5 8HH. Tel and Fax: 01573 224 146.
Morag MacDonald-Worsley, Holistic Rescue for Horses, 55 St John's Road, Corstorphine, Edinburgh EH12 6NS. Tel: 0131 334 2879. Please ask for details of workshops.
Sylvia Loch, The Classical Riding Club, Eden Hall, Kelso, Roxburghshire TD5 7QD. Tel: 01890 830 380.
Being At One With Your Horse by Sylvia Loch is published by J A Allen & Co at #19.95 and is available from
J A Allen & Co Ltd, 1 Lower Grosvenor Place, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W OE1.
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