I realized I wasn’t endotapping for
relaxation correctly. I was thinking that
all it was for was to get the horse to drop
his head and therefore relax. However, that
isn’t the deep relaxation that can be
realized with endotapping. I should have
keep endotapping through the head down until
I saw other signs of relaxation: yawning,
licking lips, deep “sigh,” passing gas,
droopy ears, and sleepy expression.
Jackson knew really well to drop his head
when I tapped him, but he had never
displayed any of the other signs of
relaxation, so my goal was to go work on
that today.
Session 1: I haltered Jackson and led
him into the yard. I started endotapping him
on his left side, the easier side. I would
tapped him all over: up and down his neck,
upper and lower back, loins, croup,
shoulder, belly, and a little bit over the
poll. I saw the most “resistance” when I
tapped him on his neck. All he wanted to do
was Ramener when I tapped him there. So I
kept tapping his neck, gently, until he
would drop it and relax a little. Then I
would go tap his back, hindquarters, etc. It
took about 10 minutes to get the first yawn.
Then I stopped and gave him a little rub and
told him he was a good boy.
Then I walk him a little ways away and
started on the other side. It only took
about 6 minutes to get a yawn on his right
side. It was mostly the same as on the left.
Then I went briefly back to the left side.
It only took about a minute to get the first
yawn. I kept tapping and quickly got two
more yawns. I called it quits and let him go
eat his grain.
Session 2: I again haltered Jackson
and started endotapping him. I began on his
left side again. It took only about 6
minutes to get several yawns. Then I
switched to his right side. I took about 4
minutes and he started yawning. I went back
to his left side and started endotapping him
again. This time I kept endotapping him
through the yawns. I was looking for him to
show another sign of relaxation. Then he
gave a big sigh, deep breath. So stopped
tapping and gave him a little handful of
grain.
Then I asked him to walk around me while I
tapped him and then I saw him, right away,
pass some gas. So I stopped and put him
away. I thought he did really well. I was
prepared to stay outside for an hour to get
the first yawn, but he relaxed much faster.
It will be interesting to see what he does
next time.
