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With animal communication, theoretically it makes no difference at all if you are exercising your animal before, after or even at the same time as a session. However, in practice it's always much easier to communicate with an animal that is resting or at least not being too distracted or exerted.
I'll always leave it to the animal to decide. When I connect with any animal, I always ask if this is a good time and if they are happy to work with me today. Normally I've had positive responses (animals generally love to communicate!), but some more interesting responses I've had over the years range from "Ergh, well, um, ok," from a horse with a mouthful of hay to the stallion who said "Well, actually I'm a bit busy right now!" - it was confirmed later he was covering a mare at the time.
With therapeutic work I find it essential to do it at a time when the animal is resting. If this is not possible for whatever reason, then I will limit the session to what is achievable (I can still do NLP, creative visualisations and communication for example) and then save any deeper work for when I know an animal will be less distracted.
To give you an example, when I connected with a stallion, Khabriz, on one of several occasions, he told me that he was very tired and puffed out, but he was ok to talk. So we did some NLP visualisations and anchoring to help him with his box problems. Not only did his rider confirm that he had been on the last leg of an endurance ride at the time, but he boxed beautifully at the end. So these things are possible.
Usually after any session, exercise is absolutely fine - just do whatever you do normally. However, after any deep therapy work, eg. dealing with past trauma or severe anxiety, it's important that the animal is given only light exercise for 24-48 hours, especially if there's a healing crisis (a temporary worsening of symptoms), to minimise any extra emotional or physical pressure on the animal and allow him/her time to adjust.
When comparing animals to humans, it is just extraordinary how quickly animals adjust. I know people who, after deep therapy trauma or past life work have gone home, locked all the doors, taken the phone off the hook and just cried for 3 days, and still taken several weeks to fully process what's changed inside them. And after one of my own past lives was triggered in my 20s, it took me 3 weeks to stop crying for inexplicable reasons until my unconscious mind had found ways to process the trauma within me.
With animals, it thankfully works differently and a lot quicker. They release and move on in ways we humans can only aspire.
When a depressed or traumatised horse processes a
lifetime of anxiety, abandonment or abuse in a couple
of sessions and in a few days is skipping around her
field, kicking her legs in the air and finding novel ways
to wind you up; behold, step back and simply marvel
at the resilience and healing power that is Horse!
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