Just finished my animal communication session with Kali Crosby! This was done over the phone, and all I told her was that his name is Hugo, he’s a 6 yr old bay gelding, and that I’ve owned him almost 2 years. We started by just letting him talk, no questions from me initially. Here’s how it went:
She immediately said Hugo is busy, brave, nosy, and cocky, which is all absolutely true. She said he rarely spooks and if he does he doesn’t go far, and he’s apparently quite embarrassed when it happens. It normal stems from him being overly nosy about something. This was actually spot on and hilarious because a couple weeks ago he got really interested in a barn mates dog behind the fence and then spooked a little when it started to play. He is the type that spooks a step or two and no further. She said he’s definitely like a big kid in his attitude, and more than a little full of himself. She said he wants to go on his left lead, but does appreciate when we balance him. This is 100% accurate, his left side is definitely better balanced than his right, so that was pretty interesting.
Apparently he was very instant that he does good flying changes. He said that he knows they are good, but would still like praise for them. This is spot on, he has amazing changes and therefore they are just expected at this point, I don’t really give praise every time. I never told her anything about his job beforehand, so the changes thing was definitely like “wow how did she know?”. If you can’t tell yet, I’m not 100% sold on animal communicators, but I can appreciate the entertainment value!
Hugo then said he likes to be held up in the bridle. This is also spot on; teaching him to carry himself more like a hunter with light contact has been a journey. At this point I asked my first question, which @walling_dressage submitted in my story post, “Did he have any major experiences, good or bad, before he came to me that he wants to talk about?” The answer to this was vague. He said yes, lots of things happened! He said he is smart but that he might not always come across that way because he waits and thinks about things. He was sometimes “misinformed” before, by “tired, hungry people”. He’s skeptical of vets and farriers, but knows ours now and is fine with them. I was a little disappointed there was nothing about flying on a plane (since he was imported) or that he apparently didn’t have more specific answers to this one. He has an EXTREME aversion to anything being forced in his mouth (like paste) which he came with. I can only imagine that it’s a learned behavior, but got no answers indicating anything of that nature.
My next question was whether he enjoys his work or not. Apparently he was a bit confused by this, asking what else we would do? When rephrased, he said yes, he likes his work but still wasn’t sure what the alternative was. I did not tell her we jumped, and it never came up in his responses, which I was also a little bummed about. It does make sense he wouldn’t know another job though, because he’s never had another job. He was purpose bred to jump and that’s always what he’s done.
I asked if he likes going to shows, and he immediately said yes because he gets a lot more treats (true) and that at shows he’s allowed to have treats with the bit in. This is true, but he also gets plenty of treats at home with the bit in, so this answer definitely felt a little off.
He then said he’s better at shows than at home. He wants to do more “weird” stuff at home because he gets bored. He wants to walk more down the driveway at the barn more. This was all accurate, & our barn does have a long drive we walk down that he seems to enjoy. I assume many barns have driveways too though. He said he wants to go in the ditch by the driveway “where the water flows” because it seems interesting and no one is allowed to go there. There IS an area by the driveway at our barn that’s has paving stones when the water goes, and I do have to pull him away when grazing because I’m worried he will step on them and slip. I told her to tell him he can’t go there because I’m worried he would get hurt and he said he wouldn’t. I asked her to remind him about the time he jumped/broke through the pasture fence and she said he remembers but was very nonplussed about it and said he couldn’t see it well and it wasn’t a big deal, that he doesn’t think about it. Considering the fact that he stopped running after the accident almost immediately in order to graze I can definitely believe that was his attitude toward the situation.
I then asked if he was in pain anywhere. Apparently when he came to me he had a sore spot behind his right shoulder & his left lower lumbar area was painful. The lumbar area is fixed & doesn’t hurt anymore though, but the right shoulder knot is still there. He actually did palpate sore in the left lower lumbar area a little over a year ago, I remember watching my vet (who is a chiropractor too) checking him and making adjustments.
Hugo then said my saddle fits him good (but didn’t say anything about it being new) & the “1st other person who rides him saddle fits, but not the 2nd other person”. Apparently this 2nd other person’s saddle is why he still has a knot behind his right shoulder. I can assume that the “1st other person” is our assistant trainer who shows him & does the majority of his rides. I actually did have her saddle checked on him & it does fit. The “2nd other person” could be a lot of people, so not sure what to do about that! Could be the head trainer, or another one of the assistants. She sent me a diagram of the area after the session, which is below.
I asked if he wanted me to do anything differently. She said I read him well already, and that he’s good at talking and telling me what he wants, which is definitely true. He apparently then said he wants to be famous and knows his dad was famous. Like many warmbloods, his sire was pretty successful so I guess that counts at famous. I laughed of course and said yes, I’d like it if he became famous too. I couldn’t get specifics about how I ride him and if he wants anything done different though, which was a bit disappointing.
Our time was almost up so I asked her to ask him why he’s sometimes really reluctant to move forward under saddle, even though I see him being wild in the pasture. She said that spot behind his right shoulder still bothers him, but reiterated that it wasn’t my saddle that’s the problem (Thank goodness. My saddle fitter who was out this morning would agree with this LOL). Personally I don’t think that really answers why he’s lazy but… who knows lol. She talked about putting the saddle back far enough, because some people who ride him don’t do that.
Out of the blue he asked if we were “getting more pictures at the barn, but not like show pictures”. That was kind of uncanny because we DID do pictures in early November of him wearing a Christmas wreath. I told him no, there aren’t any plans for more pictures anytime soon. He then said that he thinks when we go in the ring 3rd and smile we win in flat classes at shows. We won a “flat class” in November (that was really an eq flat) but I don’t remember what order we went into the ring. It’s possible we were the 3rd horse in?? I told he to tell him we’d do better in flat classes if he pointed his toes prettier HAH. She said he accepted this info immediately, so we will see if our flat performance improves.
She said his feet are a little too big and we talked about farrier stuff for a bit, including how I should get X-rays for my farrier. He did have feet X-rays when I got him, but I guess that was 2 years ago.
The final thing he said was that he wants to go on rides in the snow. I live in Texas and it doesn’t snow a lot here, so that one might be a little tricky to accommodate!!
Overall, it was pretty fun. I am a tiny bit disappointed in the lack of specificity in some of the answers. Would I do it again? Maybe! Kali is running a deal on her website right now- 25% off. I did the 30 minute session which is normally $80 but paid $60. If I did it again I’d probably do the 15 minute session next time, which is of course cheaper. I also got some recommendations from you guys on other people to try, which I might look into in the future!