Connecting With Horses

            I have been attracted to horses all my life.  It is something inborn in my spirit.  I grew up in the city.  My parents had nothing to do with horses.  My mother told me that when I was barely over a year old I got sooo excited when seeing pictures of horses and began kicking my legs. There was just something so stirring and magical to me about horses.  My mom made me a wooden rocking horse for Christmas when I was just 2 1/2.  I drew horses, I read stories about them, I WROTE stories about them.  I turned brooms into stick horses.  My mom ended up using her wood working skills to make "Stick horse heads" attached to broomsticks.  I was in heaven. I had all sorts of toy horses.  If there would have been My Little Ponies back then, I would have been in an even higher heaven.

             One of my earliest memories is of my 4th birthday party.  My mom made me a cowboy outfit and I got SPURS to wear.  I can still remember how joyful I was when wearing those spurs over my sandals and riding my stick horse. Seeing and touching a live horse was such a rare treat for me living in the city.  I "lived" in a fantasy world, creating stories in which I was always the heroine with the horses; sometimes, I was even THE horse.

             On long car trips with my family, I saw horses in fields.  I picked a favorite and I visualized myself riding that horse along the side of the road, jumping fences, etc. until I came to another field, then I picked another horse, did the same thing.  I had herds of little plastic horses at home and spent countless hours playing with them in the yard and house.  I even constructed horse race scenarios and used dice or a spinner to have the horses move around the race track.  They all had fancy names and when a winner had emerged, I wrote news articles about the races.  Yes, I was certifiably Horse Crazy.

             At the age of 15, we were camping with my family.  I saw a herd of ranger's horses in a field.  I approached them and jumped on one, bareback, bridleless.  They took off and I held on.  My dad captured the moment on film.  When they slowed to a trot, I jumped off.  After this incident, my parents found a friend who would board a horse and they bought me one for my 16th birthday.  It was about 10 miles from our place and I had to drive there, but it was my dream come true.  Anyway, that's the short version.

              Here is a Facebook album of photos of my horses through the years: I Love Horses

             In my later years, I have gotten back "into" horses and with maturity I have learned so many lessons from them. Read some of my other blog posts about Shrek  and the one called "At Liberty" about Kachina. There will be more posts coming about Ellie  and Zamba  and Wayfarer.

            So, What if you don't have anything to do with horses?  Don't even like them, know them?  Maybe even "allergic" to them?

Photo by Teisha Preece

Then you might find it easier to swim with dolphins…for horses are the dolphin energy of the earth.  Most people can find a horse easier than a dolphin.

You don't even have to touch a horse to connect with or interact with it.

Let me give you a few hints.

     

           Some of the best information on connecting with horses is given by Linda Kohanov, in her outstanding books, Riding Between the Worlds and Tao of Equus.  Thus, I quote extensively.

"The horse doesn't judge what they're feeling and doesn't hold grudges.  As soon as the person acknowledges his fear and anger, a horse with a talent for this work will walk over to him and lend him support.

 …not sure what we could offer a horse as far as leadership.  We can't tell the difference between the good grass and bad grass in a field.  We have lousy hearing.  We can't see 340 degrees around us.  Maybe horses can't figure out a maze, but where on the plains would you find a maze?"

     "Animals preyed on in nature have to be sensitive to emotional energy and the intention behind it.  The 'feeling behind the façade' is one of the key principles of equine facilitated therapy…the equine system is like a huge receiver and amplifier for emotional vibrations.  No matter how good you are at hiding things from yourself and others, your nervous system still involuntarily broadcasts what you're really feeling--at a frequency horses are especially good at tuning into.

       Unlike human beings, horses don't judge or reject us for what we're feeling.  It's the act of trying to suppress our emotions that drives them insane…even a horse written off as "loco", too crazy to live, could feel safe enough to approach at the moment we let down our guard and begin to speak from the heart.  

       To horses, no emotion is good or bad…so called negative emotions tend to carry a bigger charge because they often must be acted upon quickly to ensure survival.

Secure horses, like well-adjusted people eventually become experts at what is called "emotional agility", the ability to get the message behind the emotion, adjust accordingly, then let go of that feeling and return to homeostasis.  Many humans get caught in the vicious cycle of suppressing and then inappropriately expressing emotion as the pressure reaches critical mass.

         Domesticated horses mirror the truth of what's happening from moment to moment, thus keeping their handlers from becoming mired in projections and illusions…they not only reflect incongruities in emotion and intention, they highlight unrecognized strengths and improvements as well…horses provide a form of biofeedback for practicing self-awareness, emotional agility, and relationship skills that conventional counseling, role playing and discussion groups barely access since these techniques are based primarily in language.  Many have developed intuitive gifts by working with horses…while these animals validate legitimate strengths, they also reflect areas of imbalance, sometimes with surprising hostility in the presence of people who use meditation practices to suppress unresolved anger…which is an increasingly common coping strategy…called "spiritual by-passing."

          'Horses are such forgiving creatures…'  It's not forgiveness in the human sense, because there's no judgment to begin with.  It's closer to the original meaning of the word…to let go.  Only, it's not in the nature of horses to cling to anything, so there's no need to let go. They simply respond authentically to what's happening at the moment. 

        Horses are actually hard-wired for a state of non-attachment championed by Buddha.  In the wild, they don't defend territory, build nests, live in caves or store nuts for the winter.  They move, unprotected, with the rhythm of nature, cavorting through the snow, kicking up their heels or grazing peacefully…despite a keen and constant awareness of predators lurking in the distance.  While they react quickly in the face of danger, they show remarkable resilience in recovering from traumatic events.

Humans spend so much time and energy judging what should or shouldn't happen, what they should or shouldn't feel, that they sacrifice their ability to enjoy or adapt to what is happening.

   Horses often just stand.  It's only humans who always have to be doing something."

  Words from Noche the mustang:  "Joy Is.  Sadness Is.  You try to lasso one and chase away the other.  Yet in finally meeting what you've been craving all along, you're not sure whether to capture it or flee from it, because even great beauty is too wild for you.  This is suffering that my kind has never known."