With horses, if something’s not working, forcing the matter doesn’t create a positive result.
Article by Ali Shultz
My dad let me use my college fund to buy a horse when I was 11. I commend him for that decision, even though, much to his chagrin, one horse led to two, and before I knew it I had a barn full. While I’ve had many amazing mentors in my life, I’ve always said that my best teachers were my horses. Their lesson plans consisted of a silent conversation between species. In that space between my world and theirs, I learned about relating to an other with an ancient language, one in which rapport, communication, boundaries, and emotional congruence created safety and trust.
Trust and respect were the foundation of our work together. With an ever-increasing awareness of each other, there was ease at play in the space between and a refined communication between us. We could sense each other. We knew when the other was tense and what was needed for reassurance to return to calm and connection so we could be with each other and flow together. What followed was a co-creative relationship that felt like a burst of poetry in which 1 + 1 = 3. Much like watching accomplished dancers move across the floor with utter grace, in the synergistic relationship between us, the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. The horses taught me about the importance of this dance, and not only what it takes to play well with others, but what it means to create and be part of a “third, much greater thing.”
Yet working with the horses wasn’t all carrots and sweetgrass. There were plenty of road apple days when trust — a delicate thing — was lost and the connection between us was gone, when my patience had been tested and it showed, when either of our anxieties got in the way of our coming together, and moments when both horse and I looked at each other like we were from opposing planets with no direct line between us, nor an interest to find one. At those times, I felt marooned.
With horses, if something’s not working, forcing the matter doesn’t create a positive result. There must be opening for change to happen. That shift had to come from inside one of us. We needed to show up differently for each other. Most of the time, that started with me. Hello, radical self-inquiry. (Horses are human whisperers, after all.)
Read entire article here: https://onbeing.org/blog/ali-schultz-the-space-between-us-is-a-creative-possibility/#.Wea0_6bKQds.facebook