I’ve been reading this book called The Tao of Equus. It’s kind of an unusual book as it deals with Equine/Human Communication and counseling. The beginning of the book is about the author’s experience with her own horses and what she learned from them. The second part of the book deals with different real experiences that she’s had with various people in her Epona Equine Therapy practice.
I’m am fascinated by what I am reading.
The beginning of the book was hard for me to read. There was a lot of history and parts of it almost hit a little too close to home. I have a lot of experience with equine communication. I have moments where I’m sure that I know what my horses, or other horses are thinking. There are times I have a lot of intuition about a horse and it’s situation. I also have a lot of experience with people thinking I’m absolutely nuts and trying to talk me out of my intuition. I’ve spent the last 2 years, since I got Freeley, fine tuning my “crazy” opinions and feelings to figure out when I’m really communicating with my horses and when I’m just making it up…even better are the times that I think I’m making it up and find that it really was my horse communicating all the time.
The first chapter of the second half was about how we need to be congruent with our horses. If we’re not congruent emotionally, we make our horses crazy. They don’t know how to deal with us, if we’re not honest with ourselves and with them. I’m in the second chapter now, learning about smart horses are when their people believe their horses are smart. Conversely, they behave as though they are dumb when the horses are treated by their people as though they are dumb. The way humans approach the horses seem to make a huge difference in how the horses see themselves, how the other horses in the herd see them, and how they behave for different humans.
I’m still trying to process how I think about each of these chapters. I’m at a friend’s house in Missouri, on vacation. Between the TV, my friend and my daughter, I almost feel like part of my brain is trying to keep the other half of my brain from figuring out this whole thing…either that or some evil force is keeping me from completing assimilating all I could…I realize that seems silly, but I get to reading this book and I begin to identify with what I’m reading and then something around me takes my attention off the book and lose the deep thought I was having. For example, now, I was sitting here typing trying to think about this very topic and she came into the room and started talking about random stuff. (an aside to this is that it is much reminding me of my interaction with my mom—she does much the same thing…it’s like they need my full attention, or most of it, and me going inside my own head to think about things isn’t acceptable…more on that later) She opened a catalog to Penny’s and I was thinking about equine communication. My daughter is thumping her foot on the bed, and my friend is talking about clothes…I’m trying to think about deep, equine things…not really the right environment for me. My ADD just can’t handle it.
I am wondering about one concept in the book so far. How can we ever teach people to ride horses without blowing their minds? If every person learns to ride from scratch and they have no experience, how do we teach them not to confuse the horses emotionally and physically with their early clumsy attempts to ride. I wonder this especially of all the folks who are learning to ride who are afraid. If they are afraid and pretending not to be doesn’t that freak out the horse? Or if I am afraid for someone as the instructor, don’t I give that to the horse? I wonder if the times that my horses don’t really go for the riders if I’m somehow causing it by not really being in the mood to be at the barn teaching?
These are my random thoughts for Sunday afternoon…
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