Sleeping and Waking

This week I decided to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time.  The moon would soon be full and the nights had been bright and clear.  As I brushed my teeth and pulled on my flannel pajama pants I thought about it again.  It was already dark outside, but the moon gave off a gentle light.  I gathered up a down sleeping bag, a large tent fly and my pillow, pulling my boots on before going out. Coming down the hill behind the house with a wad of fluffy bedding in my arms caused my horses to snort in surprise, but it also piqued their curiosity. Annie startled as I shook out the tent fly and spread it on the ground just outside the fence. I had chosen a soft spot just a couple feet outside the electric fence next to a large and probably very old juniper tree.  This was just the place to sleep for the night!  I was happy to finally be settling in to my long awaited experiment in connecting with the horses.  What do they do all night anyway?  The moon shown brightly on my face, making it hard to sleep,  I could hear the vibration of the horse's hooves through the ground  as I lay with my eyes tightly shut.  I noticed the rhythm this made and how each horse had a different pattern to their movement.  I fell asleep for a while and was awakened by the sound of Domingo's teeth grinding into the salt block.  I could hear this noise from my bedroom if I left the door open at night and now I knew for sure who it was.  "I will have his teeth checked," I told myself.    I traced the path of the moon as it made it's way across the sky in an arc.  Each time I woke up I connected another dot on it's path. At another waking point I could see the horses standing in the same configuration they make when seeking shade in the middle of the day. Annie was in the shelter and the two geldings stood just outside it facing toward her.  Was the moon really that bright?  I chuckled as I felt the rustling of the tent fly and the tug at the edge of it where Annie had reached under the fence to wake me.  I must have finally fallen asleep.  My sleeping bag and pillow were damp with heavy dew and the morning was cold and fresh,  As I sat up and touched Annie's nose, a sense of gratitude filled me.  How lucky I am to be able to share in these simple rhythms of day and night; sleeping and waking with my horses. .

Awareness

Are you aware of your thoughts and intentions as you approach your horse with halter in hand?  Our thoughts are incredibly transparent to horses and having an awareness of them can help in any interaction with your equine friend.  A story might help illustrate this more clearly.  My own horse, Copper, likes to eat the loose hay on the ground in my small hay shed.  Since he has become a bit thin with age, I sometimes just put a halter on him and let him walk up the hill on his own to the hay shed. This particular day I had gone to check on him as his foot had been sore after stepping on a rock. Putting the halter on him, I was thinking about him walking up the hill to the hay shed and eating.  But as I stood with him I could see that his foot was really bothering him.  I didn't think Copper would be comfortable walking up the hill to the hay shed, so I took his halter off and dismissed the idea, forgetting the clear picture I had in my mind of the whole scenario.  As I stooped to look at his foot again, Copper began nudging me with his upper lip.  He rubbed it back and forth on my leg, my hip and my jacket and even took the collar of my jacket in his teeth and pulled it gently! This was highly unusual behavior for him, being of a polite nature.  When I reached for his foot, he pawed the ground vigorously a few times, keeping his foot out of my reach.  I couldn't figure out what he was trying to tell me in such a demonstrative fashion!  I went back to the house feeling baffled by the whole interaction.  The next day it dawned on me that in fact my mental picture had been so clear to him that he was urging me to reconsider letting him out!  I took the other horse out of the paddock and let Copper choose to come along without a halter.  He had no trouble going up the hill where he enjoyed cleaning up the loose hay.  I had to consider how deliberately he had tried to communicate with me that he liked my idea and wanted to go along with it.   I wonder how many other thoughts swirl through my head unconsciously as I interact with the horses!  Certainly this was a lesson in paying more attention to them.

The Heart of the Matter

Inside yourself there is a gift you can offer your horse every time you are with him.  The gift is the gift of your heart.  It is an offering of heart to heart connection.  Listen quietly to the rhythm of your own heart; place your hand over your heart and feel it beating steadily.  Quiet your mind long enough to tune in to this ever-present rhythm within.  Now place your hand over your horse's girth area on her left side.  The horse's heart has it's own rhythm.  Through your hands, listen to your heart, then your horse's heart.  Focus on how much you love and appreciate your horse while you are touching two hearts.  Notice how your horse responds to this new connection between you.  Developing a resonance between your two hearts will allow coherence to flow through your time together.  Awareness will be created of a much larger purpose in being with your horse.  It's not just about riding.  The awareness of your connection to other rhythms in nature will translate into slowing down, gratitude and reciprocity when interacting with horses and people as well.  We all affect each other and are connected through the rhythms of our hearts, minds and spirits.  Acknowledge and appreciate your horse for showing you a different way of being in the world. 

Perception

   Conversations with people this week have encouraged  me to consider how much our beliefs about the world influence what we are able to perceive.  What does it mean to perceive something anyway?  According to my big red American Heritage Dictionary, it means to become aware of something directly through any of the senses; especially to see or hear.  It can also mean to take notice of something by observing or detecting it.  And finally, it means to become aware of something  in one's mind; to achieve an understanding of it. The word comes from Latin root words which mean "to seize wholly" or to "see all the way through". This brought to mind an experience with the horses that occurred some time ago, but that illustrates how our thoughts influence our ability to "see all the way through". 
   On a cold spring day I was simply enjoying the company of Annie and the other two horses while cleaning up poop.  Annie is very aware of her surroundings and is always the first one to spot anything unusual or interesting.  As I was working, Annie walked to one edge of the paddock and raised her head.  She lifted and lowered her head a few times, trying to focus her eyes on something only she could see in the distance.  I walked to her side and faced in the same direction, trying to see what she was looking at.  I stretched my head and neck up, imitating her stance.  I strained my eyes, searching the high desert landscape where we live for whatever had riveted her attention.  By this time, one of the other horses had come over, his body facing the same direction and his attention focused on whatever it was that I couldn't see.  I decided to stop trying so hard and instead closed my eyes for a moment.and asked softly that I be allowed to see what they were seeing.  In effect, I changed my thinking from trying, which implies failing, to allowing which implies letting something happen. When I opened my eyes I noticed a flash of red as my neighbor's child wielded her plastic sled and wound through the scrubby juniper trees as she climbed the hill a good distance away. Annie's pointed attention gave me the chance to discover a subtle difference in my thinking that influenced my perception.  And I thought I was just going outside to clean up poop!