Fully Embracing Horse Wisdom
I did my first FB Live webinar last week! Hurrah! I am very thankful to the people who joined me live and to those who are watching the replay (details below). Becoming familiar with all of the tech is a work in progress, and whilst it was a little lumpy in places, I was happy with the opportunity to share a gentle approach to developing authentic liberty.
After the webinar ended, I thought I would more fully share my experiences with deep horse wisdom. I realised during the telling within the webinar that I was still, ever so slightly, self-censuring in the sharing of my reality with horses. I know well enough by now that the small feeling of restriction is reason enough to go back to explore and to expand more openly. Crack open the restriction and let the deep truth out. It is a touchstone I keep going back to. Even though the time lag in me sensing it, and then acting on it is still wider than I would like it to be, it is still better late than never. I am fully committed to closing the gap and expressing my truth. I do this in the full support and encouragement of you expressing your truth also. I am trusting that you can relate to this!
The End of Self Censuring in a Rationalist World
I have written previously about being discouraged to engage in the ephemeral world of student emotions whilst teaching. This was while I was training to be an instructor with a well known natural horsemanship business. (Emotional Wellbeing: The True Heart of Horsemanship (flowhorsemanship.com)). During this time, I was so keen to pass muster and be fully a part of the tribe. Deep down however, I nearly always felt on the outside looking in. I never felt quite able to embody the dominant culture of being part of the movement, and all that this meant. But boy... did I ever try! I was like a sponge. So keen to soak everything up and in doing so, I gained many skills and have lots of happy memories. However, I knew the time would come when I would have to allow myself to return to a way of being, both for myself and for my horses that felt more natural. I trusted that I could take forward the useful parts of my learning experiences and embroider that into the parts of me that felt aligned to my natural expression with horses.
Initiation Into Horse Consciousness
I can fully remember the first invitations into embracing the experience of horse consciousness. Some of the earliest ones were bestowed by Axel. They tended to occur whilst I was engaged in grooming in a deeply mindful way. I became increasingly enveloped in his expansive and warm energetic embrace. It is a feeling that he has extended to other humans who have entered his space as open-hearted truth seekers. Those that have entered his space openly and available to his wisdom, have been embraced fully. Once I was able to feel the healing nature of what horses offered, only then was I was in a position to offer this space as an integral part of Flow Horsemanship. I will be forever grateful to my dear Axel. The horse who opened my heart and expanded my consciousness to the deep gifts that horses offer so freely to us when we are open to receiving their gifts. What a horse he is! I am hoping you will sense something of his gifts through these images.
Deeper It Goes - The Gift of Horse Vision
Fast forward to a horse clinic when I was about to receive a further unique and life altering gift from horses. It was late in the afternoon and I had spent a few intensive days observing and absorbing a horse trainer at work. I had recently waved goodbye to world of natural horsemanship and was feeling all at sea in knowing where my next direction would be. Despite knowing that I would find my path again, I was feeling bereft of the certainty of a step by step approach and all of the relative certainty that this offers.
As I sat focused on the horse and human exchange unfolding in the arena, I felt myself connecting to the horse more than the human. As I did so, I felt my consciousness shifting from a human one of a closely held and tightly defined focus. One that cut the world into distinct areas. A perspective that would have usually ended at the boundaries of the arena fence as I focused on the 'work' that was developing there. The more I connected to the horse, the more my focused vision melted into a richly inclusive world view. My awareness soared to the visible horizon and beyond. All boundaries and human distinctions dissolved. Arena fences, field hedges, human created distinctions all melted away into a glorious embracing of the whole. I was fully IN the environment rather than existing in a segment of it. Part of my consciousness was able to appreciate the beauty of this integrative experience. I resisted the urge to grasp at it in order to maintain it. The wisest part of me knew that in doing so, the experience would surely dissolve as quickly as it had appeared. Instead I quietly dwelt in it and softly marvelled at the temporary gift of horse vision for the time that it was gifted to me.
Eventually the feeling subsided as I slid back into a more familiar human perspective of sensing. Since then, there have been many other extra sensory horse experiences, but this one always seems to retain a place of special significance. It felt real and trustable. So this is what I am choosing to do in the sharing of these experiences.
I know I am far from being on my own in these experiences. I know there are many that are gifted in sensing these awareness's on an ongoing basis. I do know that the expressing of them is still relatively rare. We live largely in a rationalist/empiricist world which can have a tendency to squeeze out anything that fails to meet this exacting criteria. I am doing nothing more than adding my experiences to a growing movement of humans who are more interested in understanding how horses experience the world as opposed to insisting that the horses enter our human experience.
I am looking forward to building on these integrative experiences within Flow Horsemanship and look forward to you adding your wonderful and wise magic to the mix.
For those who are interested in the
webinar who aren't on FB, here is the full recording is on YouTube here. 5 Liberty Horse Flows! (youtube.com)
For those who have FB please go to. https://fb.watch/qKx6yNIQg5/. I would love to connect with you and find out more about your experiences in the world of horse wisdom.