The herd gallops toward you

One day while at the ranch where my therapy horse, Harmony, lives; my husband and I were taking a walk with her and our 2- year old Golden Retriever, Jessy Golden Bear. We walked from Harmony’s pasture to the other herd’s pasture. Normally, the other herd just ignores us when we cross through their pasture to access other trails on the ranch. This time though, a young and new horse to the ranch spotted Harmony and within 60 seconds, he was at a full gallop running toward us. Then, his entire herd joined him. The four of us had a herd of 20 horses running full speed toward us.

Well, my husband and I became a little anxious. My fear was about keeping Jessy and Harmony safe. As if I could keep my two 4-legged children safe from a galloping herd. (It’s interesting to note what our thoughts are when we encounter a perceived threat). As they drew closer, I asked Nat to please get Jessy away from me and Harmony. Then the herd was upon us; a few came close to Harmony, she turned and faced them. They were sniffing her and she was snorting at them. (It is a funny thing when horses do this; I like to think of it as imitating a fire-breathing dragon).

Then, quite soon as they came upon us, they were gone; some trotting, some running and some stopping but they seemed to recognize that we were not a threat and just left. This thought that they believed we were not a threat is my projection. That is, I have no idea what they were really thinking. And this is the essence of Equine Assisted Therapy.

Horses do things in relationship to the humans and the humans speak about what or why the horses are doing what they are doing in response to the human’s actions. What the human thinks the horse is doing reflects something inside of the human’s mind that can help the human find areas in their life where they are stuck.

For me, I was dealing with a very stressful situation with a group of humans. We were to have a mediated meeting and I was quite anxious about this. I saw this group of people as a perceived threat to my well-being. Thus, when the horses left me and I was un-harmed, I was able to connect to a place within myself that helped me realize I could deal with this upcoming meeting no matter what happened.

After this experience, I realized 2 very important things that have to do with my own inner world. This experience with horses helped me access this awareness.

The two things I learned:

One: If I stay centred when afraid, often the thing that seems so frightening will not harm me. I was centred enough to ask my husband to walk away with Jessy and I was centred enough to not try and control what Harmony wanted to do: FACE THE HERD (the oncoming and possible threat).

We humans have learned to often not face the threat. We do this in various ways. We may look the other way psychologically, emotionally or even physically. Horses always face the threat head-on to see if they need to run or stay put. They remain connected to their sense of survival and they pay attention to see what their next step is in staying safe and alive.                                                      

Two: In stressful situations, I am not alone or I don’t need to be alone. All I need to do is ask for help. Initially, my first concern was making sure Jessy and Harmony were safe. I stayed connected to myself enough to ask Nat to remove Jessy from the perceived threat.

Later, after the galloping horses, the experience was over and we were all four walking together, I had a great experience with Harmony. As I was leading her, she put her head very low to the ground; I asked her what she was doing. (We humans like to use vocal words). I immediately “heard” the following in my mind: “I WAS PROTECTING YOU”.

I do think that Harmony was, in fact, trying to protect me. I asked a local animal communicator about this and she said that horses, all animals, have ways to communicate with us if we just open our minds to listening. Now there is no way of knowing if Harmony really communicated that message to me. However, there was a place in my mind that was willing to accept this: I am not alone and I can be safe. Harmony’s behaviour helped me access this and I have been a much better human as a result.

In conclusion, I learned a lot about what I needed to take the next step in my life. Someone else would have learned something else perhaps depending on what they needed to know in order to take their next steps. This is why we often call horses a “1000- pound mirror”; they reveal to the person with them what they need to see at that moment.

Finally, the two things I learned are very apropos as we deal with the threat of the Coronavirus.

First, we need to be willing to see this as it is. We need to be willing to do as Carl Jung, the famous Swiss Psychiatrist suggested and use all four ways of knowing to understand what is our best way to negotiate this threat. These four ways of knowing or gaining understanding are:

Feeling, thinking, Sensing and Intuiting. Each of these will bring us a great understanding of how we are perceiving this threat and what we need to do. Humans often rely only on thinking and minimize the other ways we can understand and know. For example, some people are either ignoring their feelings and trying to “be positive” or allowing the feeling to completely highjack their consciousness.

This is when we can use “name it to tame it”. The technique of “Name it to tame it” involves being mindfully aware of the feeling and then naming and then either doing some internal processing, talking about it to a loved one or journaling about it. And sometimes, we need to seek a professional’s help when we feel stuck or unable to understand what is coming up for us.

The other thing I learned from the horses is that we are not alone. And, now more than ever, we need each other. We need to ask for help when we need it and be as helpful as possible to others. I know some clients that are actually seeking ways to help and they feel really good about themselves in doing this. Rather than acting paranoid, they are finding ways to help.

I learned from EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association) that we should be mindful that we don’t need to Socially Distance, we need to Physically Distance from one another.

So, in conclusion, may you feel the strength to listen to the wisdom in your Wise Mind and connect to the compassion in your Hero’s heart. As you do this, you will be guided to know how to help yourself and others. As the horses teach us, we need to be connected to our herd for our survival. As we do this, we will find moments of thriving and then can use these new tools to be a hero in our own lives right now and in the future.

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