Warning: sentence fragments, run ons, and general notes without much structure.
being connected to your horse.
being in emotional, mental, and physical balance first having flexibility in your emotions & thoughts you must have previously been connected to the world which begins my noticing and discovering it you must have allowed your horse to have independence and choice to have true connection
similar to the role of a parent, you have to allow and help them to develop their own dreams, preferences, and strengths.
yes! horses can have preferences and develop dreams. their dreams may not be as concentrated, nor as goal oriented as the human's dreams typically are... but they can have dreams. and they can definitely have opinions. we have to ask them, to recognize them. we have to help them to develop emotionally, mentally and physically. we have to show them what to do, how to be, through a mirroring image. you have to be the teacher, and allow them to be the teacher as well. the horse is the best teacher for the human and the human is the best teacher for the horse. when the human is willing to respect the horse, to be a friend instead of a "trainer", then you begin to see the horse being calm and kind around the human, accepting mistakes, helping through challenges, etc. because I respect and help my horses to grow, they help me when I have problems, let me know when I'm too tense or too nervous. because I listen, my horses listen as well. because I try to speak to them through emotions, pictures, feelings of other sorts that are very deeply set in the world, energies, and a soft body language along with some light cues, they do their best to speak to me as well. sure, I don't exactly know the languages all the way yet,but that's okay! the horse will accept your try, because that is all they ever want. they love to be with humans if you are a good human to be with. the horse notices inconsistencies and intentions faster than any human could. it's this simple: if you don't respect your horse, if you don't have fun with your horse, if you're so worried about everything else but your horse, your horse will not wish to be with you. you don't have to be perfect, you just have to give it your all.
like any good partner or friend, we must listen.
if we do not listen to the horse, we will not be respected by the more independent or sensitive the horse. it seems that that is just it - the more independent, the more sensitive, the more intelligent, the more internally prideful horses are, the more they are thought of as difficult because all of these wonderful things make them harder to constrain, to control by physical means, and to manipulate into enjoying things that they clearly do not enjoy. but they are not "difficult". does it seem that they display the same behaviors in the field? as when collecting for play, or when doing something else out of their own will? have you ever watched your horse shy at a rock or a log when they are in the pasture? have you ever seen your horse be trotting along in the pasture and continue to fumble or pin their ears because they do not want to? no! of course not! horses are beautiful creatures, very free of movement. the only problem is that we, as humans, try so hard to get them to do what we want. if we listen and respect their opinions, we will see our relationship change by leaps and bounds - headed in the right direction. it doesn't take long, all it takes is you.
"Headed in the right direction." or, the opposite?
In life, we are often described as going on "journeys"... but we never truly change, in our own world. We are born as who we are, with our "self" or "soul". The human personality is typically the habits of mind and action a person has developed based off of experiences that they have undergone. we are born in this place, our own special place. It is something that may be taken from us, but only after much time and destruction. most people describe it as a soul - which is something that you may connect to effortlessly when you are doing what you were meant to do, what your "dream" should become. for me, it is not only horses, but creating things, recreating things, finding out how things work, learning the processes of things... it is all quite fascinating. I also love to give people the chance to find their own souls. Unfortunately, the human "heart" can die without our actual heart ceasing to beat. I have seen it before. We can go so far as to kill our soul. In order to give you a better idea, let me share my "place" with you. After that, I will continue to explain more. I think.
The grass is a mix of greens and yellows, of a free surf flowing back and forth over the sea floor and sometimes crashing, then to move directions. The overhead is painted a bright blue of intelligence, dreams, and joy. The white sparks of hope, peace, and determination to not just stand lookout in the night, but dance in the bright air above. A small path of parted grass leans this way and that, ambling through a mix of wild grass and wildflowers. A creek whispers along nearby, just within the forest that surrounds. Within the woods, the soldiers of bark and leaves stand watch above. They are gentle soldiers who have never engaged in physical combat, but only that of watching, embracing, and discovering the world. They are rooted explorers... Their branches sing in hushed tones, only to whoever truly waits to listen. Hills and mountains beyond my forest reach high above my own head, some gently rolling here and there as they wish, and some as strong and faithful beings that reach high above the rest of the land. Some have sheer cliffs that drop sharply down to earth, and at the same time jump and climb for the sky. Their erect structure shows not only their strength, but also their weakness. They hold great internal power. If you let your eyes touch the fringes of the sky, you realize that crystal strings fall from the blue. The rain lands against your skin, yet there are only a few wispy clouds in sight. The breeze touches and soothes my skin. It sends a cool warmth up my spine, a refreshing feeling to me. I reach the swing once again now, the old wooden swing that has been there for a long time. Its board is rough and strong. The rope that I grip is worn, but thick and sturdy, along with some frays showing is age. I play with the loose strings in my fingers before setting off. Horses snuffle at wild plants nearby, allowing me to speak to them from here. There are several that I can spot that are very special to me. There is a grey(white) Arabian gelding, who has kind eyes and a warm heart. He looks at me as a mother would, with care and love. There is a grey mare with a black face, and a blaze shaped as a comet down her face. She is calm and wise, and looks off into the distance at the hills. There is a small bay mare, with fine legs and a defined face. She sings to me, closer to me than the rest. She stands very near, in under a large tree. There is a chestnut stallion, who has a wise and strong appearance to him, with a great courage and a large amount of bravery. There is a small black Arabian mare with a spark in the middle of her forehead, who is very soft and beautiful. She has a contented, yet strong demeanor to her. She has great will and determination. There is a large grey, Spanish bred stallion who is very powerful and superior. He shakes his head at one of the other horses with pride and playfulness. His mane is almost black, while most of his coat is almost white except for his legs and his hindquarters, and in under his neck, which are dappled with a darker grey. A few birds twitter in the trees nearby, and a hawk flies above with a closeness to me that it holds in its heart. The whole world sings.
So now, this is who you are, in a world. Yours will most likely be much different than mine. The reason I say "...or the opposite." is because, this is truly just that. Although my world, my home, does consist of paths in it, it is my home and I do not leave it. To take a journey would be to leave my home. So, do we really take journeys? Or do we just stay in our world, and sometimes venture off into the wilderness of it? It is all relative, because whether or not we go places in our world, we are still in our world, with our selves. You could say it was a journey, or not. But truly, we never travel to a different world, because this world is connected to us through birth, through who we are at our roots, through things that we cannot change. There is of course no one specific way that you can definitely describe your home, nor one way that you can picture it... but it all, no matter what it looks like to you, consists of the same basic things. Your home is where you belong, with you and your self.
Even if you think of your life as traveling down a path, there will still always be one thing the same: you and your place.
your dream.
I am aware that people have many dreams throughout their life, but there are usually a few major ones for each person that all end up coordinating in some way that create one single dream not really meant to be contained by a few words or by time. Your dream is your place in life externally. It allows you to live in the way you wish to. Humans, in my opinion, are considered and known to be intellectual and thinking mainly for this reason: they have dreams beyond other life's regular imagination. They take you great and far. And no matter how crazy they may seem, they are all quite possible. A person's dream does not have to do with power, or how quickly and easily they can get to it. Their dream is not something that comes quickly, but something that is always there, and something that they are living as long as they are working towards the end result. You see, you can never truly get to the "end", and that is just the fun of it - but your dream can be lived even at the beginning stages. I am living my dream, with my horses, and with writing and drawing, etc. I am able to do what I love. Am I perfect? No, of course not. Am I experienced and accomplished? By no means. But I live my dream, and that makes what I have done far greater than what most people accomplish in a lifetime. You are free when you begin to live your dream. You find yourself through doing your dream.
the oxymoron.
Life. Yes, life is an oxymoron in itself. It allows breath, but in life you find death, which contains no breath. But technically that doesn't work out, because not all life breathes, it simply contains more or less complex ways of consuming, disposing of what is consumed, and reproducing. Yet in deaths, which are a part of life, none of this occurs. At this point, you're probably rolling your eyes.
I had other examples written down, but why add those? I think you get the point so far, and my purpose is not to lose you. But if everything is an oxymoron,what is an oxymoron with horses? What about the commonly used word "Horsemanship". That is an oxymoron, because horses and men are so different that they should not be able to relate. BUT they do. And humans think so different from horses that they should be rivals... but horses can flourish under the care and help of humans, and humans can flourish under the care and help of horses. There is also the phrase "natural horsemanship", which is also an oxymoron, because horses with humans is not really natural, but it is beautiful if it is done right. Collection on a loose rein seems like an oxymoron, because when you think of collection you first think of the tight reins that are used in modern day dressage. Horses themselves are an oxymoron in many ways. If everything is an oxymoron, then how do you know wrong from right? That's just it - there is no wrong, no right, no definite black and white, without having fantastic colors intertwined. And once it is intertwined with something else, it is no longer quite so pure or definite. This world is so complex that there cannot possibly be something that is just a declarative sentence, and that is the end. No, there is much more to it than that. To see the oxymorons, you must have an open mind.
