A Learning Way

Julia:

The horse reflects the human and the human reflects the horse. With joy, anger, tension, emotions, memories...? (By adding a question mark to the end, I am asking for your reflection on that and your comment.)

My answer:

Remember Julia, always listen to and learn from your horse.

This can happen often times.......BUT........it's different. Typically, horses only mirror people's emotions when they are trying to send them a message. If you understand your horse and you can hear your horse and listen to your horse, and you are feeling some emotion, most likely you will also be fairly balanced. It seems like all of these things pretty much go hand in hand with animals. It is mainly the unbalanced and distorted or hidden emotions that make the horse show you something. If you are frustrated, and acting as if you are, but you are truly nervous in underneath out of complete and utter fear, the horse will show you the complete and utter fear that you hold, and will also become slightly nervous itself. Horses have this thing that tells them not to trust anything that denies its true emotions - because these creatures tend to be very unpredictable and taunting. They think they're on top, and that they know all through logic and that they can conquer all through simple means - and that is exactly the problem with humans.

Tension is something that results from distorted, unbalanced, or hidden emotions. If you are nervous, you can still be nervous and hold no tension. Sometimes I become nervous, but never do I become tense. this is because I am completely truthful with myself about my nervousness, the gravity and weight of it, why I'm nervous, and how long it's been there..... etc etc. You will only gain tension from having facades and whatnot and being unbalanced. Tension is created from incongruent "innerds", as Ray Hunt would say, of the human.

Adding more...

As you can see from the picture above, this horse and person most definitely have emotions of their own. The girl is very quiet, but waiting for the horse nonetheless. She wants to gain friendship of the horse, and by lowering her head acknowledges, accepts, and admits her small self. Yes, she is humble - something that is often thought of as terrible, even by the kindest of horsemen, for its lack of dominance and hierarchy. I am sure we have all witnessed at least one instance in our lives where a tall man enters a field of horses, and sends them all scattering, especially the one he is seeking out to train or ride... once he gives up, a small person (whether small adult or child) who is very gentle and kind will enter the paddock. They will sit or stand, not waiting for the horses to approach but simply enjoying the beauty of watching them. Soon, the horses will be around them, happy for the company. Even the horse who seemed to run away, so terrified, will approach this gentle person happily.

And here we see that not only do horses read emotions extremely easily, but intentions as well. Horses may join with you and share your emotion if they think best - but they may also do something else. If they themselves are not sure what to do, they will without a doubt take off of the tension and emotions of the humans and horses around them. Why do you think that often, the young horses are trained to be ponied by an older, more experienced horse before they ever learn to accept a rider, or in many cases are simply backed, because it seems that very few people actually care whether or not the horse truly accepts. This Arabian - a breed that is often associated with being hot, scattered, and flighty - is quietly snuffling this small girl's face. And it makes us stop and wonder - is it the horse? Or is it the person?

We always have to be paying attention and listening - both to ourselves, our horse, and the world.