The Eye of the Beholder

A wise man once suggested, “First seek to understand. Then seek to be understood.”

All things exist according to their own nature, regardless of how we perceive them.

Horses exist according to their own nature, too.

Everything a horse does makes perfect sense – to the horse.

It may not make sense to us, but that’s because we’re not looking at things the same way the horse is looking at them.

I think the best thing you can do is to understand the horse’s nature, how it thinks, how it feels, what it loves, what it fears. Be able to see the world through the eyes of your horse.

I play games with this idea.

I imagine being the horse, turning my arms and legs into his front and rear legs, and simulate his gaits. I’ve also done this on my hands and knees. Back when I had better knees.

Some people thought I was nuts.

They were right.

Try sitting on a hard chair with your hands under your seatbones. Turn left and right. Look down. Slump. Sit up. Shift weight. See what you feel in your hands. That’s what your horse feels on his back – only his feeling of it is a lot more acute than yours.

Maybe get a nice long bolt and a length of baling twine. Put the bolt in your mouth, tight against the corners of your lips. Loop that twine around the protruding ends and have somebody --- I recommend it be somebody who likes you – stand behind you and steer you and stop you using that “bit.” How do you like it?

Dance with someone. Let them lead, their hands on your hips. But give them something like a nail or a thumb tack to stick you with when they want you to move. Contrast that with hand pressure. How does it feel?

Spend a week in jail.

Cooped up in a small space with nothing in it but a toilet and a cot. (a proportionally larger space, by the way than the 12x12 allotted to a “generous” sized horse stall) How do you like being locked up completely at someone else’s mercy?

You get exercise when they say so.

You eat when they say so.

The rest of the time….See how long it is before you start contemplating beating your head against the wall just to have something to do. Make note of how you feel toward your jailer.

Now imagine if there was a fire in that jail…

Another wise man once said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

I don’t want to treat a horse any differently than I’d want to be treated, myself.

sj