What I love about horses

Sometimes I'll admit that "I" the so called higher being on the food chain if you will, has been at times lower than the dirt.  We humans always have our agenda, our plan for the day, the week, the month, the year, and we fit our lowly horses into the plan.  We often live our lives "out there" completely adrift from the present moment.

On the other hand---take the horse.  How does he/she live?  Well, the horse lives in "the now."  He feels his breath inward, and outward.  Smells the sweet grass.  Feels the warm or cold breeze lifting mane and tail.  The horse has no great agenda other than the next mouthfull of grass or sweet hay, or treat from our hand.   The horse does not experience worry, or fear, until a new situation warrants that it happen, or we greater humans "teach" him some irrational fear.  He holds no grudges, and simply "is." 

I love horses.  Even the complicated ones.  In fact the complicated ones are the great teachers.  They teach us about the horse, but even more so, they teach us about ourselves.  Phebes is and likely may always be a "complication" in my life.  She is not an easy horse.  But nothing, and no one have taught me so much about my own personal short-comings, and in fact has helped me to address some of those issues.  She is not a horse to ride with anxiety.  She is not a horse to train with anger.  She is not a horse to ride when distracted.  She demands careful focus.  Every ride on Phebes is  in the present.  Every reaction good or bad, is fully in the moment.  She has a handle on life.  It may not be what I as her person "thought" it should be.  But she perfectly is, what she is.  Her biggest single limitation has been me. She has made me a better horsewoman, and she likes me anyway and that is what I truly love about horses.

"Life is not a destination, this is it, you are already here."

~E.G.