Horses are inclusive of the world around them and this includes us as humans. They include us as members of the herd, immediately responding to our ‘animal selves’. When we come into their presence they seem to be asking: What kind of a horse are you? And so we have the opportunity to experience ourselves in a different, more sensual, embodied and livelier way.
As humans we tend to tell stories about ourselves, about who we are, our identities, roles and opinions but horses respond to our deeper selves as non verbal embodied beings. This can be illuminating, thrilling and challenging. When I work with horses I never can know what will emerge. They respond to our energy and our more natural selves rather than the self which we are projecting to the world. Other humans might be taken in – and we might even fool ourselves – but not horses. They invite us to be real rather than to perform, or be what we think others want or ‘perfect’; in their presence we can practise better knowing what we are feeling and to act from there rather than from a mental abstraction about self or other.
Horses live in the now, in spontaneity and flow. Unlike humans who tend to get attached to moments, horses deeply ‘know’ that life is always in flux. Whilst non-verbal they are always engaged in a ‘conversation’ which is inclusive of us and the natural world and which is embodied and sensory. Their sensuality is very apparent, they respond from all of their body and senses, rather than being more active in the eyes and head/ face as humans tend to be.
Horses have a deep ‘ecological’ intelligence – bridging domestic and ‘wilder’ worlds. I have seen them sensing incidents and energies that they cannot literally ‘see’ and in this way they can help humans recover our own sixth sense and our own intuitive, embodied and ‘wild’ intelligence.
Horses can help us to be more emotionally literate and expressive; to experience feelings simply as sensations, and as information that sometimes needing to be acted on, rather than judging feelings as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. For example, horses can help us distinguish between fear and vulnerability; to respond to our own anger or sadness so that feelings are made use of as important information, then discharged and released.
Horses are non judgemental and seek harmony. This can make it less frightening to become vulnerable than it might be with a human and feedback from the horse can be very supportive. They have a naturalness and directness which is harder for humans.
Within herds, horses model different styles of leadership and exercise power and authority in ways which can be illuminating and energising for people to observe and engage with.
