Because horses love themselves unconditionally, they are alright with being horses all the time. No matter how screwed up some of them might seem to us, they all see themselves as normal horses. There is nothing we can do to change their perception of themselves. No matter how horses behave, getting them to accept that there is anything wrong, abnormal, unnatural or sinister about their behavior is impossible.
When we attempt to get horses to change their behavior, those who begin on the assumption that there is something wrong with a horse (e.g. it is crazy, stupid or mean) meet up with a ton of resistance because they create discord. They put themselves at odds with the horse by holding a negative opinion of it. A horse will never accept a human's negative opinion of it. Thus the discord, thus the resistance.
Horses will accept our positive opinions of them because they are in harmony with their own opinions of themselves. So, if you're trying to get what you think is a crazy, stupid or mean horse to behave calmly, you will have a much easier time of it if you ditch the thought that the horse is crazy, stupid or mean and simply think of it as a normal horse.
From alarmingly violent to blissfully serene and everything in between, horse behavior is what it is. To horses, it's all fine. Under no conditions will horses ever feel bad about themselves for behaving as horses. We couldn't cause them to even if we tried.
When we attempt to get horses to change their behavior, those who begin on the assumption that there is something wrong with a horse (e.g. it is crazy, stupid or mean) meet up with a ton of resistance because they create discord. They put themselves at odds with the horse by holding a negative opinion of it. A horse will never accept a human's negative opinion of it. Thus the discord, thus the resistance.
Horses will accept our positive opinions of them because they are in harmony with their own opinions of themselves. So, if you're trying to get what you think is a crazy, stupid or mean horse to behave calmly, you will have a much easier time of it if you ditch the thought that the horse is crazy, stupid or mean and simply think of it as a normal horse.
From alarmingly violent to blissfully serene and everything in between, horse behavior is what it is. To horses, it's all fine. Under no conditions will horses ever feel bad about themselves for behaving as horses. We couldn't cause them to even if we tried.
In comparison, we humans get down on ourselves for behaving as humans under almost all conditions. We do it on a regular basis and with such ease that most of the time we're not even aware that we're doing it. We are actually in the act of doing it when we worry about how others treat horses. Human/horse interaction is not always a pretty sight. We all see things we don't like to see, things we wish others would just stop doing... things that inspire us to want to get others to change their behavior. And then we slip effortlessly into embracing feelings of indignation, outrage and disgust while demanding punishment and retribution for behavior that we insist humans should feel embarrassed, guilty or ashamed of. Whew, talk about creating discord!
No matter how screwed up we humans might seem, we are all perfectly normal people. Deep inside each and every one of us is a soul that knows it is worthy of unconditional love no matter how we behave on this earth. From alarmingly violent to blissfully serene, human behavior is what it is. To our souls, it is all fine. Getting our souls to accept that there is anything wrong, abnormal, unnatural or evil about our behavior is impossible. Under no circumstances will our souls ever feel bad about us for behaving as humans.
So when we attempt to get any of us to change our behavior by beginning on the the premise that there is something wrong with it, we meet enormous resistance. The whole thing becomes a battle. It doesn't feel fantastic to anyone involved because, on some very deep level, each of us understands it is not in harmony with who we really are. Our souls simply won't accept our negative opinions of ourselves. We create disord... thus the resistance, thus all the bad feelings.
Unconditional love is what allows horses to live in the moment and to offer us humans reflection without judgement. From birth to death horses are one hundred percent accepting of themselves. That is the spirit of the horse, the spirit that inspires us to want everyone to do right by them... and all the while our own spirits are telling us we cannot do wrong. The only time we worry, fret, get mad or indignant about what anyone is doing to a horse is when we are in opposition with our souls' opinion of us.
We all become so much more joyful, interesting and fun to be around when we embrace unconditional love and seek out ways to apply it in our daily lives. I was thinking about that when a thought occurred to me. You know how the golden rule is to treat others the way we want to be treated? It's really easy to follow when we all agree, but it's most important for us to follow it when we don't. Perhaps we horse-lovers would have an easier time doing that if we thought of it like this: treat others the way we want others to treat horses. That's one suggestion. I so hope you will share yours.
We honor the spirit of the horse by honoring the spirit of the rider. Nature won't have it any other way.
So when we attempt to get any of us to change our behavior by beginning on the the premise that there is something wrong with it, we meet enormous resistance. The whole thing becomes a battle. It doesn't feel fantastic to anyone involved because, on some very deep level, each of us understands it is not in harmony with who we really are. Our souls simply won't accept our negative opinions of ourselves. We create disord... thus the resistance, thus all the bad feelings.
Unconditional love is what allows horses to live in the moment and to offer us humans reflection without judgement. From birth to death horses are one hundred percent accepting of themselves. That is the spirit of the horse, the spirit that inspires us to want everyone to do right by them... and all the while our own spirits are telling us we cannot do wrong. The only time we worry, fret, get mad or indignant about what anyone is doing to a horse is when we are in opposition with our souls' opinion of us.
We all become so much more joyful, interesting and fun to be around when we embrace unconditional love and seek out ways to apply it in our daily lives. I was thinking about that when a thought occurred to me. You know how the golden rule is to treat others the way we want to be treated? It's really easy to follow when we all agree, but it's most important for us to follow it when we don't. Perhaps we horse-lovers would have an easier time doing that if we thought of it like this: treat others the way we want others to treat horses. That's one suggestion. I so hope you will share yours.
We honor the spirit of the horse by honoring the spirit of the rider. Nature won't have it any other way.
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