Cheryl, from The Shiloh Foundation horse rescue in Auburn, CA came to pick them up. It was an emotional time for the horses' owners to see them go. In respect for their privacy I won't go into the whole story.
For me, the process was a good reminder of how much people love their horses and want to do right by them. Sometimes the best choice is to let them go to other people who have better resources for taking care of these animals.
For me, the process was a good reminder of how much people love their horses and want to do right by them. Sometimes the best choice is to let them go to other people who have better resources for taking care of these animals.
I've been thinking lately about some of the comments on this blog and what has been happening with Versano and Ebony. As much as I consider myself an advocate for horses I am beginning to see that the most important thing I can do is help humans. When a human is loved, respected and cared for by others, they will naturally pass that on to other humans and the animals in their lives. When a human is mistrusted, punished, ignored, or misled, that is what they have to pass on.
I have found myself...maybe by dumb luck, maybe by divine providence...as part of a community that is exploring how to take care of each other and in the process, re-examining the concepts that all of us humans have taken on by growing up in the cultures that we have grown up in. The concepts up for re-examination are as big as, "What is a friend?" and as tiny as, "Why did I cut the banana that way?" The answers often require levels of presence and honesty that can only be revealed with the help of other people who have walked this path and are able to pass on what they have discovered. I feel like I am in kindergarten in this pursuit.
JD took me up on my invitation to read in the pasture as the sun was setting.
The book I was reading, Another Heart In His Hand by J. Jaye Gold had the timely passage;
"Really, if you could feel in you that something could take place without your being the one who made it happen, that would be a wonderful feeling. Then you would recognize a hope of a different kind. All your life, you've been taught that finding the right kind of activity would solve everything. What has been taking place with us can point you toward seeing that real relaxing could yield results. When you listen to me, there's nothing required of you, yet there's still something happening. Of course, the 'something' that's happening is not in the world of activities, it's in the world of relaxing."
Humans, and I think animals in their natural state know all about this kind of relaxing. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sitting on a beach or in a beautiful pasture...
...but it does require an ability to feel that we are connected to, taken care of by, and and an essential part of something much larger than our separate selves.
This is the essence of our ability connect with other humans and animals.
This is the essence of being instead of doing.
But these are words.
Try to find the feeling.
This is the essence of being instead of doing.
But these are words.
Try to find the feeling.
How the human feels does get lost when "doing" with horses. My son made me realize that most of the concerns were about the horse and not him. How does the human feel?
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