Finding the Authentic Me
Originally published in Horse Directory, June 2012
By Tom Gumbrecht
We all have friends who we haven’t seen for awhile, but when
we are reacquainted we pick up right where we left off, months or even years
later, seamlessly as if no time at all had passed. So it was with my friend
Diana O’Donnell. We had both taken up riding as adults, at around the same
time, independently but as the Long Island horse community is a small world,
the paths of our horse lives had crossed many times over the years. We
supported each other, as friends do, in those times that invariably frustrate
the adult student of riding. Time and distance limited our collaborations in
more recent years, but my respect for her innate kinship with her horses and
for her dedication to becoming a more intuitive horseperson has never waned.
I recently learned of Diana’s Life Coaching Practice, Equus
Spirit, where she combines her unique qualifications along with an equine “facilitator”
to help you to find your own pathway toward choice and change. A longtime disciple
of the “horse as teacher” school, I jumped at the chance to experience a
session at her Manorville farm, Enchanted Acres.
< Diana O'Donnell with Keko
It was threatening rain when I pulled in to the farm. I was
introduced to Sue Dooley, the equine specialist in the practice. After a brief
tour of the facilities, Diana, Sue and I settled in to the barn studio and
began our journey. Diana briefed me on what was going to happen and Sue set the
tone for our morning’s work with a guided meditation.
I had submitted some background information pre-session
outlining some things in my life on which I’m currently working, and suggesting
what might be my goals for the coaching session. In our session we expanded on
that, and went through a process by which I chose my equine partner. I chose Hal,
an amicable senior who although we hadn’t met, had a familiarity about him. After
introductions, I was briefed on the next phase of our journey. Using some
ingenious tools and methods that I didn’t understand at the time, I headed out
into the arena, unmounted, to “create my life”.
Diana gently guided me with a few well chosen words which seemed to be
almost in the background as I had become immersed in the process. When I was
done, I traversed the life I had created in the ring with my equine partner,
Hal, in hand, three separate times, from three different gently guided points
of view. After symbolically experiencing my life through these three different
perspectives, with Hal by my side throughout, we retreated back to the studio
where we talked about what we had experienced and had a closing meditation.
After some coffee and pleasantries, I embarked on my trip home.
On the trip, made longer than normal due to the now steadier
rain, I reflected on what I had experienced. At that point it seemed that I had
experienced a series of exercises that were interesting, challenging, and made
pleasant by my human and equine friends. But I had a hard time relating them to
the things I had hoped to accomplish in our session. And while Hal was a
gentleman and fine companion, from a strictly pragmatic viewpoint I didn’t
really understand his function in the process. Maybe I was a person whose
ability to benefit from this type of experience was limited, I thought. But
then….
In the hours and days to come, an amazing thing happened.
Answers to my questions began hitting me seemingly from out of the blue. Things
that were a vague blur seemed to at once assume crystal clarity. I began to see
different facets of my life that once seemed separate and unrelated as
connected and part of a cosmic blueprint of sorts. It was an experience that I
won’t soon forget. What happened? I’m not sure, but I think perhaps my human
guides prepared me and encouraged me and set me on a course that was
challenging and perhaps a little bit scary to navigate. My equine guide made it
safe to do so.
I recall some years ago, when I was building my barn, I had
been working late at night in the tack room and had left my wallet there. I
realized it and headed back in the darkness to the far corner of the property
and in doing so, felt a slight tinge of fear walking into the black hole that
was the incomplete barn. A few weeks later the barn was complete and occupied
by my first horse, Buddy. I have never felt that tinge of fear heading down to
the barn at night since. The cast of equine characters has changed, but the
feeling has not. My horses evoke a feeling of well-being in me, a feeling of
safety, a feeling of rightness. It is a feeling shared by others I know,
inexplicable perhaps, but undeniable as well. It is the reason why horses are
the perfect guide for the soul.
My experience that day has made an impact that remains. I’m
glad that I was at some point blessed with a mind open enough to experience
some things that I didn’t totally understand. And I am happy to acknowledge
that I don’t need to understand everything in order for me to be accepting of
its effectiveness.
“God gave unto the Animals
A wisdom past our power to see:
Each knows innately how to live,
Which we must learn laboriously”.
~Margaret Arwood
A wisdom past our power to see:
Each knows innately how to live,
Which we must learn laboriously”.
~Margaret Arwood
You may learn more about
Diana and Sue and Equus Spirit at www.ponystrides.com
< Hal, my equine partner in self-discovery....
