EQUINE GUIDED MEDITATION:
When Your Horse Whispers To You..
Originally published in Horse Directory, August
2014
By Tom Gumbrecht
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| Bella is affectionate, but on her terms. She teaches us to create and respect boundaries to keep our space safe to be ourselves |
It is often said to fledgling students of
spirituality that where prayer is asking a question of, or petitioning a higher
power, meditation is listening for the answer.
The rub, many of us find, is creating the space in which our minds can
become quiet enough to hear those answers when they are proffered.
I have been fortunate to have had my eyes
opened wide enough to discover that environment, forty steps from the back door
of our home. In the barn, often after
the evening feeding, I will
unfold a chair and sit under the ceiling fan and
perhaps read a paragraph or two from a book of daily readings that always help
to stimulate reflection. The soft summer
sounds of stall fans, crickets, and the methodical munching of hay waft through
the gentle breeze and pull me into a simpler time and a comfort that I knew
more intimately in my youth.
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| Lola helps to create a space where we feel safe, loved and trusted. |
With my horses surrounding me, I feel
needed, trusted, loved and appreciated.
We never have misunderstandings because we don’t use words to
communicate. It is the safest place I
know, and it always seems that my mind can open up there because it not busy
defending itself from anything.
It has made itself ready to accept direction
from the universe and no matter the size of the perplexing problem of the day, the
answers, it seems, always come.
Have I slipped over the edge and now taken
to deifying my horses? I don’t think so,
but I do believe that a force in the universe, by whatever name we individually
like to call such a power, provided me with horses as a way to open a path of
communication with that force. This is
just another of the many unexpected gifts I have received since making a
commitment fifteen years ago to take three riding lessons which I thought at
the time was a reasonable investment to become a horse riding expert!
My ignorance at the time was a gift,
because had I been even minutely aware of the degree to which horses would
ultimately take over my life, I would have been afraid to pursue it. I would
not
have been able to commit to something that I had known would ultimately
change the whole fiber of my being, even though it was for the better. What I could commit to was three riding
lessons.
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| Our horses work to keep their space safe for each other as well as for us. Bella comforts Lola after a mild injury. |
Lessons went from frustrating to rewarding,
which led to more lessons, which led to discovering different disciplines and
even more lessons. Rather than
“graduating” from riding lessons, I found that the more knowledge and
experience I acquired, it served more to highlight the scope of what I still didn’t
know. My own experiences mirrored what I
was to later read in this popular quote:
“Riding horses is not a gentle hobby to be
picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole, and once it has
done so he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed.” -
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It took time to accept of the role of my
horses in developing my spiritual self as even more important than their role
in transportation, recreation or competition.
The time was well spent. In my
barn, I have a peaceful mind. I believe
that what is meant for me, I will find. My horses have created the environment
where that is possible.
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| DannyBoy, a physical giant if not a spiritual one, provides needed comic relief lest things get too serious... |
Another elegant and astute expression of this thing we do. Thank you, sir, for your willingness to put it into words and share it with us all.
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