Our Four Legged Friend

Just the other day I received a call regarding a troubled horse.  This former race horse turned rope horse got attitude (mean) whenever he was put in a competitive environment (arena).  They were searching for an answer.

I often think about the similarities between us human beings and our four legged friends.  We seek comfort and avoid pain if at all possible, do better in peaceful and natural surroundings and desire to be happy.

Like us human beings our friend the horse can be easily traumatized.  Often times the most subtle experiences are the most lasting ones.  Everything that creates an experience affects our four legged friend.

Their mind, just like ours works on programming.  The human mind is more evolved than a horses’, however, the mental processes are the same minus a few working levels.  We both have mental operations designed to gather, sort and learn.

In the mental process we perceive based upon numerous experiences.  These events (experiences) become positive or negative impressions.  At this point the horse simply responds to the impression that it is having.

Yes, there is more to it than this simple explanation.  However, with just this information we can transform negative impressions into positive ones.  We do this through deprogramming.  Just like with human beings.

Sometimes, as we recommended in the case above, we must start from the beginning.  We must read the signs.  Deprogramming requires desire, neutral observation and patience.  These three will take you a long way.

Desire is a type of passion.  It is something that burns deep in our being.  Neutral observation is truly observing without any preconceived ideas.  Patience goes without saying.

There are many other aspects to a horse, such as the spirit and the physical.  Just like us all three interact upon one another.  We must begin to see that the mental process is always being influenced by the other two, spirit and physical.

An experience is always in three forms, spiritual, physical and mental.  There are levels within each of these; however that is for another day.  For instance, desire has a very physical nature as well as mental and spiritual. 

When you observe a horse you are observing all that a horse is.  You might think it is a purely mental process, however, the manifestations of our four legged friend come from numerous sources.

To see the horse our sight must be more than a physical one.  We must develop a sense that is outside of our five senses.  At this point we really begin to communicate and have dialog with our four legged friend.  This is true ‘Right Relationship.’

Conn Drehne