“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walking in Horse’s Shoes
Fairy godmother
Fairy godmother, Robyn Smith speaks horses’ language, and they love her, adore her, and accept her as their absolute leader just like Robyn’s human students who are learning the secrets of life in harmony with horses.
In addition to horse’s language, Robyn perfectly communicates in human language which she uses to teach her students and to run the whole facility of a bunch of horses and personnel.
I am one of those students who is amazed by Robyn’s way of building strong and healthy relationships with horses based on understanding their personality and nature, and using horses’ language to communicate with them instead of abusing them in order to satisfy our need of pleasure. By building a natural human-horse relationship, both human and horses are able to have great time together filled with joy and happiness.
Simple Magic
I was hypnotized by what I saw in the next moment.
Robyn walked a horse through the barn when suddenly she realized that she had left some papers in the office. I opened my mouth to offer my help to hold the horse…but, I didn’t even have a chance to close it before she came back with her papers.
It took a split-second for her to do the magic and to put the rope on the ground. The horse lowered her head, half-closed her eyes (like having last second of a sleep), and stayed still and motionless waiting for her mistress to come back.
When I was able to speak again, I asked: “What did you do?”
And she said: “It is simple. It is body language.”
And, I went speechless again…I didn’t notice any “body language”?!?
Note: at most barns, horses can’t be left like that, the horse must be held all the time.
Space for Beasts
My mind was busy processing this “simple magic” when we entered the arena, and Robyn tied the horse to a special ring mounted on the pole.This was another moment that put me deep in thought: Why are horses tacked at the arena instead of in the grooming area which every barn has including this one?
It became clear later, but for now I had a hard time trying to groom the horse that used every moment to walk away from me, giving me a scowling glance, and, waving me away with her tail like an annoying fly.
Don’t Think It Is Love
And when, finally, the horse stopped doing all that, she started to rub her charming muzzle against my shoulder like my lovely kitty does when she misses me.
“Nice! Now we are friends!” – I made a premature conclusion without knowing that now my role in a herd was defined as a scratching pole instead of an annoying fly.
Kisses and Hugs
Anyhow, while grooming the horse, I found out the way how to express my enormous love to this extraordinary mass of beauty.
There is always fear of being kicked while hanging around the horses. And here, Robyn came with a secret. Since then, I use that technique as the way of expressing love to the horses.
It is simple – from the side of a horse I put my hand on the top of horse’s croup, my body-side is very close to horse’s thigh, keeping my hand in “the croup position”, I go around the horse hugging her thighs and “kissing” her tail while my belly-button is pointing away from the horse.
Intervention
And speaking about a belly-button, when it is away from a horse, Robyn says “Energy is OFF”; when it is pointing towards the horse’s face, “Energy is ON”.
I recalled similar feelings when someone walks toward me and looks straight into my eyes, and I compared this experience to my feelings when someone passes me by without looking at me. In the first situation, I felt tension in all my body; I felt I was in a position of waiting for something to happen which meant it was better to be ready to react. In the second case, I was also in alert position, but I didn’t feel that pressure in my body, and it was a comfortable state of mind.
This is plain example, but these principles work with horses too.
I was trying to walk the horse with my body just slightly turned toward the horse and with my hand clinging the rope near the horse’s mouth. My eyes were constantly watching her trying to establish full, 100%, control over the horse. On top of that, the horse was slightly snuggling up to my shoulder and subtly pushing me into the center of the arena. I was impressed by the horse’s approach of love and friendship, but, to my complete disappointment, I learned that it wasn’t love…moreover, I got into an uncontrollable situation where I was walking by the horse…
I don’t have power over my unconscious body movements like lifting my hands when they are supposed to be down and relaxed, or looking at the horse instead of the way to go, or simply forgetting to breathe. All these clues are read by the horse in a certain way which leads both of us into anxious condition.
Meanwhile, all my body accumulated so much tension that both the horse and I got so exhausted that we couldn’t stand each other any more.
Drop of Fresh Air
Robyn was there to save both of us by taking charge over the horse and making her graciously move in tact with her without any perceptible efforts, without looking at horse’s eyes, without saying a word, without even a simple touch. . .
They were a united entity; pure, single integrity. The distance between them was full of invisible energy floating from one to the other in deep connection. I observed the transformation of Robyn’s inner intention into outer motion that was picked up and performed by the horse.
And, eventually, I saw the horse’s expression of infinite trust, profound respect, and the most heart touching expression of love when the horse lowered her head and Robyn squatted down and let the horse to kiss her cheek gently and softly.
Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results
I was stunned by the scene of how human and horse can be perfectly tuned together without using tools like “carrots and sticks”.
The excellence of Robyn’s connection to the horse’s soul recalled a story which happened to me when I was about six years old, but it is still vivid in my memory like it was yesterday.
At that time I had a very, very good friend with whom I’ve never been separated even for a minute. I always had my friend with me. It didn’t matter where I was – at home, at daycare, at playground, and, of course, we slept together. It was that type of friend you can tell any secrets, and the secrets would be kept locked forever.
We both were so happy together! My friend was a used plastic toy – a white circus horse!
Once, my older sister went to the hospital due to severe food poisoning. When my dad and I visited her, I felt so sorry that my heart was broken apart, and I decided to give her my treasured pony-friend – so she would know how much I loved her. I though a “small piece of home” would brighten up her life at the hospital. . .
Later, when my sister got better, joyful and playful again, I claimed my friend back. To my colossal frustration, she couldn’t understand what I was talking about! Finally, she remembered that she gave the horse to a small boy who was sick and lonely too.
Emotionally destroyed, I didn’t have any choice but accept what happened with my heart full of bitterness. There was no possibility to get my friend back and, moreover, I learned that something valuable for me might not have same value for others; what made my days brighter and happier might not help other people.
The worst thing was that my friend silently was forced to accept any sort of treatment from me and other humans without having a choice. How much are real horses different from that plastic toy? They silently accept whatever we do to them. . .
Some of them sometimes fight back, but in many other cases they unfortunately are not able to say what they feel and how they could overcome their fears and cooperate with us. And, we, on the other side, don’t have enough patience to observe and sense their world.
What shocked me the most is that our behavior is perceived by a horse’s senses as extremely loud, rude, and physically painful which puts them into a fearful state of mind where they are not able to process things in effective way.
When we observe wild life, the cruelty shocks us but behind that we don’t notice the silent signals that have a different level of impact before the visual actions start. Like in the example above, slightly turning my body toward the horse’s face produced the flow of energy that pushed the horse into a specific state of mind which was not comfortable and likely made the horse felt constant pressure from me which she tried to avoid while I attempted to establish leadership between the two of us.
This is one of many kinds of human “rudeness” and “loudness.” It is normal to be loud or rude when necessary and applied appropriately, but it is not the body-mind state where we and horses want to be constantly.
Moment of Silence
Nature by nature is relaxed and doesn’t waste energy for any reason. We humans don’t know how to use our energy effectively; we spread it around continuously and unnecessarily without appreciating the consequences. We are so far away from nature, and so stressed and tensed, that we forget the joy of rest.
I love mornings when I can watch my cats sit motionless faced to the sun with their eyes half-closed sucking in the fresh energy of the morning light and posing their bodies with full satisfaction of life!
What kind of love and care do we provide for horses by harming them with physical pain? What kind of pleasure can be achieved when a horse underneath the rider suffers from fear, stress and, again, physical pain? Why is it necessary to use abusive tools to make a horse do things when it can be done instead by moving a finger? What kind of pleasure do man and horse have then!?!
I came to Robyn to learn horseback riding, but in addition to that, I am learning to silence my mind, to relax my body, and to sense and control the flow of my own inner energy in order to be able to hear the horse’s whisper, be sensitive and understandable, be natural and harmless and, eventually, be able to step into total harmony with horses full of unspeakable joy and divine bliss.
Meet Robyn at “Horse Haven at Bear Creek”
