I always knew that this path of connecting with animals would bring me back full circle to the beginning… Right back to the exact point where it all started… I knew I would eventually be pulled like a magnet towards being around horses again, even though after nearly 8 years of weekly dreaded horseriding classes, I walked away from the whole training, dressage, jumping etc… even as a child it felt wrong to me to force a horse to please me just because I could. I couldnt use the stick, I couldnt pull on the reigns, I couldnt force a horse to jump if he/she didnt want to… I was a useless horse rider! I didnt have the instinct to dominate the horse, I was just happy to be in the stables with them, to be around them… I was dreading the actual lesson… I was terrified! I had a knot in my stomach and for me, riding the horse was an act of bravery because I was going against my own feelings.
Today, on the recommendation of my dear friend Tom Ventham, I watched this film:
It made me cry a few times and somehow it made me reconnect with my own 6 year old inner child… I could feel what got me attracted to horses and to animals in the first place and it was very reinvigorating. I remember when I decided to explore animal communication a bit further it felt just like that. Like I was reconnecting with the magic; the child within myself who still has lot of dreams and hasn’t discovered negative thinking and its darkness yet.
I highly recommend this film, it’s a beautiful testimonial on feeling with your heart and it’s an amazing documentary on horses and how they perceive us. I did a video about two horses a couple of months ago and I never uploaded it to my youtube channel. It felt incomplete… something was missing in it and now I know exactly what it was! My video was about one neighbouring horse in particular and I felt that I didnt quite do his message justice in the video. I didnt word it quite right. Now after watching this film I can feel exactly, precisely what he meant. That film is the missing piece of the puzzle. I needed to watch it and connect with that part of myself again – that little girl who spent so much of her time daydreaming about horses and loving absolutely everything about them. I think that learning horseriding and seeing the reality of it pulled me away from that original feeling. I had to do things I didnt want to do and I ended up walking away from horseriding and horses altogether, because without going to horse riding classes I couldnt meet up with and be around horses anymore…
I love watching my 5 year old son playing the piano, because he has no clue how to “play it” the conventional way. His style is some sort of intuitive free jazz with no academic/politically correct barriers telling him how to “do it properly”. When he plays, he expresses himself from his own heart. I had the same approach with photography which allowed me to freely experiment with my camera and my dark room without even thinking of the ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ of academic photography. I learned from my mistakes and I still very much enjoy it. Now it got me thinking how important it is to not rush kids into the academic field of learning on the subject of what makes their heart sing – as you could potentially ruin it…
This film highlights the importance of developing your own unique connection with a horse, as that bond will become trust, and it’s from that very place that wonders arise. It’s about not forcing them to do anything they don’t want to, and respecting their will if they refuse to do something you ask them to do. Let them express their feelings and acknowledge them. I feel that the same principle can apply to parenting or to any connection with any other living being.
Anyway I’ll leave you with this film which says it all a lot better than me!
You can also check The Path of the Horse website if you want to read more about the film and the authors who are interviewed in it.
FocalHeart 