Today is my heart horse’s 26th birthday, and I’ve cherished all the years we’ve gotten to spend together, and I hope we’ll spend a few more together too. When I started training her, there was a shift toward “natural” horsemanship. Clinicians such as Clinton Anderson were claiming they used natural training methods. I was quite the student of Clinton Anderson’s training methods, and I admit, it is one of my biggest regrets. My dear companion has really bad arthritis in her knees, and I am guessing that our days of lunging and ground work caused that, always working round and around in a circle, even though when I wasn’t there she was on 24-hour turnout and thus could walk and go where she pleased within the pasture. These days there’s ample criticism of Clinton Anderson’s methods, and I won’t get into that information here, but suffice to say that when I look back on them, the biggest thing I see is that there still is the belief in dominance over the horse, that the horse must obey the human.
Why am I talking about horse training in a spirituality blog?
Because the mindset is the same. If there is a belief that we must have dominion over the animals, that they are ours to use as necessary, than the attitude we’re going to take toward them is going to be different than if we believed that they are fellow travelers through this universe like ourselves. The attitude of dominion over is a capitalist, authoritarian mindset, one that finds itself embedded within our culture through toxic religion and a belief that the earth and its resources are ours to extract whatever we need, without care or concern for the fellow beings on this planet.
There is a difference between safety and dominance.
Horses can weigh upwards of 1000 to 1200 pounds or more, and as I’m fond of telling the herd, “I’m just a squishy little human so please be gentle.” Humans can easily get harmed by horses. It’s been estimated that around 20-22 deaths per year are caused by horses worldwide, and this quite often happens in falls or accidents. Cows also are known to cause an estimated 20-22 deaths per year, of which only half of them are from bulls. And both cows and horses are deadlier to humans than sharks. So caution and awareness is warranted.
But that doesn’t mean the horse has to give us “two eyes” at all times or else… (Two eyes refers to having the horse turn and look at the handler, keeping its attention focused on the handler at all times.) We can be safe when horses are free to be horses and when horses are not constantly aware of our presence and location. Let me be clear, most of us working with horses are adults, and it’s our job to protect our own safety, not the horse’s.
Seeing horses as co-travelers on this planet
Countless people drive past a person sitting on the street corner looking for food or water without even a glance. It’s not their problem, that person ought to (fill in the blank). And it’s true we may encounter people needing help when we are in need of help ourselves and are unable to assist others. But recognizing a common human bond, an empathy for suffering, is something that is a part of many spiritual traditions, even if members of those traditions don’t practice that in its modern incarnation. Just as with unhoused individuals or those in need of food or medical assistance, people will drive past a pasture with horses whose ribs are showing or other animals in need of care. It’s none of their business, they say. There are others who will take care of them. The problem is, in many parts of the country, there isn’t.
However when it comes to animals and livestock, too many people don’t even have a shared humanity. They are objects to be had, sometimes trophies to show off, and creatures to use as we see fit. This is the dominance model.
The spiritual model is one of kindness.
Connecting with animals and being willing to listen to their wisdom means that we need to treat them with kindness. There is no value judgement attached to the species designation that a given creature is given. They are simply fellow travelers, and we’re all just walking each other home.
Using spiritual storytelling to get in touch with our own inner beings means changing the narrative from what we may have learned either growing up or through doing what we thought was right, and being willing to change. We can question that narrative, question if this is really the kind of world in which we want to live, and then use that to bring our spirituality into fuller existence.
When we shift our mindset to look upon other creatures, even ones often vilified by our culture, with kindness, it shifts everything. There are no longer “acceptable” and “unacceptable” animals and creatures to have around our homes. We need to be careful and protect ourselves, but we can often do that without the wanton destruction of life that our culture often calls upon. We start to look at our fellow humans differently. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll try to see the world through the eyes of another, maybe even a horse.
