Beasties

One of my favorite songs is "On Horseback" by Mike Oldfield. I have been known to sing it to my horses on trail rides and when warming up for a course over fences or a Dressage test.

"Hey and away we go, through the grass, across the snow, big brown beastie, big brown face, I'd rather be with you than flying through space".

It's so true! Not all of their faces have been brown, but they have all been my heart's song.

"On Horseback" by Mike Oldfield

So when I went out in the pitch dark tonight to remove their fly masks, I was talking and singing to avoid startling the horses. Sage, my very, very big grey gelding still did not hear me and when I went into his small, dark stall and touched his shoulder - I scared him! But, he only shuddered and gasped. He did not leap and run out of fear nor kick me in defense. He was such a GOOD horse.

I find myself being amazed daily at the awareness of the animals in my life. My Mom was hospitalized 2 weeks ago after a fall and is now in my home while Billy and I care for her. Her tiny dog had to come with her and my dogs accepted her immediately. No one fusses. No one complains. The horses are accepting that they get less attention from me right now.

And, my students have been mucking, bringing food, doing turn outs, helping with my Mom, baking brownies - it is a long list of love! Billy (my brother) has friends being so supportive of him right now, too.

Before her fall, I had been feeling sort of lonely. Being the only human in my house, I had found myself in deep conversations with the dogs and, having had my 21 year old dog, Basil, pass over last month - I was no stranger to crying jags.

But, everything comes into perspective pretty quickly around here. I finished the book I've been needing to finish and figured out how to work the tablet I bought a while back (with help from a teenage student, of course). I cook and I clean and I lift my Mom in and out of bed. I have been reminded of the saying, "Before enlightenment, the laundry; after enlightenment, the laundry" - and I have been known to substitute "mucking" for "laundry" in that saying.

Just before my Mom's troubles, the Dharmahorse peeps had been going out on weekend trail rides and I had had great rides out on Grits and on Penny while friends brought horses over to join us and students rode other dharma horses, too. I'm glad I had that time. It restored my spirit then and I think about the rides and Mike's song and my spirits rise now.

We all just work our way down our paths the best we can. It is not how famous we become, how rich we become or "who we know" that matters in that Big Picture - it's who we touch and who we cheer and who we heal and how we feel that matters.

I often speak about horses' hooves and how the more important aspect about their trimming by the farrier is how the horse moves and feels rather than how the hooves look.

So now, tonight, I hear the winds whipping the windchime about as they blow in tumbling clouds full of lightning and raindrops the size of plums with thunder that vibrates my office floor. It is monsoon. It is the time of water and Water is Life. I thought about worrying with the weeds that are growing but instead I choose to rejoice that the trees and bushes are quenched at a time when I'm not able to water them with the hose.

The Universe provides.

The Well Being of Horses

Forward from the Book:

I was watching the sun light fade and night fall around us in the stable yard tonight... thinking about those "in between" times and spaces and ideas. Instead of just being black or white, the gray areas of dusk and dawn; of the beach between the hills and the sea; of life and what we call death... All of these are not just transitions, but places in their own right with a reality to be experienced, certainly, if not savored.

I also see the value of the dynamic approaches of horsemanship styles. And the multiple ways in which good health is preserved by natural methods. Those in between places serve to blend ideas and make useful all manner of things we might miss with a rigid mind-set. I love using Australian saddles for my riding lessons and I tell students that they are like a combination between western and english styles.

My Mother used to say she put sugar in her tea to make it sweet and lemon to make it sour, but the combination was better than either. The in between places are of blending and easing from one thing to another. The in between places are where we can linger, experiencing that gentle shift.

From this life to the next life is an in between place where I think elderly beings visit and sometimes linger when deep in sleep or daydreaming. Spring eases us into summer; autumn eases us into winter.

If we are going to climb to 14,000 feet, we linger at 8,000, then 10,000 feet, making an in between place to adjust to the altitude.

So, I wonder why we would expect such immediate, total obedience from an animal, a person or ourselves when faced with a change or a task? Depending upon the degree of the shift and how much change is required, there needs to be an in between place where the transition can flow with grace. When that cannot happen and a sudden or violent shift occurs, it is shocking and that shock will need to be addressed one way or another later on.

Being decisive is powerful. Being decisive is clear and planned and directed. It can be immediate in its application from the space of transitioning, but cannot act like the cracking end of a whip that then ricochets aimlessly. The in between place holds the form of the concept, decision or path and allows its unfolding without interruption or distortion. It may only hold it for a moment or it may hold the form for years.

My Mother likes limes and mint in her tea now. I ride and school horses in bitless bridles. We leave giant Yuccas in our turn out (that also serves as an arena) because we like Yuccas (and riding a circle around a giant "cactus" will sure keep a rider from leaning inward!) and the area becomes a kind of transition place between the round pen and riding out on the trail. An in between place...

We sort of "ride between worlds" at Dharmahorse; taking what we find the best from many styles and methodologies in horsemanship and in healing. And we help horses and people shift gently from place to place; idea to idea. The world is full of possibilities.

We believe that Love is active promotion of the well being of the love object.

And we love horses.

I wish you light & love as we approach the in between of Autumn in this hemisphere and hope that life remains an adventure!

Katharine & the Dharmahorse tribe

Rest In Peace, Basil