The Horse
“Horses possess an instinct to nurture themselves. A grazing horse is a horse taking care of herself in the most primal of ways... Horses instinctively enact all the nuances contained in the word “nurture”... Over thousands of years of neglect, we humans have been losing our instinct to nurture ourselves in the innate, self-satisfying way the grazing horse does.”
Why include horses in our personal growth and healing work?
Here are just a few reasons:
Horses are able to reflect to us information about ourselves in real time. As prey animals, they are always taking in sensory information about their surroundings in order to survive. It makes them masterful at reading spaces, and all beings who enter their environment.
Horses are able to offer us this feedback in a non-judgmental unbiased way. Their communication is pure and direct, untainted by personal gain and alterior motive. For many, this makes the feedback easier to receive. If you have difficulty opening up to other humans, you may find a powerful unfolding being around horses.
Horses are so masterful at detecting our energy and intent as prey animals, that they may show you things about yourself that you are as yet unaware of. Horses ask us to be congruent with ourselves when in their presence. This means that our outward projection should match our inner experience. Horses give us a space to practice being honest and authentic with ourselves, and we may be rewarded by a stronger relationship with the horse in turn.
If you’ve been lucky enough to spend time with a horse, you know that their presence and energy are special. As a horse’s heart is 5 times the size of a humans, its electro-magnetic energy field extends far beyond its body. This allows us opportunities for co-regulation with the horse’s heart and nervous system. Studies show that sharing energy fields with the horse allow for production of feel good neurotransmitters, lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, and calming of the nervous system.
Horses are herd animals. They are wired for connection in ways that humans used to share as a species. This offers us to reconnect with innate inner knowings passed down to us ancestrally. We can learn a lot about boundaries, communication, expression, and emotional regulation simply by watching horses interact with one another.
As prey animals, horses are powerful examples of adaptive nervous systems. They must move efficiently through their emotions- they don’t have the ability to dwell on the past or worry about the future because they must be present in order to survive. We have much to learn by observing the horse and being in their presence.
“By following where the horse leads us emotionally and spiritually, we begin to expand our view of life. Horses give humans a broader perspective on life in general. They give us a keener appreciation of how intelligent and sensitive other creatures are, and this helps us develop our own humility and compassion.”
— The McCormicks in Horses and the Mystical Path
