Why horses?

One of the most common questions I get asked by friends and family is "Why horses?"

Throughout time people have been drawn to horses like no other animal.  Their association with freedom is constant and has been written and spoken of for centuries.  They have an almost mythical balance of power, grace and elegance which has captured the hearts and minds of so many.  Shakespeare wrote in Henry V; “When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.”  Of course when Shakespeare wrote this, horses were as big a part of our day-to-day lives as cars, trains and buses are today, before tractors and JCBs they sculpted our landscape, they carried us over vast distances and even into the field of battle.  Even though they no longer serve these purposes on a wide scale there is something enduring about horses that lingers in our curious fascination.

This fascination has been with me for years.  Through my eyes it’s the gentleness that they are capable of that has always drawn me to them.  Their power and strength is humbling and yet they are often the one yielding to our requests.

I think they also give us perspective for seeking simplicity in our own lives.  Horses don't use emails or mobile phones, don’t have mortgages, never have the nagging feeling that they've left the oven on.  They don’t understand the concept of advertising and therefore aren't restrained by what you ‘should’ be or what others might think, they just are.  No games, no conditions.  I’m often at my calmest and most centred when I’m poo picking the paddocks in the morning before work.  All in the world seems still, for those moments at least. 

Maybe in some instances they remind us of simpler times in human history, when life wasn't quite as full-on as it seems to be now.

Horses teach us how cheap words really are, they speak in actions.  Beyond a few simple verbal commands, horses have no concept of our language and the challenge then falls to us to breach that gap in communication.  Unfortunately too many times in the past this gap has been breached with violence, which even more unfortunately showed signs of success and gave rise to the concept that you must dominate and the horse must submit to you.  In reality, people can learn the language of horses which leads to a relationship based on trust, safety and cooperation which opens doors that fear and intimidation would force shut.

So in closing; “why horses?”  They make us better people.