|
Finding Tikha: Journey to a Horse
–
Part Two
Val
Hampson, MA
Second in a series on a midlife woman’s journey to find her first horse.
Tikha –
n.
1. the Mongolian word for horse, also the word for spirit.
The horse I saw next in my search for
my frist horse was a solid sorrel Paint mare. The owner extolled
her as a wonderfully disposed dressage horse as well as a Western trail
horse. She said she was having great trouble parting with her equine
friend.
....After
several phone calls to the trainer to arrange a meeting time, I drove up
to a muddy warren of buildings, equipment and paddocks. Horses seemed to
be stuffed in every nook and cranny of the property. A turn around the
edge of a building was more than likely met with the curious or wary eye
of a horse.
A fiery small woman stormed across
the yard to meet me. I had a fleeting fear that perhaps I was at the
wrong locale and this was an angry owner come out to chase me off. No,
this was the trainer, a life long horsewoman who perhaps had developed
her demeanor from years of fighting to be the leader of her herd and
fending off the even rougher ways of some horsepeople. It soon came to
light that various potential buyers had taken considerable amounts of
her time.
She muscled her way into a herd of
horses and extracted Delight, the mare I was there to see. She looked
smaller than the ad had indicated and resignedly followed the trainer to
the barn and arena.
No time for bonding here. Delight was
cross tied and quickly tacked up. A handsome, huge, but sick, yearling
looked on with great interest as mucus dripped from his nose.
While the trainer was tacking up, I
looked Delight over. She stood quietly, not moving. I peered into her
eyes. There was nothing there, no sense of watching me or noticing her
surroundings. I slowly passed my hand by her face. No change of
expression or acknowledgement. I touched her neck and head. No response.
Delight was simply not home. Her spirit was elsewhere. It felt like her
energy was sucked all the way in or just gone.
The trainer led her into the outdoor
arena and said she wanted to ride her first. She jumped up and was off.
They rode around uneventfully for awhile. Delight had short, quick and
dainty steps. Rain started to fall, souping the mud.
It came my turn to mount. The trainer
held Delight, saying she was used to racing and so all her horses take
off immediately when you mount. This alarmed me, cautious midlife rider
that I am. Still, everything seemed ok when the trainer rode, so I
mounted up. Off we walked. After awhile, I cued her to the trot. Delight
did not want to slow down or stop, nor did she want to turn. I had the
strange and unpleasant sense that Delight was just going, like a machine
with no intent, no soul participating in her movement. Nor did I feel
able to connect with her energetically and spiritually. I had been told
she was sensitive in the mouth, so I didn’t want to pull too hard. For
all I had been told about her responsiveness, she did not respond to my
aids. Perhaps a rider with more expertise could have communicated
better.
Eventually, she did slow down and
stop and I tried again with the same result. I knew that from a riding
perspective, it was not going to work with Delight.
I wondered about the cause of her
dissociation. Had she checked out in response to prior trauma? Or was
she a horse that has little interest in the world of humans, as is the
case with some horses? This I doubt, because a horse like that is a real
horsey equine, very strongly oriented to the other horses and not
humans. Delight took no special interest in the horses around her.
Perhaps she was a horse that spends more time in the spirit world, only
lightly here on earth?
I don’t know. I know it did not
feel like there was a close bond between the owner and Delight. I also
know that, at my level and with this being my first horse, I could not
take on a project horse or a horse outside my riding skills. And so,
with a silently said prayer of blessing to Delight, I nosed my car back
down the muddy track.
The search continues.
Next time-
from mud… to biting the dust.
Val Hampson, MA,
is a writer, horsewoman, educator, energy and qigong practitioner, psychotherapist,
and editor of Equus Spirit. Contact her at
valh@equusspirit.com
Read more Equus Spirit articles
HOME
|
