The Trail Less Traveled: Horse as Guide for the Inner Journey
Leigh Shambo, MSW
The journey of
horsemanship often starts with a longing— lodged in the deepest
parts of our soul— for a magical partner with strength,
gentleness and grace, and the willingness to lift us above a
limited existence. Experiences with real, live horses
challenge us to embark on the “hero’s journey”, a journey from
the known into the unknown parts of our own souls. In order to
access the magic that our equine partners do indeed possess, we
must meet certain challenges. Above all, they challenge us to
find the magic within ourselves.
.....
In 1994, I renamed my horse training and instruction business
“Equestrian Mind-Body Awareness Training”, based on my
increasing understanding of the psychological dynamics of the
horse-human bond. At the time, I did not know that my horse
journey would lead me to become a mental health therapist,
collaborating with horses to help people grow emotionally and
spiritually. A new role for horses was just springing into the
collective mind—a revisioning of the knowledge (known by our
ancestors but forgotten in modern times) that horses can help us
in our individual and collective evolution to a more conscious
way of being and acting in harmony with each other.
A new wave of
training techniques is merging with the knowledge we’ve gained
by observing horses as they literally step into new roles in
therapeutic and personal growth venues. As a trainer and coach,
I often experience the power of thought and awareness to
transform the horse’s resistance into willingness. As a
therapist, I see the wise and compassionate generosity of horses
offering their support for human emotional healing (sometimes
literally offering a neck to cry into). The invisible magic –
what I have come to call Invisible Horsemanship™ —depends on a
state of being, an inner awareness, and an energetic presence
that permeates both conscious and unconscious actions. This
state of awareness has much to teach us about life and human
relationships even as it illuminates our relationships with the
horses we know.
Invisible
Horsemanship is a capacity we all have for artful
partnering—with each other, ourselves and the natural world.
When we exercise this capacity in riding or groundwork with
horses, we feel vibrantly alive and fully present. We become
able to navigate the invisible realm with an honest and
responsive partner (a horse!), and this is where the magic
begins.
…A horse that is
fractious and undisciplined for one handler instantly becomes
compliant and leads quietly on a loose line for another. The
rider of an advanced dressage horse must be careful not to think
of a flying lead change if she does not want her horse to
produce one at that moment. In a therapy session, a horse lays
her forehead against the client’s chest, whose tears flow as the
horse stands perfectly still…
The dynamics
of the invisible universe permeate every interaction between
horse and human, from merely approaching on foot, to the most
complex ridden partnerships. The most obvious invisible
agreements (or lack thereof!) between horse and rider have to do
with boundaries and goals. As we gain dexterity in the
invisible realm, we experience directly that subtle thoughts,
emotions, intentions and intuitions hold as much importance as
our conscious signals to the horse. The simple act of leading a
horse requires clarity of invisible boundaries, which are
nonetheless very real to both horse and human. Such obvious
expressions of invisible agreements between horses and humans
are only the tip of the iceberg.
The “style”
and personality of both human and horse form a large portion of
their shared dynamic. Horses intuit the invisible values and
core beliefs that humans are not fully conscious of in
themselves. On the journey of horsemanship— artful partnering—
we learn authenticity, self-awareness, creativity and energetic
clarity in thought and action. As we master this invisible
world, we recognize the horse as the magician and guide for the
hero’s inner journey.
The challenge, but
also the opportunity—is that the thoughts, emotions and energies
that horses perceive in us are complex and not wholly
conscious. Conditioned beliefs, often from childhood, are
heard more clearly than the signals we believe we are sending.
One woman thought she was clearly sending the signal to “go
forward”, but what her horse said “yes” to was her childhood
conditioning that “no one ever listens to me”. Horses’
responsiveness to all of the beliefs we hold makes
them powerful mirrors if we possess the honesty to see clearly.
We can each forge an alliance with the horse that is based on
understanding our own invisible realm—the realm of
thought, feeling, intuition and intention.
The compass that
we all possess for the hero’s journey is our very own highly
sensitive instrument—the body. Operating from an internal
“felt sense”—what author Eleanor Rosche calls “primary knowing”—
allows us to tease apart the subtle dynamics of relationship and
co-creation— the deep structure of our invisible universe. Even
beginners can work magic with horses by understanding their own
field of invisible dynamics. Each of us can be an artful
partner with a horse, though traditional equestrian instruction
provides only a partial guide to the process. Skills and
techniques must be used at the service of our own deeply
personal, pre-verbal “felt sense”. Much as the horses do, we
make use of our own bodies as “sensing devices”, in the words of
Kathleen Barry Ingram, MA, a therapist associated with Epona
Equestrian Services in Tucson, AZ.
Clearly,
this “trail less traveled” requires willingness, and the desire
to honestly know ourselves at a deep level. The very nature of
the horse human interaction helps us to avoid the pitfalls of
projection and anthropomorphism. I once heard dressage master
Charles DeKunffy insist, “… the horse is nature.” The
physical nature of the relationship and the horses themselves
signal us to remain “reality based”. Horses cause us to
experience in almost every moment both the mundane and
self-evident face of reality, and the pervasive light and
shadow of the invisible realm. Inside the grounded and
practical reality of the arena, miracles are a common
occurrence, when we do the work of relationship and allow our
minds to be open.
Your horse can
read much of your energetic field, or the energetic body as it
is sometimes called. To a greater extent than the signals we
intentionally send, the horse reads our core beliefs, our
private internal schemas of “reality”, our emotions and
thoughts. Invisible attitudes and beliefs can render our
energy field confusing and difficult for the horse to
understand. When we bring these limiting beliefs to
consciousness, we experience greater harmony and communication
with the horse, and we experience ourselves differently.
When we say yes to
our horse’s invitation to do our inner work, we begin moving
toward a more vibrant and responsive present moment awareness.
We experience moments of grace (as almost all who experience
this call it). Spontaneous right action (a term from Buddhism)
becomes the norm. This spontaneous right action embodies a vast
amount of knowledge, even in those possessing little experience
with horses. It includes sound and compassionate judgment, a
balance of assertion and sensitivity, creativity, and a
tremendous sense of open-heartedness. Invisible Horsemanship™
transforms ‘working’ the horse into dancing and
playing with your horse.
In training/riding
situations and in therapeutic sessions, it is evident that
unburdening the energetic field results in a more positive
reception on the part of the horse. We become able to inhabit
our physical bodies fully in the present moment—with all of our
energy and attention responsive (not reactive) to that moment
with the horse. Humans with all levels of horse experience
become capable of spontaneous right action to create a safe and
respectful relationship with the horse, a relationship in which
horse and human energy become complementary, harmonious and
synergistic. Throughout human history, the practice of
horsemanship has been recognized as the training ground for
mastery of one’s personal power— one reason it is “the sport of
kings”.
In artful
partnering, horse and human balance each other to
enhance their shared power. The horse holds the
wide, sensitive awareness of an animal that is preyed upon in
nature; the human must be a collaborative leader, tactfully
persuading the horse to sacrifice portions of the wide view
in order to enter a goal focus. The horse and human borrow from
and enhance each other’s capacities at appropriate moments. The
human gains a capacity for heightened awareness that is fully
embodied and capable of action. When the human and horse share
their psychic energies, healing occurs— a psychological “peak
state”.
There is a natural
rhythm and feel to this process of artful partnering with
horses. The method begins with an attunement to our reflective,
inner sense, and then dips into action and moves toward focus,
while staying attuned to the reflective inner sense, which
encompasses our innate empathy and perception of the horse and
his actions. Within a horse/human system, the manifesting flow
of energy— inspired, idea driven, or goal oriented behavior—can
be felt as a downward flow through the energetic field;
awareness and feedback enter the field via an opening and
enhancing of all the senses, including emotional empathy and
other non-local senses.
When we move into
the action realm with our equine partners they always invite us
to explore the internal and invisible dynamics of willfulness
vs. empathy—what are typically described as ‘male’ or ‘female’
energies. Regardless of biological gender, for optimum harmony
there must be a fine balance of assertion with understanding.
Horse and human both play along the spectrum of yin (receptive)
and yang (assertive) energies. These must be balanced,
complimentary and flexible to find an optimal balance
appropriate for each moment and activity.
No wonder that
horses are now guiding humans along this path of
transformation! When we allow horses to become our guides in
the hero’s journey, they reward each small step with increased
generosity, cooperation and willingness to join with us in our
goals. Understanding and embracing the innate wisdom of our own
felt sense empowers each of us to begin the journey. Facing
unspoken fears, releasing limiting beliefs held since childhood,
and balancing the opposites inherent in our nature are the
challenges of the journey. The fulfillment of the quest is
not only that we stand next to the strong and noble partner of
our dreams, but the magical and transformative powers that we
discover inside ourselves.
Author
Leigh Shambo,
MSW is a
clinical therapist and educator whose
first career was horse training and instruction. Leigh
is widely recognized for her articulation of the
horse-human bond and its application in therapeutic and
learning programs. She is the founder and lead
therapist for
Human-Equine Alliances for Learning
(HEAL), a
non-profit organization that supports
equine-assisted services and programs for healing,
personal growth and riding/training.
Leigh is an Advanced
Facilitator
graduate of Linda Kohanov's Epona Center
apprenticeship
program and is EAGALA
certified.
