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Horses See With Their Rider’s Eyes
A true horse story by Ms. Anke Brandstater
We took our horses for a camping trip at the Pacific coast. On the first day, as we were riding along the beach, I noticed something strange far away sitting on the beach. At first I thought it was a rock. As we were getting closer, I realized that it was a tree stump. I thought, "This is strange, how would such a huge tree stump get to the beach? Tree stumps live in the forest, not at the beach." My mind and my eyes continued to focus on this tree stump, as we were getting closer. When we were close enough that I could really see the stump, my horse suddenly refused to go any further and get just a single step closer to the stump. She was scared to death of this tree stump. There was no way that I could get this horse to go any further.
Next day we rode along the beach, the same story. I focused on the tree stump, wandering how this huge thing could have gotten there. As we were getting close, my Appy mare again became stubborn. In fact, she was getting absolutely furious and threw the kind of fit that only a stubborn Appy mare can throw. There was no way that I could get her to walk past the stump. She was fighting for her life.
The third day I decided that I am smarter than my horse (or at least, I should be smarter). As we were approaching the tree stump, I simply refused to look at the stump, instead looking down the open beach past the stump. For the entire time that we were riding towards that stump, I made sure that I would not ever look at the stump, always keeping my eyes to its right down the open beach. And guess what: My horse walked past that tree stump as if there was nothing there - just empty beach!
The moral of the story: Horses see with their rider’s eyes. Whatever we humans look at - with our eyes or in mental imaging - that is what is in our mind. And whatever is in our mind is also in the horse's mind. Call it psychic or whatever you want to call it. To me it is simply reality (quantum reality, if you wish). It is a form of perception, a form of connecting to the wholeness of all there is that we humans have lost long ago and replaced with left-brain fragmented thinking which can only perceive fragments of the whole there is and therefore has to multi-task so that we can be aware of more than just one fragment at a time.
People who work with horses are so blessed because they have a direct chance to find their way back to this wholeness because horses just won't let us get away with our fragmented multi-task attitude.