~Sam~
11-04-2004, 07:19 PM
Yesterday, I finished chores up early, so I went down to the pasture to get a head start on grooming the mud off of the horses. They like to roll in mud. As the saying goes; "A dirty horse is a happy horse."
My neighbor friend was coming down to go horseback riding with me, and I knew that she was so excited about this prospect that she was gonna come out of her skin.
There's another saying; "Looking at the outside of a horse, makes the inside of a person feel good."
It's true. I spend a good deal of my time here on earth just looking at the happy and healthy critters who have come here to live with us. And I do feel good when I walk away from the pasture and barnyard.
Raven, my black, 4 year old Rocky Mountain Horse gelding seems to glow. His coat is so shiny that he looks almost liquid. Precious, my 6 year old Standardbred mare looks just as glowing in her health. Both are of good weight and vigor... it just does my heart good to be able to care for these critters in a good way.
I've found, through the years, how to feed and care for my critters to bring out their best. It's the only thing that I'm doing these days, and the results of my labors are standing out there in the barn right now... safe and dry and contented.
Back when I had a commercial goat dairy, I followed all the prescribed regimens of feeding the best quality hay and the very best of mixed supplemental grain products.
Today, and it behooves me to say this... all that prescribed blah-blah doesn't mean too much.
I mean, come on. Only Kenny and I live here. We only drink so much goat's milk and use only so much in our coffee. Why do I need goat does who are producing so much milk? I don't.
So, months ago, I pulled a reverse thinking manuever. I started feeding and milking at odd hours of the day and night, and began to feed forage of lesser quality to get LESS milk from my girls.
It worked to some extent. But the sheer truth of the matter is... give them good hay, some grain... don't let them think that 6 O'clock is feeding time... milk them once a day, or maybe once every 36 hours and... you still get what each individual animal is genetically capable of producing.
That's the goats. And they're doing fine and looking shiney and bright and happy too...
But, it's the horses I'm, writing about here today. Yes, the horses and the way that these magnificent animals can help to heal a mistreated human body. In the following paragraphs I'm going to quote Linda Kohanov from her book; "The Tao of Equus".....
"There's a longstanding perception in our culture about the attraction that women feel for horses, that the relationship between the two is inherently lascivious, or at the very least, a substitute for sex. After all, when girls suddenly become captivated by these magnificent creatures and are allowed to pursue their obsession through riding lessons or actually owning a horse, they tend to show less interest in boys than their nonequestrian peers. Going horse crazy is equally prominent among women in their prime who are experiencing major life changes, particularly relationship problems.
As a riding instructor and equine-faciltated therapy specialist, I must admit that most of my female students fall into one of the two categories: "adolescent girls" or "women in transition". Of the people who attend my lessons, therapy sessions, workshops, and horse-training classes, less that 20 percent of them are men. While this is surely related to the fact that I'm a woman instructor who does not teach jumping, roping, reining, cutting, and other equestrian pursuits more likely to attract male thrill seekers, the overwhelming presence of female clients in my business reflects a nation trend. One study estimated that women represent over 80 percent of consumers who buy horse-related merchandise, revenues of which add up to a billion-dollar industry in this country. The gap between the sexes closes among those who show and train professionsally. ***To the women I encounter in my pratice, however, horses represent something much more profound than profit, sport, or hobby. The vast majority of amateur equestriennes are looking for a relationship that is simultaneously nuturing and challenging, one that strikes a potent balance between intelligence and instinct, strength and grace, beauty and power, spirituality and sensuality. When these people experience the slightest hint of the sheer, unbridled euphoria that comes from moving in perfect rhythm with a thousand pounds of heart and muscle, there is absolutely no turning back.*** (that's me folks, I kid you not)
Over the years, I've come to realize that horses are not a substitute for sex. Rather, sex is often a substitute for the kind of multisensory connection that horses, unlike many people in our society, are able to provide without reservation. Sex as portrayed in the media, and played out in many short- and long term relationships, is a quick-fix high that briefly, and just barely, quenches our thirst for true intimacy. Yet the need for authentic connection cannot be met as long as the very qualities that support relationship continue to be washed out of the fabric of human existence. In his book "Body: Recovering Our Sensual Wisdom", somatic psychotherapist Don Hanlon Johnson analyzes the intricate web of social conditioning leading to this widespread state of disconnection. A number of concepts developed in Western culture over the last two thousand years work together to disengage and isolate us from our own sources of power, sensuality, and creativity. These concepts include the body as "slave" or "machine" to the mind and the mind as "king," boss," or "master computer" of the body, the invalidation of the senses, the denial of emotions, the subjugation of the feminine, and overemphasis on stability, outside authority, and established methods.
"The mind-body fracture that prompts us to discredit our sensual wisdom is reflected in the ancient divisions between men and women," he writes. "We have constructed a mythical world in which men in gray flannel suits who sit at computers or in board rooms planning mass slaughter are considered prototypes of resonable behavior, capable of directing the destiny of our planet, while women who take care of their homes and children or who work as secretaries, or nurses, often alone in their old age, are thought to be irrational sources of error or even sin, unfit to make any major decisions about public affairs."
Children are often portrayed as masses of thoughtless instincts that must be programmed by a class of experts. These repetitive voices are accompanied by body-shaping methods designed to evoke suspicions about the reliability of their own perceptions and feelings. According to Johnson, people encounter these nonverbal messages in posture-training, dance, and gym classes, where they're taught the "right way" to stand, move, and express themselves, and, more recently, in the ways in which "ideal" manifestations of the human form move across the television screen or pose seductively in magazines. Anyone caught looking longingly out the window or refusing to sit still is sent to the principal's office, punished and intimidated, or when all else fails, medicated into submission.
Johnson cites the writings of Whilhelm Reich, who characterized the nonverbal postures of conformity taught from childhood as "the physiological anchor of the social incapacity for freedom." Reich observed that; "bringing up people to assume a rigid, unnatural attitude is one of the most essential means used by a dictatorial social system to produce will-less, automatically functioning organisms." The problem with this kind of conditioning, however, is that many of our personal and interpersonal conflicts come from confronting new situations with these same old stances. We keep up ingrained patterns of posture, behavior, and thought even when they're obviously not working.
In the face of such adversity, riding a horse can be an unusually constructive act of rebellion, an opportunity to awaken from the mental and physical trances of conformity. Some of my most inspiring clients are successful businesswomen in their thirties, forties, and fifties finally in a position to pursue their childhood equestrian dreams. During their first few rides, these people are invariably astonished at how stiff their bodies feel as their mounts inch along at a stilted, wooden gait. Even avid runners, weight lifters, and cyclists discover they have unconsciously adopted restrictive habits that grossly inhibit their freedom of movement - postures, imbalances, and areas of tension that visibly affect the movement of the horse. After all, no matter how good these ladies look or feel, most spend just as many hours sitting at a desk as their less active colleagues, and when they work out, a machine often mediates their actions.
The field of theraputic riding has proven that no mechanical device known to man can match the effectiveness of the horse in treating a variety of physical disabilities. The simultaneous front-to-back, side-to-side motion of a sound equine activates and strengthens muscular nuances in human stroke and accident victims that can actually help them regain the use of their legs.
A few of the more adventurous experiments exploring the therapeutic effects of equine encounters suggest that horses are so effective in this context because they act on multiple levels, relaxing and supporting the rider in such a way as to create a wider opening for healing to take place. Just brushing one of these animals, for instance, has been shown to significantly lower blood pressue. Such studies are beginning to legitimize the powerful influence that horses can have on persons with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities - as well as on supposely healthy, well-adjusted individuals. But there are other, more mysterious aspects of human-equine interactions that can't be measured or even re-created, and thus continue to be ignored by statisic-happy counselors, agencies, and medical institutions who's clients could benefit from horse-facilitated therapies.
It never ceases to amaze me how profoundly even the most confident, well-healed professional can be affected by riding around in a small circle on a horse attached to a lead line. Some of the most exciting moments in my practice happen when a first-time equestrienne realizes that to liberate the horse's body from mirroring her own physical issues, she has to breathe into her abdomen, unclench her jaw, relax her shoulders, release her pelvis, and allow her upper torso to float quietly over hips that follow the naturally fluid pace of her mount. Tears of joy or wails of sorrow quite often accompany this seemingly minor breakthrough, for what is unlocked in the body tends to unlock the emotions. At this moment, a woman begins to realize how much of her innate grace and vitality she has consciously or unconsciously sublimated, restrained, or sacrificed to make her way in life."
... What my friend and neighbor experienced yesterday while riding Precious, my mare, was equally soul freeing. I cannot tell you the specifics of her relationship with her man, or the burdens of submission she has had to shoulder in her life.
All that I know is, that when I turned to see how she was doing riding behind Raven and me, she was openly weeping.
The four of us traveled familiar, and yet unfamiliar ground yesterday. When the stress of our humanity finally left us... we became focused on how our bodies were moving with the grace of the horse under us. That is the moment when the ride became fun. When the horses started to enjoy the ride as much as we were beginning to.
At the end of the ride, as we unsaddled the horses and turned them loose in the pasture to roll off the saddle sweat, she said to me; "I love this horse. Can I officially adopt her?"
To which I replied... "I declare... Precious is now officially Janet's horse."
Take Care Folks... 'til next we meet,
Love.... Sam
http://www.hipgallery.com/photopost2/data/500/638ASS-Me_n_Raven.jpg
Raven and Sam
My neighbor friend was coming down to go horseback riding with me, and I knew that she was so excited about this prospect that she was gonna come out of her skin.
There's another saying; "Looking at the outside of a horse, makes the inside of a person feel good."
It's true. I spend a good deal of my time here on earth just looking at the happy and healthy critters who have come here to live with us. And I do feel good when I walk away from the pasture and barnyard.
Raven, my black, 4 year old Rocky Mountain Horse gelding seems to glow. His coat is so shiny that he looks almost liquid. Precious, my 6 year old Standardbred mare looks just as glowing in her health. Both are of good weight and vigor... it just does my heart good to be able to care for these critters in a good way.
I've found, through the years, how to feed and care for my critters to bring out their best. It's the only thing that I'm doing these days, and the results of my labors are standing out there in the barn right now... safe and dry and contented.
Back when I had a commercial goat dairy, I followed all the prescribed regimens of feeding the best quality hay and the very best of mixed supplemental grain products.
Today, and it behooves me to say this... all that prescribed blah-blah doesn't mean too much.
I mean, come on. Only Kenny and I live here. We only drink so much goat's milk and use only so much in our coffee. Why do I need goat does who are producing so much milk? I don't.
So, months ago, I pulled a reverse thinking manuever. I started feeding and milking at odd hours of the day and night, and began to feed forage of lesser quality to get LESS milk from my girls.
It worked to some extent. But the sheer truth of the matter is... give them good hay, some grain... don't let them think that 6 O'clock is feeding time... milk them once a day, or maybe once every 36 hours and... you still get what each individual animal is genetically capable of producing.
That's the goats. And they're doing fine and looking shiney and bright and happy too...
But, it's the horses I'm, writing about here today. Yes, the horses and the way that these magnificent animals can help to heal a mistreated human body. In the following paragraphs I'm going to quote Linda Kohanov from her book; "The Tao of Equus".....
"There's a longstanding perception in our culture about the attraction that women feel for horses, that the relationship between the two is inherently lascivious, or at the very least, a substitute for sex. After all, when girls suddenly become captivated by these magnificent creatures and are allowed to pursue their obsession through riding lessons or actually owning a horse, they tend to show less interest in boys than their nonequestrian peers. Going horse crazy is equally prominent among women in their prime who are experiencing major life changes, particularly relationship problems.
As a riding instructor and equine-faciltated therapy specialist, I must admit that most of my female students fall into one of the two categories: "adolescent girls" or "women in transition". Of the people who attend my lessons, therapy sessions, workshops, and horse-training classes, less that 20 percent of them are men. While this is surely related to the fact that I'm a woman instructor who does not teach jumping, roping, reining, cutting, and other equestrian pursuits more likely to attract male thrill seekers, the overwhelming presence of female clients in my business reflects a nation trend. One study estimated that women represent over 80 percent of consumers who buy horse-related merchandise, revenues of which add up to a billion-dollar industry in this country. The gap between the sexes closes among those who show and train professionsally. ***To the women I encounter in my pratice, however, horses represent something much more profound than profit, sport, or hobby. The vast majority of amateur equestriennes are looking for a relationship that is simultaneously nuturing and challenging, one that strikes a potent balance between intelligence and instinct, strength and grace, beauty and power, spirituality and sensuality. When these people experience the slightest hint of the sheer, unbridled euphoria that comes from moving in perfect rhythm with a thousand pounds of heart and muscle, there is absolutely no turning back.*** (that's me folks, I kid you not)
Over the years, I've come to realize that horses are not a substitute for sex. Rather, sex is often a substitute for the kind of multisensory connection that horses, unlike many people in our society, are able to provide without reservation. Sex as portrayed in the media, and played out in many short- and long term relationships, is a quick-fix high that briefly, and just barely, quenches our thirst for true intimacy. Yet the need for authentic connection cannot be met as long as the very qualities that support relationship continue to be washed out of the fabric of human existence. In his book "Body: Recovering Our Sensual Wisdom", somatic psychotherapist Don Hanlon Johnson analyzes the intricate web of social conditioning leading to this widespread state of disconnection. A number of concepts developed in Western culture over the last two thousand years work together to disengage and isolate us from our own sources of power, sensuality, and creativity. These concepts include the body as "slave" or "machine" to the mind and the mind as "king," boss," or "master computer" of the body, the invalidation of the senses, the denial of emotions, the subjugation of the feminine, and overemphasis on stability, outside authority, and established methods.
"The mind-body fracture that prompts us to discredit our sensual wisdom is reflected in the ancient divisions between men and women," he writes. "We have constructed a mythical world in which men in gray flannel suits who sit at computers or in board rooms planning mass slaughter are considered prototypes of resonable behavior, capable of directing the destiny of our planet, while women who take care of their homes and children or who work as secretaries, or nurses, often alone in their old age, are thought to be irrational sources of error or even sin, unfit to make any major decisions about public affairs."
Children are often portrayed as masses of thoughtless instincts that must be programmed by a class of experts. These repetitive voices are accompanied by body-shaping methods designed to evoke suspicions about the reliability of their own perceptions and feelings. According to Johnson, people encounter these nonverbal messages in posture-training, dance, and gym classes, where they're taught the "right way" to stand, move, and express themselves, and, more recently, in the ways in which "ideal" manifestations of the human form move across the television screen or pose seductively in magazines. Anyone caught looking longingly out the window or refusing to sit still is sent to the principal's office, punished and intimidated, or when all else fails, medicated into submission.
Johnson cites the writings of Whilhelm Reich, who characterized the nonverbal postures of conformity taught from childhood as "the physiological anchor of the social incapacity for freedom." Reich observed that; "bringing up people to assume a rigid, unnatural attitude is one of the most essential means used by a dictatorial social system to produce will-less, automatically functioning organisms." The problem with this kind of conditioning, however, is that many of our personal and interpersonal conflicts come from confronting new situations with these same old stances. We keep up ingrained patterns of posture, behavior, and thought even when they're obviously not working.
In the face of such adversity, riding a horse can be an unusually constructive act of rebellion, an opportunity to awaken from the mental and physical trances of conformity. Some of my most inspiring clients are successful businesswomen in their thirties, forties, and fifties finally in a position to pursue their childhood equestrian dreams. During their first few rides, these people are invariably astonished at how stiff their bodies feel as their mounts inch along at a stilted, wooden gait. Even avid runners, weight lifters, and cyclists discover they have unconsciously adopted restrictive habits that grossly inhibit their freedom of movement - postures, imbalances, and areas of tension that visibly affect the movement of the horse. After all, no matter how good these ladies look or feel, most spend just as many hours sitting at a desk as their less active colleagues, and when they work out, a machine often mediates their actions.
The field of theraputic riding has proven that no mechanical device known to man can match the effectiveness of the horse in treating a variety of physical disabilities. The simultaneous front-to-back, side-to-side motion of a sound equine activates and strengthens muscular nuances in human stroke and accident victims that can actually help them regain the use of their legs.
A few of the more adventurous experiments exploring the therapeutic effects of equine encounters suggest that horses are so effective in this context because they act on multiple levels, relaxing and supporting the rider in such a way as to create a wider opening for healing to take place. Just brushing one of these animals, for instance, has been shown to significantly lower blood pressue. Such studies are beginning to legitimize the powerful influence that horses can have on persons with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities - as well as on supposely healthy, well-adjusted individuals. But there are other, more mysterious aspects of human-equine interactions that can't be measured or even re-created, and thus continue to be ignored by statisic-happy counselors, agencies, and medical institutions who's clients could benefit from horse-facilitated therapies.
It never ceases to amaze me how profoundly even the most confident, well-healed professional can be affected by riding around in a small circle on a horse attached to a lead line. Some of the most exciting moments in my practice happen when a first-time equestrienne realizes that to liberate the horse's body from mirroring her own physical issues, she has to breathe into her abdomen, unclench her jaw, relax her shoulders, release her pelvis, and allow her upper torso to float quietly over hips that follow the naturally fluid pace of her mount. Tears of joy or wails of sorrow quite often accompany this seemingly minor breakthrough, for what is unlocked in the body tends to unlock the emotions. At this moment, a woman begins to realize how much of her innate grace and vitality she has consciously or unconsciously sublimated, restrained, or sacrificed to make her way in life."
... What my friend and neighbor experienced yesterday while riding Precious, my mare, was equally soul freeing. I cannot tell you the specifics of her relationship with her man, or the burdens of submission she has had to shoulder in her life.
All that I know is, that when I turned to see how she was doing riding behind Raven and me, she was openly weeping.
The four of us traveled familiar, and yet unfamiliar ground yesterday. When the stress of our humanity finally left us... we became focused on how our bodies were moving with the grace of the horse under us. That is the moment when the ride became fun. When the horses started to enjoy the ride as much as we were beginning to.
At the end of the ride, as we unsaddled the horses and turned them loose in the pasture to roll off the saddle sweat, she said to me; "I love this horse. Can I officially adopt her?"
To which I replied... "I declare... Precious is now officially Janet's horse."
Take Care Folks... 'til next we meet,
Love.... Sam
http://www.hipgallery.com/photopost2/data/500/638ASS-Me_n_Raven.jpg
Raven and Sam