Articles
The Benefits of Being Outdoors with Horses
(originally published on marghanita.com)
One of the very first things which attracted my heart to Equine Facilitated Learning was bringing my healing background together with my love & passion for horses. With regards to my healing background, I have been a Reiki Master since the late nineties, and personal experiences throughout my life have have interwoven with an interest in the way we approach healing mental, emotional and physical health issues. The link to horses, bridges the enormous gap between how provisions are currently made, and how we can get back to a more natural way of living, connecting and healing.
Our connection to nature is one of the most fundamental links we have here on Earth, and one of the most easily neglected or forgotten. In our busy modern day life, filled with complexities and stress, one of the first things we can lose, and especially as we grow into adulthood is this vital connection to the Earth, nature and her simplicities. Nature itself is an harmonic, balancing, living organism; in her truly breathtakingly beautiful energetic system, no part is separate to the other, each organically linking to every part – intricate eco-systems, interdependent biodiversities, living tree beings, plant species and the wonderful animal Kingdom exist as is; they live in a harmonious acceptance of each and every part as it is, and each providing some resource of kind for the existence of one another.
So, why then do we choose to separate ourselves from her?. When she can link so powerfully and deeply to us, bringing our own subtle energies into balance as she and we link together, helping us feel and experience the harmony of existence within our physical bodies and mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Our Ancestors from the earliest times linked to nature and spirituality in incredible ways. Perhaps we have placed so much importance on 'mind', that we have forgotten the simplicity of
living from our hearts.
As children we are more open, through our hearts, mentally and energetically, and that link to nature is one of the most important opportunities we can give them. A chance to truly be and play amongst natures subtle energies enhance children's understanding of a gentler world and complete acceptance of us as we are, showing great ways of being and how to live in life. The animal kingdom provide other challenges for us to comprehend as we grow and mature, yet as a developing, evolving world whose crises edge us ever more towards unity consciousness and back to more simple, loving ways to exist.
Nature and the animal kingdom can connect with us, exemplifying to us as evolving beings new ways to exist, moving beyond a world of illusory separation, and into truly connected and holistic unity consciousness. In other words, we are part of nature and the whole.
I feel the Horse Kingdom has been reaching to us now for some while, gently calling us to be with her once again, not simply for purpose in agriculture, to win races or in combat, but for the benefit of our consciousness. They reach to us as healers and teachers who can help us reconnect to all of life.
Whilst nature works as an interdependent organic whole, each facet has its own unique qualities and personalities, just like us. Each field and tree is different from one another, as is each wood or forest - each area has its own unique set of energies and matrices. One field may be totally different to another in its nutritional value to a horse, (which we can observe by noticing the coat, manes and tails of horses who live and eat there). However, as species who so depend on nature and the environment for their life, survival and well-being, we can extend this observation to how they also depend on our love and compassion. Horses, like the fields and woods, each are different, completely unique and require our mindfulness and awareness to observe their nature and to be able to engage beautifully and powerfully with them. It is here we meet with like- kind, and in nature and with horses we can find that connection to our individuality and uniqueness.
They are the most incredibly loving animals, who embody so much - beauty, grace, nobility, flow of being, power, free-spirit, and so much love, empathy and compassion. They have a unique way of communicating both with us, with themselves and within the herds and their environment. As a species they interlink and energetically depend on nature and the environment for their communication and survival and use their senses in incredible ways to connect to nature and to us. The Spirit of the Horse has always been incredibly sensitive, and these senses have helped them to physically survive; but have also helped us to connect to them in our dream-states and through the legends and myths throughout time.
Taking the horse from the wild and into domestication has meant they have had to use their senses to understand and communicate with us. I have found that horses not only communicate via their body language, but also telepathically, (as with other animals) but also via the elements, and can communicate via the wind, for example, to other herds at distance.
These wonderful senses, which Jon O'Donahue in his book 'Anam Cara' called 'Sacred Senses' help them to understand us on very deep levels. It is an intimate yet non intrusive connection. They know our heart beat rhythm, whether we are happy, or afraid, whether we are authentic with them or whether we are trying to cover up fears, anxieties and apprehensions. Whether we are lonely, sick or suffer pain. They know something of us at a deep core level, and meet us there with the deepest love, gentlest kindness and compassion. Yet, like children they require our guidance, placing their trust and innocence in our hands, and in our ability to listen within our hearts to the ways of their world so we may appreciate and hear the story of their lives.
“What I know of divine sciences and Holy Scripture I learned in woods and fields” ~St. Bernard of Clarivaux