Connection has become a buzz word in the horse community, but looking at all the interviews and taglines that use the word, I wonder: what exactly are we all talking about? I don’t think we all mean the same thing when we talk about connection. I can’t be totally sure though because as I waited for it through even hour long podcasts… I have never yet heard it defined.
Tag Archives: mustangs
The Cup Runneth Over…
If I’d have tried to ride her after the cup was brimming full, I’d probably have us both in a situation neither of us would be feeling good about. This is one way people get hurt. When the cup runneth over…
The Live Wild Beating Heart
God has a sense of humor and loves me, so he didn’t give me a solid riding mount. I already had one of those. I got the learning horse and I got it big. I brought home an enigma that catalyzed an epic adventure I would probably not have agreed to had I seen it coming. Of course that’s the best kind, and the more steps I take into the wild, the more I realize this is the only kind of life I want to be engaged in…
Adverse Conditions
It was hard not to consider this admitting defeat and total failure. Because that’s exactly what it felt like, and I am not one to admit defeat easily. I told myself years ago I would NOT allow work with my horses to become a win-lose scenario. I am not in this to make my horses into losers.
The other side of trouble
What grieved me as I watched Wyoming flailing on that lead rope like a fish on a line was a snapshot I had somewhere in my heart of how many of us go through life or seasons of life like this. We are fighting and we can’t seem to stop fighting. We end up getting hurt, and hurting those around us while we flail and fight against what we perceive as life threatening pressure but what is intended to be a comfort.
Change is possible…
Change is possible… but it has to begin with me.
The horse that was never wrong (for one day).
A good relationship is not one that thrives as long it is always kept in happy, predictable, safe places. That is actually a very weak relationship. A good relationship is one that can withstand challenges and unhappy feeling, that can stand firm in fear and stress even if it’s not pretty. A good relationship won’t disconnect in the messy unpredictability of real world circumstances.
Do you want to know a secret?
But did I love the horse? I wanted to. I thought I did, and maybe I did in part, but not the way I have come to recently.
Twisted.
This is not the dynamic I want in my barn. This is not the dynamic I want in my life. When I feel that frustration rising in the dark space of my heart it is now a warning signal: you have become twisted again. Stop. Regroup. Begin again and ask: how can I help?
I thought I understood…
If we cannot meet fear with fear… then the better choice is to meet fear with LOVE. Love in fact, must have boundaries because connection is worth protecting.
Hope Horsemanship 