Your horse is a mirror

I just had a rather interesting conversation with a friend. We were discussing how our horses really reflect our personalities. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it shows us things about us we need to change, and sometimes we are too distracted to notice. Here's a few examples:

• Your horse is skittish and can't stand still

• Your horse is pushy and disrespectful

• Your horse barges into your space uninvited

• Your horse makes his own decisions without regard to your desires

Breaking this down a bit, we could match these traits with human behaviors:

• You are stressed out about work and are feeling a bit (or a lot) of anxiety.

• You have a very dominant personality and maybe are a bit pushy, Perhaps you feel the need to have your own way.

• You like to be in control of others in your life and have an aggressive personality.
  

• Again, you are very dominant, maybe even aggressive in nature. Perhaps you are quick to make decisions that effect others in your life without consulting them first.

As you can see, some of these traits are not quite desirable. When we 'see' things in our horse that reflect on us, we know we don't like or appreciate that behavior in him, but often fail to see that we are acting or being the same. It is always a humbling moment to see that the least favorite thing your horse does, is something you also do.

This happened to me for the first time a few years ago. I was training my draft horse when my trainer said he needed more consistency and dependability from me. That he even needed a commitment and a schedule. I will never forget that moment. I wanted to run for the hills! You see, I was not consistent with anything in my life. I'd been a stay at home mom for about 8 years and had gotten into some bad habits. I didn't even have a lot of consistency when it came to my kids, and forget a schedule. What schedule? I thought, "I'm supposed to do these things for my horse and I don't do them for my kids?" I had to realize that I had to BE those things, not just for certain moments, but I had to actually become them. It was tough. It was scary.

I learned a lot from that horse, and continue looking for ways, in him, to improve myself.

Let me know if you've had an interesting moment learning about yourself, from a horse.

L





Loretta

the natural horseman
clear communication/visible results