Oh, to speak Horse ~
to be fluent in
the language
of our Equine friends.
To communicate,
in perfect translation,
with tranquil understanding
on a vital level,
Their life and vigor,
their instincts, fleet and flee ~
free from our own
human limitations.
Isn’t that the goal
of the true horse-
man or woman ~
to be One-with?
One. Won. To win
their acceptance,
their respect,
their cooperation,
Not through gimmicks or
coercion ~ but through
learning, listening, and
speaking their language.
It’s love-making
at a beautiful level ~
where words yield
to gestures;
Where one ear’s twitch,
one shift of a hip,
announce impulse
and actions to come . . .
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It is said that horses
think in pictures ~
that they telepathically
see and read our thoughts.
Open hearts, bodies, minds
communicate best to
their bodies, designed
to run ~ to flee.
Self-preservation
their top concern,
built through eons into
their primal nervous systems;
Yet our human nerves
seen to have dulled ~
through lack of need, or use ~
in our modern society.
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So go back to your
earliest roots. Slow down ~
open your body, and heart.
Breathe! Exhale. Relax . . .
Search for the intuitive
connection through
soft, open body, breath ~
become psychic!
Look with fresh eyes
at your Equine Partner
today ~ listen to
the very nuance
They and their
fellow Equines
so eloquently,
so fluently, say . . .
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Copyright 2024
Photographs: Dawn Jenkins
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Please come over to Dawn’s Life blog — Journal of Dawn —
for Strategies and Insights into the
Journey of Life.
Find out more about Dawn’s HoofCare Services and Soul Horse Rides in the
Frazier Park Outback of Southern California :))
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SoulHorseRide 
Beautifully expressed. Dawn ❤️😎
This part interested me:
“that they telepathically
see and read our thoughts.”
When I was a kid, I lived in a n’hood of six other families. They all had horses and we didn’t… my mom claimed she would end up doing all the work instead of me and my brother (she may have been right) 😂
So I didn’t have a horse of my own to learn from. When I’d go a friend’s house and they’d want to go riding, I knew enough to not let the horse know you were afraid bc they’d treat you accordingly. So I’d make a big show about assertively leading from the stall, putting on the saddle, etc. even though I was expecting to get kicked any second.
But they knew I was faking it. They were in charge. They’d walk real close to the pasture fence and squish my leg. Keep trying to turn back to the barn. Refuse to trot. Stop to graze… etc.
Interesting to finally learn how they knew after all these years 😂
Horses read the most subtle changes in our breath and body. Look up the story of a horse named Clever Hans, who reportedly could tap out correct math — a fascinating account of how “psychic” horses are.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans
. . . “as the horse’s taps approached the right answer, the questioner’s posture and facial expression changed in ways that were consistent with an increase in tension, which was released when the horse made the final, correct tap. This provided a cue that the horse could use to tell it to stop tapping. The social communication systems of horses may depend on the detection of small postural changes, and this would explain why Hans so easily picked up on the cues given by von Osten, even if these cues were subconscious. “
Wow, how interesting! No wonder they weren’t fooled by my brave exterior 😎😂
I thought you’d like that one. Interestingly, I’d never heard about Clever Hans from the horse community, nor from the countless horse books I’ve collected over the years. Alan Lundell, a family friend who is very tech savvy, told me the story of Clever Hans, about 40 years ago. It was when my first colt was born — my Arabian stallion, Mentor. I did a little kids class in the corral with Mentor and his mother, when he was then just three months old, about “communicating with horses”. At that time, I lived in Woodside, California — Silicon Valley. Our friend Alan knew the mom of Lisa Jobs (Steve Jobs’ daughter), and Alan got her to come to the class! (I think Lisa was just 8 at that time.) I read her memo, Small Fry. A couple years ago, Alan got in touch with her, and I sent her copies of the photos I took that day. She was thrilled! It turns out she is now a new mom, and she has very few photos of herself as a young child. An aside, but an interesting one!!!!! (Funny how memories of our lives attach themselves to other memories from the same timeframes!)
How cool! And re: memories from the same time periods… yes, def true 😎
Both the poem and what it expresses is beautiful, Dawn. Becoming one with your horse so you can pick up on all the little details must be one of the most rewarding gifts for a rider.