WHAT DOES THE VOICE OF THE GENUINE SOUND LIKE?

Espíritu

Veterans Equine Alliance

THE HORSE GUY

COACHING WITH HORSES

STORY #176

WHAT DOES THE VOICE OF THE GENUINE SOUND LIKE?

Children use all of their senses to discover the world. We attempt to ‘child-proof’ our place before the grand kids come over. Despite our best efforts they succeed in? finding those things — always breakable — we forgot to hide. As a boy myself I would frequently come home after a day of discovery covered in mud, jeans torn, shirt missing and the frames to my eye glasses hopelessly bent. My mother, to her endless credit, would greet me, “Looks like you had a fun day.” She was different like this.

Our schools, churches and universities, as well as most places where we work, discourage us away from this original drive toward discovery and the most genuine part of us which compels it. Artists seem to hold onto this. Maybe some of those irritating folks in sales and marketing, too. The rest of us, though, will spend much of lives looking for something real that was lost. Something of substance. Much of our endless activity, busyness at work that passes for achievement, various addictions, violence, and the frenetic attention to social media all seem to be ways we distract ourselves from the absence of genuine substance in our lives.

ENCOUNTERING HORSES

Something vital seems to happen when we bring our distracted brokenness into contact with horses. The experience described below has repeatedly happened when military vets, banged up, wounded and then discarded by their former employer encounter our horses at Veterans Equine Alliance.

‘Steven’ had heard about how horses can help heal PTSD and other physical and moral injuries suffered during military deployment. He had found some level of relief in talk therapy programs and continued to participate in discussion groups with fellow vets. He showed up curious and open, as well as cautious and uncertain due to a lack of previous horses experience. We are a non-riding program, so some of his concern went away.

It was raining, all day. The paddocks were muddy, the pastures too soft to allow a herd of horses out to graze. The eight horses were in the barn, hunkered down and quietly sleeping or nibbling on hay in their stalls. We sat in a small circle in the center isle where we could see all the horses and they could see us. Up close and personal. As we checked in and began exploring what brought him here, Steven began having an emotional experience. He began feeling something he had no words for. Not bad, just hard to describe and confusing. Behind all of the hurt and anguish from the past several years the voice of the genuine was present, a voice with no known language. We sensed it and so did the horses.

The horses were suddenly present to what was taking place in the isle. Locked in, not distracted, alert. Our horses know about these equine sessions; but all the other horses were focused and quiet as well. We moved to a grooming session, inviting Steven to gently brush our horse, Mesa, and talk with her about his journey and what he most wanted at this point in his life. He had wanted a sense of connection with Mesa and perhaps even new insights on the way forward. He got this and more as he wiped away his tears and continued brushing Mesa. For her part, Mesa, was pleased to be handled by Steven and stood perfectly still.

THE VOICE OF THE GENUINE NEEDS NO WORDS

As we sat and debriefed his time with? Mesa and the rest of the herd that morning Steven shook his head slowly, unable to find words to describe was happening in him. The words he found — joy…peace…a weird feeling of belonging to something whole — came close to his experience but still left something indescribable out. Watching and walking alongside Steven, we had a remarkable sense of the genuine, whole and congruent Steven very much alive and present within him. This original presence has no words; it is a felt sense that holds all of the broken parts, the hurt and betrayed parts without judgement or agenda. It is genuine aliveness, congruence and peace in the middle of a complex life.

The horses recognize this inner congruence alive in each of us. I see it in our grand kids. This capacity to recognize and evoke what is true in us probably explains why the horses love our grand children, their most enjoyable, spontaneous and unafraid playmates.

Beautiful and surprising things happen here. Even on rainy days. See for yourself.

VETERANS EQUINE ALLIANCE ?

https://veteransequinealliance.com

ESPíRITU

https://espirituhorse.com