Horse Sense

Horse Sense

When I was pretty young I remember my father telling a story about his first and only ride on a horse. It seems he went with a bunch of his army buddies to this ranch to learn how to ride. The horses were very calm and well trained to respond to verbal prompts like getty-up and whoa. They each got their horse and my dad’s horse’s name was War Boy. As he tells the story he notes that he misunderstood and thought the name of his horse was whoa boy. He then describes how he would tell his horse “getty-up whoa boy” and after a couple of these commands wondered why the horse would just take a step and then stop. This went on for a while until, according to dad, the horse just bolted as he hung on for dear life.

The fun of the story was that the over the years it became more and more exaggerated and in one telling the horse actually turned to my father and asked “what in the hell do you want me to do?” I tell you all this because just recently I found myself talking to horses and their responses we’re illuminating. Horses because they are prey animals have evolved a very sophisticated sensory arsenal that allows them to resonate at very high energy. They can sense things about people that people can’t sense about each other or quite often, even about themselves.

There is this place in Pittsburgh called Unbridled Performance. They use horses to improve leadership and team building for some very large Fortune 500 companies. While in town last week I had a chance to check it out. The first thing you have to do is decide what you would like to learn or resolve through the process. As I had a couple of potential issues to deal with, I was good-to-go and I then got to choose my horse. I went into the stables where there were a dozen or so animals. I went to each horse asking a non-verbal question of “are you the horse for me?” Some horses would look away and a couple actually turned their backs on me. The horse I selected gave me a huge positive nod. I had found my horse. And guess what the name of the horse was? No, not War Boy – that would be way too odd.  His name was Pete.

I walked with Pete a bit and got to know him. I then got on the horse bareback and was blindfolded. They have set up an obstacle course for the rider and the horse to navigate. They also coach you along the way and tell you when to duck to avoid low hanging obstacles. You learn pretty quickly to not try to steer the horse and just trust that he knows what he’s doing.

After you negotiate the course you are given a series of questions relative to your particular issue and as you respond the horse responds to you. The horse may spit or make noises etc. At one critical juncture I was asked if I was really ready to make an important decision in my life that I had put off for sometime. When asked the question: “Are you ready to do it?” I responded “yes I’m ready” and that’s when Pete stopped dead in his tracks. Still blindfolded, I heard laughter from the trainer and when I asked what happened, I was told that he stopped on his own – “he obviously doesn’t agree that you’re ready.”

Thankfully my experience with Pete didn’t end in that abrupt stop and there’s a lot more to this unfolding story for me. I can’t wait to tell all of you how it comes out. But not today.

Gary

From the Book of Szen
First published in November 2006