No Greater Love
It was once said by the famous Winston Churchill that “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man”. This quote has always been one of my favorites! It so beautifully sheds light on the good things that knowing and loving an animal, especially a horse, does for the soul. Animals can teach us how to be carefree, loving, loyal, and so many other things if we just take the time to listen and observe!
Over the last few weeks of teaching, an amazing thing has begun to happen to me and it has made me take this quote and look at it in a whole new way. In our capacity of work, we come into contact with all sorts of students. We have some that can’t walk, some that can’t talk, and some that have multiple disabilities that we have to learn to work with in order to give them the best ride we possibly can. It takes a lot of time and dedication to put together a lesson that works for all students involved in a class. Sometimes it gets crazy, but in the end, it’s always worth it!
Sometimes, at least for me, it’s tempting to say “I did this all. These students wouldn’t be at the level they are without my teaching”. I know this makes me sound snobbish, but I get immense satisfaction out of seeing my students excel at the skill I set out to teach them. But what I have come to realize, even just in the past few days, is that there is an important link to the picture that often gets overlooked and under judged. Without it, this form of therapy would not exist. This often overlooked link is: the horse.
Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking: “But Kristen, it’s called therapeutic HORSEback riding. How could you possible forget about the horse”? When I say the horse is often overlooked I don’t mean that I forget the horses are physically present in the lesson. I’m not walking around the ring pretending that my students are floating in midair and are mysteriously moving through objects and patterns. What I am referring to is that we often don’t give the horse itself credit for the role it plays in shaping the lives of our riders. For me, I always see the physical benefits in my riders before I do the emotional. I see the better seat position, leg strength, and focus that come from working every week with a thousand pound animal. But in the last few weeks, I have continually been slapped across the face by just how powerful the mere presence of a horse can be in the lives of our riders. And how powerful the mere presence of a human can be in the lives of our horses.
I have always been drawn to the eyes of a horse. I often get lost in wondering what is going through their head. There is just something about the intelligence and love that shines in them that has always captivated my heart! My own horses have often served in the role of secret keeper and tear catcher on my worst days. And that is what has continually grabbed my attention about the therapy horses I work with on a daily basis. They have a sense of what our riders are feeling sometimes even before they know themselves. I have heard amazing stories about horses that have detected seizures in their riders or have felt the subtle body changes that could lead to a fall long before any human in the ring were aware of what was going on. But much more than that, a horse can learn to actually FEEL the emotions of the people around them and seek out those who are unsure or timid in a comforting way.
From the horse that strained at her lead rope to lay her head in the lap of a crying rider to the one that gently nuzzled the timid girl that would soon be his rider in an effort to worm his way into her heart; it is continually amazing me to witness just how empathetic the horse can be to the emotions of humans. It has a way of melting even the coldest heart!
So to me, I think it’s time to rewrite my favorite quote! Or at least rethink it to something more along the lines of: “There’s something about the inside of a man that is great for the inside of a horse”!