I’ve been reading a fictional book about horses. Are you surprised? It’s a book set in the future and it’s about bringing the world back into balance, and the horses are who help the humans get into balance. A common thread that is woven into the book is being aware. Aware of yourself, the people in your lives, and the nature that surrounds you. Being aware of what is around you, and staying grounded is what the main character in the book is working on. So I experimented with it today. Here is my story:

My friend, Kim, asked me if I would like to take a quick trail ride this morning. She offered to hook up her horse and trailer and be the driver. Of course I jumped on that suggestion immediately! Any time I don’t have to be trail boss is heaven for me!

We quickly loaded our horses after chores and headed out to Crow Hassen. This is our first trail ride of the season, so we both were a little excited and I felt Sassy’s heartbeat speed up quite a bit as I swung my leg over her back and asked her to head down the trail. She was nervous and swinging her head from side to side to take in all the sights. I helped her feel back to me and follow my suggestions to stay on the trail, keep her head straight, and allow me to take care of her by keeping myself centered, balanced, and connected through my legs, seat, and reins.

As Sassy started to come back to me and relax in the fact that I would take care of the situation, I started playing with pushing my awareness out, softening my eyes so I could take information in from my peripheral vision, and let my subconscious sift through everything. Breathing became easier, and I found myself being aware of a gentle breeze on my face, a butterfly on my right side at the same time a bird flew up in front of us on the trail. Sassy started to relax and she settled into a nice steady walk. I even started to sense her feeling back to me with observations, instead of questions.

When we passed a walker on the trail, I held him in my mind a little longer and let that thought travel down to Sassy but kept my main focus on where we were going. We passed a work truck with two men and a park ranger, I sifted that down to her and we kept going. As we turned the corner and put them behind us, Sassy wanted to turn her head again, but I pulled up their picture of how they felt to us as we passed them and held it again in my mind, and Sassy responded with a sigh, softened her jaw, and connected back to me through the reins. At that moment Kim mentioned that she felt calmer with me today on the trails. I smiled and told her of my experiment. We didn’t have much to say about it, probably because she is used to me and my little experiment’s. It is eye opening at how easily we can affect those around us with our thoughts, intention, and awareness. I started out on the trail ride with a goal to support and calm myself and Sassy, but ended up affecting Kim as well. Thanks Kim for an amazing trail ride and for putting up with me and my experiments!

For those that are interested in the book I’m reading, it’s the sequel in “The Horses Know Series” by Lynn Mann. The name of the book is “Horses Forever”.