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Horse-Human Relationship Program |
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Coming July 4th - Nature-Based Horserelationship Program
Horses are our partners, our teachers, our friends, our kin. It sounds revolutionary in a horseworld that has been told repeatedly and erroneously that humans are predators and horses are prey; a world that has been led to believe that horses must be submissive to humans at all times; a world that has taken horses, once partners to humans, and turned them into tools for the benefit of humankind without regard for the horses' well-being. But such an idea of relationship, one based on partnership, is how great horse cultures and great horse individuals have experienced the horse-human relationship since it began. Now is the time to realize that humans and horses are more alike than we have been led to believe in modern times, and, at the same time, to come to appreciate our unique differences. This exploration, this understanding, is at the heart of the Horse-Human Relationship Program.
How do we relate to the horse in this new, yet at the same time ancient, way? How do we listen to our horses without imposing our own ideas and thoughts upon them? How do we discern what we learn from horses? How do we learn from the horse in a way that is no longer anthrocentric – focused on humans – but is instead wide enough to encompass the world around us, including both humans and horses? What do we learn from our relationship with horses that we can transfer and apply to those parts of our lives that don’t involve horses? How does doing so change horses, us, and the world?
The Horse-Human Relationship Program considers these, and other questions, and explores them by using the different ways we know about, learn from, and respond to horses. We can’t learn about horses in a vacuum. It’s not just about the physical aspect of riding or the upwelling of emotion we may feel when reading a horse story or watching a movie with a stirring horse sequence in it. Our knowledge about horses doesn’t stop at what we read in an instructional book or magazine, nor is it informed only by the spiritual times we may experience with horses. Our relationship with the horse encompasses all of these things, these ways of knowing that are intellectual, experiential, spiritual, and mythic. When we integrate them together, we form a more complete picture of our relationship with horses, much like putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Why do we care about the horse-human relationship? Because we know something is going on between humans and horses, something very important to all of us, horses and humans alike. Now is the time to explore this phenomenon. That is what we do with the Horse-Human Relationship Program, through our riding program, our blog, articles, workshops, surveys, conferences, and other projects. Come join us as we continue our journey with horses, not as adversaries, but as partners and friends.
"In the end, you must be friends."
-- Paul Belasik, Classical Dressage rider, trainer, and author, "Dressage for the 21st Century" |
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Ways of Knowing
