Several months ago somebody was telling me they were adopting a more spiritual path in their horsemanship and they felt it was helping them. More recently, I heard a criticism directed at me and my work for not being on a spiritual journey. This talk of a spiritual journey in horsemanship is pretty new to me, so it got me thinking.
I have never considered myself to be a spiritual person. But I wondered if that was because I didn’t know what it meant. So I looked up the definition of a spiritual journey.
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, “The spiritual journey involves first healing and affirming the ego so that positive states are experienced; with secure self-esteem, belief in self-worth, and a capacity for love and generosity, a person becomes less constrained by ego defences. An opening of the heart is an essential aspect of true spirituality.”
After reading that I decided nope, I am not on a spiritual journey. Phew! That was a relief. 😂
I don’t feel I use horses for spiritual self-improvement. I don’t know if this is true of other people but if my aim was for spiritual self-fulfilment, I fear that would become my priority and the best interest of helping horses live in a human world would take second place. That’s not why I work with horses and horse people and it’s not what I want to be the reason for working with horses.
I get pleasure and I make a living working with horses and horse people, but my aim is not to use horses as a means towards self-improvement. If I need fixing, I have the help of a wonderful wife and wonderful friends for that.
My drive to become a better horse person is both a love of horses and a curiosity to understand how they work. I have a deep curiosity to understand how many things work. I want to know how ant colonies are organized, I want to learn the role of quantum gravity in explaining the structure of the universe, and I want to understand how the production of pro-opiomelanacorticotropin in the fetal pituitary determines the timing of birth. I can’t help it. My brain won’t let go. So when it comes to being a horse person, my brain won’t let go of wanting to pull everything apart and understand how horses operate and how I can help them get along better in a world of humans. But self-reflection is not part of the process or journey.
I guess rather than describe my work as spiritual, I would say it is more Darwinian.
Darwin described evolution as occurring through mutation-induced incremental changes that allowed new variances in a species and new species to develop. I feel that more accurately describes how I approach my horsemanship.
All horses teach me something. They either teach me that I am on the right path or that my path needs adjusting. But the horses that teach me the most are the outliers. The outliers are the ones that don’t fit into the mould of most other horses. These are the horses that make me realize I don’t know what I am doing and both humble me and inspire me to create the biggest changes in my horsemanship.
I don’t consider my horsemanship path to be spiritual, but I do get a lot of pleasure from it and all my interactions with those I share my day with. I get the pleasure of walking outside and giving a scratch to each of our horses. I get a rush cleaning a paddock or trimming their feet. I smile when I walk past 5 or 6 kangaroos laying in the sun on my way to do chores. “Good morning Betty. How is that young one of yours?” Betty stands up and her 3-month-old joey, Myron pops his head out of the pouch. Every day I am eager to check the fish in our pond and offer them a treat. I see them all gather waiting for me. I get a warm feeling when I can help our dog, Spud relax during a thunderstorm. I don’t believe there is anything spiritual about it. These things just excite “happiness” centres in my central nervous system.
Of course, being on a spiritual path does not necessarily mean ones horsemanship is better or worse than those who are not. If exploring your spiritual nature helps you and your horsemanship I think it is great that you have found a way forward. But I have also noticed a move by some folks to be dismissive or even critical of those whose horsemanship is on a different path. I get the feeling that for some people the spiritual journey is a little cultish and they mainly seek help from others that speak the same jargon. Whether you are a spiritual person or not does automatically not make you are a good horse person or not. Let your horse tell the horsemanship that best suits them.
For me, understanding the horses is far more important than understanding myself. In comparison, I am quite boring.
Maybe I am on a spiritual journey after all 😂