Dream Horses Talk

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Me and a new friend at Kerstin’s barn in Austria

For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen horses everywhere. A tall white horse would stand on the cement outside my first grade class, nodding at the window and stamping impatiently. Melting under my desk, I always endeavored to slip out and climb onto his back. The soccer fields were ours. Likewise, I imagined a horse in every field I passed, with me astride, wind tousling our manes. And sometimes on the playground, I was a wild horse myself, nickering softly or screaming in a commanding neigh.

I learned to ride out of a book — a book Seda’s mom had co-written, as fate would have it. I perched upon my lidded toy box, cueing with my right leg while reining left with a nylon rope someone had discarded. At every opportunity, I gazed into the eyes of horses-on-the-other-sides-of-fences and touched their velvety muzzles with my fingers and my lips.

I had no idea that I was priming. No wonder a horse made its way to me by my 23rd birthday, partly as a gift. And can you believe that I had a place to keep it for the price of its feed alone? How else could a college student fit that in? Never doubt the power of an ecstatic daydream.

In a barn in Austria recently, I met several horses and felt immediately at ease in our sweet conversations. I’d spent days honing my listening skills to catch what I could of German between humans, and with this sensitivity, chats with horses proved more rich and interesting than ever. I appreciated that every movement forward and backwards with the head, hand, or chest meant something. Never have I been so curious about the energy directed by the blink of an eye or a softly blown breath. These are movements we take in subconsciously (or not) with many beings. Given my ready love for horses, the superhighway of communication flowed like a German Audubon. Connection can be exquisite.

When have you been surprised by the quality of connection between you and another being? Can you feel the thrill as you call it to memory now?