DECEMBER 2006 • VOLUME 16 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Whether the magical spirit of Christmas is the thought of giving to others, making others happy, or the ultimate gift of the nativity, Christmas is the season of love. A magical time in which so many reach out in kindness and with caring. A time where we do feel the incredible power of kindness and how it can literally change our world and ourselves.

So many bemoan the fact that, that magical feeling just doesn't stay. How wonderful if Christmas would stay all year round.

Don't you wonder if Christmas truly could stay all year round? Why doesn't it?

Where does it get lost?

To me the true spirit of Christmas can be found in so many different ways. In thoughtful acts, in acts of kindness for strangers that we don't even know. And I have found that, that true spirit of love can also be found with our horses.

The same way that in life we can find that magical spirit of kindness for a few brief moments of Christmas, so it seems that there are some who work with horses that way all the time and then there are others, who live with their horses the same way they live the rest of the year. Busy, in a hurry, wanting things done now, impatient, and maybe forgetting to live each moment in the wonder and magic that the yuletide season shows us. An inspiration of what things perhaps could be like.

I think back on the incredible journey that I have been on and how far I have come. I think it is so incredibly wonderful and amazing what these incredible creatures have taught me. I have been so blessed.

I think back in sadness for the impatience, the dominance, the you have to do it now, attitude that I displayed in my ignorance. After my many years of work with horses I have been there and done that.

Funny how things change though as you go through this incredible journey with our horses. Now I know within my soul that no horse deliberately does not listen. Whether it is something we have bred in through the years, or something so magically uniquely special about this creature that we call a horse, that we have this amazing bond with, I don't know.

What I do know now is that if a horse does not do what we want, there is a problem either physically or mentally. Physically with them OR with us.

Only the horse, not the trainer, knows everything what is happening inside ALL of your body. The possibilities are endless ... we might be restricted somewhere which is interfering either physically or mentally with the horse understanding what we want, our balance is out of sync, or our weight is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Or they have a physical problem that we don't know about or past training can come into play.

They are incredibly sweet and gentle creatures for all of their size and it is an incredible responsibility on our parts to create a bond of complete and utter trust between the two of us. A trust that can be so easy to loose. All it takes is a moment.

When I pause and reflect on my journey with horses, it does bother me that I did not have this knowledge at the beginning of my journey. I do thank them every day though, for showing me the things they have and helping me to grow as much spiritually as they have. Silly as it may sound riding is not truly a physical activity, more a spiritual one. A reaching out with our spirit for another and then joining the two in complete trust and in complete harmony. A magical moment.

"Truly, the classical rider uses all the aids in harmony, his "whole body" in order to get through to the "whole horse". He has to learn through years of training to coordinate his own body for the right motives....

It is call feel and "throughness" leading to "durchlassigkeit", which is when you just feel no resistance at all. Nor from your own body, neither from the horse. Which means.. that truly, you have reached his soul and maybe, just maybe, you are allowed to search a little further..."
Catherine Iselin

May the magic of Christmas, may that spiritual blessing of kindness and love, be with you and your horses and your family for all the days of the year.

Editorial by
Nadja King