Is Dancing with a Horse Animal Communication?

*Yawn* *Stretch* *Sigh*

I had a hard day yesterday, so hard it wore me out. Let me tell you what I did. Got up, got the crew and myself ready for the day, drove to Wisdom Horse Coaching in Hudson, WI for an equine assisted coaching session, had the session, stopped for lunch, drove home, took a nap.

It was the coaching session that exhausted me. The horse I worked with was Moon, a five year old bay quarter horse. It was raining as the two legged coach, Lynn, and I went out to his pasture to bring him in. The four horses were quiet and happily chewing away until we (read that as I) entered the pasture. As soon as we entered (again, read that as I) they took off running, in the opposite direction. Finally, one horse in particular came over and scoped me out. Sniff here, touch there, move around me, sniff again, touch again, sniff with the other nostril, move around again. This went on for a while. Lynn, being the excellent coach she is, asked me what I thought that was all about. Hmmm…..didn’t have the foggiest.

We haltered Moon, brought him into the indoor arena and did some work in the round pen. What surfaced from the round pen work was my not knowing how to play.

We moved from the round pen to the arena, where Moon was at his best showing me how to play. He ran, snorted, bucked, farted, reared, and did it all again and again and again. Head down, rear legs up and out in a beautiful buck. He was esctatically kicking up his heels in fun. He looked at me, saying, “This is all there is to playing. Isn’t it fun? Won’t you join me?”

Lynn and I danced around the arena for a moment as Moon stood and watched us. I commented that Moon was probably thinking we were just a couple of crazy humans, dancing like that. Lynn’s oh-so-good-coach-like-response was, “Is that him or is that you projecting?”

That question was the one that opened the floodgates, the one that exhausted me. I realized as a child I was discouraged from playing, from laughing, from moving around. Everything was ‘work’, and if I wasn’t working, I was lazy. If I had enough time to participate as a student musician in community musicals, not getting home until 11 PM, why I certainly had time to rise at 6:30 AM the following morning to do housework.

This post is not about my childhood, but how playing with Moon, in all his wisdom, guided me to see old patterns that no longer serve me, and obstruct inner growth. Should I decide to continue working within the paradigm of old patterns, I am stuck and in decline. This was the clincher: driving home I realized that by not breaking old habits and creating new ways of being, I can only expect to relive the drudgery of my childhood again and again and again. No wonder I was exhausted!

Play is my key to freedom.

Moon, Lynn and I played ‘Follow the Leader’, and I got to be the leader. We ran around the arena, pretended we were airplanes, banking to the left and right, danced in circles, jumped up and down. Moon was an active participant, and followed me admirably. I have renamed him ‘MoonDance’.

In answer to the question ‘is dancing with a horse animal communication?’, an emphatic yes. Not in the same way I usually communicate with animals, but communication all the same.

To see what dancing with a horse is like, check out YouTube and watch horse trainer Carolyn Resnick dance with Panadero.

MoonDance has taught me a lot, MoonDance has rescued me, MoonDance has set me free. For this I am grateful. Thank you, MoonDance, I am honored to follow in your playful footsteps.

Harmony,

Janet Roper

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