It struck me as odd how sometimes thoughts come in to your head at times which don’t seem appropriate. This latest thought was, “What makes family?” and the inappropriate time was when the horses had escaped the confines of the pasture fence. Allow me to explain.
On Monday morning I was doing chores in the pre-dawn darkness, a routine which unfortunately this time of year, with the shorter daylight hours, becomes the ritual. The herd (a name we give the group of 10 or so therapy horses that spend the majority of their days in the big pen) was let out to pasture the night before to allow them time to stretch their legs and simply be horses. This is a normal experience and, in the morning, they are typically lining up outside the corrals to be let back in to relax in the morning sun. Even though the sun wasn’t yet over the horizon, I should have been able to see darkened silhouettes in the shadows. They weren’t appearing.
I continued with chores, taking feed to the horses in the west paddock, an area we call the track due to its rounded corners and distant placement of feed bins and waterer. This configuration forces horses to move continually between feed and water and is usually houses horses with joint of lameness issues who benefit from this movement. Think of it as getting off the couch and walking around the block to help from getting stiff and lethargic. When I was throwing hay, I looked south to see a horse figure in a neighbor’s pasture, a place I wouldn’t suspect a horse to be. My heart sank as I realized, when I saw more horses, that these were EPH critters who had found a broken fence or gate and decided to explore during the night. If allowed, this is the perfect time to scream, allow panic to overload your mental faculties and begin the mad dash to round up the escapees. The better option, one you learn to appreciate over time being around these herd animals, is to stop, take a breath, and let them tell you which way they will decide to come home. As I watched the herd watching me trying to decide what I was going to do I took a few steps toward them from about 2 football fields away and saw that they had a plan. They stuck together, like a herd will do, seeking comfort in each other’s presence and allowing the more dominant ones to select a path back to their home. As I observed this group move as a single unit, that was the moment the previously mentioned thought popped in to my head. Is this herd a family?
A family can be described as having parents, grandparents and children. Or a family might be a group that comes together from unique backgrounds and learns to accept, appreciate and become involved with one another when you weren’t expecting it. You might have heard that you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family; I respectfully disagree and feel that you can choose to have your friends become family. At times, this family enriches your life in ways one can’t imagine. You might find yourself part of a new herd, one which supports one another and succeeds in fulfilling and nurturing life’s desires. Again, the horses demonstrate that living life in the moment – even if you think you might be getting away with something (darn little escape artists) – is a characteristic humans can learn from our equine family. If this notion is expanded to include people you encounter on a daily basis, would there be a possibility that by seeing others as a family upon this earth we might treat each other with the respect and humility we all deserve? Horses do it.
If you’d like to take time to get inside the horse’s heads, contact EPH at (308) 762-3848 to arrange your personal family training program. Allow the horses to become the teachers and learn to love school again.