East Point Horspice will be attending the Harvest Moon Festival Saturday October 2nd in Chadron, NE. You are encouraged to seek out Spike and his kissing booth and take advantage of the opportunity to visit with EPH volunteers to learn more about the program. Spike is a perfect gentleman and he does not kiss and tell. In fact, you are required to pay close attention to understand what he has to tell you.
That’s just a dumb horse, or in his case, donkey. Please don’t read that and think about intellectual level. The Oxford dictionary defines the adjective dumb as temporarily unable or unwilling to speak. The assumption is the ability to speak a human language, but if you listen carefully to them, equines are almost always saying something. One just needs to listen.
As the temperature tempted me to wear a hoodie, Charlene and I were visiting over a chai tea on the porch the other morning. The chores were completed and the horses found themselves absorbing the warming rays as they rooted around their hay, picking out the leaves and chewing around the stems. We walked over to the corrals and purposefully spent a moment to appreciate the newborn day offered up to us. Slowly, we became hypnotized by the audible crunching emanating from the equine mouths. It is a remarkable investment in your mental state to simply sit and listen to this methodical crunching and chewing. The time spent absorbing this seemingly menial task is guaranteed to leave you with a ridiculously satisfying experience. No words are spoken. The longer you are in the presence of these dumb horses the deeper the enjoyment anchors in your soul. To unplug from our human existence, if only for a brief time, is a necessity required to continue battling against the siren’s call of cell phones, mainstream media and social networks deemed so important to so many.
If you are lucky enough to be in an advanced state of age, you probably remember a world without the internet, having a powerful computer that fits in your pocket, or where friends were not just a clicked button on an app. Horses are able to recreate these simpler, more genuine times by the virtue of their technology free lifestyle. These dumb animals may be the smartest of all due to their unwillingness to speak. Have you heard the adage that listening is more important than talking? That’s why we have two ears on only one mouth. Granted, a horse’s mouth is relatively large compared to a human, but put a tape measure to the ears of both species and figure out what we really should be emphasizing.
As with the horses, consider listening more to the people around you and have the courage to be a real friend. As with the horses, demonstrate your intentions instead of just talking about them. Be confident in your ability to communicate deeply and with more meaning, without speaking. This is another example of how horses (and donkeys) can make us better humans.
If you wish to become a little more fluent in “equine”, contact EPH at (308)762-3848 or eph@bbc.net. Our interpreters are standing by