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Our Philosophy

Horses bring us a unique opportunity to work with a creature that simply cannot lie.  As prey animals, horses are extremely sensitive to our intentions and energy.  They know how we are feeling even if we don't … and their reactions reveal information about how we really come across to others.  They show us how to communicate more honestly and clearly by helping us identify self-limiting patterns that can keep us stuck.  They also reward us with trust and full engagement as soon as we become more authentic.
 

 

"What horses need to hear from us is what many of us would like to hear from ourselves, and each other.  They need us to have a calm, focused assurance.  They need us to be consistent. They need us to be assertive yet non-threatening.  They need us to be both strong and compassionate.  In short, horses need us to be our best selves."

 

Chris Irwin - Horses Don't Lie



Balance is the quest of all riders and the real substance that keeps us on our horses.  It is not the tack that we put on the horse, but the balance of our energies, both inner and outer, that we bring to our meetings with our equine partners, that decides whether we are harmonizing or not; whether we are walking in “Iyputala”; or "oneness, for however many strides we find possible.  This work will quickly illuminate for us our areas of imbalance and give us the choice to change and grow within that knowledge, or turn away from it and stay the same.  Horses are forgiving creatures, though, and will meet us again and again with renewed faith and energy.  Can we come to ourselves with that same perpetual forgiveness?
 
 

As we learn to balance our energies and stabilize ourselves on the back of the horse through changing gaits, activities and terrain, that new strength can be directly transferred into our life away from the horse.  Most often the shift required to go from “I don’t get it and I’m really trying” to “AHA!!!!” is but a minute adjustment of alignment and energy.  Often it is simply an inner alteration of intention that turns the key.  Energy is a subtle commodity and requires a concentrated study to master.  Our quest is to learn to ride with our energy and feel, not the technical mechanics of A+B=C.  We need those technicalities at first, but when we have them at our fluent disposal, we can then dip more deeply into the pool of energy and intention, and ride with our heart and soul.

 

Truth is a special gift bestowed by a loving Creator to all who seek it.  Truth permeates this world at all levels.  If we seek truth and use it and work to focus it, Creator will weave it into each breath and step of our lives.  Often, though, it is really difficult to sift truth from fiction, and to know that we are acting on, and walking in truth.  We have to constantly be tuning into our inner selves, and upwards, from where the Light comes, and learn to trust that the way we receive intelligence is real, solid and from the Source of all truth.  So it is with our communion with our horse.  “Ride every Stride” is a horseman’s motto.  In every step we must seek enlightenment.  We are enlightened through technical knowledge learned from without and then energetically applied from within, from the place that is the source of our Light.

 

“For now we see through a glass, darkly: but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
 

 

So many things and feelings can masquerade as truth, and when we act in ways that do not reflect truth, even unintentionally, we become unbalanced and life can feel like it is just not harmonizing well.  When we can create that place of balance with our horse, even for a few moments, our whole life is touched by the experience.

 

It always amazes me how much we can influence each other simply by how we treat each other.  When we are understood, our feelings and experience honored, and we are treated respectfully, our souls are given space to flex and breathe and we will move more freely towards wholeness and personally balanced power.  Power need not be loud and terrifying.  When power is in its full magnificence it is perfectly harnessed and willing and capable of quietly carrying us to our ultimate realm of possibility.  Creator sees us through very different eyes than we see ourselves; Eternal Eyes; Infinitely Powerful Eyes; Perfectly Compassionate Eyes.

 

As we engage with our horses and feel and harness their power in a truthful and respectful process we start to feel the Native American concept of “Hunkapi”; "I am Related to Everyone".  There is safety and peace in community with the universe.

 

“Native American riders, who only had access to horses for one hundred fifty to two hundred years, did one thing better than most, thereby becoming the greatest horsemen this continent has ever seen – they viewed their horses as guides and they listened to their horses.”      GaWaNi Pony Boy

 

 

I think our Great Creator really wants us to learn to listen so that we can tune in to Eternal Possibility.  Here at Heart’s Haven Ranch we and our horse partners seek to create windows through which to view and hear Creator’s individualized messages to each of us.

 

 

 

 

Last update: September 2019    Copyright 2010-2021 Heart's Haven Ranch Ltd.