Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Send Off

I am never going to put an animal "to sleep" again. From now on, when the time comes for a humane ending to their life on earth, I am going to "send them off to the spirit world" to start a new life in a better, more beautiful place. I am going to throw their spirit out into the sky as far as they will fly. Surely, this imagery will help cope with the pain of my loss and give their soul wings.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

No more "Now"

Take out the “now” in your asking. My horse will do anything I ask him as long as I take as long as needed to keep the horse calm, trusting and willing. Remember, the horse has no agenda, only we do. Kindness goes a really long way. Be fair. Its only between you and him. There needs to be understanding on both your sides. Show him the correct answer to your question. A gentle cajole with small progresses. Take what he gives you. Ignore the wrong responses. Don't fight with him. Reward and build. Be persistent and consistent but don't try to get it all done at once . Be happy with him. You will be surprised how quickly it all goes when you take the "now" out of your training.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Gifted with extensions of the senses...

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artiface, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete. Gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not bretheren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."

Henry Beston-The Outermost House

Those of us that share our life with an animal will not find this concept odd. We find ourselves opening our minds and souls to the intuitiveness and intelligence of our fellow creatures, listening to their wisdom, expanding our perceptions, appreciating their being and reveling their divine nature.