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Church of The Round Pen

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Let me retouch the joy I feel working and playing with the beautiful lady, Chloe, as we become acquainted in a Bear Valley Springs Round Pen. The joy of balancing energy between horse and human. I am visiting my brother, just outside of Tehachapi, CA. He has two very nice horses; Silver, a gentle giant, half shire-half quarter horse gelding, a delightful silver grey. And he has Chloe, feminine, lovely, elegant, half Friesian, half paint – a beautiful balance of black and white. I am smitten with her.
Chloe and I don’t know each other. I have been told she has a certain level of training. I find when I ask her to move up to that level she is confused, not sure as to how to respond and becomes agitated, throwing more and more energy into escaping my request. I lift my energy, changing my body posture to more assertive as she escalates. I know that somewhere she knows the correct response and I wait for her to find it, not letting up on my response to the energy she is throwing out. And suddenly she finds it, bending her ear and eye to me, her head and tail lower, she begins to respond rather than react and I yield the pressure of my energy and she begins to lick her lips. Joyful communication. We have found a momentary balance, a balance to build upon.
We see the round pen as a place of schooling for the horse but in reality, hidden in plain sight, is the dance of relationship, the coming together of energies, enfolding one in the other, creating a communication of mind, body and spirit. Horse spirit is our captivator. We are enthralled with the primordial, free expression of horse in body and action. We want to capture that spirit and make it our own. Of course we can’t capture it, we can only interface with it. Come to that common denominator that enlivens each of us.
Like any church, the round pen can be misinterpreted to be all about dogma and rules. Rules are guide posts to a deeper entanglement of promise and potential. When we bind ourselves to rules we bind ourselves to the structure of ego. Ego structure is important but it is only a portal, or an impassable boundary, to the greater dimension of energetic relationship.
This is deep stuff and I don’t mean to scare anybody away. We, of The Tribe of Horse, all seek that mystic relationship with our horse. The relationship where we become one in mind, body and spirit.

TRANSFORMATION. “A personality change aligning to a pattern appropriate to spiritual life which so sensitizes the recipient that incoming spiritual forces have significantly increased impact.”

Today we made thunder – You made thunder.
I am the witness making the space available.
You are my horse, the primal voice of my passion.

Lightning lanced, you arc and lash and flare.
A tornado tossed tumble weed your buckskin body
Bounds, lifts, floats, and dances in the round
to the strident concussion of your own music.
I stand in the eye of your storm
Reveling in the power of your expression
tasting the turbulent wind funneled through your nostrils
vibrating to the pounding rhythm your
hooves drum on the skin of sod and soil.

And then the storm is spent.
Your canter is cradle rocking soft
A Soul soothing cadence quiet as an April shower
I lift my hand and step back, a beckoning bow
Inviting you to share the center with me.
You come, ears up, muzzle reaching into my cupped hands
You blow a gentle Zephyr, the west wind’s promised warmth.
The scent of exuberant exertion lifts off your body, damp and dense.
You are Life coming to me willingly,                                                                                           You share your heart space.

I Am A Teacher of Horse Passion

As a teacher I pass on my knowledge with my heart and soul. I find I tune in with every fiber of my being in the attempt to communicate and share my knowledge, describe in the clumsiness of words. When I connect with a young person who grasps intuitively the concepts of the horse/human relationship steps it is a joyful experience. It is impossible for me to not become very attached to these kids. I watch them with nurturing eye and hand, grow as horse people. I see them explore, get stuck, experience the light of understanding and I move through all of this with them. It is personally fulfilling and rewarding. However, I know with every lesson, every interaction there will come a day for them to spread their wings and move on to the next level, the next horsemanship experience, the next expansion of their passion…the passion that we share. They will leave me. Which of course is what the preparation is all about, it is one of the goals of the teaching. I am devastated, inconsolable, just like a parent whose children have left home.

I have to say, there is real wonder in Facebook. I woman found me, a woman that I knew briefly when she was a youngster and I wasn’t much older. I have been following her postings and page. She now owns a Thoroughbred Bloodstock farm in Florida. I mentioned to her how wonderful that she has fulfilled the horsewoman’s dream. She responded that I was responsible. WOW. What a gift she gave me in those few words. This sharing of the passion for horses has been going on for more than fifty years. It isn’t just in this moment. Just as there are people that have helped me along this journey, the ones I think of in gratitude, there are those whose lives I have touched. We are all linked in this love of horses.

And so I can release my kids, with love, to their future and their past. I go with them in their journey. I am so grateful that, as a member of the Tribe of Horse, I have the gift of sharing the passion for these incredible creations of God, the Horse. For in the end, it is all about our horses.

She is a horsewoman.

She is blessed

with an enthusiasm and passion

that has carried her through life,

generating a journey

compelling and rewarding.

Now she is blessed

by the opportunity

to share her passion

with those starting on a similar journey,

weaving together

the similarities and differences

of interspecies relationship.

She lives in the flame of enthusiasm

as she helps to transform

unknowing into knowing

between horse and human.

Lynnea

Horse Beauty

Beauty, it is said, is in the eye of the beholder.  And yet the study of art and mathematics show there is a universal form to beauty – an asymmetrical balance that creates an ever evolving movement, forever seeking to bring the whole into balance and forever recreating it’s asymmetry in a harmony that carries the eye into a mystery of searching.  It is called the Golden Ratio, universal “sacred geometry” that shows itself in the spiral of galaxies, in the crest of an ocean wave, in the curves of a conch shell and in the complex spiral of DNA.

“The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man,” a quote famously said by Teddy Roosevelt.  The horse embodies the golden ratio many times over in its form.  We can’t help but admire the shape, the combination of curves and angles, the flare of nostrils, the flag of tail, the curtain of mane – beauty expressed in every part and every movement – universal, primordial beauty.

Beauty also comes in relationship, searching for that melding of horse/human understanding.  As a teacher of foundational horsemanship I ask my young students at their first lesson, “why do you want to learn to ride a horse?”  The most common answer is “I love horses.”  Can’t go wrong with that.  Starting from a place of love can only lead to success.  For me, watching these young horse people struggle trying to grasp the physical, mental and emotional intricacies of learning to handle and ride a 1000 pound horse and suddenly pushing past the barrier of  not being able to suddenly being able, is absolute beauty.   I am passionate in sharing with these young people the experiences and practices that my 56 years of teaching has taught me.  Yes, teaching teaches.  My mentors teach me, the horses teach me, and students teach me.  Learning reaches out through an entire lifetime.

BEAUTY     by Lynnea Honn

Six months past

 was her lesson last.

A nine year old

 seeking the elusive gold

a treasure so bold,

 a shared story retold.

The joining of beings,

 the vistas of seeing’s

from the back of a horse,

 a bridge to the source

of nine year old glory,

 an adventure story.

She sits astride a gentle ride,

the fat round mare

of snow white hair.

She listens and cares

words her teacher shares.

Her body tries so hard to do

what her teacher says is true.

Try as hard as she may

 her seat just won’t stay

in the saddle so wide

 and the bouncy stride

jars her seat from the saddle.

 to stay on is a battle.

“Sure can’t chase cattle

 if you can’t stay astraddle,”

Teacher says from the center

 the words of her mentor.

Clasping hard on the reins,

 child’s hand jerks and strains.

back rubber band bending,

 mixed messages she’s sending.

The teacher does muse

what words can she choose?

so child’s seat she won’t lose,

 this young psyche won’t bruise.

Teacher calls on her knowing

 to lead to the flowing

of harmony felt

when two bodies melt

into exquisite rhythm

and shared body wisdom.

“Imagine head lifting high,

 a string attached to sky,

your breathe a soft sigh,

  your legs a draped “Y”

across horse’s back,

 over horse tack,

legs stretching down,

 heels reaching for ground,

hands push against bounce,

 weighing only an ounce,

seat pumps like a swing

 so that you won’t fling

off from the spring

when the horse is trotting.”

And then it is there,

 as though from thin air.

Little body is straight

and in rhythm with gait,

Hands float above wither

 like the play of a zither.

Fingers fold ‘round rein

 so as not to cause pain.

soft, without strain.

It has not been in vain

This effort of love – A gift from above

This moment of Beauty, A Rider, A Cutie.

 

The Tribe of Horse

A young, budding horsewoman introduced me to the concept of The Tribe of Horse.  I was offering pony rides with my mighty Mini, Shadow, at the local Farmer’s Market held in our small Sierra Foothill town.  She came to ride, telling me that she was from the Tribe of Horse.  Of course she was and in that moment I realized I was a member of a tribe.

Who are these people that comprise The Tribe of Horse?  Just as in any tribe there is a home for every  connection, in this tribe it is connection with Horse.  Each of us has our own emotional, physical, mental blueprint.  In esoteric philosophy this is known as the etheric or energy body.  We each have our own relationship foundation with horse.  Where one horseperson may cover 100’s of miles in competitive endurance riding, sharing the challenges of horsemanship, endurance, and environment in extreme trail conditions another horseperson may find complete satisfaction in  day to day conversations in the corral, brushing, feeding, caregiving, with never the need to mount the horse.  Each is in relationship with the horse, spending time in communion with a being of infinite presence.

It is joy, mystery and awe that lead into the Tribe of Horse.  Once there the instruction is rigorous, with mental, emotional and physical challenges, the humps, bumps and falls of life reflected in the microcosm of the horse/human relationship.  Our guide is a child of this earth, a cauldron of earth energy, powerful in all its aspects.

To all of you who are of The Tribe of Horse I dedicate this blog.  Also to those needing guidance in the understanding of your loved one’s apparently irrational passion.

I am grateful to share the Trail of Life with Horse