Explore the horse-human connection by reconnecting with yourself – Sept 13-14 or Oct 18-19.
By Sandy Bell, Chinook Communications at Windhorse Retreat and Jo-Ann Bance, SOYA500, Our Inner Yogi
Breath and balance between mind and body — these yogic principles can bring us closer to awareness of ourselves through our reflections in equine eyes. This is what we try to help participants achieve in our unique workshops blending the principles and practices of yoga and equine assisted learning.
Horses live in the present completely integrated with their whole brain, all of their senses and their physicality. They are thoroughly connected with the natural world that surrounds them. Contrast this with what many people in the developed world experience in our day-to-day lives. In our work especially, we often are right-brain, visual, verbal and detached from our bodies and nature.
We may be, as well, self-limiting in our perception of the world around us, and our place in it, as received through our senses. We may focus on using our vision and our hearing primarily, and our touch and taste to a lesser degree. We may be unaware of the messages given to us by our sense of smell. We may be fairly unconscious of some of the other senses we have that inform us about the world around us — proprioception and balance, for example, which tell us our about our bodies relative to the spaces around us.
The meditative experiences and yoga poses we offer in our workshops begin to re-open awareness of all our senses, thereby broadening our experience of ourselves in our environment. This enhanced awareness deepens the potential connections to the sentient and sensitive horses encountered in activities facilitated for personal reflection. We do not merely think we know or try to rationalize about what the horse is telling us, we sense it in multiple ways, we feel it, we know it at a deep core level.
Horses are expert at non-verbal communication and can read people in a glance. They absolutely know and trust their gut feelings coming from the non-verbal as perceived by multiple senses. People often ignore or distrust their gut feelings — their intuitions —even though 70 to 80 per cent of human to human communication, we are told, is non-verbal in nature.
All things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man. The air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.” Chief Seattle
We encourage people to release themselves to the non-verbal through a yoga practice designed for all levels. Yoga can open a person’s whole being — heart, spirit, mind and body — to what a horse has to offer in honest and immediate feedback from them. 
For instance, at the beginning of the retreat, during a guided meditation participants are asked to imagine walking up to a field and in the distance noticing the silhouette of what appears to be horses. They open the gate and make their way across the field. As they get closer, they are asked to make one simple request “Can I be part of your herd?” Participants are encouraged to pay attention to the answer. After the session, the group is then introduced to the Windhorse Retreat herd. Through an equine-assisted learning exercise, individuals are asked to choose their herd and then to share their insights with the group about their choice.
Two-day “Discover you! Reflections in an equine eye” workshops at Windhorse Retreat (www.WindhorseRetreat.com) take place on Sept. 13-14 and Oct. 18-19. A weeklong retreat in Costa Rica runs from Dec. 4-11. No prior horse experience is needed for the workshops or the retreat. Please text, phone or email for more information or to register: 403-700-7880 or chinookcomm@gmail.com.
Recent Comments