Positive Horsemanship

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Two souls met in heaven as they prepared to come back to Earth.
'What have you got to learn next time out?' the first soul asked of the second.
The second soul answered: 'I have to learn unconditional love, what about you?'
'I have to learn forgiveness,' replied the first soul.
'Last time I was an ant and had to learn to work as a team,' said the second soul.
'Wow that was a biggy, how'd it go?'
'Hard, got squashed in the end, tolerance and humility was high on the agenda but seems I didn't learn to love, so that's next,' replied the second soul with a sigh.
'I thought I might come back as a horse this time around,' said the first soul, 'you know, fast, beautiful. What about you?'
'I think I'll come back as a human,' replied the second soul thoughtfully, 'that'd be a real challenge. Actually I chose a dog but He said that was too easy!'
'Wouldn't it be great if we met up?' commented the first soul.
'Would we know though?' asked the second soul.
'Dunno, maybe we'll know when we get it right,' answered the first soul.

The first soul flew down to earth and entered the body of a thoroughbred foal, bred to win races over green turf and earn lots of money. The foal grew into a beautiful racehorse fast and beautiful.
The second soul entered the form of a human who worked in an office organising a team of 500 people. The human worked with the team and the team worked with the human but none of them were happy, they did not even like each other.
The horse ran 'til its heart burst and it broke down, mud bespattered and crying with the exhaustion of it all. People beat it and they starved it but the speed that its beauty promised was not there and it was discarded. It found itself in a dealer's yard, dirty, frightened and ready to defend itself at every turn.
Day after day the horse whirled and bit and kicked and blamed every human for the misery of its existence. It was ugly with scars.
One day a human came who looked at him and felt pity and took him home. But the horse could no longer see the caring human, it saw violence and pain and it bit and kicked and defended itself.
The human struggled and was bitten and kicked but they struggled together day after day through the mire of life. Some days the human hated the horse, his job was important looking after lots of people, he was tolerant of the people but he did not like them.
The human wanted to love the horse if only it did not bite and kick and looked beautiful all the time instead of angry and dangerous. The horse attacked the human and blamed it for the cold and the mud and the sadness.

One dark winter's night after a cold day as they struggled together through the mud from the field to the stable, the human slipped and fell to his knees and the horse, not knowing what this meant, jumped and slipped too. The mud was freezing, it oozed into their skin and froze them, they were frightened. The horse and the human knelt there and wept.
Then ahead they saw a light.
Someone waited for them at the stable.
It was a guide with a bright lantern.
The guide lifted them from the mud and showed them a way through to the safety of the stable. From then on whenever they slipped and tumbled, wherever the way was black the guide stood and waited, supported their efforts to find the road again and led them on across boulders, across sand, through ravaged forests and spring woodlands.
Whenever the horse looked dirty and ugly and kicked and bit the guide showed the human how to wash the stricken face and stroke the scarred body.
Whenever the human made a mistake and was rough with the horse or thoughtless the guide showed the horse how to forgive the human for he was still learning and did not know another way.
One day the guide moved on ahead and out of sight. But it left the bright lantern behind. The horse and the human looked at one another, this was the first time they had been alone together for a long time.
Their eyes met and suddenly they recognised each other.
'You!!' shrieked the first soul, jumping forward.
'Wow!!' yelled the second soul, ' I had forgotten about you!'
And the human that carried the second soul climbed onto the horse that carried the first soul and the power surged about them and they were one.
Reaching down the second soul stroked the neck of the first soul.
'Am I glad to see you!' it exclaimed.
'Thanks for letting me in' replied the first soul bending its horse head round to look at the human.
And horse and human, now one, rode into the light.