Riding in the Light

25/02/2016

Jane Reid, owner and steward at Banyandah, has begun sharing more beautiful, heart-opening awareness. Please visit her page and if you wish, give it a Like!

ENGAGE

Registering the new domain name of www.ridinginthelight.com has prompted me to ask questions around what it really means to “ride in the light”. Many will agree that humanity and horsemanship is moving towards a new paradigm now so it seems appropriate to take a closer look at some of the language we have formerly used around horses. One such word for me has been in the “training” of my horse.

“Training” has an implication that here we know everything and the horse knows zip and that it’s a fairly one way conversation. Not a good foundation to begin with. It occurred to me to ask the horses directly if they could offer up a word that would be more appropriate and to their liking. A few days ago I went out to the Herd, greeted each one individually and asked each the same question – what word would you like used instead of the word “training”? I am not aware of any one horse replying but before leaving their paddock I definitely received the answer! The new word is “engage”.

I love this word! “Engage” suggests a conversation which is dynamic, equal and with a high level of interest and presence. I have already taken this word with me when I have played with the young horse I am starting and can see how when changing my language to now “engage” with her, I change intent and thus the experience and the outcome is changed. In effect she is still learning, however, it now happens more harmoniously and I am more respectful of her contribution in the exchange.

I am reminded of the saying-

“Watch your thought as they become your words,
Watch your words as they become your actions,
Watch your actions as they become your reality.”

As one friend of mine says “we need to stop talking around our horses as if they are coma victims!” Contrary to what some would think, our horses are actually deeply aware to our thoughts, words and actions. When we accept this truth and choose to engage with them, the outcome can only be a mutually enjoyable dance.

25/02/2016

THE FIELD

“So what do you see as the ideal way for a horse and human to interact?”
A question from Jenny Pearce

Initially I was answering this question from my head and all sorts of pat answers gathered, none of which felt right. Several weeks went by and I still had not come up with an answer appropriate for this excellent question. An opportunity presented in which a group of us decided to do a meditation with my Herd so I chose to focus again on this question.

There were 5 older horses in the paddock and one of them, formerly know as Tex and later here renamed His Holiness the Texalama, was waiting in the shelter shed, when we gathered there in the shade.

I set my intent and stilled my mind. After some time I could see and feel my heart had opened and thru this I became aware of the empty space between Tex and me. It wasn’t just nothingness but more a richly intelligent field of infinite possibility in and thru which information could travel seamlessly. This space was a conduit for subtle communication. It knew only Truth. If it had a name it could be love.

Tex left the shelter shed to be replaced by Sam and Archie. Later they left to be replaced by Diva and Barcelona. A few times we spoke and shared what we had been picking up from the horses and then after the interruptions I found I could easily return to this exquisite place again, where I simply wished to dwell quietly in wonder.

On reflecting back to Jenny’s great question my answer now to the “ideal” way of interaction would be play and engage in this energetic space. It may not be familiar to our minds but it is deeply familiar to our horses and to our soul. This is where we will be intuitively guided for our best and highest good and the best and highest good for our horse. This is the longer version but to summarize it would be, be in the field of LOVE.

"Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing there is a field.
I'll meet you there" (Rumi)

I recalled this quote by Rumi. Our horses know this Field intimately and like Rumi I feel sure they are waiting for us to meet them there too.

30/01/2016

Ride Giant Truths

It takes every bit of awareness. Whether you're riding waves on an ocean or waves of consciousness through the clarity of expansion. Riding can be dizzy, nauseated, barely breathing awareness that takes you far beyond who you ever thought you were.

Even more elusive than a surfer's perfect wave is the exquisiteness of knowing why you’re riding in the first place. Riding waves provides an opportunity to experience the interface, to float directly into the face of life or death in the physical world. Riding horses can be the same. And riding awareness, riding waves of truth is no different - the truth can be a matter of life and death for the perceptions of an egoic level of consciousness. What a ego finds threatening may or may not be an actual threat to the death of the physical, but it is to the identities built over time and experience. Identities feeling the threat of death when faced with a cresting wave of truth can be much louder than crashing waves.

Riding big truths offers both terrifying and insatiable sensations. When a heart is uncovered enough to taste its own truth, there is no going back. Once a heart is awakened, it can not go back to sleep. It can not un-know its own existence. And this can be terrifying for the mind that built, and then identified with the walls around it.

Big truths follow hand in hand with big questions like, “Why?”

"Why" is a huge question.

Next time you ask why, ask with a little extra space for something you haven’t already seen. A wave you’ve never ridden. Surfers are always looking for the one, the perfect wave that fulfills a knowing of sensation surpassing every story ever told. The truth offers these waves up like breath.

Paddle hard to ride or let go and body surf. You’re guaranteed a ride of a lifetime just by showing up for it.

Riding horses is another divine opportunity. With horses you can be faced with the death of the body and the death of the identity at the same time.

A horse may resist to the point of inviting its own abuse. The question then becomes, “who am I in this situation?” Am I one to engage in domination to save the identity’s opinion of its power?

You can’t dominate a wave in the ocean, but a horse will give everything away to domination, if that’s where you’re willing to go. An identity may think it can overcome whatever resistance the horse may offer up. The irony is that protecting the identity’s opinion through the behavior of domination may just lead to death of the body…which means death of the identity, too. You can’t take it with you.

When you’re willing to ride waves of truth, you don’t need oceans or horses unless those realms make your heart sing. At that point, waves and horses become your good friends, your dance partners. They will meet you wherever you are and give you all that they have. They already know the truth. They will continue to invite more of all that You are to the dance. They will keep asking you to show up. The truth offers up the smoothest ride to more of you.

So ride. Ride giant truths. Ask why. Reveal yourself to why you do what you do. What’s really important to you. What is your true priority. You’ll find no shortage of excitement, no absence of life. In fact, there is so much more than an identity can fathom.

By Kerri Lake
www.kerrilake.com

25/01/2016

ENGAGE

Registering the new domain name of www.ridinginthelight.com has prompted me to ask questions around what it really means to “ride in the light”. Many will agree that humanity and horsemanship is moving towards a new paradigm now so it seems appropriate to take a closer look at some of the language we have formerly used around horses. One such word for me has been in the “training” of my horse.

“Training” has an implication that here we know everything and the horse knows zip and that it’s a fairly one way conversation. Not a good foundation to begin with. It occurred to me to ask the horses directly if they could offer up a word that would be more appropriate and to their liking. A few days ago I went out to the Herd, greeted each one individually and asked each the same question – what word would you like used instead of the word “training”? I am not aware of any one horse replying but before leaving their paddock I definitely received the answer! The new word is “engage”.

I love this word! “Engage” suggests a conversation which is dynamic, equal and with a high level of interest and presence. I have already taken this word with me when I have played with the young horse I am starting and can see how when changing my language to now “engage” with her, I change intent and thus the experience and the outcome is changed. In effect she is still learning, however, it now happens more harmoniously and I am more respectful of her contribution in the exchange.

I am reminded of the saying-

“Watch your thought as they become your words,
Watch your words as they become your actions,
Watch your actions as they become your reality.”

As one friend of mine says “we need to stop talking around our horses as if they are coma victims!” Contrary to what some would think, our horses are actually deeply aware to our thoughts, words and actions. When we accept this truth and choose to engage with them, the outcome can only be a mutually enjoyable dance.

18/01/2016

http://www.happyhealinghearts.com

Living From The Heart

It was about 5 years ago now that I watched this documentary on the heart and it sang so loud in my heart. Perhaps the seeds were sown at this point to start reconnecting with my own heart, to shed the fears, the doubts, the sad times and to reinvest in happiness and joy. It was only a few months ago that I thought to find the documentary, and I would love to share it with you now.
I have written some brief notes from it that you may prefer to read until you find the time to watch it in full.

www.documentarystorm.com/hearts-minds, BBC

The heart is the seat of our emotions. It is what keeps us alive. The brain is our thoughts, our reason. The abdomen, that gut feeling, is relative to the heart.

In 1512/13 Leonardo de Vinci made some drawings of the heart, showing the blood flowing through the valves of the heart. He discovered that the blood created a beautiful swirling motion, called a vortex (relative to the Chakras - I feel) as it flowed through the valve into the aorta. Blood creates the vortex before entering the valve. This conveys the beauty of the heart. Perhaps if we had explored Leonardo's discoveries of the heart further, we would still be in touch with our truth?

It was in the seventeenth century that the understaning of the heart changed and Descartes, who was in love with the mechanical, portrayed the body like a machine. The heart was no longer the seat of our emotions or truth. Feelings became useless, thoughts became all powerful. As Descartes said, " I think, therefore I am." Mankind shut down his emotions and feelings and forgot that we are "emotional creatures that have thoughts not the other way around. And yet the heart is always reminding us of this" but we have generally forgotten how to listen. We we are fearful or anxious, our heart beats faster, when we are in love, our heart beats faster, when we have lost, our heart breaks, when we are excited or happy, our heart swells with joy. We cannot but help use beautiful, poetic language to describe the feelings of our hearts. So why don't we listen to them?

The Ancient Egyptians believed the heart to be the most important organ, the teller of truth. The essence of your personality. Descartes numbed people of this connection, to the point that people believed animals crying out in pain was simply bad mechanics.

More and more we look for peace, we look for contentment, we look for joy. And we are learning and hearing about all types of tools to help us resdiscover our truth; mindfulness, yoga, meditation,trust technique.... And scientists are recognising that there is something in all of it - when we reconnect with the heart, healing occurs. It is being proven that the mind and brain work together.

"The heart lives in the present and it is the only thing that can imagine a different world and invent it but if we want to create a better world we need to listen to our hearts."

by Nicola Corbett
Pomeroy Farm, Somerset, UK

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14/01/2016

How It All Began...

In mid 2014 an important message came to me in the night, and I awoke knowing I had received something special.

I saw an event with a number of gifted clinicians celebrating a new paradigm of horsemanship. I had organized and hosted the event at a marvelous venue - an indoor arena on my property, “Banyandah” in NSW, Australia. The audience was big and diverse. At this time, I was given the name for the event – Riding In The Light.

It was a question that prompted this concept. A few months earlier I was driving, considering how I would describe to a friend the direction I was beginning to move towards in my horsemanship. My friend was a keen rider and dedicated student in a natural horsemanship program, working through her high-level certification. I was studying similarly, but after I engaged with an enlightened clinician, my path had diverged. I wanted to share this growing awareness with my friend, so I wondered, “How would I articulate to her my passion for this new found direction?”

The answer came to me in one big luminous “dump”, all in a moment in time. The entire story of our evolution with “Horse” was articulated by a matrix with three aspects, supremely simple and elegant in manner.

Firstly, I was shown where I was currently in relation to “Horse” – this was the field of natural horsemanship where we embraced horses as “partners” and we considered the “relationship”. This was shown to me to be about two, human and horse, and thus was two dimensional.

From this I then got to see where I had come from so I could recognize the origin of my love for horses and in the context of my own history. I had begun with Pony Club. This had nothing to do with the horse except to help define ego. In reality it is what is largely practiced in the “land of familiar horsemanship”. This picture was shown to me to be flat and one dimensional. This was all about control and competition and ultimately all about “me, me, me”.

Then I was shown the future. Moving from the one-dimensional ego approach, to expanding thru the two dimensional foundation of natural horsemanship, now the Divine was embraced and the matrix shape completed with all three aspects. With the evolution to the union of human, Horse and Spirit, it became a Trinity.

How am I changed after receiving this important information?

My priority is now more of “being” with horses, rather than “doing” with horses. In the sacredness of this new journey, life has become more joyous, gentle and heartfelt. I can experience a magical ride which brings me to tears. My body feels more alive and expanded and my heart more open. I’m certain the changes are shared equally by my horse. Riding in the Light encourages me to slow down, to seek more stillness and to make "presence" a priority.

I have said YES and am stepping towards this vision. I am committed to continuing to question, to being open and to practicing what works with my horsemanship. As my understanding evolves, I embrace, live and Ride In The Light myself. I know that my commitment can only serve to raise awareness and promote a more expansive, loving and gentle way of being for all.

Jane Reid 22.12.2015