Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

To continue the story…

Through sheer force of habit and, of course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars circled the flowerpot for seven days and seven nights, until they died from exhaustion and starvation. An ample supply of food was close at hand and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so the caterpillars continued along the beaten path. 

People often behave in a similar way. Habit patterns and ways of thinking become deeply established, and it seems easier and more comforting to follow them than to cope with change, even when that change may represent freedom, achievement, and success. 

If someone shouts, “Fire!” it is automatic to blindly follow the crowd, and many thousands have needlessly died because of it. How many stop to ask themselves: Is this really the best way out of here? So many people “miss the boat” because it’s easier and more comforting to follow – to follow without questioning the qualifications of the people just ahead – than to do some independent thinking and checking. 

A hard thing for most people to fully understand is that people in such numbers can be so wrong, like the caterpillars going around and around the edge of the flowerpot, with life and food just a short distance away. If most people are living that way, it must be right, they think. But a little checking will reveal that throughout all recorded history the majority of mankind has an unbroken record of being wrong about most things, especially important things.

For a time we thought the earth was flat and later we thought the sun, stars, and planets traveled around the Earth. Both ideas are now considered ridiculous, but at the time they were believed and defended by the vast majority of followers. In the hindsight of history we must have looked like those caterpillars blindly following the follower out of habit rather than stepping out of line to look for the truth. 

It’s difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of people ever really get the word about life, about living abundantly and successfully.

Success in the important departments of life seldom comes naturally, no more naturally than success at anything – a musical instrument, sports, fly-fishing, tennis, golf, business, marriage, parenthood. (My addition – anything to do with horses)But for some reason most people wait passively for success to come to them – like the caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail – living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people know how to live successfully. 

It’s a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look around to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is not, it might be time for a new leader and a new direction.

This is an excerpt from Earl Nightingale From The Essence of Success. I don’t know Earl Nightingale and don’t know his work – but I very much liked this part of his article (you can go through this link for more of his work if you are interested) and I thought it was very applicable to us in our search for a better relationship with our horses.

How? I spent my life with horses following other people blindly, like the caterpillars in the story.  Following neighbours who seemed to know more than me and other horse riders who were sure that they knew more than me. Following great horsemen who I knew that they knew more than me. I even became the other horse rider who knew more than you.  

But here, with this new book Zen Connection with Horses, I show you how you are the absolute expert in your relationship with your horse.  The eight audio lessons that you take out to your horse on your MP3 player, leads you through the insights and skills so that you know and experience, all the way to your bones, that you are the absolute expert in your relationship with your horse. 

And then you can use that knowledge and take it anywhere that you and your horse wish…