Equuality: Reflections on Life with Horses

Touching Rhythm

About the Book

There are all the rhythms of nature, of night and day, the change of seasons. There is a rhythm in music, sport, poetry, and dance. Every activity has a rhythm appropriate to it, and when we find that rhythm, a sense of effortlessness, ease, and grace arises. -Joseph Goldstein

In this passage, Joseph Goldstein hits upon a truth that is universal and timeless. It is a truth that we, as human beings, have known culturally since the very beginning, and have known personally since our birth. In Ecclesiastes 3:18 it is stated, "To every thing there is a season, and time to every purpose under heaven." It is a truth that tells us that not only will every action have an appropriate time, each moment has an appropriate action.

As the moments string together towards the infinite vanishing points of the past and the future, we can see the way rhythm develops. Our health waxes and wanes, our fortunes come and go and come again, our passions surge and ebb. Each of these individual rhythms combines with all of the others to form the symphony of our lives.

As our society has grown more and more industrialized, our cultural perceptions of rhythm have altered dramatically. In an age of mass production and consumption, rhythm has become an unwelcome distraction from the drive for ever-increasing profits. In many cases we now ignore the rhythms of our existence, and in some cases we have become arrogant enough to believe we can control the natural cycles of the world for our benefit. We lengthen the days with electric light, use automobiles to move hundreds of miles by only taking a few steps, take pills to sleep, drink coffee to wake up, and medicate liberally to numb ourselves to the sensations of our bodies.

The cure for this disassociation is simple: reconnect to the natural world. There are many ways to do this, and they are not complex. In fact, it may be the simplest thing we can do. To lose this connection we have had to create many tightly woven complex systems. To regain it, we need only stop and take a breath, take a step on the dirt, gaze upon the clouds, watch a bird turn on its wing tip.

Horses offer us is a way to reconnect with nature through a very personal relationship. It can be challenging to be alone in the woods, dwarfed by the tall pines. It can be scary to be confronted with the power of the waves crashing on the shore. We can feel greatly distanced from the sparrow in the air. But horses will interact with us in a way that puts nature into our lives at a scale that is approachable, with a love that is tangible, and with a closeness that cannot be ignored for long.

As we begin to spend time with horses, we start to touch the rhythms of their lives. We feel the tension in their bodies wax when they become nervous and wane as they sigh and shake it away. We feel their energy explode as they engage in the exuberance of play and the calm that settles when the romping is done. As we tend to their feeding, watering, grooming, and other chores, we fall in synch with our own natural rhythms. We move quickly and slowly, acting purposefully or without aim, sometimes stopping altogether to watch, and learn, and smile.

Each moment I touch my own rhythms makes it easier to feel the rhythms of the world around me. I become more synchronized, more congruent, and more authentic, stripping away what separates me from the sense of connection that is our natural state.