The Love of a Horse; God’s love

I was talking to my friend Sonia Meyer, the novelist, about the deep connection that we humans have with our horses.

“It’s at such a deep level,” she said, “it’s unlike any other relationship–deeper than with a dog or cat.  It’s the same as with a marriage. It operates at the same subconscious level that makes a marriage succeed or fail.  Why does any marriage work?  There are always difficulties, why do some come through?   It has something to do with the level of the connection.  That’s how deep the connection is between you and your horse.”

I thought of my horse, Spring, now nine years old, and knew she was right.  If something were to happen to my horse, I would not buy another. It’s not any old horse I want – but her, this one beautiful part-Arab, who loves me as much as I do her.  We are connected, one soul.

I grew up with horses.  We had horses when I was a kid.  But I’ve never known a horse that would lift her head, ears pricked, on sighting me across two pastures, or one that would walk across the pasture to meet me, or drop her head into her halter as Spring does.  She walks beside me to the stable, and I can feel her whole being thrum with joy, like a purring cat, content to be with me.

One day I was grooming her lovely hind quarters, when she switched her tail round over me, as if to swish away a fly—but instead of swishing back and forth, then dropping her tail, she held it over me, enveloping me in her embrace.  You might think this was just an accident, but she has done it several times now, hugging me with the only part of her body that can move.

I think Spring was brought to me as a special gift of God, in this period, the Second Journey of my life.  My children are grown.  My grandchildren are born. I have a horse. My horse leads me in love to God.

“We are born with God in our souls,” said my friend Sonia Meyer, “and only education interferes with that.  The more you try to explain it rationally, the less you know.”