Mindful Meditation With a Horse? Is that Crazy Talk? The Answer is a Resounding NO!

I have Petitated with three horses so far and found that when I Petitate with them, they visibly relax--leaning on me and holding their necks near me for pets.   I am in the present moment with them—I stop worrying about the past of obsessing about the future.  How does this work? 

I have been participating in equine therapy over the past two months.  Each time I go, we are told to pick a horse that most fits with the exercise and spend some time with them before we do the therapy.  Today, it was working with a large exercise ball representing something we were dealing with, having the horse represent a strength and working with the horse to push the ball around a tree to move forward toward making an impact on the issue we were dealing with.  My teammate and I chose Flaming Jersey, a beautiful red mare with white spots on her butt, a brown flowing mane and tail and deep brown eyes. 

But, before we could do the exercise we needed to get into the present moment with Jersey.  I went over and practiced a Petting Petitation with her for a few wonderful moments, caressing her soft neck, stroking her muscular back, and patting her adorable nose.  As she calmed down, I did a quick Pet Scan Petitation with her.  I first checked her out visually from the tip of her ears down her neck, back, butt, legs all the way to her hooves.  I took in one of the most wonderful fragrances in the world, the smell of horses and talked to her about what to expect as we did the exercise.  Although she didn’t cooperate completely throughout the therapy (life always throws some curve balls), she stayed calm and persistent and about 20 minutes later we guided her to kick the ball against the wind around the tree and over the finish line.  Then it was more Petting Petitation and a quick Gratitude Petitation—I was truly grateful to have Flaming Jersey in my life.  

During the exercise I was able to move from worrying about my loneliness that I had been experiencing since I moved to Sacramento from the Bay Area four months ago to having a deep connection with another being.  I identified my strength, that of creativity and persistence to plan activities during the time between hanging out with the horses including square dancing that evening (something I had a lot of experience with and know of a local group with wonderful people), a writing group (I loved but had stopped prioritizing), an online writing group, and a writers’ wine party.   The persistence and creativity I showed with Flaming Jersey is quite symbolic of the persistence and creativity that I have been able to show on and off in my own life.  I also recognized that by verbalizing the plans to Jersey and the other people in the group, I had accountability, something that always helps me to move forward in a positive direction.

So no, Petitating with a horse to stay in the present moment, move toward a positive goal, and appreciate what I can have is not “crazy talk”—it is a wonderful reality.