12/22/2024
Over on another group page, we were talking about what we would miss if we did not know horses. One person suggested that if a person had never had anything to do with horses, they probably wouldn’t miss it at all.
It was a good discussion but I have learned that this love of horses is often from first breath. It is almost as though some of us are mysteriously linked to horses within our DNA.
I think that some people are filled with an inexplicable need that runs in their veins, the voices of ancient horsemen. Occasionally, there will be one small child who is drawn to horses in a way that is different from other children. They will be quiet, wise and knowing. The horses recognize this in them, they feel this powerful connection that goes far beyond the child’s earthly years.
I worked at a heritage ranch for a few years, in the old cookhouse where the cowboys took their meals. I saw rather a lot of life from the kitchen window.
During the summer days, buses would arrive, filled with tourists from immense cities all around the world. These visitors were largely people who had never before seen horses, or indeed, our wide-open spaces. Most of them chattered excitedly, taking many pictures. It was all good fun. But wait.
There was always one, or two within each noisy group, who would haltingly walk up to a horse and when the animal turned slightly and really looked at them, or into them, they would silently begin to cry. My breath still catches in my throat, with this remembering.
One young man, from a huge city in China, was moved to place his own forehead against that of one of the cowboy’s horses. They stood, motionless and linked in a salute from before time, until the man stepped back and fell to his knees. He stayed, his hands clasped to his heart, with an awe of the horse that transcended all language. Those of us watching could only look on, mute, for we’d been witness to something powerful and far beyond all understanding.
It was both magical and terrible, realizing that some people have always known that this thing—this raw need—was in them. They just had not realized how deeply, or how much.
