“In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added.

In the pursuit of oneness, every day something is dropped.”

- Tracy Courtney

We need to return to where we began with horses, as someone who loved them because of who they were & not what they could do for us. We need to return to that inquisitive humility of when we didn’t know anything about horses, were curious & fascinated by everything they did. When we look to external sources, everyone perceives things differently which just adds confusion. Everyone has a different idea about the circumstances that create problems, the real source of problems & how the problems should be handled. What if we wiped the slate clean of all of these concepts? Removed the unnecessary minutia that creates all of this confusion, that leads to conflict with others & within ourselves? What if we just emptied our minds of all judgements, beliefs & suppositions & stood quietly with our horses in our original curiosity & wonder just for a few minutes? What would happen in most cases, is that our horse would stop the behaviour, turn & look at us out of curiosity. Why? Because they have been conditioned to expect us to be reactive. Instead of telling them who they are & how they should behave, we have just asked them to enter into a discussion with us where they will be allowed to have an opinion. This is like us going to work every day & being verbally abused by a coworker who we believe hates us. We come to expect this behaviour & then suddenly one day, they are asking how we are & acting like they’re our best friend out of genuine interest. How would we respond?

Fearless is not a doctrine or series of steps to memorize & practice. It can only be learned through our own experiences with our horse, by asking questions, allowing responses & creating solutions through mutual dialogue, without interference. This is how the door to the third language is opened. This negates the need to ask questions of anyone else, the use of gadgets or learned helplessness which is created through dictation & force. This type of experiential learning will only strengthen our trust & belief in our horse and ourself, without the need for outside influences.

When we become quiet mentally, emotionally & physically, we become more observant & we discover that attempts to categorically control our horses will always be interrupted by the spontaneity of variables beyond our control. Evolution means pushing the limitations of our minds & the traditional boundaries we have constructed. The fundamental aspects of the methods we have devised; control & force, actually move us out of connection with the natural flow of horses. As a result, we experience conflict. Control is built from experiences of the past & a plan toward a future goal. This creates an impenetrable wall between our horses who live in the present & us who live in the past.

The things we have learned to this point mustn’t be viewed as wrong or a mistake. These things were important & needed stepping-stones to get us where we are today. We’re accustomed to an exclusive view of horses, where we are the teacher & they are the students; a subordinate. We have to adopt an inclusive view & treat horses as our equals, who will morph into patient & valuable teachers. We have to include their opinions & feelings about the subjects we ask them to learn, as they will do for us. When we begin to see things through the eyes of our horses, this will create a sense of mutual & deep trust. This trust is what will begin to morph into a sense of oneness. When we can fully trust our horse, that’s when we become one with them. This is where the third language can be found. Step methods teach us about horses only from a self-centered & intellectual view because any dogma is in its essence is separate & isolated.

Humans have developed numerous methods of trying to explain horses & the best way to create a relationship with them, but many of these are based in intellectual pursuits rather than a direct experience of oneness through the third language, which is a horse’s natural language. In our overemphasis on the intellectual, we have lost sight of trying to connect to horses on their level of existence. When we get stuck in intellectual meanings & dissecting the world like the mechanisms of a machine, we impose our beliefs on the natural world & don’t allow it to express or live on its own terms. Our dissections create a sense of separateness from everything else. The use of the first two languages of thought & speech, that are based in intellect, negates & doesn’t allow for the third language which is beyond the intellect.

When we listen, allow & trust our horses completely, our mental, emotional & physical being harmonizes with our horses. When we practice silence of being, the rhythms of our bodily functions & mental states move as an extension of our horses. In order to reach the meld of oneness, we must follow the path of least resistance, with silence. When we try to control horses, we create anxiety within ourselves because we fear the uncertainty of the future. We try to dictate the future through our plans & although they may seem theoretically sound, they are just distractions from our true goal of becoming one with our horses. Our attempts at controlling & changing horses are the result of us separating ourselves from living in the present moment. But it’s only when we can join our horses in their natural state of being in the present moment, through expanded awareness, that we can experience the third language & truly become one.

When we step outside of all the learning we cling to, we come back into the experiential sense of being one with our horse. It’s our own choice to experience this oneness, as it depends on no external source. We have to begin to move away from archaic practices of molding horses according to our personal agendas. Repetitive step processes are considered to be necessary in order to solve problems & create a deeper connection but their application in common use are actually designed to create separation. Any attempt to impose our will on horses destroys our ability to truly understand & find that meld, because the intention to change something is built on the illusion of separation. We are trying to change horse behaviour according to our own beliefs & preferences. We cannot work toward that meld with horses without mutual trust, discussion or understanding. Trust & oneness can only happen when we are willing to let go of our conditioned, self-serving beliefs & let our horses guide us through the third language.

Trust & oneness with horses can only come to those who are willing to let go of the mind’s filters of conditioning. We can’t rely on the influence of others, but must listen to our own horses & ourselves. When we force our horses to conform, we are blind & deaf to what our horses have been trying to teach us all along. The third language can only be known when all operations of force & control have stopped within our own psyche. We are all capable of understanding the third language, but it is veiled by our conditioning. Anything built on boundaries, although it may work within those boundaries, has nothing to do with the third language or being in true oneness with our horses.