Introduction

When I sat down to write this book, in what could be called the fourth and final quarter of my life, I was filled with enormous gratitude for the many years I was able to be with horses. I was struck not only by how much I had learned about them but how much they had taught me about myself. Even more remarkable was what horses taught me about Love… - Love in our relationships, Love for humanity and most importantly… Love for ourselves, -As a result, horses have taught me how to be a better person , a better partner, a better parent and how to have better relationships with anyone, most of all…with myself.

Studying horse relationships for many years, I discovered that equine love - how it was given and received- was made manifest by ten specific innate qualities in the way horses treated and related to each other. These I learned were referred to as Herd Dynamics. Treating one another with these loving qualities not only allowed horses to form and sustain positive lifelong relationships; they enabled horses to peacefully live together and thus survive for more than fifty million years. These ten altruistic qualities of equine herd dynamics have since become my template for the love I believe is also indispensable in all human relationships including marriages, parents, children and with ourselves.

When horses first entered my life I simply saw them as huge powerful animals. Interacting with them meant sitting on their back and riding them. What evolved and what I discovered was that I was actually having an interspecies relationship with another sentient being. An animal...yes, but one with the identical human emotional qualities of love, fear, anger, playfulness, anxiety and confidence. Most importantly horses taught me the meaning of unequivocal acceptance, understanding, kindness and compassion all of which I also needed to truly love myself and help me heal my own feelings of inadequacy.

For many people, having a positive relationship with a horse can be the first time they have ever experienced a small yet genuine sense of unconditional acceptance or love. It is a brief yet remarkable moment between two species. The fact that this can be achieved from simply interacting with a horse on the ground, is extraordinary.

In the following pages I would like to share how horses came into my life and what they have taught me about myself and humans in general. Most importantly I wish to convey what horses have taught me about love.

Horses have the ability to instantly remind us that, just like them, we all share the same world, share the same fears and desires, and more than anything else we desperately desire to get along with each other. If we can learn from horses how to love ourselves and each other, maybe we can learn how love and live together in peace with our own herd of 8 billion that we call Humanity.