Mentors Help Us See Ourselves

This past decade has seen a visible rise in mentors/practitioners/coaches/facilitators partnering with horses to provide a place for people to go for growth and healing.

But the truth is, barns have always been a repository of wisdom and mentorship, a trade craft providing internships into horsing and human-ing.

Think of those old instructors, the old trainers, the ones who have crossed your path since you first entered a barn. Even the movie tropes — damaged horse and lost child find each other and take on the world: The Black Stallion, National Velvet. The initiation begins when the kid coaxes the old horseman out of bitter retirement to help them find their way.

“Every myth is psychologically symbolic. . .” -Joseph Campbell

The teachers have always been there in the barns, stitching wounds, filling buckets.

But the difference now, the resurgence and visibility that these horse-healers are showing, is that the world outside the farm gates is realizing what we’ve known all along, those of us who have been fortunate enough to be guided by horse world mentors — practical, ancient, simple, horse-gathered knowledge has an answer to our modern, existential questions.

Find a horse mentor. Sit in quiet presence with them. Just sit with them and watch.

Watch the horses, watch the landscape, watch the weather. Listen to the simplicity of the complex awareness that gathers when someone has immersed themselves in the herds.

Because eventually, all that watching will allow you to see yourself.