A horse only has one question. Does it feel good here, or not? If it feels good, the horse will stay, if not, the horse will go away. In our communication with horses we have the responsibility to create an environment for the horse where it feels good. Or better yet, to create an environment where the horse feels better than somewhere else. To accomplisch this, we need to learn about horses, but also, we need to learn about ourselves.
When are we most developed? Piet’s answer to this question is, when we are born. We come into this world with nothing but our core, our intuition and instincts. When we grow older we are more and more confronted with dogma’s, like “girls play with dolls”, “boys don’t cry” and “you have to work hard in school so you can get a good job later”. These dogma’s function like envelops around our core. Essentialy, we become more enveloped over time. These envelops determine our inner framework, the pair of glasses through which we see the world. This rationality can help us, for example with solving mathematical problems, but it hinders us in answering questions like “who am I?” and “what makes me happy?”. Because of an inbalance between rationality and our emotions we no longer recognize the signals our own body sends us.
Horses do not know dogma’s and have no envelops. When we encounter them, we carry all of our dogma’s with us. This causes ‘noise’ between us and the horse. After all, you interpret all signals the horse sends you through your own inner framework, causing your conclusions to be distorted. Piet always says: “there are no so called problemhorses, there are a lot of people with problems”.
In the Deepening we go deeper than in the lessons. A lot of time is taken to take a good look at yourself. What moves you? What are your envelopes? Awareness is one of the most important themes in the Deepening. When you are aware of your own envelopedness, it gets easier to let them go, and to communicate in the here and now. Only when the noise is gone, an honest, clear, open and pure connection between us and the horse can exist.