For most, it is difficult to imagine doing yoga on a horse. The first thing that comes to mind is a person standing on the back of a horse doing Warrior I or Tree Pose. Although I personally would like to be able to do that one day, that is not what yoga with horses is about. Practicing yoga with horses is about connection to Self, to other, and to something greater.
Yoga means union, union of body-mind-spirit. This is the benefit of going to our mats; however, practicing yoga on a horse ads another dimension, and that is unification with another. This is the beauty, the key, to practicing yoga on the horse. It allows us to be in relationship, not only with our Selves, but also with another living being. Our need to make connections is an essential component of being human.
By practicing yoga on the horse, we are able to experience how we participate in a relationship, how we make and break contact and connection. Our equine partners act as mirrors, reflecting us back to ourselves, so we can see quite clearly who we truly are, and in that, who we truly want to become.
Due to technology and the complexity of day-to-day life, it is easy to stay disconnected. Disconnected from our true nature, from the natural world, from our feelings and intuition. Instead of making “true” contact with our Selves and those around us, we distract ourselves with TV, facebook, twitter, work, or the like. How often do we slow down enough to become aware of the feeling of the sun on our face, the sound of the wind through the trees, the smell of decomposing leaves in the fall? This is what naturally occurs when we enter into the world of yoga with horses.
Whether we are a horse person, a yoga person, or neither, this practice offers the opportunity to slow down, increase awareness, and reconnect with our Selves, the horse, nature, and something greater. It is a time devoted to communing with nature, centering and grounding, and physically expressing our innate goodness and greatness from the inside out. It is a time to reunite polarities, find balance in all aspects of our lives, relieve physical and emotional pain, and feel revitalized and nourished. We can then take what we learned on the horse out into our real world.
Far beyond a mere physical exercise, practicing yoga with horses goes straight to our hearts and souls, opening the one while enhancing our appreciation of the other.
“With yoga, no matter what crisis may appear to be insurmountable in the changing world around you, you will hold to the peaceful center that always is and always has been.” – Rama Jyoto Vemon
