Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting a truly amazing place, Dune Lakes Lodge, to check out the premiere of their new film ‘Spirit of the Dunes’ and to learn more about Natural Horsemanship.

To me, natural horsemanship seems to be about about energy. It’s about creating a giving relationship with another intelligent animal and about learning to see our own behavior as an indication of how animals, and indeed other people will react to us.

This wonderful short film, directed by my new friend Christianne Van Wijk, is a wonderful and poetic description of the bonds that are formed during natural horsemanship and the ways in which, when we are open to it, the horses also help us to learn about our own true nature.

Horses have an amazing power to heal and to teach.  They offer unconditional friendship, experience a wide range of feelings, and provide immediate, honest, observable feedback in response to our interactions with them.  Horses are sensitive to nonverbal stimulus, which makes them astute therapeutic guides.  They are social beings that bring us insight into group dynamics and our individual roles we play in our daily lives. – Dune Lakes

Spending time at a place like Dune Lakes is a beautiful and gentile reminder that we are all students in life and that our learnings come not only through other human beings, but also through animals and our relationship with the energies of the earth.

The trick is to find a place where we can be still enough ourselves to truly listen.