Inner Alchemy
A personal inquiry
Into how
The horse
Teaches me
Humility and desire
For my heart
To seek and
Understand
My inherent
Self
A personal inquiry
Into how
The horse
Teaches me
Humility and desire
For my heart
To seek and
Understand
My inherent
Self
It looked very soft and fragile
Vast and untamed
Swirls of wonder
Uncharted
Unclaimed
I find a moment of expansion
As I realize my size
A universe of grandeur
Right before my eyes
Peering into existence
Formations tussle and curl
Wings of flight
Fumble and furl
Piercing this
Suspended
World
Poetry & Photography by Donnette Hicks
You’re a lesson
Not a friend
Teaching wisdom
In the end
My heart is tender
My soul is bright
Fragile crystals
Lift in fright
Frozen spines
Cold with deeds
No longer griped
Fractured Needs
Feel my warmth
Feel my rise
Reflecting love
In my eyes
You’re a lesson
Not a friend
Teaching wisdom
In the
End
Poetry & Photography by Donnette Hicks
In the inner quiet
I trace your existence
I feel your fear
Frozen in silence
I still see your beauty
It exists inside of me
I sense sacredness
Among Chaos
Passion
Breaking through your fortress
As I am your reflection
I am love
Whispering through
I am you
Poetry & Photography by Donnette Hicks
Why do I always love anyway
Because I have the courage
To see innocence
I have the prowess to embrace hate
I have the guts to forgive
I choose to absorb direct hits
Compassion is my reflection
I will not be chained by fear
I will not be tainted by pride
When I am kicked down
I rise with resolution
I stand in gratitude for my trials
I might feel torn and beaten yet
I am limitless in my capacities
Accessing the woman of valor
I am
I will
Love anyway
I advance with
The heart of an
LIONESS
Poetry & Photography by Donnette Hicks
Inspired by Dallas Sweat
I learned to appreciate and acknowledge my horses efforts. Knowing that I desired improvement is one thing. Constantly driving the horse to change is another. The constant desire to do better is a human idea. I had to consider how the horse receives my human energy. I became aware I constantly pressured and pushed for more.
I finally learned the distinction that this undercurrent pathology is born from a false belief that all my efforts are never good enough. This is a human condition which the horse has no understanding of and translates into instant resistance.
The horse can not hold up under this type of drive. They will reflect their unhappiness in both physical and mental suffering. I had to face that I was constantly making things happen.
I became aware of this through getting in front of a knowledgable clinician who introduced to me to the value of learning to pause and take a breath before asking my horse to do a task.
The horses I worked with soon began to relax and flow underneath me with rhythm and energy. All I needed was to pause and take a breath.
Create relaxation
Take a breath and pause
Allow energy to flow
Effortlessly
By Donnette Hicks
I found myself
Allowing you to describe me
Reflections
In your Expression
I faced the pain
I faced the infusion
I felt the brace
Your hearts
Contusion
I stammered in fright
I tempted flight
I turned in your
Direction
I faced you
Squarely in your mirror
And
Surrendered
Poetry and Photography by Donnette
Invigorated exisistance
A formulated dream
To reach my inspired
Artistic being
Creation captured
Beauty in life
Blossoming
Inspiration
Includes flaws, fractures and strife
Precious connection
Kinship in art
One always knows
A Noble
Heart
Poetry and Photography by Donnette Hicks
Inspired by Mary Williams Hyde
In the beginning, when I first started to observe horses, I instantly found every horse I came in contact with had a different feel about them. I also noticed there was common braces and attitudes within all of them. I was very unconscious that I was always the constant factor that the horse was always dealing with. Even though I felt a difference, I did not understand that I had a lack of ability to read the horse’s expression, nor did I understand their needs. I was unable to make a real difference in how the horse related to me as I did not know I was creating blindly the very brace, fear even spoiled behavior that was before me. I didn’t even know that such things existed in me, let alone the horse.
The first day I began working for the local trainer, Ben Quinters. I had arrived at his faculty at 6:00 am. I spent the morning mucking stalls; along with his larger paddocks. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with horses. I realized that feeding, watering and cleaning the facility was part of my right of passage to be able to interact on some level with the horses themselves.
Up until this point, everything I had learned was from my uncles. They taught me the basics and I thought I was pretty handy. I certainly had some milage on their backs doing day work on ranches as well as other multiple activities. I was under the illusion that I knew what I was doing. This false sense of knowing ended promptly on my first day of work.
Ben shared that we were going to take some green colts to a water crossing. He had me get up on a two year old mare that had only a few weeks under saddle. The second I sat on her back I felt the unsureness of how she felt about me. Little did I know at the time that the unsureness was mine. We proceeded to go a short distance to the edge of the river bank. I felt that this was going to be an easy task to accomplish and I was very excited to prove what a good hand I was.
This all came to a screeching end when my horse became aware what my intensions were. I began to climb down a steep embankment to enter the heavy flowing river before us. I was filled with embarrassment as I struggled to get the horse to enter the water. Ben began to coach me and for the first time in my young life, I surrendered my ego and listened.
He said “look up to where you are going so the horse feels your intensions”. I then heard many pearls of wisdom. ” acknowledge her slightest try and reward her smallest change” and “make the right things easy and the wrong things difficult”.
Hours later soaking wet, dirty and self defeated, I finally succeed in crossing the river that day. I will never forget Ben’s words, “Darling, You have a long way to go and a lot to learn before you get there” I felt gut punched by the truth. I also felt a fire of determination flare inside me as I knew I was willing to do what it would take to learn for the horse’s sake. That was the day I owned; “I knew absolutely nothing”. I became willing to remove my pride and become open and conscious for the horse.
Surrendering ego
Becoming conscious
To the horses needs
Facilitates us to understand
Our selves
By Donnette Hicks
When we look around at all that’s available to us in the horse world, we find the equestrian industry loaded with easy access to massive amounts of information. How do we know what is quality information and of value for us and the horse?
I found for many years I had my hand out waiting for someone to take ahold of it and lead me where I thought I needed to go. I hoped that whoever took ahold of my hand would know what was next. I was in a frame of mind that someone else knew best. This very thought led me and the horse I was working with into trouble. After getting into several wreaks, I soon began to realize that I could learn to know my horses needs. I began to ask the right questions that supported me into developing a knowledge for myself. It came down to knowing myself.
In the past I had learned to abdicate responsibility for my choices. I found myself frustrated that others were telling me how to apply myself as if all horses had exactly the same formula for success. This turned out to be disastrous for me. I needed to take responsibility. I needed to trust myself.
I soon started to learn how to listen to the horses needs along with my own. I started to decipher what is quality information. I found this by allowing information to humbly resonate between me and my horse.
Know yourself
Trust your heart
Trust the wisdom and guidance
Your horse gives you
By Donnette Hicks
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