The Whole Picture
Hello, my name is Harmony Carter and I am an 1100 pound Thoroughbred, great grand-daughter of the famous Secretariat. However, I never raced. Although I was born into a bloodline of magnificent race horses, my soul mission is something more important than being a horse that humans could watch run. My human owners wanted me to race but I wound up with a knee injury during my training and so I became a brood mare. However, after breeding 2 champions, I lost a baby at birth and my human owner at the time donated me to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.
At the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, (known as TRF), they did not know what to do with me and thought, well she is a horse with a famous pedigree; maybe she can become a jumper. My knee issue came up again, and finally, they began looking at the bigger picture, that is there was something far greater I could do and be rather than just a horse that runs, jumps and makes champions. The whole picture about horses is our amazing ability to understand humans and to almost “psychically” perceive their feelings even when they are out of touch with them. Horses are here on earth for many more reasons than just to race or be ridden.
We are actually very good “therapists”, and finally there is a field emerging that lets us be co-therapists with a human therapist. This field is called, “Equine Assisted Psychotherapy”. (Ask Suzanne for more information about this).
At TRF, they decided to let me finally begin fulfilling my true soul passion, which is to help humans become more authentic and more relational. I was to become a therapy horse.
In the mean time though, I was in deep grief about the loss of my baby and the loss of my human caretaker when I was moved to TRF.
The humans did not get the whole picture about horses having grief and they mostly just figured I needed to spend time in a stall.
However, in my determination to not die of grief, I found a way to help distract me from my pain. I developed an addiction much like a human will develop an addiction rather than deal with their own painful feelings after a loss. My addiction is called “wind-sucking” in the horse world. I anchor my teeth on a fence, and then breathe in deeply. Because of my huge race horse lungs, I get a rush as big as a race horse. This deep inhalation stimulates endorphins and wham, I have a natural high. However, it is a serious addiction.
Perhaps you can see why my gift is called, THE WHOLE PICTURE. It seems that humans have failed to see all aspects of themselves and all other creatures. It also seems that when someone has a problem, that person is seen as the problem rather than a person with a problem. So, I invite you to be willing to start seeing the Whole Picture. It begins with a willingness to see with your heart and your mind. One reason I am so good at this is because my Great Grandpa Secretariat had a HUGE heart. (When he died, they looked at his physical heart and it was one of the biggest horse hearts ever!) Of course his heart helped him win races, but his “heart-genes” have been passed down to me to use this heart capacity spiritually. I invite you to start seeing the whole picture today by using your heart to see the truth.
Suzanne Carter, L.P.C. is Harmony’s co-therapist and they do EAP together in Evergreen.