I have had my wonderful horse, Harmony for 6 years exactly this weekend. She  is my first and only  horse so far and I say with 100% honesty, I am a different person because of my relationship with Harmony. Horses are amazing creatures. They have learned to live safely in their herds for millions of years and they are a prey animal. That is, they are not  a predator. They do not seek to kill other animals to eat; they are vegetarians.

Harmony is a thoroughbred, meaning she is one of the grand race horses. She is the great grand-daughter of Secretariat! and as a descendant of Bold Ruler( Secretariats daddy), she has a marking on her right shoulder  that descendants of bold ruler often have.

Today’s blog though is about communication.

Every year from early November until about now( between late April to mid May), I take Harmony extra food to eat nearly every day beyond the hay and grasses that she gets at her 1000 acre ranch where I board her. She tends to lose weight in the Winter and the extra food helps plus I have the most amazing experience with her every single time I see her.

Today, I went to the ranch to take her the extra food. My therapy dog, Jessie the Golden Retriever, and I decided to take a walk first before we fed Jessie’s 1000 pound sister. We walked North of where the horses were grazing…….and as we were coming back south toward them, there appeared a large herd of elk. Elk as prey animals are afraid of dogs of course. So, as soon as they saw Jessie and me( also a predator in their eyes), they all looked up and began walking and then running toward Harmony and her herd. The elk got out of our  site just as Harmony and her 24 herd mates saw them running. Horses are not afraid of elk but when they saw the elk running, they decided that there may be something dangerous, so they decided to run………..they circled around and soon were running straight at Jessie and I. Jessie and I stepped out of there immediate path and I was able to simply revel in the site of 25 horses all running as fast as they could toward us and then past us. I saw Harmony as she ran past, she looked at me, almost stopped  but then kept her pace in line with her herd.

When the horses got to the top of the hill, I saw them all run to where a large grove of Ponderosa Pines are and they stopped.

I thought I would go get Harmony and bring her back to her extra food. Jessie and I started walking up the hill where the horses had just been running and I saw the very tips of a horse’s ears on the horizon.  I wondered if it might just be Harmony. My ” heart -thought” was right, it was Harmony, my most beautiful and exquisite equine daughter.   I a quiet greeting  to her, she kept looking at me but just stood there. So, I followed her non-verbal cue and stopped. We looked at each other for a moment and without a word, I communicated to her that I loved her and that it was o.k. to just go be with her herd. Almost immediately, she walked slowly over to one of her best friends, Sunny, who is a magical horse that makes you feel loved whenever he looks at you.

I knew in my heart that Harmony is now  ready  for   wonderful Summer activities and that she does not need me to bring her the extra food anymore until the Winter snows come again.

I walked away with  a profound peace in my mind and love in my heart. And, we did this all without a spoken word.