The Moon of Frost in the Teepee

NEWSLETTER Volume 2, Number 6, January 2005

For many cultures, midwinter is a time of ritual, and a time for reflection and renewal as we welcome the return of the sun and the lengthening of the days. In an article about the solstice, Deena Wade writes: Attuning our senses to the subtle changes and cycles of the seasons might help attune us more lovingly to the subtle changes and cycles in ourselves. [1]

I find that caring for and observing my horses is a wonderful way to attune myself to the changes in the natural world, and I feel very fortunate to have that link. In her essay, Knowing Our Place, Barbara Kingsolver notes that in 1996 the human population made a shift from being mostly rural to mostly urban. "The natural habitat of our species," she writes, "is officially steel, pavement, streetlights, architecture. [2] Kingsolver continues her essay by recounting a story about a group of children who came to visit her husband's farm, where they were amazed to see him pull carrots out of the ground. When asked what else grew in the ground, there was a long pause until one enterprising child declared, "spaghetti." Her story reminded me of a couple of recent conversations. One conversation was with a friend who was disgusted by the idea of my eating farm eggs because she knew where those eggs came from and would prefer to buy hers from a supermarket any day. I hated to inform her that even those clinical looking, evenly sized white eggs from Safeway came out of the same part of the hen! On another recent occasion a friend brought her young daughter out to our ranch to visit the horses. She had not been in direct, close contact with horses before and I expected that she might be intimidated by their size. No, that was not an issue, but she kept declaring that "Phew, they smell!"

Yes, horses smell, not just of manure, but also their coats and their breaths have a distinctive smell; horses are earthy in a way that some humans are uncomfortable with. But I find that my horses keep me focused on the natural world and yes, I like the smell of horses. It has been an unusually mild winter in North Idaho so far but still cold enough for January to justify the Lakota name for the month the Moon of Frost in the Teepee. On three occasions now, we have had winter storm watches that have not materialized into much activity in our part of the country. After reacting to the first watch by canceling a planned trip, I started instead to watch the horses behavior. My horses tell me with uncanny accuracy when a storm is approaching. They mark the full moon, they indicate a drop in temperature, an increase in the wind, the changing hours of darkness and light. I smell the earth-life in my horses, they smell the future on the wind.

In Black Elk's vision, horses play a central role. The Lakota elder recounts the "horse dance" of his vision, "plunging horses without number," horses with manes that flowed "like a blizzard wind," horses with "thunder in their nostrils," and horses whose manes were lightening. [3] But ultimately, a horse brings Black Elk back to the earth, because "the horse is of the earth." And that, in a modest way, is what my horses do for me, they bring me down to earth and keep me attuned with the rhythms of the earth. A contemporary Native American horseman, Gawani Pony Boy, advocates what he calls Relationship Training," because, he observes, "in truth, training is nothing other than attunement of rider to horse and attunement of horse to rider. [4] And the basis of relationship training? Spend time with your horses, watch them, listen to them, create an environment in which horse and human can understand each other. So my new yearÕs resolution is to spend more time with my horses and my related goals are to be a better listener, a better observer, to be more open to what they have to teach me. In short, to be more attuned to my senses and theirs.

Happy new year!

Anna Banks
editor@womentalkhorses.com
Moon Hill Ranch, Idaho

Notes:
1. Deena Wade, "Solstice," Natural Home magazine, November/December 2004
2. Barbara Kingsolver, "Knowing Our Place," in Small Wonder: Essays, Perennial Press, 2002
3. Black Elk Speaks, University of Nebraska Press, 1932/5th edition 1989
4. Gawani Pony Boy, Horse, Follow Closely: Native American Horsemanship, BowTie Press, 1998