What Horses Say

NEWSLETTER Volume 2, Number 3, March 2005

Last month I received an e-mail from my old college roommate, Julie. Julie and I have kept in touch over the years and, despite the fact that we have lived in different continents for over twenty years, we continue to have a lot in common. Julie e-mailed in response to this web-site, to let me know that she was planning to take up riding again after many years. Also, she wanted to let me know that a friend and neighbor of hers, Anna Clemence Mews, (on whose farm Julie had lived after graduating from college), had written a book with animal communicator Julie Dicker, and she thought I would enjoy it. Another series of e-mails ensued. This exchange became quite comical with the number of Anna and Julies involved! A few days later, I received a copy of Anna and Julie’s book, “What Horses Say: How to Hear, Help, and Heal Them.” What Horses Say is a delightful book. Even before you get to the content it is the kind of book that any book-lover wants to flick through because of the design quality. Anna and Julie’s writing is complimented by some gorgeous charcoal drawings by Lydia Kiernan,

and the artist has perfectly captured the feel of each chapter.

For many horsewomen (and others), I think the field of animal communication is perhaps the most difficult of the “alternative” modes to accept and understand. Anna and Julie recognize this, and address head on the fact that you cannot prove how it works, scientifically, nor can it be fully explained as a method. There is, however, overwhelming evidence that human ­ animal communication takes place all the time. If we take the time to watch and to listen, every one of us who lives with a companion animal knows that our animals communicate with us constantly ­ and we with them. Animal communication goes beyond the more obvious elements of nonverbal communication, into the realm of what animals think and feel. Anna and Julie argue, that the art of deeper intuitive communication between horse and human is a skill that anyone can develop. What we need to develop this skill is to learn how to trust our intuition and treat our horses with love and patience. “Take the time it takes,” the natural horsemanship mantra, takes on an even deeper meaning in this context.



When asked how the horses tell her things, Julie explains that they communicate via pictures, and it is her job as an animal communicator to present those to the owner or interested party. The animal behaviorist Temple Grandin describes a similar phenomenon in her recent book, “Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior.”

Grandin, who is autistic, describes the similarities between humans with autism and animals, both of whom think visually rather than linguistically. Animals, she maintains, perceive the world as a jumble of mesmerizing details rather than a coherent whole, the same is true for autistic people, Grandin explains. Anna Clemence Mews describes Julie Dicker as a sensitive. This is a term also used by Linda Kohanov in "The Tao of Equus." It is used to describe people who are especially aware of their environment and of those sentient beings, (animal and human), in that environment. Sensitives are those people who are highly intuitive and who can see beyond the empirical. In their concluding chapter “Pioneers in Consciousness,” Anna and Julie present a powerfully written essay which offers us a way to understand animal communicators and animal communication in a way that, I believe, will make even a hardened scientist think carefully about the proof he or she demands for accepting the existence of animal consciousness.

So, what do horses say? Anna and Julie’s book is based on a series of carefully documented case studies, and on dozens of interviews which Anna conducted with Julie’s clients. Over a period of two years, Julie also conducted a survey of the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of 62 horses. She asked them direct questions such as: What do you enjoy most about your life? Why do you agree to let us ride you? What is the most frightening thing that has ever happened to you? The results are always fascinating, sometimes surprising, sometimes comical, sometimes disturbing ­ you need to read them for yourself! The one point that really struck me, and that Julie expresses as something of a plea from horses is that year after year, day after day, they ask for the freedom to be a horse. “They’re willing to do what we ask of them,” Julie tells us, “but when their work is done, they want the freedom to run and roll, and simply be a horse. They need to exercise their own nature.” It is a plea we should listen to. Speaking personally, it is when I most enjoy watching my own horses. They don’t live in luxury, and they are muddy and dusty often, but I love more than anything watching them take off running and bucking across the field, then stopping to roll in just the right spot, playing and interating with their own kind. The freedom to be themselves, to be true to their nature, is the greatest gift and reward we can give to our horses, that is what they say to us if we are willing to listen.

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