I am typing to the dulcet tones of Marby's gentle snores - do you have an animal 'shadow' that likes to be with you wherever, whenever? Marby is ever hopeful that I will head outside. I don't think the rabbit and bird populations are as hopeful - she tells them to stay away from the house area with quick dashes in their vicinity and the occasional, somewhat indignant, bark. So far no animals were harmed in the making of her scatterations, and bemused fantails often hover just out of reach to Marby's frustration.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Cobber recently. His early life didn't feature a cover and meals on wheels - he was mustered from the Kaimanawa Ranges in 2018. His first couple of years saw him roaming the central north island of NZ in a wild herd that started to form in 1876.
It probably comes as no surprise that Cobber senses the world differently from a domesticated horse. He communicated his vast environmental awareness by sharing a visual field stretching to the mountains and an feeling of expansiveness in my body - stretching my senses over a large geographical area.
When I asked Cobber his favourite thing, he immediately showed an image of his nose tilted up to 'read' the air which appeared full of different coloured and textured strands. To his nostrils the air was rich and nuanced. His person pointed out that this is the same posture as the Kaimanawa Heritage Horse logo.
Images of hills and herd mates flowed with the words 'my world is a horse world'. A mind movie showed how he smells the ground to decide what he wants to eat - plants and minerals. Cobber visual of the earth showed it vibrating and he listened with his feet and body.
Thanks Cobber for inviting us into your world. At times we can be oblivious to our environment, but our horses never are, and mustered horses that lived in a 'horse world' in their early life feel their wider environment intimately at all times.
Have a beautiful week of expanding your awareness.
x Suze
