I call having spirit when the horse has life energy. When the horse is available to communicate. Expressing herself, and being able to receive my communication.

A horse with a preserved spirit is alive, not preserved as in ‘canned’. No, it is intact, not hurt or broken. It was not asked to shape to humans beliefs that are contrary to the horse's nature.

A preserved spirit is whole, it has desires to share and is able to expand. It will provide me with information if I quiet my mind. Information about horses, about their knowledge and wisdom.

Truth be told, the preservation of the spirit of the horse is rarely applied. If it were, traditional uses of the horse might be in question. My guess is, quite often horses would not choose to be ridden or driven. Yet, the human desire to utilize horses in such ways teaches the horse to overcome its own desire to be free of restraint, and so it becomes a riding horse, a driving horse.

Most horses are purchased already trained. Most foals are bred to be trained for something the human has in mind.

When I got Shana as a yearling, I always said I would let her decide what she wanted to do. Back then I thought traditionally about it while feeling generous and edgy when I said she can pick her equestrian activity. “If she wants to jump, I will learn jumping, if she likes endurance rides I will get into that.” I was going with her flow. Until she shared, that none of the traditional activities would do for her.

She did not like to be restrained. She appreciated our interactions on the ground, and was willing to learn some communication tools that would help us understand how we could best interact as farm mates. However, she clearly expressed that whatever we do, her freedom, her need not to be restrained, was of utmost importance.

For the most part I use nothing but my voice to communicate with Shana. Second most valuable tool is my body, which by nature already puts more pressure and direction on her. When I take her out - we do like to take nature walks - I do with either a very thin lead line, the thickness of an extension cord, or with a few feet of nautical rope, especially sensitive rope, that transfers energy easily back and forth between her head and my hand.  That usually does it.

When we are at home she has occasionally special privileges. She can go out in the backyard without a halter or lead rope. At times, if she is not following my voice when it is time to go back into the pasture, I drape a bailing string around her neck to guide her back. Though last time I did she was appalled, she walked away from me and walked herself through the gate into the barn yard. Most likely I forgot to ask first. Her strutting off was her way of expressing her opinion of my shortcoming.

A preserved spirit challenges me. Nothing is predictable, when at times I so wish for life to be foreseeable. There is no “making her”. I could have done that at the very beginning … maybe. 
She might have gotten used to being “made this, or made that”. And then again, I wonder if she was never one to be “made anything”. And that she came into my life so I get to experience what it is like to be living with something, someone so unblemished. And that my most important job would be to never blemish her. And that therefore my quest is to be an explorer, a listener, an observer and an advocate so more horses could stay unblemished.
Only time will tell.

If the above blog put you on the edge … fear not. In one of the next blogs I will talk about “recovering” the spirit of the horse. Owning, or caring for a horse with a blemished spirit is a much more common situation. Stay tuned.