Monday, February 11, 2013

Pure Fire and Spirit


I walked into an equestrian center the other night and immediately fell in love all over again.  The stables.  The riding outfits.  The smell of horse, leather, and hay.  I breathed in that scent.  Aaahhhh…  Scents are one of the most powerful emotional aphrodisiacs.  They link us to feelings that have no words.  They link us to images.  They link us to time and place. 

It’s been many years since I rode.  Many years since I mucked out a stall, tossed hay, and filled water buckets.  I use to ride in England.  Tall, muscular horses that absolutely thrilled and amazed me.  I was never a good rider.  But I had no such lofty goals of being a jumper or cross country champion.  I simply wanted to experience the Horse.  To touch the soul of a being that was so much grander – so much more graceful than I.  Horses.  Magnificent!

Memories washed over me the instant I walked into that arena – that smell of horse – and I watched the show with both great love and great longing.  There is refined aesthetic beauty in the limbs of a horse.  As I lean against the railing, transfixed by the spectacle, I suddenly have a vision – with every Sun flare, that fiery energy is reborn here on Earth, as a newborn foal.  They are pure fire and spirit.