mustang & rider / conscious observer & mind
My first experience on a horse was summer of 2023 at the Heroes & Horses ranch, Montana. The double H ranch can be described in three words: horse, warrior, monastery. A program for veterans seeking to transform themselves within a 41-day crucible of sobriety, self-reflection, and effort through the aperture of the human/horse connection. 41 days of early mornings, workouts, breathwork, meditation, sauna, cold plunges, hours of horsemanship, ranch work, chores, and campfire conversations of past experiences, failures, emotion, stoicism, and truth.
The program is richly stocked with humans of the highest order of generosity, freely giving their time and knowledge for the sake of those attending; contributing to provide an environment meant to help others realize their destiny and thus the destiny for the generations following. Micah’s words: “repurposed horses for repurposed humans”. The horses are mustangs, once wild, now recovered into partnership and service with humanity. The men attending are combat veterans who have fought and killed in service to the nation, now within reach of opportunity to recover and take their place within a brotherhood in service to humanity, a brotherhood of warriors.
A mustang can be saddled but their spirited nature remains unbroken. This requires each rider to transform from within and become a mustang’s leader, shaping conditional boundaries by enacting corrections from a place of love. We are talking a lot of corrections; so many corrections that a rider’s patience will be tested daily, hourly, and sometimes minute to minute. To become a mustang’s leader, a rider must not doubt himself, must not hate himself, he will continually reinforce aligned boundaries providing competent guidance through horsemanship while simultaneously accepting their own incompetence nebulously entwined with a mustang’s inclination to insist on its own agenda: to munch grass, to be with his friends, to spook at a hat blowing off in the wind, to blow up in wild eyed fear of a seemingly mundane circumstance. A rider must learn to keep their heels down/elbows in/hands forward, remain balanced in the saddle, and most importantly breathe for a calm heart. Perhaps more importantly still, to smile at the times the mustang being “lead” takes a rider for an unplanned, high velocity excursion with his team as witness. The horsemanship skills taught at H&H are superlative, but the lesson that stands out the most: a rider chooses his attitude toward uncertainty, chaos, fear, anger, and frustration.
Eight months have passed since drinking the “magic elixir” in Montana. Some momentum successfully carried from the program back to resumed life and while there has been successful grafting of useful practices transferred, old habits die hard and backslide occurs. This is the nature of progress along the upward path. Time since the crucible provided by H&H proves that there is no external “magic elixir” gifted from a punchy-cowboy-alchemist that will radically transform reality to a desired life design. External reality will spook, become wild eyed, and blow up in front of all your friends. Tragedy, failure, loneliness, and heartbreak are sure to be just around the bend on the trail ahead; while we cannot control these experiences appropriately featured in life, there is freedom in choosing attitude within the experience. We can choose to keep our heels down, reigns taught, making corrections from love with an open heart. We can choose to soften our hearts to external insult and judgement. We can choose to forgive our past selves for the self-induced “unfair” circumstances crashing in on our lives like 40-foot waves.
On reflection there is realization of an analogous relationship between the mustang/rider and the biological mind/conscious observer within. The mind is the mustang; wild eyed, intuitive, in need of competent training based in virtue deciphered by intellect. If ungoverned, the mind is ready to run wild without direction, at best taking us down behavioral roads of inefficient living. Worse, running us off a cliff at the sight of a snake and worse yet, being coopted by the insidious entities/organizations acting as gods on earth serving only themselves at the expense of others. The conscious observer is the rider; is the leader whose duty it is to provide virtuous guidance for the mind(mustang), to make corrections from love, to forgive the mind for dangerous hardship that it creates when left ungoverned or inappropriately attended. At H&H it is taught to ride for the horse, not the task, not the experience, and not for the appearance of competence. As it is the conscious observer within whose duty it is to do the same for the mind. The mustang and rider are in this adventure together and will best thrive within the experience if working in aligned unison.
Understanding this formula and acting is the magical elixir. The human being is the cup in which the magic elixir is catalyzed. Perhaps the fabled “holy grail” is a symbolic metaphor for this cup. The work to craft the elixir is appropriately simple, arduous, and ongoing; a winding path through intuition, emotion, intellect, time, and space leading one away from the comforts of homeostasis that our biological mind(mustang) is constantly seeking. Action informed by virtue, reinforced over time shapes behavior, which forms habit, and finally cultivates character. This process occurs in all aspects of life, good habits or bad, mastery or foolishness. The magical elixir once drunk is not instantaneous or permanent. The crafting of the elixir within us takes time and pressure to effect change in destiny. One’s willingness or willpower provides the necessary internal pressure on this alchemical mixture. Willpower is comprised of emotional desire(fuel) combined with expectant belief(faith). The amount of willpower brought to bear will appropriately determine the internal pressure on visualized design manifesting reality. These are the alchemical ingredients to the “magical elixir” of destiny. It is up to the conscious observer within us to continually brew the destiny we envision ourselves to be within the cup we have been given in context to the circumstances encountered.
A mindset offered: hold your future-self to unbound expectation, extend your past-self abundant grace, and fill the present with expeditious action and relentless effort.