Horses teaching humans healthier ways of being, deepening innate wisdom and enabling soul-to-soul connection.
Horses teaching humans healthier ways of being, deepening innate wisdom and enabling soul-to-soul connection.
Equestrian, Healing (general), Horses
Working with horses as equal partners in the equine-assisted space while respecting their intuitive wisdom leads to life-changing psycho-spiritual understandings, learning and healing. Soul Connection with Horses: Healing the Mind and Awakening the Spirit through Equine Assisted Practice introduces concepts of awakening and spaciousness as understood in many spiritual traditions and demonstrates that horses effectively model awakening for humans. Through this approach horses help re-establish natural bonds and intuitive ways of knowing that have become obscured by conditioned thought and ineffective individual narratives. Horses show us that we can trust our intuition and learn how to live from the soul while making meaningful connection with ourselves, other people, animals and the natural environment. By considering how horses experience the world through their senses, how they process emotion and how they express their needs, we see that they live through the same social, psychological and spiritual paradigms as humans. Following equine assisted therapy and learning practices through to their logical conclusions, horses naturally lead us to questions of “who am I?” and “what is life?” They help us transcend non-functioning personal stories as we step out of ineffective ways of thinking and being and discover connection and wholeness. This book invites equestrians, equine assisted practitioners and seekers of spiritual connection, to walk in the hooves of the horse, to experience the horses’ worldview and to access your own soulful wisdom.
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As a reader who has very little personal experience of being with horses, I found on every page of this inspiring book a respectful, compassionate reflection on the human condition and our place on planet earth. The author returns again and again to guided mindfulness practices such that reading the book itself creates a context for mindful awareness - re-minding us how to be present here and now, and that we are all one. Suzanne Court, PhD, masterfully demonstrates that when we learn to view the world through the eyes of another being - in this case a horse - and observe how they make sense of their world, we can put aside prior assumptions not only of who they are, but also of who we are. This book helps us to begin to be aware of a bigger dimension of existence, and to fathom the meaning of soul and spirit. Written as an outgrowth of her own experiential learning with horses, the author makes clear that all that is required from the reader is respect for animals, interest in psycho-spiritual enquiry, and curiosity towards the transformative presence of horses. The scientific underpinning for the effectiveness of equine assisted (or facilitated) therapeutic practices is growing and the book believably shows that learning and therapy with horses works. By transcending outgrown personal stories, people learn through their interaction with horses to step out of old ineffective ways of thinking and being, and to step into connection and wholeness. As the author asserts, modern humans (especially westerners) have come to believe in the myth that we and nature (our environment) are separate things that can somehow operate independently. The book is a timely re-minder of how nature can lead us back to who we really are, our true selves. By detailing inspiring examples of working with people who have suffered trauma or are experiencing life crises and difficulties, we learn how healing ensues from inviting horses to be spiritual guides, leading us to a place of peace and contentment that is innate to all beings on this planet. Horses invite us to find wholeness in the very depth of our humanity. I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking meaning and harmony within ourselves and within our communities in these troubled times. ~ Dr Patte Randal LRCP MRCS DPhil, co-author of Finding Hope in the Lived Experience of Psychosis: Reflections on Trauma, Use of Power, and Re-visioning Psychiatry (Randal P & Stanton J, 2022 Routledge)
Suzanne Court’s new book Soul Connection with Horses challenges us to expand and deepen our understanding of the dynamic, complex, and powerful relationship between horses and humans. She masterfully and elegantly explores concepts very near and dear to my heart - expanded awareness, presence, spaciousness, honest connection, and so much more. I am over the moon excited that this book exists. Thank you, Suzanne for helping to advance the practices of all those who include horses in their human services. ~ Leif Hallberg, M.A., LPC, LCPC author of Walking the Way of the Horse and The Clinical Practice of Equine-Assisted Therapy
Soul Connection with Horses is inspiring, spiritual, and insightful. This book is a must have for any Equine Assisted Worker who wants to truly journey alongside their client and horse, with awareness, authenticity and an open-heart. Sharing her own experiences and knowledge, Suzanne Court captures the very essence of this work and the amazing, triangulated relationship with these beautiful sentient creatures. ~ Brenda Tanner, founder of Equine Encounters Australia www.equine-encounters-au.com
