Dear Equestrians- Evolving Horsemanship From Black & White to Tehcnicolor
This book doesn’t follow the rules, there is no structure, no plot, no characters, no hero’s journey story arc. There is nothing that is conventional or traditional because it is meant to represent a new way.
The flow of the book, the pages unfolding in different styles, from black and white to bright color, holds a deeper symbolism of the feminine. We are rising from the patriarchal bog we’ve been swallowed up by for centuries, like Artax sinking in the Swamp of Sadness.
We are now wandering into unexplored territory, or at least, long forgotten.
There is an ancient calling in our bones, in our souls, echoing of distant times when horses and humans were more than partners in work and life, but bonded by soul and carried into energetic realms. They were messengers from the divine in cultures all over the world.
What is it that stirs in you when you catch the gaze of a horse with pure spirit, a horse who has not been broken by humans or the system? Can you feel the power? Do you feel a hint of fear? There is something in the depths of their eyes that is longing you to go on a journey, one that has no true destination, but you will be forever changed simply by accepting it.
We are evolving rapidly, and yet with all of the technology and innovations, we still hold on to many archaic and unhealthy patterns, especially when it comes to how we view and work with horses.
This book is meant to be a call home, or an invitation to peer beyond the facade. What lies in the spaces in between?
In 2020, as I was in deep navigation of my personal horse and spiritual journey, I began drawing horses and sharing this connection that I longed to feel, a new way of being with horses, questioning old ways. It seemed to resonate with more people than I expected, and my art spread quickly to people all over the world.
That year, I wrote a poem titled “Dear Horse Girls,” it spoke specifically to women and girls who wanted to be softer with horses but were criticized and told to “show the horse who’s boss.” It was an invitation to look beyond dominance and understand that our compassion and kindness is not a weakness but a strength.
In the same summer, I wrote a poem that I felt would be a book I would illustrate right away. Standing at the edge of a glistening river on a warm’s summer’s day, the entire poem flew through me and I was left with a feeling of inspiration and also FEAR.
Fear?
Because I could feel this could be triggering to people.
Because I wasn’t fully standing tall and strong in my shifting thoughts and perspective on the horse world.
Because I didn’t have a strong enough voice or enough courage to share these types of words…yet.
So I let that poem sit in the cobwebbed corners of my notes app for four years, untouched.
While I knew it was there, it just never was “the time” to make the book and the inspiration faded as I continued accumulating more knowledge, interested in wider varieties of topics beyond rights and wrongs in the horse world.
And I can see the journey now so clearly in hindsight. The words were there, waiting for me to be ready, waiting for me to have more pieces of the puzzle, more confidence, and most of all, the right timing for the world.
I wasn’t in online spaces prior to 2020, I didn’t know you could follow people that weren’t your friends on Instagram, I was a 27 year old just living life in the real world, unattached to the internet. So walking into it in the year that everything went digital, I was quickly overstimulated, quickly addicted, quickly polarized. There was a lot of division in the horse community spaces online (as in every aspect of life at that point), even amongst people advocating for the same thing in the long run.
Over the past few years, I can feel the narrative shifting, the energy moving into a shape of acceptance, beyond “right and wrong.” The collective consciousness is rising up and the realization that horses can help guide us along this path to awakening is spreading like wildfire.
It’s beyond training methods and horse behavior or science. It’s energy, it’s soulwork, it’s the new paradigm of how we interact with not only horses, but with others, with nature, and ourselves.
I have been feeling “My Book” coming for a long time, and for the majority of last year I was working with an idea that I thought would be the first. I could feel the importance of writing and illustrating my own book especially since all of my projects have been co-creations. Which is beautiful and it’s absolutely part of my work, but I needed something that was purely from me.
My husband and I spent January 2024 in India, totally disconnected (nearly 5 weeks without any socials) and spent time in the very real, very chaotic country of India, finding the clues leading to the next step of my own journey. I brought notebooks and books but I wasn’t allowed to work, only for my own ideas or my own fun.
It took about two weeks to feel creative in any way, and after a 3 day hike through the Himalayas, finally in a form of peace away from the chaos, I had the massive download for this book on the winding mountain drive back. I had been flipping through my old notes in my phone and saw these poems, and the spark ignited.
The merging of these two separate ideas, and the addition of some flowing interludes connecting them, I could create a journey that represented my own, but also one that many will relate to, to inspire people in a gentle yet clear way that the relationships we have with our horses can go so much deeper.
So yes, this journey is inspired by my own evolution, but it is broad enough to speak to those at the start or in the midst of their journey of awakening with horses. It’s a call to go deeper, to find magic through connection and presence.
Another big aspect to my own journey was not knowing where to find information and not fully understanding the terms I was learning. So the second half of the book is full of references and definitions of concepts and terms that are being used in the evolving horse communities, there are also questions and prompts for people to learn and help integrate or experience themselves. Words like “Grounding” or concepts like “Dominance,” things that may feel commonplace now, but many may not have a fully rooted understanding.
This book wants to travel around the world into the hands of those who already know the power of horses but also to those who are just waking up to it. This book has a plan to touch lives of people who need this, to provide a spark, plant a seed, for things that could be possible with horses and moreso, within themselves. It wants to be gifted to people of all ages, races, and demographics.
More than anything, this book is an invitation to find your way back home, to the home within your bones, the home within your soul.
Horses are guiding us as we step into the next level of consciousness as a species.
This book is meant to be a symbol of change.
Because the winds of change are shifting and we must adjust our sails to catch it with ease, because we will be sailing rough waters for the upcoming future and we must all have a solid inner compass pointing us to our true north in order to come out the other side.
Order this book for yourself, your children, your friends, your neighbors. Anyone who would enjoy these messages and inspiration.
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