Love is All We Need By Christa Miremadi I don’t know about you, but as a kid I must have watched “The Black Stallion” about a million times! Not just that, but also “Black Beauty,” “National Velvet,” “International Velvet,” “Thunderhead,” “Black Stallion Returns” and every other movie that had a horse anywhere in the script.
I
was in love with the idea of that magical, cinematic connection that can be formed between a person and a horse and how (at least the way it was portrayed in the movies anyway) if a person loved a horse and the horse loved the person back, they could do anything together. Many years later, after hundreds of riding lessons and countless hours spent begging for more horse time, dozens of falls off of various horses, a broken toe or two from being stepped on and more than a few reality checks, I finally found it… My (now late) mare Carlotta was six years old when I saw her for the first time. Skin and bone, green snot coming out of one nostril, her coat flecked with white hairs from malnutrition - it was love at first sight! For me anyway... I was in love with this fiery, spirited, red Arabian mare. Whether she liked me or not, I didn’t really care. I just had to be with her. It didn’t take too long before I believed she loved me back. It was only a few weeks into our relationship when she began calling and pacing her fence every day at 3:15, moments before the bus would drop me off at the
top of the hill and I would walk to her paddock and begin our doting ritual. This love affair lasted over sixteen years before I finally lost her and her unborn foal during a foaling problem. Carlotta’s story is a very long and turbulent tale fi lled with My beautiful Carlotta and I as we rode love, fear, excitement, around the grounds of our home, The adventure and humility; Rock’n Star Ranch, for the first time. however, one of the most valuable lessons I learned from her was that love really is all we need. Just not necessarily love the way we humans usually show it. I have met more than a few people over the years who seemed to believe that showing a horse they loved it by buying it things, feeding it treats or brushing it a lot was all they would need. Since growing up, learning what I know today and having the privilege to be in a position to help others to develop their relationship with their own horses, it has become very clear how many people out there believe that if they can just love their horses enough (and their horses love them back) nothing bad will happen to them. It would be nice if this were true and although I do believe that horses are capable of such complex emotions as love, I do not believe that love alone will keep a person safe from potential injury caused by a horse or that treats and cuddles can replace horsemanship (which, in my opinion, is how we humans can show our love to our horses the way they understand it). Love alone will not keep a horse feeling safe or secure with a person. It takes confident, reliable boundaries and clear, consistent and firm direction to achieve the safe, reliable relationship that we all want to achieve and that gives our horses that sense of security. Now, this is not to say that there is no Jan and her mare, Abby, who are able to place for expressing share this moment of human affection thanks human love with to the countless hours of horsemanship they have worked through. Photo by Aynsley treats or cuddles in Cairns.
12 • Saddle Up • December 2014
HCBC 2010 BUSINESS OF THE YEAR