Image courtesy of Eflon via Flickr Creative Commons

The past few years have been just brutal. My grandmother who raised me was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and it was just one crisis after another and it just never…freaking…let…up. I felt like I was in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu being crushed all the time, but not allowed to tap out. Then, on Independence Day (ironically) my grandmother finally passed away.

I really never appreciated how much her declining health was impacting me until she was gone. It was like I was wandering around in a fugue state only aware that my knees hurt. Then out of nowhere a hand lifted off the 500 pound gorilla and I could breathe again. I never noticed the gorilla, never noticed the lack of air, only the knee pain.

So now I am in the process of rebuilding. I plan on taking a couple days off to…

Horses are sensitive.  They are cognitive, meaning they are capable of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses (Oxford dictionary definition). They are sentient.  They are conscious.  (There is an interesting philosophical history of these terms on Wikipedia should you be interested. )

On July 7, 2012 a group of neuroscientists met at Cambridge to discuss the overwhelming amount of research that has been done that proves that non-human animals are conscious in a way very similar to humans.  Witnessed by Stephen Hawking, these prominent scientists signed a document entitled The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, stating:

“Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds…

People who come to my barn are probably befuddled by my posted sign:  “Please do not feed or touch the horses.”  While many of my clients are familiar with my request that my horses not be hand fed, for reasons I will get into here, no petting to some might seem a bit harsh or confusing.  I’ll try illuminate the seemingly odd request.

Some people are extroverted.  Some are introverted.  Some people like to hug, while to others the thought of being touched by a stranger makes their skin crawl.  Anyone requiring a larger “bubble” knows the discomfort of being forcibly snuggled by a well meaning person without feel for the their body language.  People omit feels just the way horses do, which are either inviting, closed off, accepting, listening, or not.  Many people seem to talk without noticing whether the other party is engaged or listening, but a person…