Repose is a state of rest and tranquility.
Animals know when to rest.
If they exert themselves, they rest. When they are sick, they rest.
We as humans seem to have lost that ability as our brains speed ever faster, seeking and looking for the next shiny object, real or imagined, taking our focus.
Rarely do we allow repose in our waking hours.
Observing and filming the herds of Dartmoor ponies gave us a chance to watch horses in their natural environment, and how they used repose to calm, rest and restore themselves.
Eyes glazed over, they would put their backend into the wind and absorb the nature around them.
As the breeze ruffled their thick coats, they would keep a soft, half-focus on the foals that frolicked and played around them.
They could sharply leave their state of calm to respond, realign, but would then return to repose.
It was this ability to return to a calm state that really struck me.
As humans we often struggle to hit our reset button, once shaken out of our calm we tend to feel the moment is ruined and we plow on with our day.
Even many of our domestic horses, especially those that live in stables and barns, sadly seem to be closer to our state of being these days than the ponies we observed on the wilds of Dartmoor National Park.
I feel that movement was the key, as movement lowers stress and allows that repose state to be easily accessible. But it was the quality of movement from the ponies on Dartmoor that interested me.
Movement for humans is often rushed, we tip our bodies forward and our legs race to keep up as we hurtle towards the next thing on our endless to do list. The beautiful meanderings of our new wild herd friends were like watching water lap at the side of the lake; rhythmic, calm, and curving. Rarely was a straight line walked, the pace was peaceful and quiet.
The great Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn once said, “We speed up to forget and slow down to remember”.
I like that and practised slowing down whilst we walked and followed the herds that were curving their way around the high moors, aware constantly of the placement of their hooves, avoiding the bogs, the logs, and the granite sharp rocks.
By taking my foot off the accelerator I found such a sense of peace and I looked at these ponies in awe.
Did they hold the secret to a happy life?
Connection with their kind, freedom of movement, the ability to eat what they needed and when, in just the right amounts and a deep connection to nature.
The holy grail for horses.
But it was the lessons they can teach us that I left with that day… slow down, slow down, slow down.
How many people do you see riding that constantly nag with their heels the horse that is kindly carrying them, or dragging the horse along on a taut lead rope?
We say to them speed up, speed up, speed up, as humans we take it as a state of laziness on their part.
Maybe, just maybe, the lesson they want to teach us is slow down, slow down, slow down and there we find the connection to nature.
Which will it be… will we continue to drag the horses with us into our frantic and fast forward life, or will we slow down and join them in the here and now?
I know which I will be seeking and it helps me take a deeper and slower breath today.
– Andrea