Recommended Equine Reading

I got a call recently asking about recommended reading as an introduction to my horse philosophies. I listed Monte Roberts The Man Who Listens To Horses, Sally Swift's Centered Riding and Linda Kohanov's Tao of Equus. All three books changed the way I work with horses and in turn, my life.

The following is a review I wrote about the Kohanov Book.

“The Tao of Equus” by Linda Kohanov

It has never occurred to me to suggest a horse book to my ultra-literary Book Club. That is until I read Linda Kohanov’s extraordinary compilation of allegories connecting mythology, principles of electricity, physiology, jazz, religion and kineseology with horses in her compelling book, The Tao of Equus.

Kohanov weaves a tale of personal growth through explorations of the human-horse bond. She artfully connects symbolic imagery with current theories on the workings of the body and the mind and explores the most adventurous “scientific and philosophical interpretations of reality”. The result is a work that not only satisfies a dizzying variety of palates but also a reader’s thirst for knowledge on our mysterious attraction to the horse.

Kohanov makes a dissertation on the difference between sex and connection that explores the attraction, in particular, of women to horses. The premise of which expands so collectively upon marketing and social dictates, and so beguilingly on voodoo trance cults in such a small chapter, it makes “Of Women and Horses” by GaWaNi Pony Boy look like collection of high school essays. Kohanov constantly challenges the reader to accept new theories through no-nonsense parable and representation that prove to be fundamentally liberating.

Tenets of shamans, Taoists and philosophers intermingle confidently with theories of physicists, psychologists and anthropologists. Even her ‘visions and voices’ chapters filled with clairsentience and animal psychic encounters, which initially seemed to contradict her basic premise of analytical scientific reasoning early in the book, took on significance through case studies expanded upon in subsequent chapters. Analyzing the metaphors produced by these ‘otherworldly experiences’, Kohanov juxtaposes her work in equine assisted therapy and experiential learning to highlight non-verbal communication and socio-sensual forms of awareness.

“Artistic expression exercises different pathways inside the brain, allowing speech to function outside the narrow bandwidths of logic, helping people to document feelings and awareness states that can’t be accessed through reason.” For any horse lover/owner who has ever been accused of being crazy, or having an overactive imagination about what his or her horse was ‘saying’, such statements are altogether edifying.

As Kohanov stacks up evidence, overwhelming at times, but always dynamic, she draws the reader back to the interdependence of spirituality, science, art and health on the human psyche. And to delighted tears in this reader’s eyes, how fully that is mirrored by the interdependence of humans and horses. “We have become a culture of obsessive overachievers, leading to a host of stress related illness and greed related acts of violence.” Kohanov’s voice in The Tao of Equus is never more effectual than when she is railing against the sedentary, reductionist, power hungry society disconnected from nature and the creative life force behind it. Her voice is never more eloquent than when she supplies the anecdote: the symbolic relationship with nature that we have learned from horses, as a more effective way of living.

The horse helps us to reconnect to nature, our ancestry, our emotions and provides conveyance for those who are ready to identify a greater consciousness and understanding of the role of ‘Self’ in our environment. To those, Kohanov’s voice is a call to action and The Tao of Equus is inspiration for releasing potential and ultimately freedom. The Tao of Equus is not just a good horse book; it is a covenant for modern society. If you are a woman who loves horses, it is a must.

Happy reading and kind regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www,hossbiz.com

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