Equine Experience

Mom said yesterday to wake up early coz we still need to buy fruits and flowers yada yada before her opening shop yada yada.

I was jolted out of dreamland when she barraged into my room picking up clothes to wash for her early morning laundry. Ungodly 4:30am, when I set my alarm at 5am. I was robbed, I tell you, ROBBBBEDDDD!!! So here I am watching Travel & Living again at 5:30am while waiting for my mom.

Every time I tune in to this channel, feels like I'm being transported to another world, to their world: their travels, their adventures, their luxury... *sigh*
Anyway, I caught Angus Fontaine living the life of the rich & famous... and not-so-famous, yet still lavishly wealthy. He's now checking out Miraval Resorts at Arizona. Now, I'm more of a Bobby Chinn and Anthony Bourdaine fan (I wonder why...), so whenever I catch Angus Fontaine on TV, I tend to switch back to Disney Channel or what other show caught my fancy.

However, something he was trying out at the resort caught my attention. He was enrolled at a program involving horses. *Eyng* Wrong guess. He's not horseback riding.

Doing a quick search on the web, he was enrolled at Wyatt Webb's Equine Experience program. Wyatt tasked Angus to simply give a horse a ... "hoof scrub." As you've seen in cowboy movies, one does not immediately grab a horse's hoof, unless one wants to instantly become a 4th of July show.

So Wyatt guided Angus to slowly move down the horse's leg, gently squeeze its ankles, and wait for a few seconds for it to raise its hoof; if not, back off. Kinda like wooing a girl to dance with you in the old 16th century balls. Anyway, I guess Angus' charm only works on women coz the horsie refused him its hand... er, hoof.

Before backing off, what Angus did was to slowly glide his hand again up to the horse's shoulder. What was fascinating; however, was how Wyatt detected a lot of Angus' traits/mannerisms/behavior/attitude with that simple scene. He asked how long had Angus been using his charm to get his way, to get what he wants.

Wyatt told Angus to try the whole task again... but with his eyes closed. Angus obliged, and as a viewer, I can see how Angus became more unsure of himself. He only relied on his senses and on Wyatt's voice and instructions, "move a bit more to your left, squeeze lightly..." I can see that though it seemed a bit awkward or unnerving, it was a practice of trust for him then and there: trusting himself, trusting Wyatt, trusting the horse. He has no other way but to abide to the rules of a different game.

After a few seconds, the horse raised its hoof up for a quick scrubbing from a well-traveled journalist who probably has never scrubbed someone else's foot, let alone an animal's. Wyatt processed him and Angus admitted that what worked was him following his instinct.

That program really grabbed my interest because since I've finished LEAP, I've been into similar things: clawing deep down and discovering untapped natural capabilities, which are basically the only qualities one would need in this world.

Someday I'd like to experience that and learn from that man, Mr. Wyatt Webb. What's the value, you say? Well, I should say: learning, growth, excitement, adventure, humility.