A Story Worth Telling

We have all heard and told stories about our Horse. Stories of how our Horse is beyond amazing, how we have the sweetest Horse ever, or our Horse is the smartest, the bravest or the fastest we have ever known. And then, there are the stories of condemnation and judgment that prove that the Horse is stupid, lazy, malicious and spiteful for no reason.

I recently heard a man talk about a Horse he had once owned, and how that Horse ‘had it in for him’, how it was sneaky and mean, how it never wanted to work and constantly tried to buck him off. The story was told with great gusto and conviction. It was clear that this man believed this to be absolute truth and relived the experience as he told the story.

To an astute outsider there was most likely many stories to be told within his story. Why was this Horse behaving as such? Had it suffered abuse? Was there a pain issue, or a training issue? Perhaps the man was violent, and the Horse felt it had no recourse.

Stories carry emotions and pictures; they endorse sensations that trigger an involvement in what we are hearing or what we are telling. This suggests’ that the story itself has great power over what we think or how we feel about its content.

If this is indeed true, then we must wisely choose the stories we tell. To ourselves, to our Horses and to our listeners. If we experience great love and satisfaction with our Horse, then it is a story worth telling. If we are improving in our relationship and our education with our Horse it is a story worth telling.

If we are struggling with our Horse in any capacity, it may be a story worth telling, but best to be told with compassion and concern, with honesty that may reveal pain and frustration, but is open to opportunity and possibility. A story told without blame, guilt, or labels. A story that tells of the now but has faith in a solution for the future. This is a story of great emotion that opens the door to a better future story.

Stories that arouse emotions of anger and blame may be better left untold.

Its important to notice the stories we tell, because they reveal who, what and how we are. It’s particularly important to notice the stories we tell ourselves, because we cannot escape the emotions and patterns that they provoke within us.

The stories we tell about our Horse can act as a mirror that reflects our fears, our triumphs, our judgments, or our limitations. Stories can also illuminate just how well we know our Horse and how well they know us. With conscious attention they can act as guidepost to the story we want to tell in the future.

We are not the story of our mistakes, our failed attempts or our disconnect. Unless we make it so. The same is true of our Horse.

The more we tell a story the more real it becomes, tell a story worth telling.

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