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This is Kokoro.

 

Kokoro is the heart of my embodied horsemanship practice. Let me try to explain just what Kokoro means:

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"..... it unites the notions of heart, mind, and spirit: It sees these three elements as being indivisible from one other. “For example if we say, ‘She has a good kokoro,’ it means heart and spirit and soul and mind all together.”

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One of the problems of discussing kokoro ... is that by linking words...with “and,” we imply divisions that simply don’t exist. But in this Eastern culture, the three aren’t intrinsically linked as one:

They are one. "                           -Yoshikawa Sakiko, director of Kyoto University’s Kokoro Research Center.

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So essentially Kokoro in terms of your embodied horsemanship practice is any interaction with a horse that encompasses the unification of the heart (compassion), the mind (imagination) and the spirit (connection) in a holistic manner. That can be any horseman, any tool, any technique. Kokoro isn't *our* horsemanship. It's the way we practice. You too are likely someone who practices Kokoro in your horsemanship without even being aware ♡☆

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And to pronounce it? kor // kor // oh