The Art of Loss

Faced with the possibility of losing one of my horses to colic this week, I felt it was timely to revisit a popular topic I wrote about two years ago, when Wooks passed away; loss.

To lose a horse is to lose a friend and companion. There is something very grounding about a horse – they become the center of our world and the basis of our decision making. We can feel untethered for a moment – the routine that punctuated our day is suddenly unnecessary. But the loss of a horse carries with it some other associated losses that we do not often consider. When a horse’s lifetime comes to an end so to do the dreams, hopes and aspirations that we had tied to that creature. We lose a connection that we treasure, and an embodiment of something we have worked so hard for. And we must find a way to map out our dreams again, on a different landscape.

The loss of a horse is a heavy loss, but the horses that leave us also gift us with some valuable lessons that we carry with us into our next horse experience, when the time comes.

The horses we come to know following the loss of a horse benefit greatly from the experiences and lessons we collected with the horse that preceded them. The best way to honor a horse’s life is to reflect on those lessons, those experiences, and bring those reflections with you into your horsemanship practice