Healing animals

During the last few days I have been harassed by an acquaintance on Facebook. He is from my hometown Malmö in Sweden and he has accused me of spreading Israeli hatred against Muslims, as well as that I support the "genocide" in Gaza and that I am generally biased and ignorant. What lit his flame was that I published the article about the Islamist extremists who burned down the UN camp for the Gaza children. How this makes me a person hating Muslims, I do not know, but I take this with a grain of salt. At first I tried to meet his statements, but I soon discovered that everything I said was severely distorted and thrown straight back at me. Then I denied him further fuel by just keeping my mouth shut. Nevertheless, although this particular guy has passed the limit for sanity, he still reflects the general attitude in my old hometown. It is not exaggerated to say that many people see Israel as the sole aggressor, using strong terms like apartheid state and genocide. The outspoken Anti-Semitism is of course not left far behind, but often so subtle and sneaky that even the most good-hearted persons just "happen" to speak in these terms now and then. People neither want to see the truth, because acknowledging complexity and mutual responsibility makes their image of the situation too wide and too difficult to handle. People who come and spend time in this region, with honest and open minds, and with an indiscriminative empathy for people on both sides, will inevitably see that they have to dismantle their simplistic attitude and start being constructive instead. Enough of that.

Yesterday afternoon we met up with Samir in the Pecan grove. He brought his two Arabian thoroughbred mares Samira and Noor. We were riding around under the trees chatting about things and I mentioned the accusations from Facebook, and there was not much more to say than that we constitute living proof of that I neither hate Arabs nor Muslims. We laughed about it and archived the matter.

Yoram also joined with the dogs, as well as another nice family we know, and a colleague from Yoram's work with her boyfriend. Beginners and children got guided slow rides on the horses under the trees, but me and Samir took the mares out in the fields a few times to race. This was the first time he saw me ride and although we had repeatedly told him about my experiences with riding horses he was not prepared for what he was about to see. I rode Samira, the younger mare, who up until now has been ridden only by Samir and his own sons and she is very powerful and sensitive. We were the faster ones and all Samir saw was the sand stirred up by Samira's hoofs and I also effectively stopped her at the end of the field, although she was coming on pretty heavily, we circled a few times, and then took off again in the other direction.

Me and Samira

I started riding at the age of six and was from the beginning a little girl gifted with a huge confidence. During the years I have come around many things, dressage, show jumping, thoroughbred horse racing, harness racing, and since the last 20 years also western riding in all its forms. This is where I found my thing, the approach that for me felt most natural and comfortable, for both horse and rider. I worked as an assistant reining-trainer in a stable in Germany for a while, but I also rode horses at home in Sweden, helping different people out with their horse businesses. During the last few years, my studies took all the time and horses where not regularly present in my life. However, a zebra does not easily loose its stripes, and yesterdays rides gave me a strong sensation of coming home.

This was only the first time we rode together and I am sure that we will have a lot of great time together with the horses. Both Samira and Noor are well broken, but could need some exercises to make them more supple and collected in the hand to be able to carry themselves better, and also to become more sensitive to leg and weight cues. Maybe we can even teach them some reining manoeuvres in time.

Recently I watched a Swedish show on web-tv, called "Ponnyakuten", in where kids having problems with their ponies got help from the famous Swedish horse trainer Tobbe Larsson. As I watched these kids learn and grow, I was filled with a warm sensation and nostalgia and I again acknowledged the fact that there is no better way to put some spine and sense of responsibility in a young child than letting it be around horses. Being a somewhat nerdy laughingstock in school, I had my life in the stable, and it is there I built my self-confidence and self-image. Many are the injuries I have had through the years, but nothing ever made me consider quitting horses. I hope that I can give the same privilege to my kids, and today that dream does not seem unrealistic at all.

Also our dogs got a healthy lesson yesterday, being around horses. Up until now they have been very excited around horses and they always want to run up to them, nipping their hind-legs to herd them, but yesterday they both behaved pretty OK, unleashed all the time. Barak came too close a few times and almost got his head kicked off, but I guess that he will have to learn it the hard way.