THE LIGHT OF INTEGRITY
Larry's Paso Fino, Donoso
Horses:The Light of Integrity
by Larry Palmer
"Your integrity is your destiny…it is the light that guides your way”. Heraclitus
In this writing Larry reminds us that a A horse lives “integrity” naturally. Please read on...
The phone awakened me a little after 7:00 AM. It was a rider-friend. He didn’t even say hello. He just said, “Let’s go riding”. Nothing else needed to be said. An hour later he, myself and another friend were sitting high and handsome on our trusty steeds. The day was so beautiful it would make anyone not living in Southern California want to cry. The sky was that solid blue we see so seldom, punctuated here and there with white billowy, cumulus clouds that really looked so close you felt you could blow hard and watch them be pushed along by your breath. The three of us rode silently through our Horsetown USA-Norco neighborhood for a while, each in our own self created state of grace…just us and our horses. Bob rides well and Cathy rides beautifully. I ride.
We navigated through the Riverside Community College campus on sections of our 120 miles of horsetrails in Horsetown USA. The trail winds through what, with some imagination, could be a meadow. Past the Naval Warfare Analysis Center the hoof worn dirt leads to the top of a hill where you are looking over Lake Norco. Small, shallow, man-created but beautiful all the same. Several Mallard Ducks sat peacefully on the surface looking like they were thinking about something important. Two hawks made “lazy circles in the sky” and one actually hovered in one place by flying into the wind with just enough wing to maintain his position over a spot below; probably where some critter was sitting and unknowingly being considered as lunch. There were two Heron together in an open field. One would appear to try to fly away but just skittered across the ground obviously trying to attract us away from their nest. We looked at nature’s canvass and each of us envisioned our own picture and had our own private thoughts. We didn’t speak. We didn’t have to. Then we headed home.
The words in the above title trickled through my mind over and over ‘til I finally Googled it. Heraclitus said, some 2500 years ago, “The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the full light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny…it is the light that guides your way”. The word horse did not appear anywhere in the poem but it should have. A horse lives “integrity” naturally. He’s born with it. He probably doesn’t even know he has it. Maybe that’s why we love and need our horses so much. Bet I never would have had the thought if I wasn’t riding My Pal Cal. Horse and human, together, not as one but intertwining and combining the best of each creating a third entity that is greater than the sum of its parts. Horses allow us see the world more simply and more compassionately. What a marvelous beginning of my day! The two hours spent “equus” kept me in fine spirits all day.
I showed My Pal Cal what I had discovered and read Heraclitus’ poem to him. He said, “If you spent more time concentrating on riding and less time searching for a philosophical Holy Grail I wouldn’t have to watch for gopher holes so much of the time”. Donoso nodded in agreement. Smart aleck horses. Another quote, “Pearls before swine” came to mind.
Horsetown USA: where the horses are well bred and the people well mannered.
Larry Palmer
